National Drought Summit; climate change
Prime Minister
SABRA LANE: Thanks for joining the program.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Sabra.
LANE: How will you ensure that this money is spent wisely on making farmers more drought resilient instead on money going on general things like fencing?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Chris is absolutely right, it is about enabling farmers and entire communities to drought proof for the future by supporting them to invest in on-farm water infrastructure and other important infrastructure. And but I’ve got to say, dog fences and pests and weeds and things like that are also incredibly important for farmers to manage drought. I saw that firsthand up in Quilpie.
LANE: They are important but they’re not about making resilient… farmers resilient and communities resilient.
PRIME MINISTER: Well they are. I mean, dog fencing for example also stops the movement of things like kangaroos onto pasture property which can actually gobble up basically all the feed that potentially it’s grown. So all of these things are important, and that’s what’s been relayed back to me and I think Chris is spot on. So what we’re doing is setting up what is basically the drought future fund and it has a capital base of $3.9 billion rising to $5 billion, and out of the earning of that fund we’re investing $100 million back into drought proofing water-based infrastructure around the country. And today I’ll also be announcing measures for on-farm small grant infrastructure projects on farms which can support that. We’ll also be going to announcing more support to go through the charitable sector so we can get the immediate relief funds to rural communities, not just farmers, a lot more quickly. So it’s a comprehensive response.
LANE: What about small businesses in rural areas? Will they be able to access this fund given that they experience downturns too?
PRIME MINISTER: Well exactly, and this is why there are two measures there. The first one is one you’d be familiar with which is the Drought Communities Program and a million dollars going into local shires and drought affected areas…
LANE: But this $5 billion fund, will they be able to access that?
PRIME MINISTER: No, the $5 billion fund is a capital fund that is putting away money for a non-rainy day and to draw down on the earnings, $100 million a year, to invest in longer-term resilience projects. But what I am saying is the drought communities program is putting $1 million into every single shire in a drought affected area and we’re going to be expanding that today. What that is doing is putting money into the towns because councils are often the biggest economic generators in those towns and that’s putting more money in the communities and we’re going to be announcing things today which is supporting charities through the voucher programs and things like that which is keeping the money in the towns and the spending in the towns. On top of that we’ve already, as you know, been acting on rural health counselors, we’ll have a bit more to say on that today. And farmers are also telling us in rural communities that they need better access to information. Now we have the drought buses that have been going around which has been doing that, but there are some great initiatives which have been suggested to us around farm hubs. So there’s a… this is a comprehensive response which is about relief, it’s about recovery and it’s about long-term resilience. That’s why I think in your earlier report, Chris had it bang on and that’s what we’ve been hearing and that’s what we’re announcing.
LANE: You’ve made that point. The money for this new fund is coming from the Building Australia Fund, is that right?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah the $3.9 billion that is there will be transferred by legislation into the new Future Drought Fund and that will enable to earn at a higher level and it’ll be based on what is done with the Medical Research Fund, the MRF, which has been ensuring we build up a capital…
LANE: Sorry to pull you up here, the Budget papers earlier this year said that money from the Building Australia Fund would be used to go to the National Disability Insurance Scheme instead. So it looks like you’re spending it twice.
PRIME MINISTER: No no no, the legislation… that won’t be for that purpose because as I announced when we got rid of the Medicare Levy increase that we were able to fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme out of the Budget and I made that announcement back prior to the Budget. So this fund can now be fully dedicated to supporting the future resilience of Australia and Australian rural communities against drought. So this is putting the resources to the applied use here and it’ll be able to earn a higher rate of return because of the way we’re setting it up than it currently is now, which enables us to invest those earnings in drought proofing.
