Western Sydney Airport will generate tens of thousands of jobs – thousands more than previously estimated – according to new modelling from Ernst and Young.

By 2031 – five years after the airport is scheduled to open – Western Sydney Airport will have delivered an estimated 28,000 additional jobs both inside the airport and in surrounding areas. This number of new jobs in the region increases to 47,000 by 2041. Importantly, these new jobs are in addition to the 11,000 construction jobs during the period the airport is being built.

The first of these jobs will be on the ground within months. Last week’s announcement that Western Sydney Airport Corporation (WSA Co), the Government-owned company building the airport, will open its head office at Scott Street in Liverpool. Staff will be located there before the end of this year.

Every direct job building the airport will support another 2.5 jobs down the supply chain. This includes jobs like delivering building materials to the site.

The airport will mean new jobs across industry sectors will be created. By 2031 the airport is expected to support around over 5,000 jobs in manufacturing, almost 3,000 jobs in transport and warehousing, 2,500 jobs in retail, and 1,650 jobs in accommodation services.

Research conducted recently by Liverpool Council earlier this year found strong support for Western Sydney Airport.

To maximise local benefits, WSA Co will also set ambitious employment targets for local workers, apprentices, trainees, Indigenous Australians and other key groups.

WSA Co will enter into billions of dollars of contracts. Through the tender process, bidders will be required to demonstrate how they will contribute to WSA’s employment targets.

Work is already underway through negotiations on the Western Sydney City Deal to build a strong and capable pipeline of local, skilled workers to meet jobs demand.

For more information on the airport visit www.westernsydneyairport.gov.au

The Ernst and Young research can be viewed here – www.westernsydneyairport.gov.au/jobs

BRENDAN JONES:

Right now on the line, we could ask him about this, it’s the Prime Minister of our country, Malcolm Turnbull.

AMANDA KELLER:

Good morning.

PRIME MINISTER:

Hey, good morning. How are you?

BRENDAN JONES:

Malcolm, we’re well. When you go out on – like to a disaster or anything, do you think about these things, what you’re going to wear?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well you know, as a bloke you get off pretty easily. I was just listening to what you were saying about Melania Trump, I think people are so hard and tough on women and what they wear. You know, whether they’re in the media or in politics or in the public eye, have you ever heard anyone complaining about what a male politician wears? Or indeed a male media personality? It is really, it is very unfair.

BRENDAN JONES:

Well, there was Tony in the Speedos. But other than that..

AMANDA KELLER:

There was that.

PRIME MINISTER:

[Laughter]

Well, it’s hard to think of another example.

AMANDA KELLER:

That’s appropriate in the flood zone at least.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah.

AMANDA KELLER:

Hey can we talk about North Korea?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes.

AMANDA KELLER:

I thought you said some very strong words yesterday, saying: “Look, we would win in a fight with North Korea.”  But how, is this imminent? Are we likely to enter into a war with North Korea?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it depends, really that’s up to North Korea, whether they’re going to, you know, attack the United States or attack one of the United States’ treaty allies like Japan for example. The point that I was making is that what this criminal, dangerous regime is doing, is it is essentially trying to intimidate the rest of the world to not impose sanctions and in effect reward them for their criminal belligerence.

You know, that’s the standover tactics, it’s like the mafia and the global community is absolutely united in standing up to that. The UN Security Council has imposed very strong economic sanctions. They will come into effect next week. They should all be imposed but the most important country in this regard of course is China. They have the biggest – by far the biggest economic relationship with North Korea. They have said that they are going to stop importing coal, iron ore, seafood and other things from North Korea. That will impose a heavy economic price on North Korea and that is the way to bring them, bring North Korea to its senses without conflict.

AMANDA KELLER:

So at what point are we ‘in’? At what point is there conflict? At what point do you say: “OK, Australia is in here”?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well Australia, the United States is our most important ally. I mean that, the US Alliance is the bedrock of our national security. We have the ANZUS Treaty, under that if either party is attacked, then the other one has to come to their aid. So if the United States was attacked, we would come to America’s aid and if we were attacked the US would come to our aid. That’s the basis of the treaty alliance.

