Cairns Hospital & tourism funding; James Cook Anniversary; the environment; the Liberal Party; Murray-Darling Basin; a stronger economy and lower taxes; ABC funding; Australia Day;
Prime Minister
KIER SHOREY: Scott Morrison, welcome to ABC Far North Queensland.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Kier, it's great to be here in the studio and great to be here in Cairns again.
SHOREY: Now an election is clearly in the air when the Prime Minister comes to town bearing gifts. You brought some money for the tertiary stage of the Hospital project here in Cairns, heading to Cooktown today. What can they expect?
PRIME MINISTER: Well as you say, this is not my first visit to Cairns. I’ve been here many times and last time I was here last year it was $10 million for the innovation hub out there at JCU. Yesterday, you’re right, we announced $60 million to free up 150 beds, 150 new beds at the Hospital, but which also sees the great work of JCU and their Tropical Medicine Centre continue on, that’s fantastic.
We’re heading up to Cooktown today, it’s the 250th anniversary of the voyage of then Lieutenant James Cook who he went on to be Captain James Cook. He stopped in two places along the east coast. One was in my electorate of Cook down there in southern Sydney in Kurnell and the other one - a much longer stay as Warren Entsch reminds me all the time - up here in north Queensland, he maintains he had a much better time. So I’m looking forward to going up there. There’s a lot of excitement about that 250th anniversary and we’re investing in a range of local projects, upgrades for tourist infrastructure, parks, these sorts of things, which commemorate those events. But also announcing the voyage, the re-enactment of the voyage that will call in all around the east coast of Australia for the 250th anniversary. That’ll be great for tourism and it’ll also be a great opportunity just to talk about our history; the view from the shore, the view from the ship and very much understanding those two stories like we do in my home electorate every year, with our meeting of two cultures ceremony on the 29th of April. I think this voyage will provide an opportunity to tell those shared stories.
SHOREY: And the money that you’re bringing for them, around $5.75 million I understand?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, it’s about that for both projects.
SHOREY: And do you know what the money will be spent on?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, the $5.8 million that we’re spending up in Cooktown, that includes the reconciliation of the Rocks Precinct, the development of the Botanical Gardens, the upgrades to the Gamaay Dreaming Track and the Waymburr Story Project. There’s a range of those local projects that will help people when they go to that part of the country to be able to learn the stories, understand the stories from both an indigenous perspective and from an European perspective. I think that’s one of the things people love coming from Australia to do; to understand our stories. We’ve got great stories and some of them are hard, some of them are magnificent, but we’ve got to tell them all.
SHOREY: As you fly to Cooktown today you’re going to be flying over the world heritage listed Daintree Rainforest. Now, there was a Federal Parliamentary Committee last year that recommended the Bloomfield Track be sealed. Now this is a section of track that runs through that rainforest and there have been plenty of people involved in the initial fight to get it listed 30 years ago on the world heritage list, saying that it shouldn't happen. So should the Federal Government be investing money in conservation of the area rather than development of the area?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re proceeding cautiously here. Warren and I had a good discussion about this, as well as with some locals. There is nothing immediately proceeding there, protecting those conservation values is incredibly important, but also providing the opportunity for people to experience these incredible areas. I mean, the two have to be done together. I know there are a lot of different views here in the community about what needs to be done there, so we’ll keep listening.
SHOREY: Okay you have personally supported the coal industry, people might remember you bringing that piece of coal into Parliament on that occasion a few years ago?
PRIME MINISTER: Well coal creates lots and lots and lots of jobs.
SHOREY: Sure, now in our area though, reef, rainforest, many environmentally sensitive assets as well. Do you think the Government’s approach to environment, to climate change, could potentially cost votes in Leichhardt?
PRIME MINISTER: No I don’t, because we’re meeting our commitments, we’ve set our commitments. We met Kyoto 1, we will comfortably smash Kyoto 2 and I believe we will meet 2030 our targets there which we have set. I’ve reassured Pacific leaders about that just last week as well. We have plans to achieve it, we will achieve it. The thing about Australia and our commitments on emissions reductions is we actually make them and achieve them. You know, I don’t go around talking about them every day, we just go around doing them every day and make sure we achieve them.
So we’ve got those programs in place, we will continue and we share the concerns about the impacts of climate change, not just about addressing its causes but also addressing its impacts her right around our region in particular, where those impacts can be more severe. But also in supporting scientific research that we have up here into the Reef. I mean, the Reef is both one of our most amazing environmental assets and it’s a livelihood for a large number of Australians, particularly living up here in Queensland and managing and balancing those interests is important. But I believe everybody’s job is important, whether it’s working in the mining sector, whether it’s working in the environmental sector, whether it’s working in hospitals, whether it’s working in small business. All of their jobs are important and I want to keep them in all of their jobs.
