Prime Minister of Australia

Speech

pmstage — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:00:47 +0000

24 June 2010

Transcript of statement

The Hon Kevin Rudd MP delivers his final speech as Prime Minister.

Prime Minister

Transcript of statement

Canberra

I was elected by the Australian people as Prime Minister of this country to bring back a fair go for all Australians and I have given my absolute best to do that, I've given it my absolute all. In that spirit I am proud of the achievements that we have delivered to make this country fairer.

I'm proud of the fact that we kept Australia out of the global economic recession. I'm proud of the fact that had we not done so we would have had a half a million Australians out there out of work, because that's what happened around the rest of the world.

I'm proud of the fact that we got rid of Workchoices and restored decency to the workplace.

I'm proud of the fact that we started to build the nation's infrastructure including a National Broadband Network which I fundamentally believe will transform this economy in ways which we have yet to conceive, fundamentally transform our businesses and the way in which Governments operate, health services are delivered and the way in which education is delivered in our classrooms. The missing piece of 21^st century kit for our country.

I'm proud of the fact that we have begun the education revolution. 300,000 extra computers in classrooms; that's a pretty big thing for a kid in a classroom who has never seen a computer on their desk before.

I'm proud of the fact that we now have Trades Training Centres built to service every one of our nation's secondary schools.

I'm proud of the fact that new libraries are springing up right across the country, often in schools which have never had a library before in their lives, or in some places, have never had a new building built in their schools since the War.

I'm proud of the fact that we now have nationwide early childhood education.

I'm proud of the fact that we now have a national curriculum for our schools, for every State of our nation and the Territories.

I'm proud of the fact that we now have 50,000 more university places and the fact that we have invested so much more in our universities, in our research.

I'm really proud of the fact that we've reformed the health system; a National Health and Hospitals network. When we look back on this in a decade's time, and the fact that we've made the Australian Government, for the first time in our history, the dominant funder of our nation's public hospital system. This will be seen as a very, very deep reform.

I'm proud of the fact that we are building 20 regional cancer centres right across our country. You know if you go out there and people are suffering from cancer, it does alter your priorities. Many of those folk have never had decent cancers services before, never, and I was always stunned by the fact that people out there are three times more likely to die in the first years of their diagnosis through the lack of services. We've done something to change that, and it's big. It's the biggest investment in cancer services our nation has ever seen.

I'm proud of the fact, and some people have probably never heard of this one, that we have a National Organ Transplant Authority. As somebody who borrowed someone else's aortic valve I feel a particular responsibility for that. There's nothing like having a bit of somebody else in you, it focuses the mind and in my case also focuses the heart. What I'm really pleased about in the last two months is the organ donation rates for the first time have started to rise. People now are getting transplants because we chose to make a difference.

That's the funny thing about health isn't it, has an effect on you.

I'm proud of the fact that we've restored decency to the aged pension, it's pretty important, making sure that people on the aged pension have some capacity for human dignity. An extra $100 is the biggest increase in the pension's history.

I'm proud of the fact that we now have paid parental leave, it's been a long time coming.

I'm proud of what we've done on homelessness. I'm proud of the fact that we're on track to halve homelessness in this country through work like common ground in which Therese is directly involved.

I'm proud of the fact that we're adding 20,000 additional units of social housing. I can't stand it when you go to places and there is literally no place at the inn.

I'm proud of the fact that the first thing we did in Government was ratify the Kyoto protocol. I'm also proud of the fact that we boosted the renewable energy target to 20 per cent. I'm proud of the fact that we tried three times to get an emissions trading scheme through this parliament, although we failed. And, if I had one point of future policy it must be our ambition to pass a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme within this parliament, the one that follows, I mean, so that we can make a difference, a real difference, to climate change.

I'm proud of the fact that we now have, for the first time in the country's history, a Murray-Darling Basin Authority, and for the first time in our history a basin-wide plan and a basin-wide cap on water.

Also proud of the fact that on the global stage Australia is now at the table of the G20. This is big for the country. When we look back on that in 10 years' time, having a place at the table when stuff goes wrong around the world is pretty useful. We lobbied hard and long for that. It is a good achievement for Australia for the future.

I'm proud of the fact that we are closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Little things and big things: putting hundreds of Indigenous kids with scholarships into our nation's leading boarding schools; backing such things as the Clontarf Academy, now 22 of them we fund around the nation, to get kids to school and boost their attendance by providing AFL training. I'm proud of the fact that we're behind a commitment to create 50,000 additional jobs for Indigenous Australians with the private sector, and I'm most proud of the fact that about here, we greeted the stolen generations.

As Therese reminded me, that was a big day. What I remember most about it, for those of you who weren't here, was as the stolen generations came in from over there, they were frightened. Our job was to make them welcome.

The Apology was unfinished business for our nation. It is the beginning of new business for our nation.

What I'm less proud of is the fact that I have now blubbered.

I hope I've been able to demonstrate to you that this has been a very busy two and a half years. We have thrown our absolute all at this and I believe when we look back at this these reforms will endure into the future and make Australia, I believe, a fairer and better place than it would otherwise have been.

And all that's before I get to the thank yous.

First and foremost, I thank the Australian people for putting their trust in me. It is a high honour to be elected as Prime Minister of Australia and to the people of Australia I say thank you.

To the members of the Australian Labor Party who put their trust in me, I say thank you. This is a Party and a movement of which I've been a member for the last quarter of a century, and I believe for the next quarter of a century.

I thank the members of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, good women and men, each one of them - each one of them - committed to bringing about a fairer and better Australia in a cause which now goes back 120 years.

I'd like to thank the members of the ministry and the cabinet. I could not have had a better team. These are head and shoulders above those who oppose them in the parliament - each and every one of them. You could go through the list. I've been blessed and aided by the fact that they have given every ounce of their intelligence and every ounce of their energy, every ounce of their ability, to delivering the reforms, and many others besides that I've just referred to.

I thank the good people of Griffith in Brisbane, my electorate, for putting up with me as their local member - recently, somewhat missing in action. They are good people. It is a great community. I love it and I love them dearly.

I thank my staff. They come in for the occasional mention in despatches. Alister Jordan, my Chief of Staff, an extraordinary young man. 31 years old, with the bearing of a 70 year old, part of the product of having worked for me for so long. A first class human being and a good man. I will not list the other members of my staff. That's probably for a private occasion. But given that you good members of the fourth estate are here, I should mention Lachlan Harris, and Fiona Sugden, and Maggie. They engaged with you on a daily basis, at times when it's good fun, and at times when it's less so. I think they're a fantastic team.

My policy team, I won't go through. Each and every member of my staff have given their absolute best to the cause of this Australian Government. To my electorate staff in Brisbane, Gina Tilley and her team. Imagine being a Prime Minister with a seat Brisbane, with everyone rolling into your electorate office, holding them personally accountable for everything I have done here. Let's bear a thought for them. They are wonderful people.

I thank my family, Therese, that's Jess, that's Nick, and the curly headed one with the good looks after his mother is Marcus. They are wonderful human beings. And, of course, my wider family as well.

It is probably not the occasion for high statements of theology, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed if I didn't add something, given it's been the subject of comment over the years in which I've led this party. But to the great God and creator of us all, I thank him- or her- as well.

Now, for the future. I will be dedicating my every effort to ensure the re-election of this Australian Labor Government. It is a good Government with a good program, and it deserves re-election for all the reasons I have listed before, and many more besides. And they are a good team, led by a good Prime Minister. I mean Julia, not me, because I'm still the Prime Minister, I think, for another quarter of an hour, so watch out because we can do things. Have you ever thought about this? I'm now not the leader of the Labor Party but I'm the Prime Minister. Anything could happen folks.

As for serving the Government in the future, I will of course serve it in any manner in which I can be of assistance. I will be re-contesting the next election in the seat of Griffith. And I hope the good burghers of Griffith are understanding of my absence in recent times. Having said all of those things, what have I missed out? Therese?

She's always more succinct than me. And much better looking. The work Therese has done in the community is formidable. And whether it's disabilities, homelessness, UNICEF. This is a very good person. A very, very good person and one of life's eternal mysteries is why she ever married me in the first place. She is a very good person, as are these fantastic kids of mine.

And having said all that folks, we've got to zip.

Interview

pmstage — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:50:26 +0000

23 June 2010

Transcript of press conference in Canberra

The Prime Minister held a press conference to discuss the leadership of the Labor Party.

Prime Minister

Transcript of press conference

Canberra

Subject(s):

Australian Labor Party

PM: Earlier this evening Julia Gillard came to see me and has requested a ballot for the leadership of the Labor Party. As a result of that request I will be writing to the Secretary of the Caucus to convene a special meeting of the Caucus at nine o'clock in the morning. It's important I believe, in the interests of the Party and the Government, for these matters to be resolved as a matter of urgency.

I was elected by the people of Australia as Prime Minister of Australia. I was elected to do a job. I intend to continue doing that job. I intend to continue doing it to the absolute best of my ability. Part of that job has been to steer this country through the worst economic crisis the world has ever seen in 75 years. I believe the Government has acquitted itself well to that task. Part of the reason the Government was elected was to deliver fundamental reforms in the health and hospital system. I believe the Government has acquitted itself well to that task as well. Part of what the Government was elected to do was also to deliver fair outcomes for pensioners in Australia, and I believe we've done that well by increasing the pension to the extent that we have.

These are important reforms; infrastructure, education, health, hospitals, closing the gap with Indigenous Australians, also the apology to the first Australians. As Prime Minister of the country I'm proud of each and every one of these achievements. There is much more to be done and we intend to get on with the job of doing it.

It's become apparent to me in the course of the last period of time, the last several weeks, that a number of factional leaders within the Labor Party no longer support my leadership. That is why it is imperative that this matter be resolved.

I therefore will be contesting the leadership of the Party, and therefore the Government, tomorrow at that ballot. I think it's important for stability for the Government and the Party that this occur. As I said before it's far better these things are done quickly rather than being strung out over a period of time.

I'd say one or two other things as well.

If I am returned as the leader of the Party and the Government, and as Prime Minister, then I will be very clear about one thing, this Party and Government will not be lurching to the right on the question of asylum seekers, as some have counselled us to do.

Also on the question of climate change, we will be moving to a timetable on emissions trading which is of the Government's decision, contrary to the views of some in terms of when that best occurs. These are important reforms for the future, there's much work still to be done.

Right now obviously we're in the midst of a debate on the future of the taxation system. This is a hard debate, a hard debate which has been waged in previous times as well. Tax reform is never easy, a lot of paint has been taken off the Government on the way through. It's also been difficult for previous Governments engaged in the business of hard reform. We don't resile from that challenge. However, this obviously has created some challenges and tensions within our Party, and I mentioned before, having lost the support of certain factional leaders.

Therefore, it's time to get on with the business of resolving this as quickly as possible as the national interest is at stake. I conclude with where I began.

I was elected by the people of Australia to do a job.

I was not elected by the factional leaders of the Australian Labor Party to do a job, though they may be seeking to do a job on me, that's a separate matter.

The challenge therefore is to honour the mandate given to me by the Australian people. We've made mistakes on the way through, I've been very upfront about that. But, in navigating this economy through the worst crisis the world has seen; in keeping hundreds of thousands of Australians in jobs who would otherwise be on the unemployment queues; of that I am fundamentally proud and we intend to continue that reform. Before you ask your questions, I'll take two or three questions and then as you may appreciate I have some other work to do.