So there is no question in my mind, that if North Korea were to attack the United States as they often threaten to do, there would be a conflict which would be a suicide note from North Korea’s point of view. You know he’s playing, Kim Jong-un is playing a game of very, very dangerous brinkmanship. But the people, the country that can bring him to his senses without conflict, is China. Now, I’m not suggesting China is responsible for what he’s doing, quite the contrary. They have plenty of complaints and problems with North Korea, but they do have that economic leverage that other nations do not.

So with the greatest leverage comes the greatest responsibility.

BRENDAN JONES:

He’s also playing a dangerous game with his hairdresser as well. What’s with that haircut?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah well that’s-

AMANDA KELLER:

You should tell him.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah.

BRENDAN JONES:

That’s dreadful.

[Laughter]

You’ve just struck a deal with the energy companies. What has actually been achieved, because my electricity bill is though the – I can’t even articulate how expensive it is. I mean, I went, “What? Look at that!”

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah okay, so this is what we’ve done. What we’ve secured is a commitment from the energy retailers to contact about 2 million, probably a bit more, customers. So that’s 2 million households, who are either on plans that have expired, or are on the standard offer and would have the opportunity of paying less if they were on the right plan. So it’s essentially, it’s really a wake-up call to people to say, “Hang on, do you realise you’re paying more than you need to for electricity?” Now you know, so those letters will be going out between now and the end of the year.

It will become part of the law now, that if you’re on a plan and it’s coming to an end, before it comes to an end, the retailer has got to get in touch with you and say: “Hey, your plan is coming to an end. If you don’t do anything, you’ll go onto the standard offer and you’ll be paying more”. But you can go to energymadeeasy.gov.au. Go to that government website, federal government website and you will be able to compare what you’re currently paying with what’s on offer and you’ll find, as hundreds of thousands of people have done very recently, since we started raising the profile of this. You’ll find that there are a lot of offers out there and many people are getting – making savings of 3, 4, 5 600 dollars a year.

So my commitment, my objective is to ensure that no Australian family is paying more than they need to for electricity. So ideally, we want everyone to be on the right plan.

AMANDA KELLER:

Because we were told Prime Minister, like back in 2013, Tony Abbott made it his number one issue to repeal the carbon tax. He said that that was making our bills skyrocket and we’d be better off without it. He said these words:

TONY ABBOTT – RECORDING:

When this bill is passed, Australian households will be better off to the tune of $550 a year.

AMANDA KELLER:

Why haven’t we seen that?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well prices actually did come done after the repeal of the carbon tax, so that was achieved. But what’s happened since then, there have been other developments in the energy sector that have seen prices go back up again. Probably the most, single most important factor very recently has been the rocketing price of gas. Now again, that has been the consequence of a failure of policy by the Labor Party. When they were in Government they allowed gas to be exported from Queensland, from the east coast system, but failed to do anything to ring-fence or protect gas supplies for the domestic market. So as a result, the domestic market became short of gas. I know it’s hard to believe in a country that’s the second biggest gas exporter, about to become the biggest. But there you are, we were short of gas.

So I’ve had to step in and take very strong steps to restrict exports so as to ensure there is enough gas for the domestic market. Now while having announced that earlier in the year, already we’ve seen the wholesale price of gas coming down and more gas coming into the domestic market.

But it was, look, the story of the Labor Party on energy is that they’ve got two problems, it’s not just ideology, not just left-wing ideology that wants to drive coal-fired power out of the system, drive baseload power out of the system. But they’re also – it’s also idiocy, because they went hell for leather on renewables and did nothing to provide the storage and the backup. So it’s my Government that is getting on and building Snowy Hydro 2.0 which will be the biggest battery in Australia, indeed, in the Southern Hemisphere. Because it’s only by proper planning and proper engineering that you can ensure that people will have affordable and reliable power, so we’re doing-

AMANDA KELLER:

But this is five years after a major election promise, so hopefully we do see this kick in before too long.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well people are getting really substantial saving on their electricity bills now and we’ve secured that commitment from the retailers. So there are literally hundreds of dollars can be saved now in many cases, millions of households, will have the opportunity to do that.

