TONY PASIN MP:
Ladies and gentlemen, what a privilege it is to have the Prime Minister of Australia here in Mount Gambier, South Australia’s second-largest city. It was important from my perspective that I brought Prime Minister Abbott to the Mount Gambier Saleyards. This facility is so important to the economy of the South East. As a result of the decisions we’ve made as a Government, we’ve turned the cattle trade around. We’ve heard that this morning from buyers and sellers. I wanted Prime Minister Abbott to see up close and personal what the effect of good policy and decision-making can do.
To Prime Minister Abbott, thank you for being here and accepting my invitation to come to Mount Gambier. What people might not know that in my lifetime – 37 years – we’ve only had three prime ministerial visits to Mount Gambier. So, it’s an absolute honour and a privilege to have you in our community today, Tony, and with no further ado, I’ll hand over to the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Tony, thank you so much. It is great to be here at the Mount Gambier Saleyards. It’s been terrific to be here since last night. It was great to be at a dinner hosted by you and Dan Tehan, the member across the border, for 560 people last night and I know that was something that really enthused local supporters of the Liberal Party and today, I’ve got a very full round of meetings and there’ll be a community forum in an hour or so’s time.
But, yes, it is good to be here at the saleyards and as is very clear, the cattle industry, in particular, has picked up massively under the Coalition Government. The former government damaged the cattle industry very, very badly with the live cattle export ban to Indonesia. This was one of the most calamitous policy decisions ever taken by an Australian government. It badly damaged our relations with Indonesia and it badly damaged the cattle industry here in Australia. Thank God that's all behind us now. The live cattle exports to Indonesia are booming and thanks to the free trade agreements we have got tariffs on Australian beef exports to Japan halving and we've got tariffs on Australian beef exports to China and Korea disappearing. So, this is really good news for the Australian cattle industry. It's good news for the agricultural sector more generally and I'm very pleased to be able to help the agricultural sector in this way.
Agriculture has been an enormous part of our economic history but it's a very big part of our economic future as well – a really important part of our economic future. The middle classes of Asia are growing and growing and growing and, as time goes by, there's going to be more and more opportunity for high-quality Australian food exports: whether it be beef, whether it be lamb, whether it be wine, whether it be seafood and, obviously, this part of Australia, this part of South Australia, is particularly well placed to ensure that high-quality Australian beef, high-quality Australian seafood, terrific lamb and terrific wines go to the booming economies of our north. And thank you, Tony, for the work that you've done to keep the industries of this area before the minds of policy-makers in Canberra.
QUESTION:
Has Mount Gambier been a bit neglected? If you're only the third Prime Minister to visit, doesn’t that show that Mount Gambier is maybe not high on the national agenda?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's interesting that the three Prime Ministers to visit Mount Gambier over the last 30 years were Malcolm Fraser, John Howard and myself. So, it certainly hasn't been neglected by Coalition prime ministers. Maybe prime ministers from other political parties have had other things to do, but certainly, the last three Coalition prime ministers have all visited Mount Gambier and, of course, it was my honour and privilege to come through Mount Gambier a couple of years ago as part of my annual Pollie Pedal charity bike ride, too.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, you have plans for Country of Origin Labelling, tightening them up. The issues have been with the safety of imported goods. How are changing the labels going to improve the safety of imported goods?
PRIME MINISTER:
They're two separate issues and both worth pursuing. Yes, we want the Australian consumers to have a better idea of what is in the products they're buying and that's why Country of Origin Labelling does need to be improved. We've been talking about it for years, but it's time to crack on and actually do something. But there's another issue and that is the safety of food imports. Now, as you know, we had an issue with berries from overseas. Once it became clear there was a problem, our food regulators acted very swiftly – very, very swiftly indeed – to hold the potentially contaminated product at the border and to recall the potentially contaminated product from stores.
So, from time to time we will have problems. That's inevitable in an imperfect world. The important thing is to have a strong regulatory system and to have highly responsible manufacturers and, in this case, the manufacturer could not have acted more swiftly to get the potentially contaminated product off the shelves.