JOURNALIST: Do you think you can win tomorrow?

PM: I believe I am quite capable of winning this ballot tomorrow based on the soundings that we've taken most recently, then I believe there is a strong body of support for the continuation of my leadership.

JOURNALIST: Has Julia Gillard told you she's standing against you?

PM: I indicated before that Julia has asked me to have a ballot of the leadership of the Labor party, I've responded to that request. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear before.

JOURNALIST: How do you feel personally, do you feel betrayed?

PM: Look politics is a tough business, but the business of politics is about doing what's right for the country.

I can say in full and honest conscience that I have taken every decision that I have taken so far as Prime Minister in the nation's interest. A lot of those decisions were hard and rough on the way through but I've appreciated the strong support of my colleagues on the way through as well. They have been a fantastic team. But we've gone into some heavy weather of late, a few people have become shall I say a little squeamish at that. I'm not for getting squeamish about those things, I am about continuing the business of reform and providing good, strong, proper government for the people of Australia, the people of Australia who elected me as Prime Minister.

JOURNALIST: You mentioned asylum seekers and the ETS, are you talking about a change of policy in both those areas?

PM: I am being very plain about what I said before. And you've heard me say things about asylum seekers policy, and recently. I believe it is absolutely wrong for this country and absolutely wrong in terms of the values which we hold dear, to get engaged in some sort of race to the right in this country on the question of asylum seekers, I don't think that's the right thing to do. That's the direction the Liberal party would like to take us, under my leadership we will not be going in that direction.

Furthermore, can I say this, on the question of emissions trading which you have raised and obviously is a matter of great controversy in the community. Let me be very clear. Action on climate change cannot be achieved in the absence of an emissions trading scheme. We need a price on carbon. And that price on carbon needs to be put on it within a reasonable timeframe. That would be the decision of the government, assuming I am re-elected as Prime Minister.

Last one for you, Malcolm.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister would you expect Ms Gillard to stand down as Deputy Prime Minister if you get up and win tomorrow?

PM: I am simply calling for a ballot for the leadership of the Labor Party, I believe that's the right and responsible course of action to undertake for the simple reason that that was the request which has been made of me.

My fundamental interests are to preserve the good name and standing of this Australian Labor Party, and to act in the national interest on behalf of the Australian government. We have large challenges ahead, not least of which is an upcoming G20 summit in Toronto, at which I am currently scheduled to lead an Australian delegation. This G20 summit will deal with a whole range of fundamental reforms to the financial system, which goes to the interests of the Australian banks and the cost of credit in this country.

These are important national interests to pursue, it is one reason why I've decided, apart from others, that it's important to resolve this matter of the leadership as a matter of urgency. There are national interests at stake here, which go beyond the personal interests of me as an individual, which go beyond the personal interests of me as a politician, which go beyond the personal interests of me as a Prime Minister. Those national interests should be equally in our thinking at a time like this. My party's interest is important as well, these two matters should be resolved as a matter of urgency and I have a few urgent things now to attend to.

Thank you.

Interview

pmstage — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:37:39 +0000

23 June 2010

Joint press conference with the President of Timor-Leste

The Prime Minister held a press conference in Canberra with His Excellency Dr José Ramos-Horta.

Prime Minister

Transcript of joint press conference with

His Excellency Dr José Ramos-Horta, President of Timor-Leste

Canberra

Subject(s):

Timor-Leste; Australian Labor Party; Overseas development assistance; G20; RSPT

Good morning.

It's a great pleasure to welcome to Australia President Ramos-Horta. He is a good friend of Australia, we have known him for a long time. I also regard the President as a long standing personal friend.

We also welcome him here as a strong leader of his nation, also as a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. His life as a national leader in Timor-Leste has extended over a long period of time - from the time when his country was a colony to now being an independent state and part of the international family of nations.

Australia of course has stood shoulder to shoulder with East Timor since independence in 1999 and we're committed to East Timor's development as a stable democracy and also its long term economic development as well. The President's visit highlights the importance of this relationship with Australia. Of course it's a relationship we are committed to for the long term. It is an important relationship for our country.

There is a special affinity between the peoples of our two countries, which go right back to the Second World War, and I would simply like to say to the President how welcome he is in Australia as our guest.

We had a good conversation last night at The Lodge which ranged over several hours before the President abandoned to watch the football. He was backing Mexico and he's in a state of mourning this morning.

Our discussions this morning have focussed on security, on education and climate change.

I'm pleased to announce that Australia will provide five dedicated scholarships each year in memory of those East Timorese who chose solidarity with the Australian Sparrow Force troops during World War Two. This is a story which means a lot to Australians, and it means a lot to those old veterans from East Timor as well. We've decided together that the best way to commemorate their work in support of Australians in a very difficult time is to dedicate these scholarships in their memory. All Australians owe those East Timorese a debt of gratitude in their support for our men and women in uniform in a very, very difficult time.

Australia is keen to work closely with Timor-Leste to deal with the country's long term development needs. Last year our two Governments signed a new five year development strategy between us at over $100 million per year, focussing on health and education, employment, governance and safer communities.

Today we're announcing further initiatives aimed at boosting Timor-Leste's capacity in agriculture, in rural water and sanitation, controlling animal infectious diseases, hospitals, and access to microfinance across the rural areas of Timor-Leste.

Our strategy is aimed at lifting the living standards of the poorest people in Timor-Leste and to assist them gaining new opportunities for themselves and their families in the future.

As a small island state, Timor-Leste is also exposed to climate change and its impact, some of the unavoidable impacts of climate change. I welcome East Timor's leadership in helping galvanise international action in support of the Copenhagen Accord. I welcome also the leadership shown by President Ramos-Horta, in partnership with President Nasheed of the Maldives, in seeking to bring about a conference of countries of the Asian region on climate change to build momentum towards a strong outcome in Mexico at the end of this year.

Should the President's initiatives succeed, and Australia of course will be a strong supporter, and should it succeed we of course would wish to be a participant as well. Building global momentum to further action, based on the Copenhagen Accords, we believe is important to bring about effective change to the emissions practices of both developed and developing countries. The problem of climate change has not gone away, it is real and its impact is expanding.

We've also discussed a range of other matters of importance to our Governments, including the Greater Sunrise project, and we underline our joint commitment to this development. Australia does not support any particular location for the processing of the LNG. We agree that this matter should be settled in the processes consistent with our treaty obligations.

Finally on the question of security. Australian Forces now in Timor-Leste now number about 400. The President has indicated to me this morning how much he values their presence and the work that they do, both in the formal security sense but more broadly, also their work in civil construction right across the country and I thank him for his generous remarks about that.

The mandate for the force and the mandate for the United Nations will be due for further annual consideration in February of 2012. What we've indicated this morning is that should the UN Security Council consider extending its mandate by a further year, should the Government of Timor-Leste require further assistance for the period of that year, we'd respond to such a request positively.

President, you're a welcome guest in our country, I'd invite you to make some remarks, and then we'll take some questions from the journalists.

PRESIDENT RAMOS-HORTA: Firstly thank you so much Prime Minister, dear friend Kevin Rudd, for hosting me and my colleagues in the delegation, Foreign Minister, Minister of Economy and Development, to Australia. In doing so, I have only words of gratitude to the Australian people, to you, for now 10 years of Australia's strong, generous engagement in support of this building reconstruction effort in Timor-Leste. And these are not diplomatic niceties. Australia's commitment to Timor-Leste has been a very, very serious one - genuine - that stems from the person in the street, the common people, all walks of life in this country. And we sincerely appreciate that, we feel that warmth on the part of the Australian people.

And you, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, you know Timor-Leste well. You know as well you were in my house, staying in my house in a very bad room, no air-conditioning, yes I have a house with no air-conditioning, in 2006, in the midst of the crisis he was there as Leader of the Opposition. And we shared beers every evening, he was driven around town, with very little security, so you know firsthand the challenges in Timor-Leste.

PM: The beers were good too.

PRESIDENT RAMOS-HORTA: And not many leaders of your stature would stay in my house in those bad conditions. A few weeks ago I was hosting Lech Walenka. Initially he was going to stay in my house, but then I was a bit embarrassed, why you say (inaudible) in a very simple room, no air-conditioning, and he has a heart condition, so I don't want to take responsibility so we changed plan and put him in our best hotel in Dili, so he didn't stay with me.

PM: It's a great house by the way.

PRESIDENT RAMOS-HORTA: I commend you for your exceptional vision, leadership on the global stage, particularly on non-proliferation, where Australia, through your country fellow former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, with Japan, has provided this exceptional paper on non-proliferation and in particular your role in the Bali process, in Copenhagen, on climate change.

Everywhere in the region and elsewhere we have been to, I have been to, everybody praises you for your motivating influence in trying to bridge the divide between industrialised countries, emerging industrialised countries, in how to have a meaningful climate change agreement that arrests the deteriorating problem in the world. So I thank you and in coming to Australia also, I'm very pleased to hear from you that you are looking forward to help us, Timor-Leste, Maldives and others, in trying to forge an Asian consensus before Cancun so that the world, so that we live up to our responsibilities to the world.

(inaudible) Timor-Leste's situation is today as peaceful as never before. Economically we are doing well, double digit growth for the past three years already. Those of you who might go there or who were there in the past, you wouldn't recognise Dili and that in large measure is thanks to the contribution of Australian Army, New Zealand, as well as Australian Federal Police work, together with other members of the international community. So I commend the Australian Defence Force for their tremendous commitment to Timor-Leste for the professionalism of their soldiers, always flawless, and if I can say without diplomatic niceties, it is exemplary professionalism in Timor-Leste.

And I repeat my condolences to the families of those soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan. Some of them served in Timor-Leste in the past. I deal with Australian soldiers, officers, on an almost daily basis, particularly in the midst of the crisis on 2006. You would not find better people than that, so I feel, also, personally, the loss of the Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. But this is a mission that the Australians call upon themselves, together with the international community, to fight extremism, to give a chance to the millions in Afghanistan, men and women, who went to the polls several times already challenging extremists. And the situation in Afghanistan, from what I have read in many many press reports, including BBC, is not what you see every day in the news, that everything is bad.

We see also the beginnings of progress there, and the battle can be won, not only in the military field but through political means, through dialogue.

So I commend you for your leadership, Australian sacrifices there, because it means not only for Afghanistan themselves, I think for the whole of South Asia and maybe beyond South Asia, whatever is played out there.

In regard to Australia's commitment to Timor-Leste, we are very, very grateful for this generous assistance. Australia is by far the largest donor to Timor-Leste. And with the revised strategy, I believe that in this five-year plan you have, I believe with our government we will see significant differences in the living conditions of the people in the rural communities.

And last but not least, in regard to the Greater Sunrise and in response to what you say, I agree fully - the consortium of investors in Greater Sunrise, together with our government, will find the best possible option that makes sense commercially but that is also technically feasible and safe in view of the complexity and the delicate nature of dealing with oil and gas exploration, as we see in the Gulf of Mexico. We have to take all of these in consideration - safety as well as commercial viability.

So I have the fullest confidence in the wisdom of our Prime Minister and Government of Xanana Gusmao, together with the executives of the oil companies, to find a solution that makes sense commercially.

So, having said that, I thank you once again for the tremendous hospitality extended to us.

PM: Thanks very, President Ramos-Horta.

Could I invite questions, first, to the President and then I'll take some myself.

JOURNALIST: Mr President, last night you mentioned that you fully support the oil pipeline option to East Timor from Greater Sunrise. You also appealed to Australia as a country and to the consortium to look at the wider interests, just not narrow economic and commercial interests.

I guess the question for both of you: in the interests of the wider region, is there something your two governments can do to secure an oil processing, gas processing, industry in East Timor to secure the country's future?

PRESIDENT RAMOS-HORTA: Well, at face value, without seeing any detailed financial and technical study on all the options, obviously I would want to see the pipeline come into Timor-Leste because I see the benefits - job creation, catapulting our economy and country into prosperity. But I want to see also the costs of it, both in terms of the environmental impact, as well the financial costs of bringing a pipeline to Timor-Leste. So I don't support a pipeline coming to Timor-Leste out of patriotic duty. I want to see what are the real benefits to Timor-Leste, against the cost of it.

PM: I think the position of the Australian Government is consistent on this. That is, that this is a matter to be resolved between the Government of Timor-Leste and the company concerned. We think that's the appropriate way for this to be resolved.

JOURNALIST: Is it true that you asked your chief of staff, Alister Jordan, to sound out the Caucus and make sure that they are still supporting you, and does that mean you're paranoid?

PM: That's great. Alister's job, I think since I became Leader of the Opposition, is to be in constant contact with members of the parliamentary party and with ministers and with cabinet ministers and with parliamentary secretaries. I don't think anything's really changed much in the last four years. I think Alister has been at this for a very, very long time.

JOURNALIST: How was the feedback on the most recent questions, Prime Minister?

PM: Sorry?

JOURNALIST: How was the feedback most recently?

PM: Well, that's, as I said, there's nothing particularly new in what AJ would be doing, and, frankly, I don't know much of the content of his most recent conversations. They usually cover a whole range of things, including what's going on in my electorate, what needs to be done there, is the implementation of our programs on track - those are the sort of conversations which happen every day and have done so ever since I got this job, and, frankly, in a slightly different way when I became the Leader of the Opposition. It's just situation normal.

JOURNALIST: Mr President, just on your comments on Greater Sunrise, does that suggest that your Government is open to a compromise with Woodside, and is there any sign that Woodside is also shifting its ground about its determination to have a floating platform offshore?

PRESIDENT RAMOS-HORTA: Well, what I can say, I am pleased that our government, at least in a press statement issued yesterday out of the office of the Prime Minister, stated that it remains open to dialogue with the consortium. And that's the very first step that has to happen is for a very frank, transparent discussion about all the options.

Let's look at all the options. But we depend on the studies, both the technical and the financial and the commercial. We view the importance of the early development of Greater Sunrise because right now Timor-Leste is dependent almost exclusively on the revenue from Bayu-Undan. Our revenues come, about 90 per cent from Bayu-Undan. Only 10 per cent are from our other domestic, non-oil revenues, so that makes us very vulnerable to fluctuation in the oil price and not very advisable, so we have to look for additional revenues, including from non-oil sector.

JOURNALIST: Mr President, in an opinion piece that ran here recently, Jose Belo from the newspaper Tempo Semanal, the piece was headlined 'proud Timorese are fed up with Canberra's bullying', and in it he quotes you as saying to the Australian ambassador ''the vast majority of donor aid spent on Timor-Leste is not spent in Timor-Leste [but] is spent on consultants, study missions, reports and recommendations''.

Did you say that, and if so, what's to say that this latest package of aid is not going to suffer the same fate?

PRESIDENT RAMOS-HORTA: That is a, yes, there is a general sense that over the past 10 years, and that's not only in relation to Australian aid money but UN, World Bank and the European, Japanese, US money that has had no impact on transforming the lives of the people. But that's why Australia itself, and other donors, have reviewed their strategy and these next five years Australian aid will be far more focussed in four or five critical areas. That I am very pleased with and I believe will make a difference.

In the past, Australian aid money was a lot but was all over the place - 20, 30 different areas of support. So I don't want to sound ungrateful or anything like that, but sometimes countries are generous - no doubt about that - but with the wrong strategies in addressing issues of poverty. But this has been corrected, not only by Australia but by even US now putting 70 per cent of their aid money to Timor-Leste for rural development.

PM: For us, just to add to the President's - I'll take another question there, then just to add to the President's answer- he's right. In the past I think, Australia's development assistance program was too scattergun. That's one of the reasons why the Minister, Stephen Smith, undertook a review of this. It's now being focussed in five specific areas. Education and health, in infrastructure, in governance, in microfinance, to make sure it works. The other thing is that, the Minister advises me of this, the actual proportion of development assistance funding which is expended on consultants in the period which we've been in office is going down, relative to that which we inherited.

So we're actually trying to act on these things, do it effectively on the ground. We understand the historical criticism, we think there is some validity to it, which is why we're seeking to do this more effectively on the ground.

Rural finance, microfinance, is really important. We were just talking about the mechanics of a program of about $2.5 million which provides small-scale, totally repayable loans to farmers and to local tradespeople and local business owners to buy an extra piece of equipment, build up their business, pay it back at either zero or marginal interest. These sorts of microfinance projects are fantastic. That's one of the five areas that we're rolling out. Sorry, you had a question.

JOURNALIST: As regards Sunrise, is the floating platform option, is it or is it not a deal-breaker as far as East Timor's concerned? And is there a possibility of another consortium being brought in to develop Greater Sunrise?

RAMOS-HORTA: No, the concern about the FLNG - the floating option - is it is untested technology to be still built up in Korea, while the pipeline has been there for decades. Even though it might be challenging because of the nature of the ocean floor, the depths of the ocean in that area, but that's one concern. Second, of course, the consortium alleges that the pipeline going to Timor-Leste is far too expensive, an estimated $19 billion. That is their allegation. It remains to be critically analysed. I do not believe that it is that expensive. But who am I? I'm not an expert.

The question then is, yes, let's sit down to scrutinise every item of cost of the various options, and see what makes real commercial sense for all of us, for Australia as a country that owns part of this Sunrise resource, for Timor-Leste, and for those who are putting their money there. And these are the companies.

JOURNALIST: During the - Mr President, during the 74 day Montara oil spill, there were reports that some of the pollution had washed up on your pristine shores. Now, can you confirm that that actually happened? And are you pursuing any compensation from the Australian Government or from the company involved?

RAMOS-HORTA: No. As far as I know, fortunately, it did not reach Timor's shores. So, we are fortunate that so far we were not affected by any environmental impact in the whole region, which of course elsewhere has happened. No impact on Timor-Leste.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you're going to Toronto on Friday. Overnight, Britain has brought in a new levy on its banks to deal with the financial woes. Australia's opposed to that. What message will you have to the Leaders when you go to the meeting on the weekend? And you're heading to Canada - they've said they'll step into the breach if investment in mining dries up here. Do you expect to reach any kind of deal with certain sectors of the industry before you head off?

PM: Now, the first point I'd say, on the question of the agenda for the G20 - a lot of the agenda focuses on the regulation of global financial markets. And that agenda has been developed up by the Financial Stability Board, and the Basel Committee. And it comes out of the crisis and our response to it, during the course of 2009, as a global community.

In answer to your question, what I'll be saying to my colleagues from around the world is that there are a couple of countries whose financial systems emerged intact. One was Australia. Another was Canada. And there are a few others as well.

Therefore, we've got to be very mindful of avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to the financial systems of countries which have come through this crisis well. What I am most concerned about is the regulatory burden being imposed from on high, which would have an effect on the cost of finance here in Australia. That's the bottom line for me. Because that is a challenge for small businesses, families, mortgages, all those sorts of things. Therefore, making sure that we have an arrangement which recognises the robustness of the Australian financial system, how well it's been regulated, the measures we took here, and in other countries like Canada.

On the other question that you've raised concerning the RSPT, can I just say this - consultation with the mining industry has now been underway for quite some time. The Treasury panel, I understand, has now met and had exchanges with something in excess of 80 companies. Ministers have been in consultation and negotiation with many, many companies over a long period of time involving the Treasurer, the Resources Minister and, from time to time, myself as well. What we're working towards is a sensible and balanced outcome, a sensible and balanced outcome which is based on the bottom line of the Government's framework.

I said in the Parliament yesterday, a profits-based tax, one levied at 40 per cent, a tax which applies to existing projects, and one which is capable of delivering the revenue to meet the Government's policy priorities.

Now, if we reach this balanced and sensible outcome, I can fully predict that a number of the major mining companies will still not be happy with it. But that does not preclude us from engaging those companies who wish to be substantively engaged in negotiations.

And by the way, in your last question, the last time I looked, most of our mining stocks are doing better than Canadian mining stocks. I'd simply ask you to bear that in mind in terms of how markets are viewing the relative assessment of resource stocks here and in other countries in the world.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) some sort of an accommodation with the mining sector?

PM: We're working calmly, methodically, carefully through the details which are being put forward by companies. And a lot of those negotiations have been very, very good. And I just would encourage those that have not fully engaged yet to do so. We think the national economic interest requires that we produce a sensible and balanced outcome. And I believe if there's goodwill around the place, that we can do that. It's good for the economy, and it's good for the revenue, it's good for tax reform, and I believe that's the direction we should head in.

JOURNALIST: Sounds like there won't be any compromise with the iron ore companies, though.

PM: Well, you can speak for the iron ore companies if you wish. All I'm doing is engaging negotiations on the merits of those negotiations, together with the other ministers. Yes mate.

JOURNALIST: Can you confirm the specific reports today that you are willing to ditch the rebates for losses and increase the threshold?

PM: You know something? I go back to what I have always said here, that the framework, as I just outlined before, is the Government's approach. And on questions of detail and implementation, transition and even generous transition, as I've said from day one, that's what we're negotiating with the companies, and will continue to do so. But I do not propose to conduct commercial negotiations with you good folk from the media. I don't think that is a smart thing to do.

Okay folks, thanks very much.

Speech

pmo655 — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:38:25 +0000

22 June 2010

Speech to the Business Council of Australia

The Prime Minister addressed the Business Council of Australia in Canberra

Prime Minister

Speech to the Business Council of Australia

Canberra

22 June 2010

Thanks very much Grant for those words of very warm welcome and known in Queensland as irony. First of all can I acknowledge all of you who are captains of industry here with whom we have had a long and productive relationship over a long period of time. I notice many of the representatives of the banking industry are here this evening for example, with whom I have just spent the better part of the last hour discussing what I believe is fundamental to every business in this room, and that is the future cost of capital in this country.

We have just been through a global financial crisis. The global financial crisis required extraordinary interventions by Government in order to underpin the continued stability of our financial system and the businesses which depend on it. That required a range of measures. It required us uniquely as a Government to intervene in the economy, for the first time to provide a sovereign guarantee for every single Australian's bank deposit to underpin confidence in the system.

Secondly, for the banks here represented, to also provide a guarantee for their wholesale funding requirements of global credit markets (inaudible.) And thirdly on top of that, given the damage to the real economy, to then intervene to prevent an entire collapse of private demand in the economy in order to prevent the economy from tail-spinning into recession, which occurred in 32 of the other 33 OECD economies. These were extraordinary interventions by Government.

