EDDIE MCGUIRE:
Prime Minister good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Eddie, Luke and Mick. Yes, it was a very sad day yesterday. It’s been a tragic time in Melbourne but the people of Melbourne have pulled together and the spirit of the city was very evident there just as it was on the day of that shocking attack. The way the first responders rushed to the aid of the victims. When I was meeting with the police, with Graham Ashton and his senior team yesterday, they described how some of the injured, who felt their injuries were not so severe, hung back and stayed back to allow the first responders to go to the aid of those most seriously injured first.
So there is a real selflessness, a real heroism that was shown in the wake of that shocking crime.
EDDIE MCGUIRE:
So many ordinary Melbournians performing in such an extraordinary situation. It was heart-lifting and heart-warming. Prime Minister can I put it to you that there seems to be an epidemic around the country at the moment, of mental health and self-administration of drugs – we see the ice and crack and all this type of things. What’s your thoughts on that? I mean the war on drugs has been going since Richard Nixon declared it in about 1972. We don’t seem to be getting any further in this war. What’s your observations? Not asking for a policy, but just your observation as a citizen and now as Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Let me put a bit of context in this Eddie; Talking to the Police Commissioner yesterday in Melbourne, he made the point that a now a very, very large percentage of the cases police deal with, on the streets, involve people who have that combination of mental illness exacerbated – made worse – by drugs and alcohol. So this is a big and growing problem.
We clearly are investing more money than ever before into early intervention, in terms of mental health programs, $197 million just in the last year in additional funding. We also have substantial money going out into the front line to deal with ice.
I think it’s a very challenging issue because it goes to the very heart of a lot of the dysfunction in our community. What we need to do I think is to also, at a personal level, to pay more attention to the people around us, keep an eye out for each other. You know mental health and mental illness has been somewhat of a taboo for many years, we’re only now starting to really talk about it. We need to be more aware of it, more aware of the symptoms that arise with people that we work with, people that we love that are in our family.
LUKE DARCY:
Well said. We are thinking of those who are still in hospital and critically injured. Hoping for the best possible result. Great to have the Prime Minister of Australia with us this morning and down in Melbourne on the ground, showing his support.
I just want to change tack for a moment Prime Minister if we could and move away from that horrible tragedy. We had the inauguration of President Trump only 24-48 hours ago. You didn’t make the trip over, what do you make of his first couple of days in office?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he’s come into office as an agent of change and he’s demonstrating that. It’s always a momentous day where there is a new American President. Obviously from our perspective, we don’t buy into the domestic political arguments in the United States. We are absolutely steadfast allies, trusted friends.
We’ve got a great relationship with the United States which is the work millions of Australians and Americans over many, many years. We’ve fought side-by-side with the United States in every major conflict since the First World War. There is no stronger alliance that we have, or indeed that they have. So we look forward to continuing and strengthening our relationship with the United States under this new administration.
EDDIE MCGUIRE:
Prime Minister, you’re a brilliant strategist, have been all throughout your career. Does this give us a bit of an opportunity? You know, a bit of destabilisation of international affairs, to open up some new markets? Does it open up, for example Brexit is opening up an opportunity for free trade with Great Britain and of course our eyes always need to look to Asia. Does this, is this, while it’s a bit destabilising, does this give us an opportunity to maybe have some people vying for our affections for a change?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let me deal first with Brexit Eddie. I spoke to Theresa May very shortly after she became Prime Minister and committed Australia to working with the United Kingdom to establish a free trade agreement with the UK as soon as they were free to do so. She’s referenced that, as you know, in many of her speeches. We’ve also offered them assistance, and we’ll provide them assistance in terms of negotiating free trade agreements, because you’ve got to remember that Britain has been part of the EU for over 40 years so there’s no one left in Whitehall that’s actually – in London – that’s actually negotiated a free trade agreement.
EDDIE MCGUIRE:
Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER:
So we can help them out there. But you’re right it’s a very dynamic environment and we are looking at every opportunity to expand the markets for Australian exports. Because that drives Australian jobs. You know, when I was down in Portland last week talking to the workers there at Portland Aluminum, what were the two key things they need? They need export markets, they need opportunities to sell their aluminum, and we’re opening up more opportunities all the time. And they need affordable electricity. That’s been their big challenge. Now the Labor Party, Bill Shorten in particular, are enemies of both. They are threats to both trade and they are threats to affordable electricity, with their utterly unrealistic renewable targets that they have no way of achieving in any affordable way. So what we need is affordable energy in Australia and we need lots of markets. That’s why we’re working to expand our opportunities in India, in Indonesia, right through the region.
Trade for us – a medium sized country, 24 million people – we need trade. Trade is driving jobs. That’s those exports, whether it’s from Portland, whether it’s from farms, right across Australia. All around Australia, those big markets that we opened up in China, in Korea, in Japan, Singapore opened further, right across the region, everywhere, every day, we are working flat out to find more opportunities for Australians to sell their services, their goods, their produce. Because that drives employment here. It’s in our interest to have those big open markets.
EDDIE MCGUIRE:
Thanks Prime Minister and good luck. Also good luck with the dramas with some domestic politics that was well reported with all the rorts and things going that you’re starting to put your foot on. Because there’s never been a time that I think our community needs strong leadership and clear leadership from our political leaders. Thanks for joining us this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks a lot Eddie.
EDDIE MCGUIRE:
Good on you, Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia.