JULIA GILLARD: The Bureau of Meteorology today has released its annual statement on the Australian climate. Now this statement confirms what many Australians would know from their ordinary lives, which is: it's hot and it's dry. The Bureau's statement shows that the nation has just experienced the sixth hottest year on record. And in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Murray Darling Basin, it's been the hottest year on record.
It also shows that for the South-East of the country in the last 11 years, we've missed out on a whole year's worth of rainfall. Now what the Bureau's statement today confirms is the urgent need to act on climate change. We know of course we've see 11 years of inaction from the Howard Government. The Rudd Labor Government has already started acting on climate change. We've ratified Kyoto. We've provided leadership at the Bali summit. And this year we will work on our national emissions trading scheme and increasing the uptake of renewable energy.
We'll also be working in partnership with households, to help households save water, and to save energy, and to make better use of solar energy. These are important initiatives to deal with climate change and today's statement reconfirms just how urgent it is to act.
On another matter, there's been some press speculation today, comments in the media about wage claims in the building industry. Can I say in relation to those press reports of wage claims in the building industry, that the Rudd Labor Government is committed to doing all things necessary to put downwards pressure on inflation and interest rates. We're also committed to increasing productivity. We know that the productivity performance of this nation has been a woeful one. We want to lift productivity because today's productivity gains are tomorrow's prosperity.
Consequently, our workplace relations policy is all about productivity at the enterprise level. People need to be bargaining at the enterprise level. If productivity is rising, then there are gains to be shared.
I want to make it crystal clear it is illegal under Labor's policy for there to be industry wide strikes. I also want to make it clear, that under Labor's laws the courts will come down like a ton of bricks on anyone engaged in illegal industrial activity. We want people abiding by the rule of law. We want people working together in their enterprises. We want people driving up productivity so that there are gains to be shared, which will not put pressure on inflation or interest rates.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the union's got a valid argument, though, that they have missed out on wages and conditions in the last couple of years?
JULIA GILLARD: The valid argument of course is that Work Choices is extreme. The laws introduced by the Howard Government were extreme laws. They allowed workers to have ripped away from them basic conditions under the safety net like penalty rates and overtime. We want to have a fair and balanced system. But a fair and balanced system is going to be one where all parties abide by the rule of law. And it's a system where people are going to be focussed on driving up productivity in their enterprises. That's a fair system. That's Labor's system. It's also a system that's good for the economy because it's good for productivity.
JOURNALIST: Is it a message for employers too? Or are they being urged to not be defeatist and to go hard on signing up non-union collective agreements?
JULIA GILLARD: Bargaining genuinely means bargaining. When agreements expire and people are bargaining at an enterprise level, of course there will be a conversation. There will be a conversation about how to make the business work better. We want it to make it a conversation about how to make the business more productive. We want it to be a conversation about how the business can be more productive and more profitable so that there are gains to be shared. We want people to get around bargaining tables and have those conversations. But those conversations need to be had at an enterprise level. Everyone needs to be abiding by the industrial relations laws of the country.
JOURNALIST: Brendan Nelson said earlier today that under Labor interest rates, inflation and strikes always increase. Have you got a response to that?
JULIA GILLARD: This is more of the same from the Liberal Party. It's a scare campaign. Of course, in the run up to the election that's all the Liberal Party talked about. It ran a scare campaign about Labor in government. It ran a scare campaign about the economy. It ran a scare campaign because it had no ideas and no vision for this nation's future. The Leader of the Opposition is obviously continuing that scare campaign. Clearly the Australian community rejected that scare campaign when they voted and the Leader of the Opposition might want to note that fact.
JOURNALIST: Are you annoyed at the comments from the CFMEU today about possible strike action? Were they extreme comments?
JULIA GILLARD: The important thing is for everyone to understand what the laws are going to provide under Labor. Our policy on this is crystal clear. It was there for everybody to see in the run-up to the election. And our policy said we wanted to see fairness in workplaces and we do. The Liberal Party's laws were extreme laws which allowed too many Australian working families to be harmed. We want to see fair laws, but we also want to see increased productivity. So my message to everyone is a very simple one: we want to make sure that the laws are fair, the laws are flexible, that people are focussed on productivity and that everybody is abiding by the law.
JOURNALIST: Just what can you do to stop industry-wide strikes if that's what the union has in mind?
JULIA GILLARD: Well it will be unlawful for there to be an industry wide strike and under Labor's laws the courts will be fully empowered to come down like a ton of bricks on anyone who breaches one word of those laws. Industry wide strikes are unlawful. Breaches of the law will be punished. The courts will be fully empowered to ensure that that punishment is used.
JOURNALIST: Just on another matter there was an Australian customs vessel that was going to monitor Japanese whaling ships, but it's still in dock in Fremantle. What's happening with that?
JULIA GILLARD: My colleague Stephen Smith has obviously been dealing with the whaling issue and we made it clear that it's our intention to engage in monitoring. The precise movements of the craft involved are movements that are being kept, as I understand it, confidential. I can defer that matter to Stephen Smith and get you a more specific answer, but for obvious reasons we decided that it was important for the security of the vessels for their movements to be confidential.