The result and the report card I think, as those of you in this room have acknowledged, has been reasonable. We've emerged as one of the only OECD economies not to go into recession. We have kept growth positive. We have the second lowest unemployment rate of all the major advanced economies and the lowest debt and the lowest deficit. In terms of a report card of basic economic credibility I don't think that's too bad; there is always room for improvement, but it is however measured against the performances of other economies confronted with similar challenges.

The key one which for us has been fundamental is actually keeping people in jobs. Mention has just been made of the mining industry, let me talk to you about the employment performance of the mining industry in the last twelve months. The mining industry contracted its employment load by about 19 per cent last year in the face of what was occurring in the general economy, or more like 15 to 16 per cent. But if it was replicated more broadly across the economy, the total unemployment level in this country would have been something in the order of 15 to 20 per cent. Mining represents employment directly of about 100,000 Australians, 15,000 of them actually lost their jobs last year.

What we did was step into the breach and make sure that private demand kept up and through public investment that overall employment kept up. For those of your companies which depend therefore on the vibrancy of the private economy and the overall performance of our economy in difficult global circumstances, this I think has been a reasonable achievement.

There's a second part though which arises from that, it's a consequence. What Governments are required to do globally in part cause extreme increases in the levels of sovereign debt around the world. Such that we now have a global debate about the sustainability of levels of sovereign debt in Europe and elsewhere. We all know the story of Greece, which is not one relevant to the immediate financial crisis, but what Greece has unfolded is a level of nervousness in markets and bond markets in particular about the sustainability of public debt levels around the world.

That of course brings us back to what will be an important set of discussions which I'll be attending on Australia's behalf this weekend in Toronto, the G20. The G20 will be deliberating on a series of financial reforms which will go down to the cost of capital for each business represented in this room. The proposals which have been forward by Europeans and others, who've had a much less happy experience of the global recession that we have, are intense, they are regulatory and they are prescriptive and of the type and order of magnitude that unless we stand firmly in the Australian national economic interest, will have a profound impact on the cost of capital in this country over time. We intend to discharge our responsibilities in the national economic interest.

Our country has emerged well from this crisis, through good regulators, through a good regulatory system and also through a Government which worked very closely with the regulators at a time of crisis. Therefore looking forward my first responsibility in this country and that of the Government is not just to maintain the stability of the financial system, but in order also to protect it from excessive global regulatory intervention which will drive the cost of capital up. And that in turn would impede global economic activity.

There are four specific items of the Toronto agenda which will flow through to the G20 agenda in Korea at the end of the year. Each of these goes directly to the cost of capital. As various economies around the world, most particularly in Europe and North America seek to insure themselves against future systemic risk against future crisis, the problem is, for economies like ours, and financial systems like ours which have emerged so well, it is that were those burdens to be applied on us, then the impact in fact would be simply of a type which would cause the cost of loans both for business and other purposes to go through the roof, if left unattended to.

So our first responsibility in the last year and a half was actually to keep this economy going, to keep our financial system afloat and to deal with the consequences of those actions through what has happened in the rising levels of global sovereign debt and the consequential actions now by regulators across the world and G20 leaders, not all of them, who seek to regulate private capital in a manner which could have unintended consequences elsewhere.

So that's our first responsibility, maintain macroeconomic stability, maintain integrity in the financial system.

A second responsibility we have beyond all of that is to ensure that we are building in this economy long term productivity growth. Saving the economy from recession is one thing, building for future growth is another thing. That is very much the agenda upon which we were elected, and that agenda is about how do you build sustainable productivity growth for the future of the Australian economy. What are the levers available to us?

When it comes to productivity the equation is actually pretty basic. How do you make labour more productive by instilling in it greater skills, greater education, greater training? How do you also make sure that the infrastructure available to labour is there so that the labour input into a given productive enterprise is used and deployed maximally in the greatest efficiency? And the infrastructure deficit of this country is known and known well.

The third thing you can do is get out of the hair of business to greatest extent possible by removing the regulatory burden. What we have done against all those three measures in the two and a half years that we've been in Government I believe has been substantial.

On the first measure, education, skills and training, the Deputy Prime Minister is here. We've increased our investment in schools alone by 50 per cent in our first couple of years in office. This is a substantial increase because what we do through early childhood education, what we do through schools, what we do through education, training, universities, TAFE and the rest is of fundamental importance in the quality of the labour force which emerges for you to use later on. And there's a great danger that we were simply falling behind. This has been a big quantitative investment.

The qualitative reforms have also been significant. Again the Deputy Prime Minister has been engaged in what I could describe as visible and occasionally audible fisticuffs with various teachers unions around the country to make sure that we in fact had consistent, mandatory national testing of students across the country and mandatory transparent public reporting of the performance of schools. Unless you get that right, dealing just with the basics of literacy and numeracy, quite apart from the other ranges of skills which are needed for the future, we're always going to be held back in terms of our productivity. This is a big reform. It's been undergone, often below the radar, occasionally above the radar.

Then on infrastructure. You've seen the calculations of infrastructure deficit in this country, they are huge. For the first time the Australian Government has appointed a Minister for Infrastructure. For the first time we've established a outfit call Infrastructure Australia, for the first time a rational analysis of the current infrastructure deficit across all of its elements: road, rail, ports and the rest, has been undertaken. For the first time we have a national priority list of infrastructure projects which need to be attended to. This is pretty fundamental to making sure that we have maximum productivity in the future, and the biggest and best piece of infrastructure that we are about to deliver will come through the National Broadband Network.

I see David Thodey here this evening from Telstra. We've been in an arm wrestle with Telstra for how long? A long time and he looks much happier than he did this time last week. But can I say this has been a good negotiation, the product of what actually good negotiations can produce if there is good will all round. And this has actually produced that, and it's produced a real result, good for the Telstra shareholders but good for the country and good for the economy.

We're going to have a National Broadband Network, it's going to be an open access network. We've finally after 20 years resolved the question of structural separation from wholesale networks to retail providers. This is a fundamental microeconomic reform, and Stephen Conroy is here with us this evening, he should be personally congratulated for his efforts. It's been a strong, hard effort put in by him and supported by our friends in Telstra in bringing about the conclusion which we saw announced on Sunday.

I cannot think of an Australia of the 21^st century absent a state of the art broadband network. When we were elected in 2007, we had the third most expensive broadband of the OECD, the third most expensive. We also had a speed of the network which was about 35 times slower than that which was available to the fastest broadband providers in the OECD. That was the baseline that we inherited in 2007.

We set to work, we announced a plan, we said we were going to have a National Broadband Network, we said we'd invest up to $43 billion, we actually believe this is the infrastructure of the 21^st century, just as railways, roads and the rest, telegraph, were in the 19^th century and in the 20^th century.

This is an important investment for the future, from which each of the businesses represented in this room will benefit enormously, in ways which the economy at large hasn't by and large thought through yet. New ways of doing business, new ways in which you can actually sell products across the tyranny of distance which has so far haunted so much of our small business community, or those which are geographically isolated from major markets both here and abroad. This is a fantastic innovation. Also for the way in which Government does business in delivering basic and efficient services and saving public finance, for example in simply the ability to transfer electronically and at speed, patient controlled electronic health records.

This is a turbo-charging piece of infrastructure which this Government has brought about and is important because unless we have infrastructure at global standards, unless we have skills at global standards, we will not have productivity growth at global standards.

Which brings me to my third point, on what we've been doing the last two and a half years. I often scratch my head about what our predecessors did for their twelve years in office on the question of regulatory reform, I really do. When we came to office we embarked upon a program which largely the BCA have been supporting, which is to identify those areas of regulatory disharmony across the Federation, six states, two territories and everything from occupational health and safety down to product specifications and job classifications and occupation classifications. And we said 'this is nuts, this is crazy, how do we fix it'. And we set up, and I see Craig Emerson is up the back here, he's been a driving force in this together with the Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, in making sure that we made this happen. 27 hair-pulling-out working groups of the Council of Australia Governments, pushing each one of these reforms through. How many have we landed so far Craig, out of the 27? One third will be landed by 1 July this year.

If you know anything of the complexity of these negotiations, let me tell you they are enough to cause grown men and women to cry, but we have prevailed, we have been persistent and occasionally we've used intelligently, effectively, affectionately and diplomatically, the fiscal leverage of the Commonwealth.

The important is delivering the outcome, and I look as something as basic as occupational health and safety, about which so many of your businesses have complained for years and years and years, and this Government has actually delivered that, minus the WA Government.

Regulatory reform is something we've been on about because our objective and our mission statement of Government is very clear, a seamless national economy, a seamless national economy with covering off the infrastructure deficit, creating infrastructure of the 21^st century, as well as producing the best skilled, best trained and best educated workforce in the world. That's our mission statement for productivity growth.

Let me go on to a third point, which is what else do you do given the current structure of our economy to maximise its global competitiveness. One of those things you do is look at the impact of a two speed economy. You look at the impact of high levels of an Australian dollar and their impact on the export competitiveness of so many companies which are not in the resources sector.

One of those impacts we've already seen, and that is the impact for example of the international tourism market in Australia in the last 12 months. If you go to far north Queensland in Cairns, the unemployment rate in Cairns at the moment is 12.4 per cent. You go to any State Government in the country and ask for their tourism data, the international tourism numbers are down to billy-o. That's what's happening.

Ask those in the universities how their international student markets are going, it's not just the Indian students problem in Melbourne, because that's been largely geographically contained. What's actually happening is the dollar is punishing those providers hugely, and what is a substantial export earner for Australia, the international tourism market and the international student market has been punished by the dollar.

There are some in this room who still represent the art of manufacturing. I actually believe in manufacturing, we've actually come through with an auto industry virtually intact, not a bad achievement when you actually think what's happened elsewhere in the world through the crisis which has recently concluded. But you know something, our great, fantastic world beating manufacturers are also being punished by a high Australian dollar. It is affecting the aggregate competitiveness of the Australian economy.

So you ask therefore what therefore is the rationale of the tax reform. The company tax rate at present exists in the upper third of the OECD. Our challenge is to bring it down at least to the middle and to optimally take it lower. The Government's target is to bring it to 25, but you know something, money doesn't grow on trees, you've actually got to fund the company tax cut from somewhere. So how do you do that if you want your Australian firms outside the resources sector to remain globally competitive. You've got to fund it from somewhere.

We could fund it by jacking up a whole lot of taxes on consumers, on individual PAYE earners, you could do it that way. Or you could also look at those companies which benefit most from resources with are ultimately owned by the Australian people who from time to time, in the global commodity cycle, will enjoy great levels of profitability as a result of the resources which they sell to the rest of the world.

I fully get it and understand it having known the mining industry for the last 20 years coming from Queensland, how much risk and enterprise is involved in setting up a mine, and how much risk and enterprise (inaudible) lies in actually taking up a project such as that in offshore north west Australia in making it work. These are big things, I've been up there, I've seen how much capital is involved, how much risk is involved, it is large. But I'm also mindful of the fact that when you've got a global commodity boom, driven by the demand from economies like China, that it's time also to look at what the proceeds of that boom could do for broader tax reform in the Australian economy.

So what's our core proposal? One: that the resources sector onshore should have a profit based tax regime just as the offshore sector has had since Craig Emerson and others worked on the PRRT more than 20 years ago. Secondly, we've argued that a profit based regime is better than a production based regime because it goes up and down much more closely with fluctuations in the global commodities cycle, we think that's actually rational, in fact that was the submission to us also of the Mining Council of Australia.

