PM: The Australian Government's strategy in response to the global recession is nation building for recovery and that is why the Australian Government is supporting jobs and small business today by investing in the infrastructure we need for tomorrow.
What sort of infrastructure are we talking about? Rail, roads, ports, we are talking about hospitals, TAFEs, universities. We are talking about broadband, we are talking about the world's largest solar energy plant. We are also talking about Australia's biggest ever school modernisation program.
All about supporting jobs, small business, apprenticeships today, while investing in the infrastructure we need for tomorrow. And today, here in Melbourne, we are talking about rail. What the Premier and I are doing today is formally, here in Melbourne, launching this great investment partnership on the future infrastructure needs of Melbourne and Victoria.
This marks the single largest Australian Government investment in urban rail ever. It also marks, I am advised, the biggest addition of a major rail route to the Melbourne metro system in 80 years.
This therefore is an important day in terms of the national Government's partnership with the State on infrastructure, and also, in making a difference here, with these sorts of practical projects.
What does it mean in practice? This combined investment between us, of some $4.3 billion - $3.2 from the Commonwealth, $1.1 from the state Government, is to support up to 10,000 direct and indirect jobs and on top of that (train arrives) provide 9,000 of these folk per hour with greater transport possibilities.
Let me say that again.
So this $4.3 billion investment will support up to 10,000 direct and indirect jobs as well as providing extra capacity for 9,000 more passengers every hour. That is a good investment in the future, a good investment in making cities like Melbourne more efficient in the future, but a great investment in jobs and in infrastructure as well.
Let me say again, what we are also doing with the Premier today is confirming our combined investment, $40 million from the Commonwealth, in a final engineering and design study of the East West Tunnel - what would become the next link in the urban metro system for Melbourne.
Melbourne plays an important part in Australia's overall economy. This is all about investments for the future, to make the transport infrastructure of this city even more efficient.
But the overall strategy of the Government is very straightforward. That is: investing in nation building infrastructure for recovery, investing in major transport infrastructure, to support jobs and apprenticeships and business today while creating the sorts of rail networks we need for tomorrow.
BRUMBY: Well can I just say it is great to be here with the Prime Minister, with Julia, with Minister Albanese, with Minister Kosky, and also today with Sir Rod Eddington, the architect of course of our Eddington report and the chair of Infrastructure Australia.
This official launch of the Regional Rail Express today means that we are on track now to see the biggest addition to the public transport network in our State's history since federation.
This is going to be a huge project. It is by the way, according to advice I have from Treasury, it's the biggest single infrastructure project in our State's history. Bigger than anything we have ever built before, bigger than the City Loop, bigger than any of the other engineering construction projects. And work gets under way this year, on these platforms 15 and 16, work will get under way in August this year.
And the point about this project, its scale, the way in which it generates jobs now, as the PM has said, directly and indirectly, something like 10,000 new jobs as a result of this project, but it creates jobs now and builds infrastructure for the future. And I was just telling the Prime Minister a few moments ago, if you look over the recent building approval figures for Australia, in the months just past, 33.7 per cent of all new housing approvals in Australia were in our state of Victoria.
In other words, we are seeing record population growth and with the best housing affordability anywhere on the eastern seaboard, we are seeing people move to our state in droves.
All of that means that we need to put the infrastructure in place now to build for that growth in the future and that is what we are doing. And the area, in the west of Melbourne, from Werribee, around through Melbourne, through the Deputy Prime Minister's electorate, this is the fastest growing metropolitan area anywhere in Australia, adding more people per week than any other area in Australia.
And so we need to make this investment. But the point of the story and the point of today is there is no way that the state government could have undertaken this project alone.
The scale of it, the size of it, the investment required is beyond the capacity of the state. And so this is a great story about the Rudd Government and our Government standing shoulder to shoulder, partnering together, working together to generate jobs and to solve the infrastructure challenges of the future.
And as I have said, I believe it is a transformational project and without the work, I think, of Sir Rod Eddington and his report, we wouldn't have had the preliminary and fundamental work done to put this business case up and to get funding.
