PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning. Well obviously I'm going to Indonesia today. That’s the first leg in a major overseas trip. After the meeting with President Yudhoyono today, I will be going to France to help commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-day. There will also be a bilateral with President Hollande and meetings with other leaders.
There will be a trip to Ottawa to meet with Prime Minister Harper of Canada. Obviously, there will be then the trip to the United States which will involve both New York and Washington and meetings with President Obama and senior American business leaders. Then there's a trip to Houston which is the United States energy capital and finally coming back via Honolulu which is the home to the US Pacific fleet. Obviously the US Pacific fleet is a very important part of the security arrangements in the Pacific which are integral to Australia's security.
This is an important trip. It will be another opportunity for me to demonstrate that Australia is open for business. It will be a further opportunity for me to bolster Australia's economic and national security because the United States is our principle security partner; it's an important economic partner. France is a significant trading nation. Canada is a country that we've long had very strong relations with and of course the trip today to meet with President Yudhoyono is an important part of strengthening what is in some respects Australia's most important relationship. So, it is an important trip and it's an honour to be going on this trip to represent the Australian people.
QUESTION:
If President Obama asks you for climate change to be put on the G20 agenda, will you accede to that request?
PRIME MINISTER:
I certainly think that it's important that we use energy efficiently. The efficient use of energy is an important economic issue. It's also important to ensure that these international meetings don't cover all subjects and illuminate none. It's important that we keep a strong and focused agenda if we are to achieve anything significant and different international meetings tend to focus on different subjects. The G20 is essentially an economic meeting. There are other meetings such as the East Asia Summit which are essentially security discussions and then of course there is the United Nations for the discussion of climate change.
I'd be surprised if climate change doesn't come up as part of the G20 but the focus of the G20 will overwhelmingly be our economic security, our financial stabilisation, the importance of private sector-led growth – if we have going to have a strong and prosperous future.
QUESTION:
You've had your own experience with constitutional crisis back in 2010. How do you think the Victorian Government should act to resolve the current crisis?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, from my dealings with Premier Napthine I can say that this is a strong and competent Victorian Government which is getting on with the job. They've just brought down an extremely well received budget. That budget should go through the Parliament in this coming week and the Government should just get on with governing. The interesting thing is that this Commonwealth Government and the Napthine Victoria Government are working together to deliver the East West Link, which is one of the vital pieces of national infrastructure that our country needs and I think that Denis Napthine should simply get on with governing.
QUESTION:
It's a crisis though of that Government's making – isn't it? Geoff Shaw's a former member of the Liberal Party and the Party has relied on his support?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you've got a maverick Independent who made some comments on a radio interview which has got the Opposition extremely excited and now the Labor Party in Victoria want the Governor to solve their problems for them. Well, we've got a government in Victoria. It is a good government, it is doing a good job, it is getting on with building a strong economic future. It is getting on with building the infrastructure of the future and that's what should happen. It should be allowed to get on with its job.
QUESTION:
You don’t think an election is needed to resolve this crisis?
PRIME MINISTER:
There is an election scheduled for the end of November. It's an election which I think the Government certainly deserves to win because it is getting on with the job of doing the right thing for the people of Victoria. The big difference between the Victorian Coalition and the Victorian Labor Party is that the Victorian Government wants to get cracking and build the East West Link which is vital the future for the future of Victoria, for the future of Melbourne and the Victorian Opposition can't make up its mind.
James?
QUESTION:
General Moeldoko, the Commander in Chief of the Indonesian armed forces wrote in The Wall Street Journal a month ago he was dismayed at China’s inclusion of Indonesia’s Natuna Islands in the nine-dash line. Will you be discussing the rise of China, that particular claim as well, with President SBY while you are there and secondly, when will you make a decision on the F-35 B jump jet?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can very quickly deal with the second part of the question – not that for quite some time. Obviously that will be a matter that will be covered in the Defence White Paper.
The discussions with President Yudhoyono will be fairly broad ranging and I'm hoping that at some time in the not-too-distant future we can have a security, an intelligence memorandum of understanding. I think it is important that we have an intelligence sharing memorandum of understanding between Australia and Indonesia because we have a lot of shared intelligence and security interests; not just when it comes to combating people smuggling but when it comes to combating the spread of jihadist terrorism which obviously has been given a boost by the conflict in Syria and the risk of people coming back from Syria who have been radicalised and militarised. I think there's a lot that we can discuss on the South China Sea and the East China Sea. The Australian Government has long had a very consistent position. We discourage unilateral actions – we very strongly discourage and we disapprove of unilateral actions. We think no country should seek to be provocative in what is a contested part of the world. We think that territorial claims should be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law.
QUESTION:
It sounds like Australia shares Indonesia's concern about the inclusion of the Natuna islands in that nine-dash line area and other territorial claims China's made of late.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we don't think there should be any disturbance to the status quo, other than by due process of international law.
QUESTION:
On the economy, is the Government considering a mini budget if a lot of these unpopular measures that already seem doomed in the Senate don't get through?
PRIME MINISTER:
What we are determined to do is get our Budget through the Parliament. We are determined to get our Budget through the Parliament because this is the right budget for these times. The point I keep making is that just at this moment Australia is paying $1 billion a month in interest - just to keep up with the interest in the borrowings.
This is $1 billion every single month in dead money. This is $1 billion that we are paying just to support the previous borrowings.
This is Labor's debt and deficit disaster that we are coping with. This is the price that every single Australian is ultimately paying for six years of Labor's incompetence.
Now we have a plan – an economic action strategy – to deal with Labor’s debt and deficit disaster. It is the only plan. It is the only plan and I keep saying to the Labor Party we have our plan to deal with your debt and deficit disaster – what is your plan to clean up your mess? No-one, no-one has had the honesty and the courage to come up with a plan other than this Government.
QUESTION:
Forty per cent of people surveyed recently say that they would support Labor blocking the Budget, blocking supply and forcing a new election. With that sort of sentiment is now the right time to be going overseas?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it is always good to be improving Australia’s international relations and Indonesia is a critically important relationship. There has been some rough patches in the relationship with Indonesia over the last nine months or so resulting from history - not in every case things for which this Government is responsible but nevertheless some rough patches that this Government has to deal with and I am proposing to deal with that today.
The United States, it’s obviously an extraordinary important relationship for our country. It is our principle security partner as well as being our fourth biggest economic partner. It is by far the largest investor in our country. So, it is a country of enormous heft in the world and enormous importance to Australia and I think it is fitting that within my first twelve months as Prime Minister I go to the United States.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, have you spoken to Dr Napthine since last night? Has he sought your advice?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven’t but I want to give him every encouragement because he is a good man. He has been a fine premier; he is leading a Government which is doing a very good job. As I said they brought down a very well received Budget just a few weeks ago and that Budget should now go through the Parliament and the Government should be allowed to get on with the job that the Victorian people expect of it.
QUESTION:
What did you make of Clive Palmer’s comments yesterday and in the House the night before last about Peta Credlin?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I think that blokes around this place have learnt to underestimate women at their peril. I just make that general observation. The other observation that I make is that the gentleman in question does not understand the Coalition’s policy. The Coalition policy is designed to ensure that all Australian women have access to the kind of paid parental leave that Commonwealth public servants - including the women in my office, including the women in Mr Palmer’s office - have long had. So, before he goes out and attacks people he really ought to understand the policy and he doesn’t.
[ends]