Third, we've also said that as far as the proceeds of this are concerned, we would use it not to go into the budget bottom line at all, but we would use it to fund the company tax reform which your organisation has been calling out for, for a long period of time. We've said we'd bring company tax down to 28, our ambition lies to bring it down to 25. We've said also we'd bring about tax breaks for small business because those 2.4 million small businesses we believe should be given every encouragement to become the big business of the future.

The other thing we've said is that by virtue of those adjustments to company tax rates and tax breaks for small business, we'd make it more possible, aided by enterprise bargaining, to bring about the increase in the superannuation guarantee from 9 per cent to 12 per cent over time, progressively across the decade ahead.

Not only is that good for working families, who also need to have a decent nest egg to retire, decent superannuation adequacy, all 7.5 million of them, it boosts our national savings.

I'm always mindful of the great reform that Paul Keating brought in the 90s with compulsory superannuation in this country. The rest of the world stands in awe at the quantity of superannuation savings we have in this country, north of $1 trillion. What we do through these reforms is add something in the vicinity of at least another $100 billion to that, of taking the rate from 9 to 12.

I also note from our friends in the corporate community, that when credit markets froze during the course of 2008-09, the existence of onshore savings off the back of super were fundamental in a number of domestic capital raisings which occurred to the tune of some $70, $85, or even $95 billion. Creating a bigger buffer of national savings for the future in my argument is actually a very good thing to do. Lower company tax, tax breaks for small business and creating a greater pool of national savings. I regard that as pretty fundamental tax reform.

The argument which has just been put forward by others, that somehow the Government's approach to tax reform is incomplete, I believe is inconsistent with what we said when we commissioned the Henry review in the first place. What we said when we commissioned the Henry review was that we would have a possible blueprint from long term debate, discussion and a foundation for long term, comprehensive tax reform.

When the Treasurer released the Henry review on the 2^nd May, he indicated the following: there was a range of proposals and recommendations in Henry which we would not contemplate in a month of Sundays. There was another range, from memory Wayne, 60 or 70 or maybe 70 or 80 which are on the table for future discussion in a future term of this Government - and then there was a range that we would actually act on in the immediate term. That's our approach. We actually think it's systematic, because there had been no systematic review of the totality of the tax system for at least 25 years or more.

That's the approach that we said we'd take, that's the approach we did take, and we've made clear the basis for the reform which we are now taking forth.

Now on the question of consultation which has just been raised concerning tax, and concerning the RSPT. As the Treasurer said on the day, on the 2^nd of May, what we're up for is this. We want a tax on profits, we want for that tax to be 40 per cent, that's what applies currently in the PRRT, we wanted a tax which also applies to existing projects. We've also said that that tax should generate revenue to fund the type of policy reforms I've just mentioned.

We've also said that on the question of detail, implementation and generous transition arrangements, we would consult and negotiate with industry. With many, many companies in this country, we are doing precisely that and have been doing it for the last month or so. Many resulting in quite good conclusions.

A number of companies have chosen not to embrace that, for reasons best know to them. That of course is their right, it's a free country, so when it comes to us being prepared to consult and negotiate within the framework I've just referred to, I believe it's a very open invitation. You can have a door open for a while, it does however require a decision for others to walk through that door as well.

Tax reform we think is really important. Our proposal on an RSPT is there and the areas where we are prepared to negotiate against the framework of 2 May is there for all to see. As I said, through Martin, through Wayne and through others, those negotiations and consultations continue.

So that in a nutshell is our rationale for tax reform. That in a nutshell is the way in which we are seeking to undertake consultations with those in the corporate community and the mining community, who wish to undertake them. And that process is underway.

On the question of the public sound and light show, that of course is a matter for various parties to attend to. I will not seek to apportion publically, responsibility for that.

My interest as Prime Minister of the country is to get a good outcome for the nation. I have spent a fair bit of time over the years with the resources industry, I've spent a lot of time with the corporate community. I used to work with these guys KPMG, though they will now probably publically disown me given the reports they released in recent days. It's ok, hang in there (inaudible) It's a joke, alright?

And therefore the best outcome for the country is if we can negotiate our way through this, and find a good landing point. That's what we're up for. We're actually a Government that believes in that. But if there is some misty eyed view that if you went through a process of six months consultation before putting out the sort of framework I just referred to before, that our largest mining companies would whack their hand up and say yes, I really want to pay more tax, then I don't necessarily hold that view.

We're open to questions of negotiation, consultation on design. That's detail. On transition, on generous transition arrangements, that's what we mean, that's what we've said, that's what we're doing with many companies across the country.

A last word on the G20. Can I just say to all of you that we the Government still have some concerns about how the global economy is unfolding. We all follow the public debate, the public newspapers, but we're also examining what's happening in terms of threats on the supply of credit internationally and where that goes to in the future. We are in uncertain times. It's very important that I end this presentation to you on the question that I began with, which is it is fundamental for us all to maintain the stability of our financial system.

Absent the flow of credit and the availability of credit, then frankly, our economy is in deep trouble. Therefore we as a Government maintain a very clear weather eye on what will be necessary for the future in ensuring the continued stability of our system which underpins everything which we do.

Toronto will be engaged in that, a lot of it behind the scenes as we look carefully at bond market reactions to the recent developments in sovereign debt. There's a lot of jitteriness out there on the question of sovereign debt and we're going to have to work our way through that soberly, calmly, in a considered fashion as we did through the first phase of this global financial crisis, which I still hope was the last phase of this global financial crisis.

I thank you.

Speech

pmo655 — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:57:13 +0000

22 June 2010

Remarks to the House of Representatives

The Prime Minister updated the House of Representatives on developments in Afghanistan

Prime Minister

Remarks to the House of Representatives

Canberra

22 June 2010

Yesterday afternoon I advised the House of the accident involving a coalition helicopter in southern Afghanistan in the early hours of Monday morning. I informed the House that, tragically, three Australian commandos from the Special Operations Task Group were killed in that crash. Seven were wounded. The United States has confirmed one of their personnel was killed and three other soldiers were wounded. In addition, a civilian interpreter who was travelling with the Australian element was wounded.

All seven injured soldiers are in the Kandahar military facility. The Australian Defence Force continues to ensure that they receive the best possible medical attention. I am advised that the most recent assessment of the seven wounded soldiers is that two are in a very serious condition. One of those soldiers has sustained a very serious head injury. Both these soldiers are in intensive care. The five other soldiers are now listed as being in a satisfactory condition. Six of the seven soldiers have undergone surgery. The medical authorities have not yet made any decision as to when any of the injured soldiers will be moved to the NATO medical facility in Germany. Any move will only be taken when the condition of the soldiers allows.

The names of the fallen soldiers have not yet been released. As the House would be aware, there are protocols in the Department of Defence which apply in these circumstances. The department will only release the names of the soldiers when they have approval from all the families involved. This is a terrible time for them and we need to respect their privacy. With regard to the wounded soldiers, they are Special Forces and, as a result, they have protected identity status. This means their names cannot be released.

The cause of the incident is yet to be determined. It would be inappropriate to speculate until the investigation into the incident has been completed. I am advised that this incident was not caused by insurgent action. I am also advised that casualties occurred when the aircraft crashed heavily to the ground.

Defence is making arrangements for the repatriation of the three fallen soldiers later this week.

Today, let me reiterate that the thoughts and the prayers of all Australians are with the families, friends and colleagues of those involved in this incident.

These are hard days—very hard days—but I wish to reaffirm to the House the government's commitment that we will complete this mission in Afghanistan. Fundamental national interests are at stake, national interests which go to the security of us all and the security of our friends and allies. We therefore will stay the course and complete the mission which we have embarked upon in Afghanistan.

Speech

pmo655 — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:19:19 +0000

21 June 2010

Speech to the ACL Make It Count Event

The Prime Minister addressed the Australian Christian Lobby's Make It Count event in Canberra

Prime Minister

Speech to the Australian Christian Lobby's Make It Count event

Canberra

21 June 2010

Let me just say a few things and then I understand we're going to have an open set of questions about things near and dear to your hearts.

Firstly, about the role of the churches in Australia in shaping the country that we have become.

I have said throughout my public life that I am proud of the role played by the Christian churches in shaping this country Australia.

Right back to its earliest days and the arrival of the first Christian chaplain in the colony in the First Fleet, Richard Johnson, through to the arrival of the first Catholic priests not long after, and the arrival of various other Christian traditions in this country, the way in which so many of the social institutions of this country have been shaped by the Christian church.

The earliest efforts in bringing about universal education rested on the back of the efforts of the Christian churches. The beginnings of our public hospitals began on the back of the efforts of the Christian churches. The beginnings of basic social institutions such as orphanages, and such as care for the poor, began off the back of the Christian churches.

And the key values which underpin the Judeo-Christian ethic which has been alive in this country for the last two centuries have been shaped so much by the traditions which you represent in this room.

It is often only in the absence of those traditions that you begin to feel what it would be like had Australia been placed differently. That is not to say that those in the Christian traditions have always got it right. You and we have, mistakes have been made by each of the traditions represented in this room. But that should not cause us to conclude that the glass have been overwhelming full rather than empty.

So many people in this country have benefitted from the great tradition of Christian charity and church intervention in society and in people's lives when they have been so singularly distressed. This would be quite a different - and I believe poorer - country were it not for that contribution.

So that is me. It does not mean in this country Australia we are therefore hostile to other religious traditions, we are not.

We are the country which resolved in the 1890s that we would not have an established religion. That reflected the great wisdom of our founding fathers that there should be none and that in fact we should be open to all.

I read some years ago the great debates in the United States at the time following the Revolutionary War as to whether they should have an established religion there, and as soon as the Episcopalians worked out that the Presbyterians were trying to beat them to the jump, they decided they wouldn't have an established religion either. I think there was great wisdom in those deliberations of the 1890s.

And as a consequence in the absence of an established religion, we therefore do welcome, with open arms people of other religious traditions, be they Muslims, be they people of the Jewish tradition, or people of Buddhist faith or other faiths. That is the right and proper thing in a country which respects freedom of religious expression.

And of course in our great Australian family there are those of no faith. And that does not mean that people of no faith therefore have nothing to contribute to debates about morals, to debates about ethics and to debates about values; they do. The great thing about our country Australia is that it tolerates people of faith, of many faiths and those with no faith, and that is the proper workings of a country such as ours rooted in the principles of democracy and respect for the law.

In terms of our engagement with matters I think of real relevance to the churches represented here and those listening to and watching the broadcast, I think one of our first priorities as a Government has been to engage with churches in what you're doing in schools, in the education system of Australia.

We've been out there investing in probably the biggest school modernisation program that this country has ever seen, in fact it is. And we have been completely blind to the question of whether a school is a State school or a non-State school, a Government school or a non-Government school, a Catholic school or a Christian school, an independent Christian school, an Anglican school or whatever school.

The key thing is as I travel around the country is how so many schools, run by churches, which have frankly been struggling to make sure that they've got the most up to date facilities. Basic things like libraries, basic things like learning centres, basic things like science centres, state of the art language centres. And I would like to simply emphasise one core point - that as we have done this as part of our national economic stimulus strategy, we have done so to make sure that all Australians, wherever they go to school, wherever they choose to send their children to school, have been benefitted from this program.

