DANNY KENNEDY:
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good to be with you.
DANNY KENNEDY:
Now firstly I know you had this trip to the outback on your radar, but with the tragedy at Dreamworld yesterday were you thinking of postponing it or scrapping it and going to the Gold Coast?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I’ll be coming out to Birdsville today. It was a tragic accident at Dreamworld yesterday and as I said yesterday our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those whose lives were lost in that awful accident.
DANNY KENNEDY:
Now looking at your trip out here, of course you were in Birdsville probably 18 months ago. What brings you back after that 18 month period?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I was there 18 months ago talking about the importance of telecommunications. The good news is that with support from the Barkly Shire Council, Diamantina Shire Council, the Queensland Government and the Federal Government, we’re seeing a Telstra fibre link to run between Windaroo, Birdsville, Biduri, Jundah and Stonehenge. This is a great example of our Stronger Regions policy. It is going to see improved telecommunications particularly mobile telecommunications in all of those centres with that fibre network. It’s about 43 per cent complete now and it’s well on the way to being a reality.
DANNY KENNEDY:
And upon completion of this project can you see further developments in places like the outback regarding connectivity?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course there is and the big game-changer of course is the new Sky Muster satellite from the NBN. There are about 2,500 installations or activations onto the new satellite every week. I was just speaking to the NBN’s officers a moment ago. Of that 2500 about 1500 are people that are on the old interim satellite which wasn’t a very good service according to many users. Another 1000 are people that are being newly connected to satellite.
So we’re seeing that growth. This is a new service. It’s a new more powerful satellite and it delivers 25MBPS down and 5MBPS up. So across the board, including – we’ve talked about the fibre-optic cable – between Birdsville and Jundah and Windaroo and Stonehenge and Biduri and in addition to that of course, we have our Mobile Blackspots Programme. Just talking about the electorate of Maranoa, David Littleproud’s electorate where we’re heading today, there are going to be 16 new mobile base stations under the first round of the funding. Of course we have another, second and third rounds underway. So you can expect more funding there but we’re building, we’re improving connectivity right across Australia whether it’s supporting the new Telstra cable, whether it is rolling out the NBN satellite and of course fixed wireless is a very important part of the regional telecom solution for the NBN. And of course then you’ve got the Mobile Blackspots which is essentially a programme where we provide a degree of Government subsidy to enable Telcos to build a new base station in an area that would otherwise be uneconomic.
DANNY KENNEDY:
Prime Minister you mentioned the Stronger Regions Fund, programme. You’re headed to Winton today with the Minister for Regional Development Fiona Nash, to view the site of the Waltzing Matilda which received $8 million under that programme.
Other places that receive places under that - like Logan on the outskirts of Brisbane, which received millions as well – the Minister said that the Building Better Regions Fund will only fund areas outside major capital cities. Boundaries haven’t been clarified; does this just mean it’ll just be local government areas?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think we should be celebrating the rebuilding of the Waltzing Matilda Centre. It is the ultimate iconic Australian national song. You know, there’s nothing more national than Waltzing Matilda. Of course it was composed by Banjo Patterson; the lyrics were composed at Dagworth Station near Winton and we’ll be there yes with Fiona Nash and Senator James McGath, the Queensland Senator and of course David Littleproud.
We’re committing $8 million which is the bulk of the government funding to support the rebuilding of that centre. It’s a great magnet for outback tourism in Queensland and a great celebration of one of the most cheerfully Australian songs that you could ever imagine.
DANNY KENNEDY:
And in this Stronger Regions, can some of the funding head to some of these more remote areas instead of maybe those in the South East corner?
PRIME MINISTER:
This is something that we focus on all the time, I mean it is the – there are obviously more claims on government funding than there are dollars, that’s always going to be the case. But you can see the way in which we are committed to funding better communications in remote and regional Australia.
I don’t want to be unduly partisan here but I do have to record this fact that under the Howard Government, the Howard Coalition Government, there was a mobile phone blackspot programme and under six years of Labor, not one cent of government money, not one single solitary cent was spent on improving mobile connectivity in remote and regional Australia.
And of course when the Coalition was re-elected in 2013, we came in with a mobile phone blackspot programme and we’ve already had one round and the stations are being built and we’ve committed two more rounds of funding and we will continue to do so. We are determined that all those blackspots will be eliminated, one after the other over time. And you know, you can see with the satellite, with the mobile phone blackspots programme, we’re filling in the blank spaces where there is no connectivity. So what we’re doing is ensuring that over time everyone in Australia will get access to very good connectivity.
DANNY KENNEDY:
Seventeen to eight, I’m speaking with the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Of course news at quarter to eight this morning.
Looking at the National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements Prime Minister, your government made retrospective changes to those arrangements, excluding cases where council use their own plant and equipment from being reimbursed from 2013/14 year. Last year the Queensland Government made an announcement they’d put up their 25 per cent of the reimbursement. Will the Federal Government pay the remaining 75 per cent?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well can I just make the point, that is not the – we have not made any changes to the NDRAA arrangements. We have not – this claim that is being made that we’ve changed our position on the ability for Queensland to seek reimbursement of plant and equipment costs under the National Disaster Relief and Recover Arrangements is simply wrong.
We do provide extensive financial assistance for state governments under the NDRRA and we reimburse, as you noted, up to 75 per cent of states disaster recovery costs. But it’s been a longstanding principle of the NDRRA dating back at least to 2007, that state and local governments are required to use their own resources for recovery activity. So there has been no change at all.
DANNY KENNEDY:
So, will they be paying – will the Federal Government be paying that money?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will continue to pay 75 per cent – where it qualifies and this is for the larger disasters which is regrettably very common in Queensland, as you know, given the floods and cyclones. We reimburse up to 75 per cent of states disaster recovery costs and those include costs associated with hiring additional plant and equipment when resources have been exhausted and the operational costs such as fuel, oil and additional maintenance. So it is – there’s been no change and I just want to be very clear about that. It is a scheme – the plan has been operating in the same way for a very long time.
DANNY KENNEDY:
Prime Minister it’s time for the news, thanks for your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks so much.
[ENDS]