PRIME MINISTER:
It's terrific to be here at the Little Pines Centre. This is a marvellous childcare centre. It’s good to be here with Margie who’s had a lot of experience in this sector and has run a childcare centre in St Ives. It's also good to be here with Craig Laundy, the local member.
Childcare is a constant issue for the families of Australia.
It was an issue for the Abbott family when our kids were younger. It's an issue for so many families at an important and critical time of their lives. It's really important that we try to ensure that women, in particular, have a real choice to have a family and have a career and this is where childcare is so incredibly important.
So many Australian families right now are under a lot of pressure – a lot of financial pressure – and what we want to do this year is make it easier for the families of Australia. We want to make it easier to create jobs. We want to make it easier for families. That’s why, as the political year of 2015 begins, we are absolutely focussed as a Government on jobs and on families.
As the year unfolds, we want to see a small business tax cut but we also want to see a really significant new families package that focuses on childcare. We want to see a more affordable childcare which leaves more money in parents' pockets.
Yes, we will be picking up on some of the work of the Productivity Commission and, yes, money that might under different circumstances have been invested in a bigger, better paid parental leave scheme will be invested in childcare because all too many families at the moment find themselves in the position where one parent is working just to pay the childcare. We want to make a difference. That’s our job as a government: to bring about change for the better, and this is one of the areas where I am so determined to make change for the better in 2015.
Craig, I know you're very proud of this centre and as the local member, you might want to say a few words in praise of it.
CRAIG LAUNDY:
Thank you to the four principals for having us today. You are in an electorate with an average age of around 34, as of the last census. It's an issue as you knock on doors around this area – young families, mothers looking to get back to work, and the lack of availability of spaces to do so. Any policy, anything in this policy space that helps young families in my electorate, I am a big fan of and I know the young families are too, PM.
PRIME MINISTER:
And, Margie, obviously, this is a terrific centre and I guess whenever you come to a centre it's almost like an exercise in professional development…
MARGIE ABBOTT:
Absolutely.
PRIME MINISTER:
…because we all learn from these things and anyway, darling, do you wish to say anything?
MARGIE ABBOTT:
Little Pines is a great example of a centre that has all the ethos of a community-based centre. It’s here for families, it's providing and catering for the needs of their families, it's a centre that’s full and it has a long waiting list. I think this is the challenge going forward: to be able to provide care for families when they need it, and care that responds to their needs on a day-to-day, week-to-week, year-to-year basis.
PRIME MINISTER:
And that’s exactly what we want to try to do as a Government.
So, do we have any questions?
QUESTION:
You talked about the reinvestment of the money from a bigger, better paid parental leave into childcare. Are you saying the 1.5 per cent levy on big business will remain, then?
PRIME MINISTER:
The levy was very much associated with the paid parental leave scheme and the paid parental leave scheme will no longer be happening. But what we have always wanted to do here is to essentially ensure that big business doesn't pay more tax but that small business gets a tax cut. That’s what we want to: we want to ensure that small business gets a tax cut, while ensuring that big business doesn't face more tax. The precise costings and fundings will be released in due course.
QUESTION:
Families and providers want assurance. Can you provide detail on the childcare package – more detail.
PRIME MINISTER:
What we’re doing now, as you’d expect, is that we are sitting down with the sector to talk through the potential changes that we’ve got in mind. We want to see a less complex system, we want to see a more available system and, ultimately, we want to see a more affordable system.
Now, the Productivity Commission's recommendations are a very strong starting point. Obviously, we’ve got some ideas of our own as well, some developments of what the Productivity Commission has recommended, but what we don't want to do is spring things on people. We don't want to surprise people. We want to talk things through so that the final policy is something that the community is very comfortable with.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, do you agree that the childcare subsidies at the moment have had an inflationary effect, much like the way the First Home Owners Grant has? If you do agree with that, how do you fix that now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this is certainly one of the issues which the Productivity Commission dealt with. We want to ensure that people do receive the kind of support that makes childcare useable – we really do want to do that – but we want to try to make sure that it isn’t inflationary and the Productivity Commission had some ideas as to how that could be done, and they’re precisely the things that we’ll be working through with the sector over coming weeks. But, I want to assure you, there will be a very significantly improved childcare policy as a result of the work that we're doing now.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, you say there will be no surprises, yet your Government has been full of surprises the whole way along. What assurance does the public have that you will follow through on what you're saying?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously, I am determined that 2015 is going to be a good year. There was a lot to be proud of in 2014, but there were some political problems as well and I am determined to avoid them. I guess the lessons of 2014 are that we do have to be more consultative and collegial. We do need to be more careful about announcing things which then simply fall foul of the Senate, because governments which take difficult decisions are strong, but governments which take difficult decisions which they can't implement, obviously, can sometimes create a different impression in the community. So, we are determined to be different and the fact that we are consulting on this policy, rather than simply announcing it, I think, is a sign of the different approach that you can see from this Government this year.