I was in Melbourne not long ago opening a school, a Catholic parish school called St Luke the Evangelist - hi to anyone who happens to be watching from St Luke the Evangelist this evening. But what gave me a particular delight in opening their new learning centre was the fact that as the parish priest, a delightful Irish-Australian said, 'we've been a little bit down of heel at late, we haven't had a new building for 40 years'. And that gives my heart genuine joy when I see those changes occurring on the ground.

Also in the state school system of Australia, you know that the Government has supported the continuation of the school chaplaincy program. It's been a matter of some controversy in various parts of the country. The reason we've decided to support its continuation is because we actually think it's the right thing to do.

In my experience of chaplaincies on the ground they perform a very, very good role. Some schools may choose, through their parent communities, not to have one, that's their choice. If they wish to use that funding to support a school counsellor of no particular religious tradition that's their choice,.

But I am pretty pleased by the extent to which this has been taken up right across the country. We'll go through our own evaluation as to whether it works everywhere well. I'm told by every school community I go to it's working fantastically well, but we need to measure that because it involves the expenditure of Government funds.

But I'm pretty confident this program is going to continue because I see from so many of our school principals, and some of the most hardened and difficult high schools in our country, and some of the primary schools who are dealing with real challenges in various parts of Australia, how much they value the role of a school chaplain who has formed something of the social glue, the spiritual glue, of a school community.

So I hope through those specific actions - what we've done on chaplaincies, what we've done more broadly on school building programs - and our broader continued investment in the non-Government education system, that you'll be clear that our bona fides are real.

Another great contribution of course by the churches has been what you do in the area of health, hospitals and broader support for those with disabilities.

We've taken this challenge to heart as a Government. I said prior to the last election that I feared that our health and hospital system may not survive unless we fundamentally reformed it. I know some will see this as a political debate. To me it's a debate about human decency - that anyone who is sick, irrespective of where they come from, should be able to have access to first class health care.

So our reforms to bring in a new National Health and Hospitals Network is part and parcel of that. For the first time the Australian Government will be the dominant funder of the public hospital system of Australia - first time. In the past State Governments have provided one third, on average, of the running costs. We now will be the 60 per cent funder of the capital costs, the running costs, the teaching costs, the research costs, the training costs of hospitals.

We're also going to become the exclusive funder of the primary healthcare system - that is, the system outside of hospitals, and, for the first time, the exclusive funder of the aged care network of Australia.

These are big reforms, and I am concerned that in the absence of having done these reforms that the system would have simply reached tipping point as state governments are increasingly incapable, frankly, of funding the future needs of the public hospital system.

Which brings me to another challenge which I believe we share in common, and that is how do we deal with the problem of homelessness and affordable housing.

For us as a government this is pretty basic. We've set ourselves a target of halving homelessness. The Census statistic says that as of a couple of years ago that we had something like 100,000 Australians out there homeless; some 10,000 Australians each night sleeping rough.

That strikes me as off. It shouldn't be the case. We're a wealthy country. We should be able to do better than that.

You know, as representatives of the Christian churches, there are some folk who are sometimes very hard to help and I understand that too. But you know, when I go round to the homeless centres of Australia, and I've been to a lot in the last two and a half years I've been in this position, and I ask them 'have they got enough room at the inn?', they usually don't. They are turning people away. Often, for one person accepted, nine are turned away. That should not be the case. We need to change that.

One of the things that we are changing is we're now investing in 20,000 new units of social housing right across Australia as part of the Government's economic stimulus strategy. We're also fixing up tens of thousands of others which have actually fallen into disrepair and were no longer properly habitable.

We're also working with the non-government sector in projects like Common Ground. Common Ground, in our large cities, is in a process now of building a number of free-standing, hotel-like accommodation at the lowest level for people who need, literally, somewhere to stay the night. It's modelled on what's happened in New York and other cities in the United States.

My wife, Therese, who is heavily involved in this, will be opening the first of those facilities, I think, in the next month or two in Melbourne, I think, and that is happening around the rest of the country as well.

Also, investing in homelessness programs because, as you know, homelessness itself is usually a final manifestation of a whole bunch of other problems, whether it's mental illness, whether it's family breakdown, or whether it's problems with criminality, and all these things tend to connected. And so, there is also a large investment from the Government through the outreach of church, charitable and community organisations to do something about the causes of homelessness. How do you actually prevent people from falling into homelessness through better debt management just before the house is literally returned to the bank? How do you actually help people train and become trained to enter the workforce in order to become more resilient and self-reliant?

This is a very big investment by the Australian Government and something about which I feel passionately, because no Australian should have to sleep rough at night. We shouldn't be a country like that. We should be able to do better. And so partnering with you in the church and charitable sector for us is pretty important on that front as well.

We're also pretty, shall I say, hardline on the question of welfare as well. We don't believe that simply extending a welfare cheque is the end of the Government's responsibility. The welfare reforms that we're about to introduce in the Northern Territory are profound. These impose a whole series of new conditionalities, not just for Indigenous Australians, but now for non-indigenous Australians as well on a non-discriminatory basis in the Northern Territory, and prospectively, depending on how that goes, for the country at large, that people who are on welfare long-term actually have to meet a whole series of new conditions with the objective of bringing them off welfare.

This welfare reform is tough, it's hard. It's also compassionate. It's trying to get the balance right. But we believe that intergenerational welfare dependency is just wrong. It's actually bad for people.

And therefore I would draw your attention carefully to what we have just outlined in the parliament in the last week or so about our program for welfare reform, starting with the entire community in the Territory, but moving progressively to the rest of the country, depending on the success of those particular reforms.

In the workplace, you probably know which tradition we come from on that score. We actually believe fairness and the great Australian fair go belief is based on and anchored in a fair go for all in the workplace; that you should have an opportunity to bargain for the conditions that you've got at work.

We had real concerns with the previous set of laws, called WorkChoices. We didn't think that was right and fair.

We became very concerned when people's right at work were being traded away down to nothing, and that the most defenceless people, those in the lowest-paid occupations, were not getting a fair go - losing their penalty rates, losing their shift allowances, losing their overtime.

So, for us that's pretty basic as well. That's why we said, prior to the last election, we'd get rid of Work Choices, and that's why we have done that. It's a pretty basic difference between us.

And, speaking of work, the availability of jobs itself is for us a pretty fundamental belief. People think that this global financial crisis that the world has gone through in the last 18 months or so has somehow just passed Australia by, almost by accident or by miracle. It didn't. We actually chose to step into the economy and make a difference.

I've already spoken about this school building program - that's $15 billion worth of investment, partly to provide jobs for tradies, for small businesses, right across the country when the building sector was actually collapsing; partly also to make sure that your schools would have a lasting and positive legacy from this investment. But our fundamental driving factor was not to see mass unemployment.

Right round the world today, if you're a pastor in a church somewhere in the American mid-west, to the south, you'd be staring at double-digit unemployment and above. Right across the UK and Europe at present, you're seeing manifestations of unemployment between 8 and 18 and 19 per cent.

Here, we chose to make a difference, and through the measures that we took to stimulate the economy, amidst huge controversy, we actually kept the economy out of recession. But most importantly we kept hundreds of thousands of Australians in work. The thought of creating a generation of people thrown out of work with a decade to come back and to recover, and perhaps never recover, was something we didn't want to see.

The dignity of having a job is, for us, a fundamental human dignity, and that is why we acted in the way we did, and the result is pretty plain. Australia has 5.2 per cent unemployment. It's the second-lowest unemployment level of all the major advanced economies.

Had we generated in Australia the unemployment rate we now see in the United States - it's just under 10 - half a million Australians more would be out of work. Our total workforce is about 10 or 11 million. That's a lot of people.

Imagine what would be happening in each of your parishes, in each of your church communities, if such a large slice of people, frankly, weren't able to work and properly cater for their families and their basic needs.

So, protecting jobs, particularly through this extraordinary, abnormal global economic event has been a fundamental value of this Government at work.

Also, our action on climate change. There's been much debate about this. Our view is very simple - climate change is real, it's happening, and we cannot simply put our heads into the sand and pretend that it's not.

In terms of action on climate change, we've put forward three or four concrete measures. One, an emissions trading scheme as a good way to actually bring down, the most effective and cheapest way of bringing down greenhouse gas emissions. We put our proposed legislation to the parliament three times, and three times it was voted down by our political opponents, and of course it therefore requires a new parliament to deal with it.

The other way you act on climate change is to radically invest in renewable energy - solar, wind, geothermal - and we we're doing that, the biggest renewable energy investment the country has ever seen.

Thirdly, energy efficiency, so we actually consume less and we are proper custodians of a sustainable planet.

And, beyond that, to work globally, because what we do here nationally represents 1.5 per cent of global emissions, so, with the Chinese, with the Indians, with the Americans and others to make sure that the planet is pulling together.

Copenhagen was a hard conference, but it was a necessary conference, because if we take, I believe, carefully the requirement on this generation to be proper stewards of God's creation it means that we should act responsibly in the care of this planet and this creation as well.

So we will continue to work on those agendas as well.

As I know I've been given the bell, and I think it's probably about time to wind up, I just finish on one point. These are some of the actions we've undertaken at home, here within this wider community called Australia. Wesley, the father and Methodist, said, when asked what his parish was and where his parish was, said quite correctly that the world was his parish, and so too it is in terms of our wider responsibilities.

We are proudly, in this country and under this Government, increasing our level of overseas development cooperation to 0.5 per cent of gross national income. What's that mean in practical terms? We've increased was we gift to the rest of the world from $3.2 billion when the Government was elected to now about $4.4-$4.5 billion. This has been a big change.

We are now engaged in aid programs in Africa. In the past, there were very few. We have now used the Millennium Development Goals and through the Micah Challenge and others supporting that to make a difference to extreme poverty around the world and within our own region. In partnership with the rest of the world, I think we can make a difference.

Therefore, what we do at home should also be reflected in that which we seek to do abroad.

There are many other things I'm sure that you'll wish to ask about, whether it's about asylum seekers or whether it's about questions of broader morality or other concerns which you as churches would have, and I'm pleased to seek to answer each of those questions.

I thank you very much.

Speech

PatrickPG — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:43:43 +0000

02 June 2010

Address to the Chifley Research Centre Dinner

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the World’s First Majority Labor Government

Address to the Chifley Research Centre Dinner

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the World’s First Majority Labor Government

Old Parliament House

Canberra

I acknowledge the First Australians on whose land we meet, and whose cultures we celebrate as among the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

The story of the Australian Labor Party is a story of hope triumphing over fear.

It is also our nation's story. Our nation's past, and our nation's future.

A continuing narrative throughout Australia's history that says it is better to build up than to tear down. That it is better to build the nation, than to wait for someone else to build the nation for us. That it is better to create opportunity for all, rather than tolerate opportunity for the few. That it is better to face the future, than to fear the future.

The story of Labor is a story of the triumph of hope over fear. A story that says afresh to each generation that we can build a better Australia.

A stronger Australia. A fairer Australia. An Australia in which all our families can aspire to a better future. And an Australia that proudly raises its independent voice in the councils of the world in the belief that together, we can also build a better world.

Friends, this is the continuing mission of Labor.

These are the continuing values of Labor. This is the continuing purpose of Labor.