SHOREY: Okay, so in the Leichhardt fight, Warren Entsch is going up against a female candidate. Do you have enough women running in winnable seats across the country?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’d always like more. What I want though is the best people to continue to take on the task that we have set ourselves.
Over the last five and a half years we have created over a million jobs as a Government and we’ve had record growth in youth jobs. I mean here alone, in Leichhardt in this part of Australia, we have seen the youth unemployment rate fall from 28 per cent to 15.6 per cent since the last election. Now that’s great news, that’s great news for parents who are worried about their kids getting jobs, it’s great news for people coming out of school. The strength of our economy here supported - not just I should say by the tourism industry and hospitality industry which has always been key to this part of Australia - but the growing and burgeoning health sector, human services sector. This is why we have been investing in James Cook University. I mean this is a tropical capital, not just for Australia but for the region.
SHOREY: But do you have enough women running in winnable seats?
PRIME MINISTER: I’d like to have more.
SHOREY: You say you’d like to have more, so that means you don’t think you have enough.
PRIME MINISTER: Well we have our candidates set as we go in and we’ve got a strong female representation and there are more seats to fill between now and the next election. You know, we've got six women in my Cabinet, that’s the highest number under our Government and they are all very capable women and doing a fantastic job.
But you know what’s important for women? That the gender pay gap has actually fallen to its lowest level on record. That the female workforce participation is at its highest level in record. That we’ve been addressing the cost of childcare, that we’re investing $350 million already in addressing domestic violence as we move forward to our fourth action plan to do just that. Keeping women safe, keeping women having economic choices and opportunities. I want more women to have more choices in life. Many are trying to create those choices themselves and can feel frustrated. I want to be able to break through that barrier so they can live the life that they choose to live.
SHOREY: Jeff Kennett - the oft outspoken Mr Kennett -
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah Jeff’s always good for some advice.
SHOREY: He suggested that people like Kevin Andrews and Julie Bishop should be stepping aside to let new talent come through, potentially some of those new women into winnable seats, potentially. Does he have a point?
PRIME MINISTER: I like the blend of experience. Take Warren. I mean, Warren has been so central, Warren Entsch, in the development of Cairns to what it is today and North Queensland. I mean over his time – and I’m not just talking about big road projects and things like this – he told me yesterday, over $4 billion worth of investment he’s been able to shepherd into this part of the country. He is both a champion for north Queensland and a great mentor to many of my colleagues, particularly those new ones who are coming in. Like Senator Amanda Stoker, she’s our most recent member coming in for Queensland, taking up from where George Brandis went out. So, a bloke out and a highly talented woman coming in. You’ve got someone like Amanda, full of passion and full of vision for the future, you’ve got people like Warren who have got experience and the burning passion still and a plan for north Queensland. That’s why I just back Warren in, because he knows what to do here, because he’s so connected.
SHOREY: Speaking of Julie Bishop, she’s talked about potentially re-contesting as well. Have you spoken to her about that and in fact, would there be a position for her on your front bench?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I offered her one when I became Prime Minister and she decided she didn’t want to proceed with it at that time, so I respect her decision. I respect her choice, she’ll make her choices and I’ll respect those choices. She’s said she’s intending to run and she’s pre-selected and she’s running out there now, that’s what she’s said on the record.
SHOREY: Okay let’s just turn our attention to the current sort of crisis happening on the Murray-Darling Basin as well. That idea that Labor is now going to work with those independent scientists, that plan that Bill Shorten put forward. The Government have knocked back a request essentially for you to be involved in supporting the particular program. Why?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s just politics, I mean the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is a very serious and sensitive issue. It’s been a bipartisan initiative for many, many years. David Littleproud – as your listeners may have heard being interviewed on AM just before this program, was working closely with Tony Burke. I mean the scientific evidence and research that is currently forming the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, was actually done under Labor. Now I’m not criticizing that work, we were using that work that they did and we’ve worked in a cooperative and bipartisan way.
Now an election comes up and Bill Shorten wants to take advantage. I just think that’s the wrong way to approach it. We will be taking advice from the experts and we’ll continue to do that. The Minister will have more to say about that today. But on top of that, as you can see, the meetings have taken place between the environmental license-holders and the water-managers. The New South Wales Government are the ones who manage the water flows in that part of the country and we’ll work closely to support them as well. But it’s a very serious issue and I know it’s very distressing.
SHOREY: So are you worried about what the scientists might discover?
PRIME MINISTER: No I’m not at all, I’d like to be informed by the work that we will do. But I’m not going to engage in those sort of theatrics from Bill Shorten. I mean you just can’t trust him with this stuff, he always flicks the switch to the politics on this. We’ve had such good bipartisanship on this and he just wants to turn it over for political purposes and I find that very disappointing.