QUESTION:
It was very reactive, though. We've also had issues with tinned fruit and tuna. Are there plans to actually fix up the regulations and be pre-emptive on this issue?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously, we want to ensure the product that the Australian consumer is accessing is absolutely safe and government has a responsibility to ensure that there are good, effective rules that are properly policed and, of course, business has a responsibility to ensure that customers are safe. So, we've all got responsibilities here and, yes, we've had the coincidence of the berries, of the salmon, but in the end, I think it is really a coincidence and I'm confident that the system is a good one but we're always looking at it to see what we can do better. We're always learning from experience and I'm sure the regulators will learn from this particular experience.
QUESTION:
How much money will South Australia get from the auto fund that you've decided to reinstate?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there's $155 million of money that was made available as a sort of a structural adjustment package in the event that the manufacturing industry is closing down. Then, of course, there's the Automotive Transformation Scheme. Now, what we decided over the last little while is that we would not proceed with changes to that scheme in the Senate, so the scheme as currently legislated continues. As the local manufacturing industry winds down, obviously, there will be changes to the disbursements under that scheme and all of those figures will be available in the Budget in a few weeks’ time.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, a big issue down here is unconventional gas exploration, or fracking. A lot of the community are against it. What are your thoughts on this issue?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I'm not theological about this. I want to be practical about this. I know that, historically, agriculture and mining have been able to co-exist in this country and I want that to continue. That said, I don't want anything to be done that will jeopardise the long-term future of some of the finest agricultural land in our country and, indeed, in the world. So, as I said, I'm not theological. I want to make sure that whatever happens the agricultural industries of this part of Australia can continue without any damage from anything else and that's why I think it's important that the state government should take seriously the inquiry which has now been launched by Liberal members of the South Australian Parliament and let's see what the inquiry comes up with.
QUESTION:
Would you therefore say that there could there be a moratorium on fracking until we actually know more about it on a national level?
PRIME MINISTER:
It is, in the end, a matter for state governments and, certainly, in Queensland and in New South Wales there's been quite a few years of experience with this kind of unconventional extraction. So far it seems that the problems that people fear have not arisen, but when in doubt it's best to proceed with caution. If you're driving in fog, you slow down and you turn the headlights on and that's obviously pretty good advice for things more generally.
QUESTION:
What's your response to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning that if Australia continues to criticise Indonesia’s decision to execute two members of the Bali Nine they could release a ‘tsunami of asylum seekers’ into our country?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not in the business of picking fights with anyone. I'm in the business of trying to find constructive solutions and we've made our position on the executions of these Australians pretty clear. Our position on Australians on death row abroad is identical to the position that Indonesia typically takes when its citizens are subject to a potential death penalty overseas and I'm just saying today what I've been saying for weeks now: that we think these two people who have been on death row now for a decade have been thoroughly rehabilitated and reformed. We deplore drug time. We absolutely understand the position of the Indonesian Government that it wants to crackdown on drug crime. The Indonesian Government’s position in that respect is entirely the same as ours, but these two individuals, because they’re reformed, have now become an asset in Indonesia’s fight against drug crime and that’s why I think it would be counter-productive to execute them.
QUESTION:
Also, on opinion polls, Malcolm Turnbull has said this morning that, you know, the Party knows that they’re behind and they believe they need to lift their game. Do you agree with him?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ve been saying for months now that our challenge is to be a better government tomorrow than we are today. That’s the challenge of everyone all the time: to be constantly improving your performance. And so, I’m determined to spend all of every single day focussed on doing the right thing by the people of Australia and over the last few weeks, you will have noticed that as well as our constant concern for budget responsibility and ensuring that the intergenerational theft that the Labor Government practiced against our children and grandchildren ends, we're also talk about things like better Country of Origin Labelling, we’re trying to ensure that the illegal foreign purchases of residential land end, that we have a lower screening threshold for foreign purchases of agricultural land, not because we're against foreign investment, we want foreign investment, but it's got to be the right investment and it's got to be in ways that engender confidence in the Australian people that this is in our national interests and not just in the interests of the investor. We're also cracking down on extreme imported ideology, because the last thing we want to see is Australian turning against Australian on the basis of extreme imported ideology and we've got a grocery code of conduct that has been promulgated for the first time so that small and big businesses are all on a level playing field in the agricultural sector.