Hope triumphing over fear.

Friends, the work of the Australian Labor Party is never complete. Each age, and each generation, brings new challenges and new opportunities.

As we prepare for those challenges, we do well to learn from the achievements of past Labor governments:

- Nation-building endeavours to build a stronger Australia.
- Social reforms to build a fairer Australia.
- Tackling the hard, long-term challenges in our economy, in health care, in education and in national security - so that we pass on to the next generation more than we inherited from the last.

Labor is the party of reform.

The party that has driven economic reform for a century and more. The party that has delivered social progress for a century and more. And if we sometimes fall short of what we aspire to be, our party is defined by a set of values that always brings us back to Labor's core purpose. The enduring spirit that runs through successive Labor governments, from generation to generation.

Chifley called it the light on the hill.

The betterment of all Australians.

Andrew Fisher half a century earlier had spoken of the vision to give "the typical labourer... the fairest condition of life; the fullest opportunity to rise in life"

And this is what Labor has always stood for.

Removing the barriers that hold people back; creating the opportunities that take people forward; giving every Australian the freedom to fulfil their potential; and working ceaselessly for the common good of all.

Tonight we remember the historic election of the Fisher Labor Government on 13 April 1910.

An election where Labor won 42 seats to the Opposition's 31 seats - as well as every one of the 18 vacant Senate seats.

A path-breaking election that brought the first majority Labor Government into office in history.

An election that proved Labor could govern - govern responsibly, and govern successfully .

The man who made that possible was Andrew Fisher.

By any objective standard, Fisher stands tall in the pantheon of great Labor leaders. In every sense he stands as a Labor great alongside Curtin and Chifley. Fisher made Labor an effective national political force.

He built foundations for ongoing political success - and without the split over conscription, Labor might well have dominated politics in the decades that followed. Indeed, had he stayed in office the party split over conscription would never have occurred.

Andrew Fisher was of course a proud son of Scotland and devotee of the poetry of Robbie Burns.

But his is a profoundly Australian story.

The story of a modest man who started his working life at the age of nine in the coal pits of Ayrshire in Scotland - but rose to lead his party into government with an historic parliamentary majority.

He endured many hardships throughout his life. His years as a miner left lasting damage to his health. For representing workers as a union leader, he was blacklisted by mine owners from the coalfields of Ayrshire to the goldfields of Gympie. His highest qualification was an engine driver's certificate. But he was never intimidated by his lack of formal education.

Fisher was taught to read from the Bible.

He had none of the pedigree or the opportunity of his conservative contemporaries - men like Barton, a former student of Sydney Grammar and Sydney University; Reid, from Sydney High and Sydney University; and Deakin, from Melbourne Grammar and Melbourne University.

Fisher was not an ideologue.

But he was animated by a profound sense of justice, a deep religious faith, a powerful sense of public service, a prodigious work ethic - and an extraordinary tenacity.

He travelled more than any other politician of his generation. According to his biographer:

"In one 28 day trip around Queensland, he covered nearly 5,600 kilometres and visited 36 towns, using train, coach, buggy, horseback and even a railway tricycle. He received over 60 deputations, attended 51 meetings, and on one day alone, spoke some 14 times."

When he lost his seat in the Queensland Parliament in 1896, largely due to a vicious newspaper campaign against him, he went out and started up his own workers' newspaper, the Gympie Truth.

His determination was unequalled.

Fisher embodied the heart and soul of the new Australian Labor Party.

In Scotland, he had worked alongside Keir Hardie, founder of the British Labour Party and its first leader.

In Queensland, he saw the dawn of the Australian Labor Party in 1891. He was among the first group of Labor candidates elected to the Queensland parliament in 1893. He served in the world's first Labor government, in Queensland in 1899. He sat in the first Australian parliament, as the member for Wide Bay from 1901. And he wrote his own page in history by leading Labor to victory in 1910 - the first majority Labor government in the world, and later becoming our first wartime Prime Minister.

Andrew Fisher was above all a nation-builder.

He took on a colossal program of work, and he left the legacy of a strong, effective national government.

He knew that nationhood required national leadership, national infrastructure, national institutions, uniform standards and a sense of collective national identity and shared progress.

He recognised what his times required.

Fisher understood the importance of prudence and fiscal responsibility - so he worked hard to sustain a strong budget position, and avoided debt until it was made inevitable by war.

He believed Australia should not rely on using the British currency - so he established a national currency and a publicly owned Commonwealth Bank.

He believed a national economy required national infrastructure that linked the entire continent - so he built the east-west railway and established uniform postal rates.

He believed Australia had outgrown the time when its defence forces should simply be divisions of the British armed forces - so he strengthened national defences, established the Royal Australian Navy and Duntroon military training college, and in later years he was tireless in promoting the Anzac legacy.

He knew a decision needed to be made on choosing a national capital so he selected Canberra for the Australian Capital Territory.

He believed a decent society must support those unable to work, so he led the efforts to establish the age and invalid pensions.

He knew the dangers of unsafe workplaces from seeing many friends and loved ones lose life or limb at work - so he fought passionately for workers' compensation schemes both in Queensland and Federal Parliaments.

He'd seen how many women were so poor they couldn't even afford to have a doctor present when they were giving birth - so he established the first maternity allowance - the 'baby bonus'.

He believed the new nation needed to develop its own sense of cultural identity, so he supported Australian artists, and laid foundations for key cultural institutions like the national library and national art collections, as well as establishing a new national coat of arms that remains in place today.

And he fought persistently for social progress -
- for women's suffrage;
- for voting reforms that empowered working people - he is, for example, the reason we hold our elections on Saturdays - so working people are not hindered in exercising their democratic rights; and
- for land reforms to discourage speculators and to make housing more affordable.

Fisher's record of achievement is breathtaking.

It may have been even greater had it not been for the outbreak of war, and the truculence of a very conservative High Court.

But even so, Fisher - and the Labor leaders who followed him - were crucial to Australia's greatest achievement.

The creation of this exceptional nation.

A nation built from a motley collectivity of souls, drawn from all corners of the earth; a nation that became a stable and successful democracy, that carved its living from an inhospitable earth to build one of the most prosperous nations on earth - rich in innovation, rich in enterprise; a nation that has so often led the world in social progress that it became one of the most open, most progressive, least class-based societies in the world.

A nation that believes in everyone having a go, and a nation that also believes in everyone getting a fair go.

A nation that celebrates success, hard work and individual achievement; a nation that rewards achievements both in the workplace and the market place.

A generous country and community, confident of its place in the region and in the world - straddling uniquely the challenges and complexities of our Indigenous antiquity, our European history and our Asian geography.

Each and every generation of Australians is confronted by the challenge of whether they take forward the project of building this stronger, fairer, better Australia, or whether they retreat to a more divided, insular, less generous Australia - one stuck in the past, fearing the future, and railing against the uncertainties of a changing world.

Andrew Fisher answered that challenge for his generation.

He took Australia forward.

He laid the foundations of nationhood for our modern economy, our defences and our great social institutions, foundations on which we are still building today.

As heirs to the great legacy of Andrew Fisher and those who have followed him this last one hundred years, the challenge for us today is to answer history's call for our generation.

To build Australia's future, upon the strong foundations of the past.

Just as Fisher helped build Australia's future for the 20th century, so we must shape Australia for the 21st century.

As a government, we came to office with an ambitious agenda because we believe Australian families deserved better - better opportunities, better health and hospitals, better schools and a better workplace.

When we were all threatened by the global financial crisis, we acted decisively to support Australian families.

I was determined to shield Australians from an economic cyclone that would have seen hundreds of thousands of Australians lose their jobs, their homes and their businesses.

We took decisive action, and Australia has come through stronger than almost every other advanced economy.

Throughout that crisis, we were determined to sustain Australians' essential confidence in our future as confidence collapsed around the world.

This is the point of everything we are doing.

Because without confidence in our future, the nation turns in on itself.

In Government, I have strived to remove the obstacles and expand opportunities, so that no Australian is held back from fulfilling their potential. I have sought to support the daily efforts of individuals, families and communities around the country as they work hard, raise kids, build businesses, create communities - and through both success and adversity, sustain hope in their future.

That's why we acted to end Work Choices.

That's why we supported families with:

- three years of tax cuts;
- with extra help for the costs of child care;
- with extra help for the costs of school;
- a better health and hospitals system for the future;
- driving our education revolution to deliver the best educated, best trained, best skilled workforce anywhere in the world.

In Government we have always aimed to deliver a big reform agenda, and there are times when we have run into difficulties, when we haven't achieved everything we set out to do, and when we are working hard to deal with those areas where we have fallen short.

Our task - and Labor's historic task - is to give people the security they need to achieve their ambitions and realise their dreams.

Now as we look beyond 2010, we're determined to continue the job we began for Australian families.

Delivering not just on the big picture, but on the things that count for families and communities as well.

We're getting the budget back to surplus in three years time - three years ahead of time - to keep the economy strong. Through strong economic management, we're halving net peak debt.

We're already funding 1,000 new nurse training places every year. We'll have an additional 1,300 GPs qualified or in training by 2013.

We're currently delivering Trade Training Centres for 732 schools and over the next three years we'll ensure another 520 schools have access to one.

And despite setbacks delivered by an obstructionist Senate, we're tackling climate change by boosting the renewable energy target and supporting record renewable energy investment, and by building one of the world's largest solar power plants, right here in Australia.

Andrew Fisher faced daunting challenges in 1910.

We face daunting challenges today.

To secure our nation's future, we must continue to adapt and change.

We must keep our markets open because open markets maximise competition which in turn maximise growth.

We must modernise Australia's industries and institutions to generate the jobs of tomorrow rather than believing we can somehow snap-freeze the past.

To stand still is to go backwards.

Open markets by contrast are dynamic.

We must invest in roads, railways, ports and broadband.

Fisher began a trans-Australia railway to build a truly national economy. We will build a National Broadband Network to underpin the national economy of the future.

Above all, we must invest in our people - in their education, their health and in the strength of their community.

This isn't just about our national economy, the skills of our workforce, or the competitiveness of our industries.

It is about lifting our nation's ambitions for the future, and calling forth the best from all Australians.

Not just for ourselves individually, not just for our families, but also for the common good, the 'commonwealth' of all Australians.

That's why Labor has always been the party of reform.

Building a stronger Australia.

Building a fairer Australia.

And making the tough decisions for the future.

As we prepare for the 2010 election, echoes from 1910 reverberate down through the generations.

Labor, with a vision to build our nation up. The conservative parties, with the aim only to tear things down.

Labor, building Australia up with a nation-building agenda. The Liberal Party, just wanting to tear things down.

Tear down the most basic protection from unfair dismissal; tear down the modernisation of our schools; tear down the historic reform of the national health and hospital network; rip up a national broadband network.

We stand for a strong economy - they have said instead they would have sent us into recession.

We stand for delivering a surplus three years early - they have no plan to return the Budget to surplus.

We stand for a decent safety net - they would bring back WorkChoices and AWAs.

We stand for better health and better hospitals - they stand for ripping billions out of the public hospital system.

We stand for the mining industry paying its fair share for the people's resources - they say the mining industry pays too much tax.

We stand for building something that lasts out of the soaring commodity prices and the second round of the mining boom - they stand for squandering it, just like they did last time round.

