Prime Minister
AARON MOREY, CHIEF ECONOMIST, CCIWA: Prime Minister, it is great to have you back here in this glorious kingdom that is Western Australia. We are really excited to have you here and the message from you today is really clear, you want to partner with the WA business community and we don’t think you could choose any better partner. I mean a faithful, hardworking, mutual respect, maybe not physical affection but nonetheless just about every trait you’d want to see in a partner we’ve got it here for you. So it’s great you’ve got that vote of confidence in the WA business community. Because CCIWA are certainly very passionate about the ability of the WA business community. Last year we comprised 60 per cent of national exports, largely thanks to Rio Tinto and its peers and the legion of SMEs that support them. Let's just go to your announcements today, and indeed yesterday, so significant announcements in defence, supply chain resilience, advanced manufacturing. Most of the questions coming through on Slido does relate to that geopolitical situation, Prime Minister and in particular, China. You mentioned wheat, you mentioned rock lobster, these are sectors, I mean rock lobster, 95 per cent of our exports go to China. What's the endgame here Prime Minister? Many of these men and women will be wondering, do they continue to invest in those relationships and in that country going forward? What can you tell them about our prospects for maintaining a trading relationship with China or are they wasting their time?
PRIME MINISTER: Very important question. Australia has to be resilient in a different world, and no business, I think, seeks to put all of its eggs in one basket. A conscious strategy and risk diversification is a sound one and there have been significant opportunities in the Chinese market in the past. But the China we're dealing with today is very different to the one that John Howard dealt with, and many of my predecessors did. It has taken on a very different tone. And most distressingly, we've seen that in the course of this outrageous invasion of Ukraine. I was the first to call out, frankly, the lack of response from China in relation to what's happening in the Ukraine, and I'll continue to do that. And the reports that we see reported in the media are very concerning and the United States have been very clear about their position. If there's any suggestion of Chinese military support for Russia and our view is exactly the same, we are in lockstep with our allies and partners when it comes to that issue. The sheer fact that there would be even a suggestion of that is deeply concerning.
Now I say that in answer to your question, because I think the context is important and I’d be encouraging businesses not just here in Western Australia, but right across the country, to bear in mind that as they manage their risk, what markets they’re in. And I'd love to tell you that there will be a massive change in that relationship in the next few years. But, I can’t do that, and that's not because of Australia. I mean, we're not the ones who have chopped off diplomatic discussions at a leader level or ministerial. We're not the ones who are applying bans on their export of products. We're not the one who is insisting that they open up to more foreign investment in their country. We have a liberal democracy and a liberal economy that is facilitating investment on our terms, on our national interest terms and will continue to do that. And I'm very grateful to Australian industry and particularly in those producing sectors that have borne the brunt of the economic coercion and bullying that we've seen from China. And they have responded in many ways. And I would encourage them to continue to manage their risk in that way. But that said, when you look at the volume of trade between Australia and China, I think that what it says is, in large part that has continued because it's in their interest for that to continue. And trade always requires both sides of the table to be benefitting and where that continues to occur well I imagine that trade will continue and the ongoing engagement between private industry and business with markets like China is very important and I would continue to encourage that. But obviously, the political and diplomatic level, the situation is very, very different because Australia has faced very real coercion, threats and foreign influence here in this country, which we have called out and as an Australian I'm very proud of the role that our government has played in calling this out. I've talked about the arc of autocracy. We've been clear-eyed about threats Australia and the broader world faces and we've been one of the prime movers in waking the rest of the world up to that.
AARON MOREY, CHIEF ECONOMIST, CCIWA: Thank you for that Prime Minister, that’s a really useful sort of insight from you on that. Let's sort of go to the announcement today in a bit more detail, as well simply around the development of those critical minerals. You mentioned the Quad, the importance of the Quad. I mean, in terms of the, so we've talked a lot about your activities very much on that supply side, getting the market ready, getting the business community ready. What about the demand side, what role will your government play in, let’s say, facilitating business discussions with United States investment partners? That sort of activity as well.