And I might say finally Prime Minister too, we appreciate very much the $426.1 million too that you have provided to our State for the comprehensive cancer centre.
We have matched that of course, all $426.1. This will be one of the 10 best comprehensive cancer centres anywhere in the world, and again it is a great example of the state Government and the federal Government standing shoulder to shoulder, generating jobs, but building the sort of infrastructure and services we need for our state and nation, in the future.
PM: Just before taking your questions, what the Premier and I are also confirming is that this project is shovel-ready. Work will commence on upgrades to this platform in August and next year, the major works on this 40 kilometre rail link, will start, generating big job opportunities in the here and now.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you disappointed with the opinion polls (inaudible)
PM: Look, taking tough decisions to invest in infrastructure and jobs like this, and hard decisions on savings to return the Budget to surplus are never going to be popular, but it's necessary in the national interest.
JOURNLAIST: Are you surprised Prime Minister by the unpopularity of the decision to raise the pension age and will the rise in that pension eligibility age mean that people can't access their super until 67?
PM: Taking hard decisions in the national interest in the middle of a global economic recession is necessary for our country for the long term, supporting jobs here in the here and now, in the middle of a recession, but also responsible savings to return the Budget to surplus. That is what it is about and we will continue to prosecute these sorts of hard decisions.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Prime Minister will people be able to access their super?
PM: All these matters concerning our retirement income policy and superannuation are carefully outlined in the Budget papers.
JOURNALIST: So there was (inaudible)
PM: Sorry say that again.
JOURNALIST: There was an editorial piece in The Australian this morning saying that China would rather deal with John Howard than you. Can you see any value in that?
PM: My job as Prime Minister of Australia is always to act in the national interest whether that is to the satisfaction of other governments or not. I take that responsibility seriously. When it comes to our economy, when it comes to our national security, I will continue to do so.
Taking hard decisions in the national interest is not a popularity contest. You've got to be very clear cut about where our nation has to be in the long term. That frames the decisions I take today.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister (inaudible) Budget measure on employee share schemes (inaudible)?
PM: We believe, based on the best Treasury advice, this has been the right decision - as I said, taking tough decisions to restore the budget to surplus while taking the necessary measures to support the economy now by investing in infrastructure like this is the right way to go, though many of these decisions will be unpopular, I accept that.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: The Treasury's estimates are to be relied upon. The Treasury's advice on these and related matters is to be relied upon. They provide independent and professional advice and I go back to the general principle. Taking hard decisions, tough decisions to invest in jobs and infrastructure now and making hard savings to return the Budget to surplus over time. It's not going to be popular but it's the right thing to do for Australia.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) raising taxes on cigarettes?
PM: Well I notice on this question that the Treasury today has said that there is a $3.2 billion gap in what Mr Turnbull and the Liberals have put forward. This is very important. Mr Turnbull has put forward a tax proposal. Mr Turnbull's alternative Budget now has a $3.2 billion funding gap in it. And what Mr Turnbull said today was he conceded that there may well be problems with his calculation but furthermore went on to say he would offset any shortfall by making cuts into health and hospitals. This comes on top of Mr Turnbull last week saying that all Australians should have private health insurance.
So within the space of a few days what we have is Mr Turnbull saying everyone should be on private health insurance, farewell to Medicare and because of his hole in his Budget reply that there should now be cuts in hospitals. This says a lot about the Liberals' priorities when it comes to health and hospitals.
Let me say one other thing. On the bottom line, what does it also mean? If you've got a $3.2 billion gap, funding gap in a Budget where we've had to make tough savings measures, it means that when it comes to the Liberal scare campaign on debt and deficit it just doesn't add up. Because in fact they are now adding $3.2 billion to debt and deficit, meaning that it would therefore add further to the bottom line.
Labor in Government has a responsible strategy to return the Budget to surplus, outlined in the Budget speech.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Are you going soft on casinos? (inaudible)
BRUMBY: Well let me correct the record on that. What we're doing in this arrangement that we announced after the Budget is actually putting the tax up on the casino. The casino has enjoyed favoured treatment for a long, long time; the amount of tax that they paid on their gaming machines is well below the level of tax that other gaming operators have had to pay. So we've put the tax up, that's what we've done. And we've pulled the tax in the casino into line with the taxes which are paid with other gaming operators.
