PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning and welcome. I want to thank the Premiers, Chief Ministers and President of the Local Government Association for being here today and particularly welcome Michael Gunner, the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and the new President of ALGA to their first COAG meeting.
Australians expect us to show concerted leadership on the big issues that confront us. We do live in times of remarkable opportunity but we have to be prepared to make the calls that ensure that our children and grandchildren enjoy higher living standards than we do today. We have to work together to secure their prosperity.
The fall in GDP this week, in the National Accounts this week, was a sharp reminder than we cannot take strong economic growth for granted.
The outcomes across the States differed markedly and the mining states were feeling this transition from the mining construction boom most sharply. We have gone from investment in resource construction being at 9 per cent of GDP in 2012 to less than 4 today. This is a big transition. So we need to ensure that we maintain strong and inclusive growth right across the nation.
That means we have to deliver on real economic reform and we will be talking about some of the competition measures and competition reforms later on in our agenda.
When we work together, we have the ability to make real change. We have seen this most recently with the National Summit on Reducing Violence against Women and Children which the Premier of Queensland hosted with the Commonwealth and with the launch of the Third Action Plan.
Today we are going to focus on the reforms that will deliver improved outcomes for our communities, including keeping them safer.
Security is also a vital element in our future, in ensuring our future prosperity depends on our security.
Our forward agenda will focus on economic reforms, social reforms, addressing the challenges of our First Australians, ensuring that they receive the equity, the justice, the fairness that they deserve and of course maintaining security, community safety and social cohesion.
This is my third COAG as Prime Minister. I am delighted we are all here together. We have a very full agenda and I am looking forward to continuing our discussions frankly and fearlessly in the hours ahead.
[ENDS]