PRIME MINISTER:
It's great to be here at the Millennium Medical Research Institute. It’s great to salute the work that the Millennium Medical Research Fund does here at Westmead Hospital in Sydney. I salute everyone involved with today's opening; the director Tony Cunningham, all of the donors who have made this magnificent new facility possible. I should particularly acknowledge my friend Peter Treseder who for many years was the fund-raising director for the Millennium Research Institute here at Westmead Hospital. It was Peter Treseder who got the Pollie Pedal involved with this fund-raising exercise and for five years the annual Pollie Pedal raised money for this particular research institute and I'm really delighted that as a result of those efforts there will be a Max Hadlow Cancer Laboratory here at the Westmead Millennium Research Institute. That's a fitting tribute to a great man who was an important part of my life and who certainly dedicated much of the last few years of his life to this important cause.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, is your message also today that if your Budget measures are passed we’ll see many more of these centres across Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will certainly see a much greater emphasis on medical research in the years and decades to come as a result of this Budget, should this important measure be passed by the Senate, and I say to the Labor Party, and I say to the crossbench in the Senate – this is an important part of Australia's future. This is about building for the future. It's about playing to our country's strength because our country does have great strengths in health and medical research and this is an investment in that strength. This is an investment in the treatments and the cures of the future. This is an investment in trying to achieve the same increases in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the next 100 years that we've had in the last 100 years.
So, I'd say to the Labor Party and the crossbench, please, put the politics to one side and get behind the medical research community of Australia.
QUESTION:
Peter Dutton has indicated that even if the GP co-payment doesn't pass the Senate a smaller version of the medical research fund will still be pushed through. We've heard evidence from the parliamentary committee yesterday that cancer patients face greater up-front costs under your policy and we've heard reports from NSW Health about crushing queues in emergency departments, how can you justify holding on to that policy?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, if it's fair and reasonable to have a modest co-payment for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and there are lots of cancer patients who have to access drugs under the PBS, it's surely fair and reasonable to have a modest co-payment for visits to the GP.
So again, the Labor Party is playing politics with this. The Labor Party has long supported modest co-payments for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the Labor Party itself introduced a modest co-payment for Medicare under Bob Hawke as Prime Minister. They are just playing politics with this and I say let's put the politics to one side. Let's focus on the best thing we can do for the long-term health and well-being of Australians and people right around the world – let's get this big investment in lifesaving treatments and cures.
QUESTION:
South Australian health officials just today have told a senate committee hearing in Adelaide that the co-payment would see another 290,000 people present through emergency. Surely those officials aren't playing politics, they're just bureaucrats?
PRIME MINISTER:
The Labor Party is certainly playing politics with this. They are certainly playing politics with this. You get your drugs for free in hospital; out of hospital you pay the co-payment. That hasn't produced a flood of people rushing in to emergency departments or if it has it's something that emergency departments have learned to cope with. Again, I make the point, if it's fair and reasonable for patients accessing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to face a modest co-payment; why can it be unfair and unreasonable for patients seeing a GP likewise to face a modest co-payment.
QUESTION:
So, NSW Health bureaucrats are warning of half a million extra ED patients a year under your policy – are they playing politics or do you accept that forecast?
PRIME MINISTER:
If you don't mind, what I've said is that the Labor Party is playing politics here. They are absolutely playing politics here. The Medicare co-payment is a policy that was first introduced by the Labor Party. It is strongly supported by Labor people such as the Labor Assistant Treasurer in the Federal Parliament. I say put the politics to one side, listen to the medical researchers of our country who all believe that it needs to be a $20 billion fund. They all believe that it needs to be at least a $20 billion fund if our strengths in medical research are to be properly utilised for the benefit of Australians and the benefit of people everywhere in the years and decades to come.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, could you tell us a little bit about the air strikes on Iraq overnight and whether that was a success?
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly don't intend to comment on operational detail, to the extent that there's any need to comment on operational detail I will leave that to Defence officials. I can confirm that a Royal Australian Air Force Super Hornet was involved in a strike mission on an ISIL position in Iraq. This is a death cult that has declared war on the world. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with religion. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with the freedom of oppressed people. It is a group which has declared war on the world, which is killing without compunction; Shia, Sunni, Turkman, Yazidi, Kurd, Assyrians, Christians – it kills everyone who doesn't share its narrow, divisive and sectarian ideology and that's why it's important that Australia do what we can in conjunction with our friends and allies to help the Iraqi Government and the Iraqi people to help themselves.
