HOST: Welcome everyone; at the outset I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners and elders of the land in which we gather today.
In particular I'd like to acknowledge the presence of Hon Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia; Hon Anthony Albanese, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government; Bernie Ripoll Member for Oxley Shayne Neumann, Member for Blair
Local State members Annastacia Palaszczuk, Member for Inala; Jo-Ann Miller, Member for Bundamba; Rachael Nolan, Member for Ipswich; Julie Attwood, Member for Mount Ommaney.
In the Local Government (inaudible) looks like we have councillor Paul Pisalli the Ipswich city council man; Milton Dick candidate for Richlands
Also present today the Director General of the Department of Main Roads, Allan Tesh and all the MR staff, especially Metro district director Eddy Peters.
Our Alliance Partners SAFElink alliance, Leighton contractors, BMD constructions, Mornsal Australia and Arab.
Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to this historic occasion I'd now like to invite the Prime Minister of Australia to address you.
PM: Well this has been a long time coming. A very long time coming for the people of South East Queensland, the people of Ipswich, the people of this great growth region of Australia. Thank you very much for that warm welcome Warren.
What we have here is an example of partnership between the National Government and the State Government on a critical piece of missing infrastructure. You look at this, what you have is 80,000 vehicles a day using this road. You have 80,000 people from working families in this part of Queensland having their days upset, delayed, sidelined, sidetracked, you name it, it's happened because of the problems in having an effective road transport system here in this corridor.
We of course had a debate about this during the election. We said that the way forward was to ensure that we upgrade the Ipswich motorway today were here to honour that commitment.
We've been the Government of Australia for three months. We take seriously the commitments we made to the Australian people and this one of those commitments. We committed to the upgrade of the Ipswich motorway today we honour stage one of that commitment.
This is a significant expenditure of funds; this is $700 million worth of activity. But it's essential activity for two reasons. One if you look at the overall challenge which the nation faces with its economic and transport infrastructure. Investing in economic infrastructure like the Ipswich motorway is fundamental to ensuring that we have a strong economy for the future; that's number one.
Number 2 is working families in this part of the word deserve a fair crack of the whip which means not spending an eternity in their cars on their way to work and therefore we got a responsibility to act, we said we'd act and today we honour that commitment. It's in contrast to the commitment made by the previous government concerning the Goodna bypass. That didn't deal with the challenges that we face here in this part of Australia and that's why we we're very clear cut about what we'd do, what the corridor would be, what we'd do with the corridor in partnership with the Government of Queensland and we are honouring that commitment.
So I thank the Queensland Government, I thank the participating local authorities for their support; I thank the local members in particular for their advocacy. The number of times I've had Bernie Ripoll and Shane Neumann in my ear about this road. I'd like a dollar for everytime it's happened; I'd be a very very wealthy man indeed. Their advocacy has been very important and Anthony Albanese the Minister for Infrastructure has been responsible for ensuring that within the first three months of this Government in office, that we would honour this commitment and we do so today.
Second thing I'd like to touch upon goes to a different challenge for working families and it's this. Working families are under all sorts of financial pressures, one of them is of course finding their way to work and the challenges associated with that. The other one however is basic cost of living challenges like dental care for their families.
Were serious in the commitment we put to the Australian people before the election that wanted to do something to ease the burden for working families under financial pressure with their dental bills. That's why we committed to a teen dental plan in Government and today we honour that commitment.
This will be a commitment which costs up to $360 million and the intention is to provide voucher to the equivalent of $150 per teenager aged 12-17, per year to ensure that they have access to a preventative Dental care treatment each year.
If you look at the data on this it's stunning. We have a huge problem in terms of Dental health in the country. The prospect of dental conditions is getting right out of control during the teenage years, it's huge. If you look at the medical literature on this infections, oral infections, gum disease and the rest goes through the roof at this time in a child's development. That's why you need preventative dental care.
So we're doing our bit to ensure that $150 by way of voucher based subsidy goes to working families under financial pressure to take that little bit off the family budget each year to ensure not only that working families under financial pressure get a bit of help from the Australian Government, but equally critically that our young Australians are given access the best quality dental care as early as possible in life.
So in summary we got challenges for the national economy, building infrastructure is one of them, we got challenges for working families - making sure they can get to work on time. Those same working families under financial pressure need just a bit of a helping hand as well when it comes to their family budgets and the basic challenges of dental care as well. So we honour these commitments today.
Pleased to be here in this part of Australia honouring this commitment to this community. It's very important stuff for people who live here. Important for the national economy as well.
Unless I'm wrong I think I now take questions from the ladies and gentlemen of the press, who will now have to shout their questions.
JOURNALIST: Can you make an assurance there will be no tolls on this road and when do we expect work to begin on the Bruce and Pacific Highways (Inaudible)?
PM: Well we've made very clear cut commitments about the Ipswich motorway and its upgrade. That's all laid out before the election and it's absolutely clear cut our intention to upgrade six lanes and along the timeline which we have specified.