PRIME MINISTER: A strong one and we already have, and we're already- I've been in those discussions for several years now. I raised it with President Trump when he was in the White House and continued those conversations with President Biden and their administration. We've had the same discussions and made progress, whether it be in Japan with quite a number of the European economies, which are obviously in need of the sorts of things that Australia produces and have raised these issues in India as well. And as part of the Quad, the beauty of the Quad is it brings together in the four of us, both the producers and the end users and processors. And this is what I think is one of the most practical, important jobs that the Quad has. The Quad obviously addresses security issues around our pandemic response in the region, humanitarian issues and all of this. But a big part of what we have put on the top of our agenda in engaging with the Quad has been where are the rare earths critical minerals supply chains because as we know, there is one big player. In critical minerals and rare earths, they control, dominate and intervene and disrupt the market for their own benefit. And it is in the interests of other countries to have a robust, sustainable supply chain alternative to the current monopolistic practices we're seeing. And that's what we focussed on in the Quad. So the answer to that is yes. We've told our partners in this area that, you know, the resources industry here, which is the best in the world, has a number of things it can choose to process and to take out of the ground and for rare earths and critical minerals to stack up, there has to be the assistance that we're doing as a government to support the scale that is necessary to meet those markets. But that has to be met by the certainty of offtake agreements which justify and back up that investment for the long term and offtake agreements that aren't distracted by the price of the cutting and monopolistic behaviour of our competitors.
AARON MOREY, CHIEF ECONOMIST, CCIWA: That's a really good point. We believe in democracy here at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA so we will be asking the highest rated question or most liked question on Slido so thank you from an anonymous source.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not going to play the ukulele, I’m not. I know they want me to.
AARON MOREY, CHIEF ECONOMIST, CCIWA: No they’ve asked you to get a state daddy tattoo. No, only joking. So the question Prime Minister, all the plans mentioned today supporting much larger businesses. Your core support comes from small business. How are you planning to support them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I can go through the litany of tax cuts and other incentives we've already put in place through the pandemic. And there's nothing that makes me frankly more proud than to walk into manufacturing businesses and other businesses around the country and see two things. One is, the first thing they do is they take me to that new piece of plant equipment and I'm talking about businesses with five people, 20 people, and they take me to that and say we bought that because of the instant asset write off that you put in place and what thrills me about this? In the middle of a pandemic, when their revenues were down, they look past the pandemic and the opportunities on the other side and they invest. The thing I love about the instant asset write off that we put in place is it backs the confidence of Australian small businesses. It's not a grant. They have to get the loan, they have to do the procurement, they have to take it on. We just allow it to be written off in one year and that helps. But that sort of support backs in the decision and confidence of Australian small and medium sized businesses, and it's been an enormously successful initiative. The other thing they do then is they then take me to the apprentice or the ten that they have in their business because at the start of the pandemic, Michaelia Cash, and Josh and I, the thing we were most concerned about right at the start was that we were going to lose a generation of skills as apprentices would have been laid off and they just wouldn’t have come back and we would have lost a generation of skills. And the record investments that we made in training and skills and apprenticeships and the Boosting Apprenticeships programme and similar programmes means we have 220,000 in trade training today, which is the highest number on record and those records began in 1963. So whether it's lower taxes down to 25 per cent, whether it's lower taxes delivered through the instant asset write off, whether it's the support for training and skills that enables those small businesses to keep those apprentices on, which means right now I am meeting apprentices who have finished their apprenticeship in their fourth year, which is still in the business, which means those businesses can now take advantage of the opportunities that are coming their way. The last point I would make on that is on that is, you know, it's one big economic ecosystem, and the big projects we're seeing in Henderson, they’re not likely to be done by a prime, this work goes all the way through that supply chain down to the smallest businesses. And I think whether it's the defence industry, Melissa Price will tell you this, it's the connectivity in the defence industry supply chain. Now, the large primes can't do what they do unless the small firms that are here in Western Australia can do what they do and benefit from that and in sharing in that benefit is critical to the success of the defence industry.