JOURNALIST: There hasn't been a great deal of movement from the government for the last few weeks. What is actually happening?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, what of course is happening is people have had Christmas, as you would expect. People took the opportunity to have Christmas Day and Boxing Day with their families. What is happening now of course is that people are engaged, as I am engaged today, in paperwork and in meetings and in other processes that we have to go through to deliver our policies during the course of 2008.
We've got a big agenda. Immediately after the election we made a start on it. Some very important things happened. We ratified Kyoto to take one example. We started the set up for the delivery of our computers in schools policy. We started the set up for the delivery of our trades in schools policy. We had a very comprehensive COAG meeting. We announced that we would ensure our transition bill for industrial relations was in the Parliament during the Parliament's very first sitting week. These are all important initiatives and they are being delivered by the Rudd Labor Government. The delivery of our policies will continue throughout this month and through 2008.
JOURNALIST: Church leaders have called for the Bali bombers to be spared execution. Is it appropriate for Australia to campaign against the death penalty?
JULIA GILLARD: Kevin Rudd's made perfectly clear that we are opposed to the death penalty. Both the Labor Party in this country and the Liberal Party have historically engaged in global opposition to the death penalty. However, we intervene on behalf our citizens when they are abroad and caught up in death penalty cases.
JOURNALIST: David Hicks has been on the front page of the news again today. Do you think its time the media left him alone to get on with his life?
JULIA GILLARD: Ah, well, I suspect that's more a question for people standing around me than it is a question for me. Obviously Mr Hicks is the subject of a control order. He has got the legal obligation to abide by the control order. That's the interests of the Australian Government that he does abide by the control order that he's subject to. Beyond that, what Mr Hicks does with his life is a matter for Mr Hicks. He does have to abide by that control order, but beyond that he can make his own decisions. I presume Australian media outlets will make their own decisions as well. At some point, I presume, people will get to a stage where Mr Hicks is no longer the subject of the kind of media attention he has been in the last few days. That will be a question for media editors.
JOURNALIST: Just back on IR, are you concerned that employers are trying to or seeking to circumvent AWAs by negotiating non-union collective agreements and being encouraged to do so?
JULIA GILLARD: We have said that we will change the laws with our transition bill. Of course, the soonest we can have our transition bill in Parliament is the first week that Parliament meets. And it will be there that very first week. From the time that the transition bill is passed, then of course it will not be possible for anyone in this country to make an Australian Workplace Agreement. These are extreme agreements under Work Choices that have allowed the safety net to be stripped away from Australians. We thing that's wrong.
We don't currently understand the position of the Opposition on the question. Some days the Leader of the Opposition appears to agree with Labor. On other days, his Industrial Relations spokeswoman appears not to. But that's a matter for them. We will present the transition bill to Parliament and seek to get through as quickly as possible. We will obviously allow it to be the subject of all proper Parliamentary processes and scrutiny. But we want it to be dealt with as quickly as it can be. And it will end the ability of anyone to make Australian Workplace Agreements.
JOURNALIST: Do you expect the wages to be higher under the new transitional agreements than under the AWAs?
JULIA GILLARD: Under Labor, we will ensure that wage outcomes are about enterprise bargaining. Consequently, the wage outcomes that happen in each enterprise will be a function of the productivity gains in those enterprises. We want a focus on productivity. We do not want to see any wages inflation that would put upwards pressure on interest rates. The way to do that is to ensure that the focus is on productivity. What we found of course with Work Choices is that there were workers who were subject to Australian Workplace Agreements - particularly people at the low wage end of the Labor market - who had basic conditions like penalty rates stripped away.
What we also found is that the productivity outcomes were woeful. We want to see a high productivity result. A high productivity result means that there are gains to be shared and those gains are not inflationary.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned that oil has his $100 a barrel overnight?
JULIA GILLARD: Look, I'm obviously always concerned about the possibility of increased petrol prices and the impact that they put on Australian working families. What we've done is put in place our policies and plans to ensure that there is better monitoring of petrol prices. We want to see strong competition in the petrol market. We know of course that there was 11 years of complete inaction on this question by the former government. We have committed to increased powers for the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission and we've committed to a Petrol Price Commissioner and the search for the person to fill that role is already on.
JOURNALIST: Just to the death penalty. Just to clarify - do you oppose, does the government oppose the death penalty all across the world?
JULIA GILLARD: Our position is perfectly clear. We support global moves against the death penalty. The government only intervenes in respect of Australian citizens who are at risk of the death penalty. The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made that perfectly clear. That is Labor's position. I note that being opposed globally to the death penalty is both the position of the Labor Party and the Liberal Party.
JOURNALIST: Does that opposition mean anything though if you're not going to, sort of, campaign against the death penalty in other countries? Only if it involves Australians?
JULIA GILLARD:We only intervene, we only use our diplomatic resources on behalf of Australian nationals who are at risk of the death penalty overseas. I think that that's entirely appropriate. Obviously our obligations are on behalf of our citizens and nationals. We intervene on their behalf.
OK, in the words of Kevin Rudd: I've got to zip.
ends