So if the Liberal Party, if the Liberal Party wants to vote against a Bill which will put tax up on gaming machines at the casino then that is a matter for the Liberal Party.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
BRUMBY: What I'm saying is that the agreement put in place by the former Liberal Government had a level of tax payable on gaming machines which was significantly below that paid by other gaming machine operators. We've now dragged the casino into line with the tax paid by other gaming operators and I would have thought by the way that that's the right thing to do, particularly in the global financial crisis where you've got to make the hard decisions. We took the hard decision, we've increased the tax and they will now have to pay the same level of tax as other gaming machines do across the State. And if the Liberal Party votes against it they'll be doing Crown Casino a favour by giving them in perpetuity a level of tax on gaming machines which is much more favourable that than paid by other gaming operators. That's the fact of the matter.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
BRUMBY: Well that's not, that's not true either. You know and there has been no change to any of those entitlements since the casino was established and the big thing here is the gaming machines, right? The big thing in terms of problem gambling is gaming machines.
And what we've done is put the tax up, we've brought it into line with what other gaming machines pay and other operators pay across the state. So that's the right thing to do, it's the right social policy, it's the correct thing to do in a Budget sense and if the Liberal Party votes against it that will be a matter for them but they will be denying the state much-needed revenue to run our public hospital system.
JOURNALIST: What's your reaction to the fact that a stripper was hired (inaudible) before a football match (inaudible)?
BRUMBY: Well I think it just sends all of the wrong messages you know. It is completely inappropriate behaviour. And one of the things we're trying to do in Victoria is encourage young people to play sport, to take up sport and you open the papers today, you read about a football club that got a stripper in before a game. You know it is absolutely and completely unacceptable and inappropriate and it sends all of the wrong messages. So they need to be offering some, I would have thought some public apologies about this matter, it is just an appalling example to set young people and to set families.
JOURNALIST: Premier, just on the cost of this project. In an era when construction costs are falling. Isn't $4.2 billion (inaudible).
BRUMBY: Well I think you need to look at the project. So it's duplicated track, it will have a river crossing, it's got four grade separations and if you've seen from some of the grade separations they can be very expensive indeed. It's got a number of new railway stations, it's got the works underway here.
So they would be preliminary costings that were done. But at the end of the day with all of these things, we put them out in the market and the market will test the numbers. And if we can come in at a lower number, that would be a fantastic outcome but they're the rough assessments that have been done.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)? Do you think there should be an independent inquiry into how people are appointed as a JP?
BRUMBY: Well the Department of Justice has a proper legal process in place. As you know on Friday the Attorney released a report from the Department of Justice, the Department of Justice had asked Mr Suleyman to show evidence by four o'clock Friday as to why he should not be suspended as a JP. He responded in time. The Department of Justice and is now considering that matter and they will provide the Attorney with advice as to whether Mr Suleyman should continue as a JP, whether he should be suspended or whether he should be terminated. That will be a matter for the Department to provide that advice to the Attorney and they'll do that as soon as they can.
PM: I might just (inaudible) the question here about the Fremantle by-election. That's a matter for the good people of Fremantle. And the great thing about is democracy is people make their own choices and that's what's occurred over there as well.
One final thing on infrastructure before we leave this great railway station this morning is that Mr Turnbull today I understand has also been contradicted by Mr Costello. Mr Costello it seems now supports investment in infrastructure.
This is a change from the Mr Costello we've known in the past. Mr Turnbull so far has refused to support these investments. We have Mr Costello now supporting investments by the national Government in infrastructure.
So within about three days of the Liberal's Budget reply in Canberra, first of all we have a $3.2 billion economic black hole, a Budget black hole which Mr Turnbull himself concedes is now a problem, which he would make up for by cuts to the health and hospital system.
And the second problem is that we now have Mr Turnbull and Mr Costello at odds about whether the Australian Government should be investing in infrastructure. Frankly chaos and confusion continues to reign when it comes to Liberal party policy on the economy and I've got to zip.