So, there's lots and lots of thing we are doing all the time to ensure that we are focused on the things that really matter to you, the Australian people.
QUESTION:
Do you regret your choice of words in describing it as a lifestyle choice for people living in remote Aboriginal communities?
PRIME MINISTER:
I was making the pretty obvious point that if you or I are free to live with where we choose, all Australians are free to live where we choose but, inevitably, there are some limits to what we can reasonably expect of the taxpayer when it comes to supporting these choices. Now, I am absolutely passionate – absolutely passionate and have been for all of my public life – about trying to ensure that we do the right thing by Aboriginal people and that means getting the kids to school, the adults to work and the communities safe and, obviously, if you're a long way away from a school it's very hard to get a good education. Aboriginal leaders acknowledge this. This is one of the reasons why so many indigenous kids go to boarding school. If you're a long way from jobs it's very hard to get work and, again, Aboriginal leaders acknowledge this in trying to ensure that the poison of sit-down money is ended and I certainly very much support Aboriginal leaders in trying to ensure that we've got kids at school, adults to work and communities safe.
QUESTION:
Can you see why some people are finding that language offensive, though?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I had a lively discussion with a fairly feisty journalist on air on Kalgoorlie radio and it was a lively discussion and I'd invite people to listen to the discussion in its totality; to look at my record in its totality. I don't think there are too many Australian prime ministers who took the national government for almost a week to a remote Aboriginal community. I did it last year. It's my intention to do it again this year. So, I'm very comfortable with my credentials when it comes to doing the right thing by the Aboriginal people of Australia.
QUESTION:
The South Australian Government have put out an advertising campaign against cuts to pensioner concessions. Is there any chance...
PRIME MINISTER:
Totally dishonest.
QUESTION:
... you’ll backflip on that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Absolutely and utterly dishonest campaign.
TONY PASIN MP:
Hear, hear.
PRIME MINISTER:
Now, look, I'm happy to work with the South Australian Government and, you know, I have worked with Premier Jay Weatherill to improve the infrastructure of Adelaide with the North-South Road Corridor, I'm very interested in Premier Weatherill's nuclear royal commission because I do think it's important to see how South Australia can benefit from greater participation in the nuclear cycle. So, I'm all in favour of working sensibly with the South Australian Government where they're being sensible but this advertising campaign on pensioner concessions is utterly dishonest. It is completely, utterly and absolutely dishonest. Yes, the Commonwealth ended the national partnership programme in respect of pensioner concessions. That was 10 per cent of the cost of pensioner concessions and it was a very small price for the states to pay given the budgetary situation we found ourselves in last year. Every other state has continued pensioner concessions and for the South Australian Government to stop them, save itself hundreds of millions of dollars just because tens of millions of dollars were no longer coming from Canberra, it's really dishonest – really dishonest – and, frankly, they should not be wasting taxpayers' money to promote lies and if they're not careful, there will be a taxpayer-funded truth campaign to counter these lies.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, we heard from Trade Minister Andrew Robb. He said it was going to come through by mid-March. How is that looking?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's an important free trade initiative and I hope we can get it done as quickly as possible. We're certainly hopeful of getting it done by the middle of the year. I think it is close to concluding but, as always, when these negotiations go down to the wire there are always some difficult issues and we're determined to ensure that we get better access for our agricultural exporters to the United States, in particular, and we also want to ensure that we maintain the protections of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme that we were able to negotiate as part of the Free Trade Agreement with America.
Thank you so much.
[ends]