In terms of the other commitments under Auslink I'll turn to the Minister to run through those but we take transport infrastructure seriously and that's why were here today within our first three months to do so.
Albanese: With regard to the other commitments we confirmed at the Australian transport council meeting on Friday that we will meet all of the commitments that we made under Auslink 1 and 2. Under Auslink 2 that consists of some $17 billion worth of commitments between 2009 and 2013.
I've had bilateral discussions with Warren Pitt here in Queensland about the Bruce Highway and with Eric Rosendale in NSW about the pacific highway. I've met each of my State and Territory counterparts and what we will endeavour to do is bring forward as much spending as we can to make sure that we address some of the neglect that's been there. But I think this commitment here today were on the 99th day we're fulfilling that commitment this was signed off just on Friday.
An extra $120 Million over and above what we'd committed to during the election brining it to a total spend for this section of the motorway of $700 million
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister (Inaudible) cost cutting slow the economy down?
PM: We believe we can get the balance right when it comes to fighting the fight against inflation which means reducing unnecessary expenditures. But we believe that we can keep the economy on track for solid long term growth by ensuring that we're investing in productive potential like infrastructure, like the Ipswich motorway.
We believe we can get that balance right, it will be tough but we're confident we can do it.
JOURNALIST: Do you run the risk of (inaudible) and driving up unemployment?
PM: Well we face a unique set of economic circumstances which I think people are increasingly aware of. That is we have a global economy which is slowing, drawing back on growth projections both United States, Europe and for Japan. The global growth projections and the most recent IMF report on the global economic outlook basically shaving a significant amount off the global growth projections.
At the same time domestically within Australia we have an inflation problem, the highest inflation rate when we took over office in 16 years and the second highest interest rates in the world. So therefore we have a double challenge and it's a complex challenge. I'm not about to try and say to any of you here that it's easy; it's hard.
But we have a responsibility to fight the fight against inflation and we will do that through all the means that I've outlined so far. Our 5 point plan of attack, at the same time keeping a weather eye on the global economy.
We believe we can get that balance right. It's going to be very tough on the way through given the dual and conflicting economic current's which the government now confronts.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister is the Dental Plan you announced today, it that again about honouring your commitments about maintaining that trust with the people who voted for you?
PM: Well I believe there's a whole lot of understandable cynicism in the community about Australian governments getting elected one day and then converting their pre election promises into core and non core promises the next day.
We're not about to embark upon that and our first three months. I'm sure we could have done better in various departments but what we've been absolutely determined to do is to honour what we said we would do to the Australian community. And this piece of infrastructure, this key piece of road infrastructure out here in the Brisbane-Ipswich corridor is a fundamental commitment we made to this community. It's important to honour that commitment to the working families who live here and we've done that.
PM: Mr Rudd you talk about a very tight budget and Lindsay Tanner today talked about (Inaudible). Can you make an assurance here today that working families aren't going to bear the brunt of your budget cutbacks?
PM: I think Lindsay Tanner's doing an excellent job as Finance Minister is the key person involved in our razor gang activities. He's giving haircuts all over the place at the moment. At the end of the day some of them are going to be tough and some of them are going to be unpopular that's true but we believe we need to do this because if you are faced with the highest inflation that the country's seen in 16 years, second highest interest rates in the developed world and the bank saying that we've got courtesy of our predecessors in part the likelihood inflation rates running out beyond the 3% tolerance limits for another two and a half years. This is a big set of challenges.
We therefore have to act, nothing happens in politics for free and there will be pain on the way through I accept that. But we're going to do it as responsibly and as compassionately as possible.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister we're you alarmed at all that at the slightly viral youth of your treasurer?
PM: I don't think anyone in this government ever pretended to be some sort of paragon of moral virtues, least of all yours truly. It's a long time ago; Wayne said what needs to be said about that and about the importance of drugs. I'll leave it at that.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd there's another poll out today; I think you were named the 7th best dressed Australian. (Inaudible) Are you jealous that Julia Gillard made it to number two (inaudible)?
PM: I did see that poll I think in one of the newspapers today. It has, that poll confirms my general view that no opinion polls should be trusted at all. If it renders me the 7th most stylish person in the country, there's something wrong with the polling data.
So come the next election look with even greater scepticism of
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: There are multiple ingredients to the economic growth formula. One of which is the terms of trade and export derived incomes. Terms of trade are high and projected to go higher, therefore that remains a continuing source of stimulus in the domestic economy and therefore it's important to take that into account with all the other factors which feed the demand side of the economy and we're going that responsibility, hence our 5 point plan of attack on the demand side. What Government spends, what we do by way of encouraging private savings, being mindful of the injection of capital from abroad.
And on the supply side of the economy, the other half of the inflation equation, Investing in infrastructure bottlenecks, investing in the skills needs of the economy; hence the announcement I made last week in Adelaide to bring forward the funding of 20,000 short term training places in critical areas of need in the labour force and also acting to boost workforce participation.
That's the balance integrated approach to the supply side, demand side challenges of economy; which is currently going through unacceptably high levels of inflation.
Thanks very much