QUESTION:
Isn’t the fact that it’s taken 18 months of you being in Government to reach that position a sign that you're not leading an effective Government?
PRIME MINISTER:
We’ve done a lot – we’ve done a lot – and if you look at the last 16 months, the carbon tax has gone, the boats have stopped, the roads are building, we’ve got three free trade agreements that previous governments floundered over for a decade. So, a lot’s been done. But we’re not resting on our laurels. I’m not here to talk about the past. I am here to talk about the future. And what I want to talk about today is the better and more effective childcare system which this Government is determined to deliver.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, on the future will you bring on a spill and open up the Liberal leadership to a vote in order to bring speculation to an end?
PRIME MINISTER:
You're the speculator, Leigh, not me.
QUESTION:
I assure you that a lot of people on the backbench are speculating as well, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Leigh, the thing is that we were elected because people were sick of chaos. That’s why we were elected – people were sick of chaos. And what I am determined to do is give Australia back the certainty and stability that people crave. People want a Government which is focused on doing the right thing by them, not focused on itself.
QUESTION:
Are you prepared to call a spill?
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
QUESTION:
Have you sought an assurance from Julie Bishop that she won't challenge you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, Julie and I have lots of talks, as you’d expect. We're friends, we're colleagues, we’re part of the leadership team and we support each other.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, this is a question that you have avoided a number of times without a straight answer. Why is that? And why can’t you just tell us if you did ask her if she wouldn’t challenge and what did she say and are you comfortable with her being your deputy?
PRIME MINISTER:
Laura, I’m not going to play these insider games. I mean, I know the media want to play insider games but I don't think the public are interested in that. I think the public want a Government which gets on with doing the right thing by the people of Australia and that’s what I’m focused on. Others might be distracted, but I am not going to be distracted from doing the right thing by jobs and families, getting on with the task that the Australian people gave us at the election.
QUESTION:
One more question then on this that might put all this distraction to bed: will you call on Julie Bishop to say publicly that she supports you and rule out challenging you for the leadership?
PRIME MINISTER:
As I said, Julie and I, we're friends, we are part of the leadership team. We support each other. We always have, and we always will.
QUESTION:
One of your backbenchers Andrew Laming wants to bring on a private members bill to abolish knights and dames in their entirety. Are you losing control of your backbench?
PRIME MINISTER:
Leigh, we’ve never been a Stalinist party. I welcome a vigorous debate amongst my backbench on a whole range of issues and I’m pleased to see that’s what we normally have: vigorous debates inside our party room and indeed inside our Cabinet. That’s what people expect a team to be – a team of strong individuals, who bounce around ideas, who come to a decision and then go forward with it. Now, I’ve made it very clear over the last couple of days that all awards in the Order of Australia are a matter for the Council of the Order of Australia.
QUESTION:
For the sake of stability, should the Liberal Party adopt the same system as Labor and allow grassroots ballots for leadership and would this head off the type of speculation that you're seeing right now?
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s an interesting question. I know that in other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom,
right-of-centre parties have these sorts of arrangements. The Labor Party put such an arrangement in place to end the debilitating instability and the chaos which afflicted the former Labor government and which the public rejected so decisively just 16 months ago.
I’ve got to say I’ve got a lot of confidence in my colleagues. I have a lot of trust and faith in my colleagues. I know them. I work with them. I regard them as friends. They are men and women of good strong character and they all know that from time to time, every government goes through difficult patches. The Howard Government went through difficult patches in every one of its four terms and what brought that government through was people simply knuckling down and doing their job.
Now, I accept that we’ve had a difficult couple of months. I absolutely accept that. We had the stellar occasion of the G20. We had some marvellously successful Head Of Government visits with the Chinese President, the Indian Prime Minister, the British Prime Minister, the French President, the German Chancellor – a great opportunity to showcase Australia to the world and I think we came out of all of this very, very well indeed. Now, we’ve had a difficult time since then – I accept that. But I think the lesson that people learn from our own experience, from the experience of looking at our colleagues, is that instability breeds instability and if you want to get away from the instability, you just end it – you just end it now – and my message to the people of Australia is: this is back to work Tuesday – back to work Tuesday. We are now focused on doing the right thing by the people of Australia with the small business tax cut and a much better programme of support for childcare.
Thank you so much.
[ends]