AARON MOREY, CHIEF ECONOMIST, CCIWA: Thank you Prime Minister. Let's go to the economic reform debate. I mean, you responded to questions on this last week at the AFR business summit. Obviously, there are still reforms that we can undertake, whether it's around permanent immigration. I know you responded on that issue last week, but whether we can make it easier around streamlining labour market testing, that sort of thing, taxation reform, workplace relations reform. I mean we are losing more days to industrial action now than we have been in a decade. Obviously, next term we'll get two types of government, the type of government that leaves those fundamental challenges in the too hard basket or the type of government that rolls up their sleeves and has another crack. Now clearly the DNA of your government is in the latter. You had a crack on company tax with Mathias last term, you had a crack at workplace relations this term with Christian Porter. Obviously, you were let down by the Opposition on those issues, leaving the Opposition aside for a moment. Can you basically promise to these people, these men and women trying to do the best they can for business, that you will continue to push for those reforms should you win government into the next term?
PRIME MINISTER: You make a very good point. People know what we stand for, they know we stand for lower taxes. They know we stand for sensible, practical, responsible changes to how the industrial relations system works. And during the pandemic, we sought to work with the unions and across the aisle, in the middle of a pandemic, where you would think there was some national bipartisan commitment to actually move on a number of these things, EPBC Act changes, the same thing. But there wasn't. So we haven't changed our spots. Sadly, the Labor Party hasn't changed theirs, and the Labor Party continue to resist all of the things you just mentioned, as you highlighted yourself. On the tax front, having Mathias and I fought that battle together, and that's what enabled us to at least get the tax rate down to 25 per cent, ultimately, for businesses under $50 million in turnover. Having not been able to go down the broader route we changed direction and started focussing on investment allowances and the R&D tax concessions and found other ways to bring down the effective tax rates on businesses in this country so they can invest, and we will continue to look for opportunities to do that. But on industrial relations, you asked me about small business before and you know, big companies, and there are a number here, Rio, and others here today, I mean they have the big legal teams and the human resources departments that can get engaged in these issues and try and sort this all out. But for small and medium sized businesses they will be at the mercy of an often militant, union driven government backed in by the Greens as well. And what does that mean? Well, we did get through the reforms that were positive to deal with the casualisation issues, and that was our highest priority and we did deliver that. But there were so many other things. And what you can see in that is that a Labor government supported by the Greens and a militant union movement will see the Australian Building Construction Commission gone. So if you think it's hard to build something at the moment, the labour shortages you've got now, well add a premium to that for a Labor government here in Western Australia. But I will give Mark McGowan great credit on this. Mark and I, as I said, agreed on those EPBC Act changes, we wanted them done. Don't make the mistake that federal Labor under Anthony Albanese is the same as state Labor under Mark McGowan. They are not the same thing, they are just not the same thing. Mark McGowan is going to be Premier after this election, regardless of who you vote for. But if you vote Labor, you’ll have Anthony Albanese as the Prime Minister, and that is a very different outcome for the people of Western Australia.
AARON MOREY, CHIEF ECONOMIST, CCIWA: Thank you, Prime Minister. We are already 10 minutes over time. CCIWA we do respect people's time, we could ask questions all day, but I do have one final line of questioning for you, Prime Minister. When we shared the stage last year, you boasted of your ability to keep your family's chickens alive, as people would know the Prime Minister famously built a chicken coop one weekend in the early stages of the pandemic, and you were very proud last year, Prime Minister, that all chickens lived and were producing many eggs. My final question Prime Minister, do the Morrison family chickens still live?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, sadly my daughters probably won’t want me to say this publicly, but sadly, we lost one to illness, which was a shame but the other three are going well, producing famously well, and Buddy and Charlie, the cat and the dog are also doing incredibly well as well.
AARON MOREY, CHIEF ECONOMIST, CCIWA: I'm sorry to hear that one died, but luckily keeping chickens alive is not a necessary precondition for being an effective Prime Minister, but nonetheless very sad to hear about the chicken’s welfare. Prime Minister, the demands on you are relentless. I mean, for some people, it doesn't matter what you do, it will never, ever be enough. I think it's important at this stage of the parliamentary term to recognise everything that has gone right and everything that your government has achieved. You mentioned, obviously the GST reform, which is significant for Western Australia. But I think for me personally, what stands out very much is the response of the government when coronavirus ripped across the world and in particular, JobKeeper. While other countries around the world, including the United States, made significant policy errors, JobKeeper kept the fabric of the economy together. There's been talk of a mental succession here in Western Australia. I can assure you that on behalf of all the men and women in this room that we all Australians first, thank you for being our Prime Minister. Ladies and gentlemen, please thank our Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you.