PM: The Government has launched a nation building plan with two clear objectives: how do you support growth and how do support jobs now, and secondly, how do you use that to build the sort of infrastructure that Australia needs for the 21st Century, including for schools like this.
And that is what brings us here to St Gregory's today. I have just spoken to the Principal and the local parish priest with Julia and this is a school, I am told, of about 600 kids.
Under the program that we have announced, a parish school like this, a parish primary school like this anywhere in Australia would be eligible for up to $3 million to either build a 21st Century library, learning resources centre, or to build a multipurpose hall, so that the whole school community can come together, use it as an indoor gymnasium, use it for performances, use it just to bring the school together. Or to assist with classroom modernisation. I notice that schools like this, I think from what the principal told me before, have I got this right, have some demountables, is that right? And that is what this is about, practical stuff on the ground.
But also, to provide construction jobs. And not just here at St Gregory's, but right across the nation, through the 7500 primary schools which exist across Australia, Government and non Government.
Here at St Gregory's they are in the process of spending, I am advised, $1.5 million, on the refurbishment of that building there as a 21st century library, learning resources centre.
That is really good stuff. And so what the principal said to us that may be one of the discussions they will have with Catholic Education, will be the need for this parish community, this parish school, to have its own multipurpose hall, which they don't have.
They have got two campuses, bring the whole school community together with a single location. And maybe, to assist in funding the replacement of some of these demountables.
These are the local decisions which will be happening with this plan, in every primary school across the country, that is what we want to see. And what we will also see as a result of that is construction jobs. Jobs for tradies, jobs for plumbers, jobs for carpenters, jobs for builders, that is what we want to see.
Mr Turnbull's liberals in the Senate now stand in the way of the biggest school modernisation program in Australia's history, financial support for Australian households doing it tough, and support for up to 90,000 jobs in this economy, because of his ideology, of letting the free market rip.
That is what this decision of his adds up to today. Who will pay the price of Mr Turnbull's and the Liberals' road blocking this, obstructing this in the Senate. I tell you who won't be paying the price, and that is the merchant bankers of this world.
I will tell you who will be paying the price: the people who will be paying the price, are those mums and dads now struggling with back to school costs. The people who will be paying the price are tradies, plumbers, carpenters, builders, who are now out there desperately looking for work across the country, with new construction projects around schools like this.
The people who will be paying the price are those small businesses who are out there hanging out for the sort of support we offer through the new accelerated investment allowance for small business. That is who will be paying the price, not the merchant bankers of this world.
Therefore, the choice is clear - the Government strategy is clear cut. We intend to get on with the job. Now Mr Turnbull and the Liberals have said that they oppose this. And as I said, it is clear who will be paying the price as a result of his opposition if it succeeds.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Mr Turnbull will have access, as he is entitled to, to any official briefing he wants on any element of the package. There are ample resources available for him to be satisfied on every element of detail.
The Government hasn't decided upon their strategy because they have plucked it out of thin air. We have responded to the rapid collapse in the global economy, coming off the back of a global economic recession. We have sought to shape a strategy for the future which deals with our dual objectives, of how do you support growth and jobs now, and build the infrastructure we need for the 21st Century.
And to do so, given the immediate demands of stimulus in this critical year of 2009, and beyond. That is what we have done, our reasons are clear, based on the clearest also Treasury advice. As I said before, Mr Turnbull can have access to official briefings, that is right, that is proper.
He should reflect on those briefings. So let's face facts. Within 12 hours, 24 hours, of the Government outlining this nation building plan for the 21st Century. Mr Turnbull simply says, ‘no'. I say again, what Mr Turnbull is doing in seeking to block this nation building plan, is say no to the biggest school modernisation plan in the country's history, say no to support for up 90,000 jobs and say no to those households who are doing it tough who need additional financial support now.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: The Senate processes have existed since time immemorial and they will be applied as they would normally be applied. What I am saying is that if households in Australia, given that this parliament has just resumed for the year and households in Australia need financial support now, then of course the legislation providing that support has to get through the parliament quick smart.
On the nation building component for the package, then of course we have indicated that we would be prepared to have, you know, wider senate deliberation. But there is a timeline to this. What I am surprised about is the ideological nature of the response. You say, there is no ideology in the Liberals' response.
It seemed to be fairly clear cut in the response delivered even yesterday by the leader of the Liberal party. What we are on about? Nation building, supporting jobs, in the midst of the greatest global economic challenge we have faced in three quarters of a century.
What Mr Turnbull appears to be on about is the negativity of opposition. The challenge for the nation is too big for that. We intend to get on with the job.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well I noticed that Mr Turnbull's old firm Goldman Sachs said yesterday, it should be even bigger than what we have put forward, but I will leave that to one side. On the question of the dimensions of the package that we have embraced, let's just look at the basic rationale in terms of growth.