QUESTION:
Any word on casualties?
PRIME MINISTER:
As I said, it's not my part to comment on operational detail, but I can confirm that our Super Hornets have been doing the job that they were sent to Iraq to do.
QUESTION:
US central command has been giving a bit more detail about these sorts of operations, why won't the ADF give that sort of detail?
PRIME MINISTER:
Again, it's a matter for our military officials to reveal what they think is appropriate. Different militaries have different procedures, different militaries operate a little differently in this matter, but we sent our Super Hornets to the Middle East to do a job to protect Australia's national security by contributing to international security and it's good that they're doing it and I know they’ll do it very well.
QUESTION:
How do you feel about Wassim Doureihi’s refusal last night to condemn IS militants?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this is a sign that this particular group is un-Islamic because decent Muslims abhor the killing of innocent people and it’s certainly un-Australian because Australians everywhere have been absolutely revolted by the beheadings, the crucifixions, the mass executions, the ethnic cleansing, the sexual slavery, which everywhere has been associated with the murderous advance of the ISIL death cult.
QUESTION:
Is it fair that the Treasurer is urging Labor to support the budget measures in order to pay for this conflict – is that a fair equation?
PRIME MINISTER:
What's important is that the Opposition continue to support our mission in Iraq and the Middle East and I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Shorten, for the very constructive engagement that he has had with the Government here. I want to thank the Opposition for the bipartisan support that they have offered to this commitment. Obviously, there are lots of things on which the Government and the Opposition disagree, but when it comes to national security, it's good that we stand shoulder to shoulder together.
QUESTION:
A quick question about surrogacy – we’ve got another report that a child has been abandoned in India, a couple in Australia that have abandoned them in India. Isn't it time that we see a full inquiry or moves to perhaps allow surrogacy to be legalised in Australia so that we don't see these cases?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I can understand that this is a subject of considerable public interest. We don't really have much detail at all about this case. My understanding is that it happened some time ago. It's always distressing to think that a child has been brought into the world and then abandoned. It's terribly distressing to think that this might have been the case. But surrogacy is a matter for the state governments and while I can understand the interest in this right around the country, I think that there are some matters which are quite properly left to the state governments and I certainly don’t intend to change the ordinary constitutional arrangements in this area.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible] ABS to get more funding after it’s had to revise its figures. Is that something you would commit to and if you don’t can you keep using their figures to claim political wins?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don’t normally bandy around one month’s figures to claim any particular credit because as we all know the monthly figures can bounce around. It’s important that we have a top quality Australian Bureau of Statistics. I believe that the Australian Bureau of Statistics does do a very good job, but from time to time adjustments will be made in their methodology – that’s not unusual. Occasionally criticism is made of their methodology and I’m happy to leave that argument to the statisticians.
QUESTION:
Are you able to clarify just some of the comments you made yesterday about the hate preachers. Were you meaning that you are intending to bring in a new law or new legislation to stop these people coming into the country, to ban them or that you will use existing laws and more scrutiny to prevent them from coming into the country?
PRIME MINISTER:
I thought that my comments yesterday were absolutely crystal clear. What I said was that I find the defence of terrorism, the excuses made for terrorism by organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir utterly objectionable, un-Islamic and un-Australian. I really think that the contribution to debate by Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman has been little short of toxic. I accept – I accept – that Australians are entitled to robustly debate things and that’s something that we’re accustomed to. What I’m not going to allow is people coming into this country from overseas to create trouble – I’m not going to allow it. If Australians want to have a debate – fine – but the last thing we need in this country is people coming here to stir up trouble and I say to the preachers of hate, if you think you're going to come to Australia and peddle your message of division and despair, think again, you just aren't coming.
QUESTION:
Does that principle also apply to anti-Muslim speakers like Geert Wilders who was really given a visa for a speaking tour across the country?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s a principle that applies to people who are coming to this country to stir up trouble. We do not need people coming to this country to stir up trouble, to preach their divisive message of hate to justify terrorism, to try to defend the indefensible. We just don't need it, and so the very clear message, I say, to anyone from an organisation like Hizb ut-Tahrir who wants to come to Australia, apply by all means, but you will be knocked back. We do not need people coming to this country to stir up hate, to stir up trouble, you're just not welcome.
Thank you.
[ends]