LANE: The weather bureau is now saying there is a 70 per cent of an El Nino in the months ahead, that there’ll be longer, drier months ahead. These events seem to be happening more frequently, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Well we’re going to have today the Bureau of Meteorology providing their picture to the Drought Summit and that’ll be important, and one of the things Major General Steven Day…
LANE: Sorry, sorry the point of the question, I just said that the Bureau had…
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m trying to answer the question, Sabra, if you’d let me just sort of answer the question that’d be great. What I’m saying is the Bureau of Meteorology is providing that information on future weather events we’re expecting over the summer. Major General Stephen Day has pulled together what he calls the ‘common operating picture’. One of the problems we’ve got is that states, territories, charities, ourselves, others involved in drought support are all working off different information. And they’ll be able to work off one, common map which says where the financial hardship is, where the most intense weather problems are, where the issues are in terms of economic performance and the banks will be helping us to achieve that. So we’ve got to work off one set of plans, and that’s what we’re also announcing today and we’ll be running through that. Weather, and the forecasts on the weather, whether it’s El Nino or anything else, that’s part of the picture we’re putting together.
LANE: Your Sydney colleague Trent Zimmerman and others have said one of the reasons voters deserted the Liberals in Wentworth was due to the Party’s inaction on climate change. Tim Wilson says that voters also expect to see how the Party is seriously tackling this issue. How will the Party do that?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll meet all the targets that we’ve set for ourselves and that’s exactly what we’re doing and that’s our record. I mean we’ve hit Kyoto One and…
LANE: You said that when we talked about this point in the last interview. I asked you to name an independent scientist who backs you on that.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I point to the evidence. Kyoto One, totally beat. Kyoto Two, we will totally beat and when you go out to 2030, then all the information before us and particularly the increased investment in renewables which is happening as a result of common sense and technology. What has been underestimated has been the likely and planned investment in renewable technology, particularly for energy, over the next ten years which is going to significantly to assist us in meeting those targets. But also it’s the change in demand management. I was at an ice cream wholesaler just this week down here in Canberra and the energy management and demand management practices he’s put in place in his own business is one of the key reasons, whether it’s in the business community or whether it’s in the household sector, people have changed their behaviors. And so this is what is making all of these things far more achievable and so you know, you don’t… where we need to put money is in, say in the energy sector, is making sure we’ve got reliable power. But it’s also making sure that the interventions we’re making, so the big energy companies can’t be ripping off customers. I mean renewables are standing on their own two feet. I think that’s fantastic.
LANE: Mr Morrison, the Party had a bad week last week. The Liberals lost Wentworth, something that had been in the conservative hold for 117 years. You’ve become a minority Government, the Coalition senators voters for a motion on “It’s Ok to be white”…
PRIME MINISTER: Which was reversed, Sabra, it’d be fair for you to point out. And they made very clear…
LANE: And they voted for it overwhelming initially. There was a diplomatic blowback from the idea of considering a move from the embassy in Israel, with key figures like the defence force figure told after the media. How can you turn all of this around and become electorally competitive in six months?
PRIME MINISTER: Well I know that’s the commentary coming out of the media bubble here down in Canberra and out of the Labor Party, Sabra.
LANE: Sorry, that’s a reality. This is the reality for you.
PRIME MINISTER: Well Sabra, you know what? You know what people are interested in? They’re interested in lower electricity prices, they’re interested in addressing the drought. I mean, this week we also had the National Apology to victims of child sexual abuse, where we announced measures to ensure that their stories will not be forgotten and that was the other real thing that happened in Canberra this week. The other real thing that happened in Canberra this week and last week is unemployment came down to 5 per cent. We passed the Trans Pacific Partnership deal, we passed laws to reduce small business tax down to 25 per cent. These are the things, Sabra, that are impacting on people’s daily lives and today, we’re talking about providing relief, recovery and resilience for farmers and rural communities affected by the drought. Now people can talk about process issues in Canberra all they like, but what I’m doing is just getting stuff done.
LANE: Prime Minister, I know that you’ve got a tight schedule, thanks for joining the program this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Sabra, great to be here. Cheers.