One is, absent this package, the IMF was projecting growth of negative 0.2 for Australia for '09. So you can either haul the white flag up on that and just say recession is inevitable, which is what the Liberal Party has expressly said on the record, or you can fight it and fight with the level of stimulus that we have recommended both for households, one quarter of our package, and for investment in infrastructure, three quarters of our package, to try and deliver the extra growth and jobs necessary to keep the economy positive.
There is no guarantees in this business, but I am determined to have, to put our absolute best foot forward, move heaven and earth to try and support positive growth and jobs.
On the hospitals point, can I just remind the Liberal Party of this: in the period that we have been in, the Liberal Government of course hasn't been such a friend of public hospitals over the years.
We have been in Government for about a year, just a year. $4.8 billion to rebuild our public hospitals in the COAG package which we agreed at the end of last year, $1.1 billion to train more doctors, $750 million for emergency departments, $600 million for additional elective surgery, and we have yet to hear the full and final deliberations of the advisory committee for the health and hospitals fund.
This is a huge advance from where we were on hospitals, given what had happened with the defunding of public hospitals under the Liberal Government, and we have further to do.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister there was perhaps naturally some confusion over who will get the $950 and who won't. Can you help clarify for us, would a person who was not working in the critical '07 - '08 financial year, but have since gained employment at an under $80,000 job qualify for this? And conversely would a person (inaudible)?
PM: Tim there will be a full statement on all eligibilities by the Minister for Family Services, when the relevant legislation is introduced into the Parliament and can I just say the criteria outlined for the $950 one off bonus is clear cut. That is that if you are paying tax in the previous financial year, then up to $100,000 you are eligible for a one off bonus of up to $950. That is point one. And as you know, it scales down at two points subsequent to that.
Secondly, there is a further bonus of up to $950 for those in receipt of family Tax Benefit B, why - because they are single income households and therefore the first set of benefits apply to those which may have two income earners in the same household, so how do you provide equity for that. The full detail of the implementation schedule etc, for each of these payments will be made clear when the relevant legislation is introduced into the House.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) what effect do you think that will have on families and what response (inaudible)?
PM: Well you know as I have spoken to families myself in the last little while about just the cost of back to school. You know, people are anxious and worried and so, cost of school uniforms, cost of all those things, how can you help.
This is fuelled and informed the Government's thinking about one of the things that can be brought forward there. And so depending on the Senate's deliberations, this back to school bonus is designed to flow through in March, that is next month, to help on that.
I would say to Mr Turnbull and the Liberals again, the people who pay the price for his political obstructionism are families, already doing it tough, are schools waiting for new buildings like this, and for small businesses waiting for a helping hand at a time when they are considering how many of their staff to keep.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on the issue of coordination, you said yesterday that dealing with this infrastructure delivery would be the biggest thing since the ‘40's in terms of coordination. Could you take us through how, for example in this electorate, there are how many schools, and they have all, they are all going to build a building, they can't all build at one, how are you going to organise that?
PM: The Government will be announcing the appointment of an Office of the Coordinator General who will have responsibility, together with separate and specific coordinators for each of the four principal programs which I have already outlined in my statement yesterday, to ensure that this program is implemented nationally and in a rationally sequenced fashion.
That means that we adhere to the timetable that we have put out, the stimulus must flow and therefore, as I said before, you are looking at a level of organisation here, the likes of which, the national government has not had to engage since the 1940's.
Well you can either just wash your hands of that, and say, ‘oh it is all too hard, we haven't done that for a long time' or you can change your structures to make it happen. Now we are going to have a go, a big go, at changing the structures.
And, can I just say, we are going to have someone behind on the line, in each one of the states who will be the responsible person to make sure it happens there as well.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) every builder in the district together and say, look we have got all of these projects (inaudible)?
PM: Matthew, each one of those, and you are right to actually raise each of these questions, because if you had been party to the deliberations of the Strategic and Budget Committee of the Cabinet, then we tossed this around in enormous detail. And one of the matters which will of course be on the agenda with the premiers when they come to Canberra tomorrow, will be precisely this.
We intend to deliver this stimulus because it is necessary to support jobs and growth. You cannot have a withdrawal of state effort as the Commonwealth moves into the field. The economy demands this action, we intend to get on with it. And as I have said before in my statements to you, this provides a strategy to see Australia through this crisis.
I intend to be upfront about the challenges we face. I intend to be equally upfront about the strengths we have and equally upfront about the strategy to see the nation through and I believe we will see the nation through.
Cheap politics lies in just throwing a few pot shots from the side, and kind of turning around in 12 months time and saying, ‘I told you so, I told you so', without having a go. This Government is in the business of having a go. That is: taking every possible effort and energy to deal with the impact on the people of Australia who haven't caused this crisis, but who are now the victims of this global crisis. Thanks very much.