We stand for better super for working families - they stand for ripping away that extra super.

We stand for tax cuts for Australian business - they stand for tax increases for Australian business.

We stand for the biggest increase in the pension in its one hundred year history - they stand for increasing the aged pension age to 70.

These are just some of the differences between us.

In 2010, the Liberal and National Party just want to slither into office on a string of fear campaigns because they know that fear is a potent force in politics.

That is why they use it.

It also helps mask their real policy agenda because it is not a pretty agenda.

And what would they have us fear?

- They'd have us fear debt and deficits - though we have less debt by a country mile than any of the major advanced economies.

- They'd have us fear a tax that requires mining companies to pay their fair share - though these companies now enjoy record profitability.

- They'd have us fear an emissions trading scheme when we all know that a price on carbon is inevitable - necessary for business, necessary for the environment.

- And they'd have us fear genuine refugees - although this country has for decades taken the same overall number of refugees each year.

Every time, they tell us, the sky's about to fall in.

And then the sky doesn't fall in.

It didn't fall in after native title. It didn't fall in over the abolition of Work Choices. And it's not going to fall in now.

Each of these claims will be contested by the facts, and each will be found wanting.

Because the fears they promote are built on sand.

Our task, as ever, is to recognise the concerns of the Australian community, not to deny them, and instead to put the facts.

The Liberals and Nationals oppose everything.

They propose nothing.
Except, of course, fear.

That's what seems to define Mr Abbott's Liberal and National Party - the most extreme Liberal leader in history.

Opposition to reform; stagnation against progress; fear against hope.

A party that looks not to the common good, but only what's in it for me.

Friends, we in the Australian Labor Party can trace our lineage all the way back to the government of Andrew Fisher a century ago.

Indeed, all the way back to the founding of the Labor Party in 1891 on the fields of Barcaldine and the wharves of Balmain.

And if Andrew Fisher was with us tonight, I believe he'd still feel at home.

I think he'd be proud of the achievements today of the party he helped to found and lead into office.

- The Fair Work Act, that reflects the same values that shaped his reforms to the Conciliation and Arbitration Act.

- Australia's first-ever Paid Parental Leave scheme, shaped by the same values that inspired Australia's first-ever maternity allowance, under Fisher.

- The expansion of universal superannuation, shaped by the same values that underpinned Fisher's commitment to the age pension.

- The National Broadband Network, shaped by the same nation-building values that inspired the national railway line Fisher built across the Australian continent.

- And when we told him that Australia emerged in better shape than any of the major advanced economies, after the worst global recession since the 1930s, I reckon he'd be proud, and maybe not all that surprised.

Friends, Andrew Fisher was neither a soaring intellect, nor a powerful orator.

But he had character, determination and the deepest sense of Labor values.

And Fisher's achievements in office make him soar above contemporaries who enjoyed far greater education, privilege and prowess.

As we cast our eyes back over the past century, we can see how the election of 1910 pointed with hope to Australia's future.

The nation where a Scottish miner's son could rise to national leadership is a nation where hope can triumph over fear; a nation that would provide a home for the refugees from war and destruction in Europe a generation later; a nation that would make a home for people from every corner of the world since; a nation that would finally come together to formally recognise its grave mistreatment of Indigenous Australians, and to offer these first Australians a formal apology.

Friends, Australia in 2010 is very different to what it was in 1910.

In so many ways, a better nation.

A land of greater diversity, opportunity and possibility, and a much better nation for the life of Andrew Fisher and the work of successive generations of the Australian Labor Party.

I'm proud to lead a Government that stands in the great tradition of Andrew Fisher.

I'm proud to lead a reforming Labor Government.

And I'm proud to lead a nation-building Government grounded in enduring Labor values - of hope triumphing over fear.

A government with a vision for a stronger, fairer Australia in the 21st century.

And a government that is getting on with the job of building that future today.

Speech

pmo655 — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:31:08 +0000

21 June 2010

Transcript of remarks regarding an incident in Afghanistan

The Prime Minister addressed the House of Representatives regarding an incident in Afghanistan

Prime Minister

Remarks to the House of Representatives regarding an incident in Afghanistan

Canberra

21 June 2010

It is with profound sadness that I inform the House that a helicopter carrying Coalition forces went down in Khandahar province in Afghanistan today.

There were ten Australian servicemen on board.

It's my sad responsibility to inform the House that three Australian Commandos from the Special Operations Task Group have been killed.

Seven other Australian servicemen are wounded, two of them very seriously.

This is a tragic day for Australia and for the Australian Defence Force.

It is a day of the deepest sorrow for the friends and families of those who have lost their loved ones in this tragedy.

I express to all of them the deepest condolences of the Australian Government and the Australian people.

Our thoughts are also with those who have been wounded.

I want them and their families to know that they will receive the best possible medical care.

This tragedy brings to sixteen those Australians who have lost their lives serving our country in Afghanistan.

This is a very heavy price to pay, particularly for the families of those brave Australians who have lost their lives.

We know our mission in Afghanistan is hard, but this mission is critical for our common security.

We work alongside our allies from the United States and from other NATO countries to avoid Afghanistan once again becoming a breeding ground for terrorists who can then strike at innocent Australians both at home and abroad.

It is our nation's highest calling to wear the uniform of Australia.

Those who wear it do outstanding work for Australia and they do that outstanding work in this most difficult, demanding and dangerous of environments.

Today we recall their service as we mourn the loss of some of Australia's finest.

The commitment, the dedication and sacrifice of those soldiers will not be forgotten.

It will never be forgotten.

All Australians owe them a debt of gratitude for their service and for their sacrifice.

Our thoughts and our prayers are with the families and friends of those who have fallen.

We mourn them, we pay tribute to them, we pay tribute to them having paid the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

Speech

pmo655 — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:29:01 +0000

21 June 2010

Speech to Micah Challenge Voices for Justice

The Prime Minister spoke at the signiture event of Micah Challenge Voices for Justice

Prime Minister

Speech to Micah Challenge Voices for Justice Signiture Event

Canberra

21 June 2010

Well, good morning to you all.

I understand you were locked out in the cold this morning. This was a pre-determined plan to test your level of Christian commitment to social justice. It was not an accident. Sorry about that. I'm sure you'll recover with something warm to drink and to eat fairly soon.

Micah Challenge has asked for something pretty basic but deeply profound - to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

This is often a challenging environment in which to walk humbly with your God. That's the parliament building.

To do justice, to love mercy, these are big and fundamental challenges for all people of conscience.

Mention was made just before of Wilberforce and many of us have seen the film; some of us have read his biography; some of us have read more about his life. What strikes me about people like Wilberforce and those who at that time and before him, campaigned for social justice was that they were all told at the time it was impossible; that it couldn't be done; that if you change these things it would so fundamentally wreck the economy and the existing social order that it wasn't worth trying; and even if you were sympathetic to the cause, somehow, somehow, it was just so far off into the future that you could never get there.

Well, people like Shaftesbury said no, we can make a difference. People like Wilberforce said no, we can make a difference. People who said one day that women should have the vote, they also made a difference. People who said that vote should be extended to all human beings, whatever their property class, they, too, believed they could make a difference. And in each of their cases, whether it was the repeal of the Child Factory Act, whether it was the introduction of laws to prevent the sending of children down into mines, whether it was laws to ensure that mines could be worked in with safety, and factories, laws which repealed slavery, laws which enabled all people to participate in the democratic society of nations, all these were made possible because men and women decided to make a difference. That's what impresses me about you good folk here today in making poverty history and the underpinnings of it through the Micah Challenge.

Some sometimes argue that the question of social justice and the alleviation and the elimination of extreme poverty are just too hard and too far off. You know something? I think that's wrong.

I think each and every one of you here are demonstrations of the fact that you believe that's wrong. I think each and every one of you here sees yourself as a change-maker in the world today.

Those of you who have signed up for the Micah Challenge, and if my memory serves me well more than 100,000 of you across the country, are out there as individual ambassadors for change in each of your local communities: in the face of local politicians; in the face of your local community leaders; in the face of your local newspapers, causing them to conclude that this isn't just something which hangs of the edge or at the extremes of what's possible or normal in our national and local political life, but it actually is fundamental.

So, I thank you for the work that you've done: for the meetings you've held; the engagements you've had; and the fact that you're here in Canberra today to be in the face of our nation's politicians as well, because it's important that you do so. This place is full of competing priorities. What's important? How do we spend our nation's resources? What should we give our time to? You are constantly out there as this nagging, prophetic voice.

If you read the history of folk like Micah and the Old Testament prophets, they could be real nags. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Micah, Amos - these were in your face types. They didn't have a lot of popularity at the time, by the way, either, in your face types. So, can I say to each and every one of you, it's good, the work that you're doing.

The Millennium Development Goals are the practical mechanism through which we engage as countries of the world to make that difference. There's no point going out there and re-inventing the wheel. The MDGs are there. They are the product of the crafting of agreement between governments going back to the Millennium Summit, and we're now 10 years into the Millennium.

These are basic goals, eight of them, and they go to very basic measures about whether we are making a difference to extreme poverty. That is why we have embraced them as an Australian Government. That's why they've formed the structure through which we explain what we are doing in terms of our international development assistance effort.

There's no point re-inventing the wheel. They should be our framework. That's why we've now incorporated that framework of the MDGs into what we're doing with each and every one of the Island countries of the Pacific. We've done that over the last two years.

How do we measure whether we're making progress or not? Well, the MDGs actually provide a mechanism for doing that. You're either improving the figures on infant mortality, for maternal death, or you're not. It's very measurable.

Of course, having a way in which you measure these things and a way in which you organise your efforts, that's one thing. The second one is whether you're making an effort as well.

Prior to the last election I said we'd commit to 0.5 by 2015-16. That is a commitment from which I believe none of us can move. I thank the Leader of the Opposition and those who have preceded him in his position for committing them to that goal as well. It's really important, and so in the last two years our overseas development assistance contribution has gone from, I think, $3.1 billion to $4.3 billion as a result. The most recent budget - more than half a billion dollars more. We're on track to realise that 0.5 goal, and if you know where we started from, it's been a long distance to travel.

Every Finance Minister and every Treasurer of the country will rail against this. I don't think it's right to do that, and that's why we're on track to reach that. We know there is more to do.

To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. A year or so ago Tim Costello gave me this version of the Bible, a Poverty and Justice Bible. You'll be familiar with it.

Sometimes people think this is just one of those marginal things, also, even in the teaching of the Christian scriptures. It's not. There are 2,000 verses in this Bible which are all about the injunction for each of us to do justice and to love mercy and to make a difference for the poor.

So, thank you, each and every one of you, for making a difference for the poor. Your advocacy on the ground is effective. You've made the nation's political leadership listen, so when you go back to your communities and the schools from which you come, just tell them this one thing - you have made a difference, you are making a difference, and together we will make a difference in eliminating extreme poverty across the world.

That is our nation's ambition and the ambition of all people of conscience, everywhere.

Interview

Tony Hodges — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:47:48 +0000

20 June 2010

Transcript of joint press conference, Canberra

The Prime Minister held a press conference on the Heads of Agreement between Telstra and NBN Co

Prime Minister

Transcript of joint press conference

Parliament House

Canberra

20 June 2010

Subject(s):

Heads of Agreement between Telstra and NBN Co; Penrith by-election; RSPT; Socceroos