SHOREY: Let’s talk a little bit just about the impending election as well. I mean just a few days of Parliament left, the delivery of a Budget and calling the election. What are the priorities in this short time frame that we have leading up to the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: You’re right we will have a Budget, we’ll hand down a Budget on the 2nd of April. It will be the first surplus Budget this country has seen in 12 years. This will be very important for the country and we’ve been pulling this Budget back now over the last five years.
I think one of the big questions in this election is, in 2007 the country decided to go to Labor, to go to Kevin Rudd; we have spent the last ten years fixing that. What they did to the Budget, what they did to the borders, what they did to social welfare and it’s expansion and welfare dependency increasing, we’ve turned all that around over the last five years. So we’ve spent five years cleaning up Labor’s mess.
We want to now get on with the plans for a stronger economy, because you know, if you don’t have a stronger economy, you can’t afford health care, you can’t afford these schools. The reason I can come and announce $60 million for Cairns Hospital here, is because we’ve got a stronger economy.
Bill Shorten will come up here and he’ll say the same thing, but he’s taxing you more for it. He’s going to use federal higher taxes, to subsidise the Labor State Government that can’t manage money. Now I’m not going to do that, I’ll hold state governments to account, not throw money at them when they can’t manage their Budgets, so they want to throw in money from ours. They need to do their job, we need to do our job and we’ll get on with managing the nations’ finances so we can provide lifesaving drugs like we announced for lung cancer on the weekend; $96 million for lifesaving lung cancer drugs. Drugs that help people have a quality of life. I met a patient, Bruno, who has been on it for the last two and a half years, three young kids - $96 million means that an $8,000 script is now going to cost $40.30. That’s why I believe in a stronger economy and that’s why it’s my number one priority, along with keeping Australians safe and keeping Australians together.
SHOREY: We’ve had a few callers ringing in as well, asking about ABC funding. These are people from more regional locations as well, who aren’t serviced by as many other media outlets. So they’re just asking, what is your take on the ABC funding? Would you have plans to restore it, would you have plans to lessen it more?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it doesn’t need to be restored because it hasn’t been cut, it’s funding is not going backwards it’s actually being maintained. But I particularly want to commend the work the regional ABC does. I mean from my Liberal and National parliamentary colleagues who represent regional electorates, I know that they greatly value the work that the ABC does in regional parts of the country. It’s great to have a local regional host here in Cairns, that’s fantastic as well. I think the services it provides here in regional areas is outstanding.
SHOREY: But there has been a reduction?
PRIME MINISTER: No there hasn’t.
SHOREY: There hasn’t been? In real terms?
PRIME MINISTER: There’s been no reduction in funding. I mean we asked the ABC to actually do the same thing that every single Department and agency has to do in terms of an efficiency dividend, which they weren’t required to do for years and years and years. So that’s what impacts on the forward estimates, but the ABC gets a good budget, it gets a strong budget and it does a good job with that budget. But you know if I have to choose between financing and supporting lung cancer drugs and some other opportunities, guess what I’m going to choose? $60 million for the hospital in Cairns.
SHOREY: So Prime Minister, can I ask about the Australia Day stuff?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
SHOREY: It’s coming up this weekend, you’re going to be out there in far north Queensland in the heat and the humidity. You know you’ve made those propositions about maintaining it - being when Councils can actually do the ceremonies – this idea of actually banning shorts, thongs, these sorts of ideas, why legislation like that? Why spending time on stuff like that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well it’s not legislation, it’s part of code. What I’m saying is, I used to be the Immigration Minister, you know, it’s my signature on many Australians’ citizenships today. I had someone who bumped into me at Kakadu the other day actually, they mentioned that to me, they wanted to say g’day. I just want the ceremony to be treated with respect. I’ve been to many, many of these ceremonies around the country and the vast majority of new Australians who become Australians on the day, do just that. But just dress appropriately, is my point. Don’t come looking like you just got out of bed, that’s not showing respect.
Citizenship is the most important gift a country can give anyone. Now I wouldn’t turn up to my kids’ graduation in thongs and boardies, I wouldn’t do that. I’d certainly be wearing that at the party afterwards or at the barbeque or down at the beach, of course I’d do that. But this is an important institution. Citizenship should be respected and it’s about respect for your fellow citizens who are becoming citizens on that day, as well as respect for the institution itself. So look, it’s a commonsense rule, I think there should be a standard and I think people want standards for things like that.
SHOREY: Well Prime Minister I know you need to leave so we do appreciate your time this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: No worries.
SHOREY: Enjoy your trip to Cooktown as well and we’ll be hearing more from you as you deliver your announcements there today. And I’m sure we’ll see you again right?
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot, I look forward to it.
SHOREY: Can you put us out of our misery - everyone has to ask you at the end right – when will the election be Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: After the Budget.
SHOREY: After the Budget, okay that’s pretty fair.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s not too bad?
SHOREY: Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay and well done to the Taipans last night, cheers.