So we’re doing things Amanda in the here and now, that affect prices in the here and now and we’re also making the long-term infrastructure and planning decisions to ensure that in years to come that there will be continued downward pressure on prices.

I’m doing everything I can to ensure that energy is affordable and reliable. That’s our commitment.

BRENDAN JONES:

Malcolm thank you for joining us, though I must apologise as well. When you were on ACA last night – well, Amanda you should apologise.

AMANDA KELLER:

Sorry, I was trying to line you up for the show, I didn’t know you were busy, here you are.

PRIME MINISTER – RECORDING:

That’s why we are taking strong steps to put in place – 

[Phone rings]

TRACY GRIMSHAW- RECORDING:

That’s your phone.

PRIME MINISTER- RECORDING:

[Laughter]

I know, I better turn it off.

TRACY GRIMSHAW- RECORDING:

You’re a man in demand.

PRIME MINISTER- RECORDING:

Sorry Tracy.

BRENDAN JONES:

Sorry about that Malcolm.

AMANDA KELLER:

You should have put it on silent as I asked you.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah well my phone normally is on silent, but it did ring. But I hope I was able to flick it off fairly dexterously.

BRENDAN JONES:

But the standard ringtone Prime Minister? I thought you might have something like you know Crazy Frog.

[Sound effects]

Something like that?

AMANDA KELLER:

Something distinctive.

PRIME MINISTER:

What do you guys think is the worst ringtone you’ve heard?

BRENDAN JONES:

I think that one, I think Crazy Frog.

[Sound effects]

PRIME MINISTER:

Everyone’s got that, but what’s the worst sort of custom ringtone you’ve heard?

AMANDA KELLER:

I dunno, but Jonesy has Guns N’ Roses which went off in a funeral recently which was unfortunate.

[Laughter]

BRENDAN JONES:

They’re the best. I had Milkshakes Bring All The Boys To The Yard as well. But my brother-

AMANDA KELLER:

That’s Christopher Pyne’s.

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

I like – sometimes I see people who have dogs barking as their ringtone, that’s always a bit disconcerting.

BRENDAN JONES:

That’s when Tony’s ringing you.

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, I couldn’t possibly comment.

BRENDAN JONES:

Malcolm it’s always great to talk to you. Malcolm Turnbull, thank you for joining us.

AMANDA KELLER:

Yeah thank you Prime Minister. Thank you. Bye.

PRIME MINISTER:

Thanks a lot, see ya.

[ENDS]

PRIME MINISTER:

Good morning Sam.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Welcome. This is never ending, this citizenship chaos that is going on in the Parliament. Derryn Hinch is now calling for an independent audit of every Member of the Parliament. Is that necessary?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I think what’s necessary is what is going to happen is the High Court will consider seven citizenship cases – which I suppose are test cases in effect – and they will do that in the second week of October. So I think we’ll have the law clarified then.

But just speaking for the Coalition Senators and Member, which is Barnaby Joyce of course, we are very confident that the court will confirm that they are qualified to sit in parliament.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

The rules are rules, though. Constitutional law experts are saying that it’s unlikely – it’s highly unlikely they won’t pass this?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, the Solicitor General’s advice, which is the one we rely on, is you know – differs from that. We are very confident and in fact, I’d just say Sam that section has never been read literally. The court has always interpreted in a way to realise the intent of the drafters.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Yes, this will be the test case.

PRIME MINISTER:

So, there are seven of them, there seven of them!

(Laughter)

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Yes, goodness me!

PRIME MINISTER:

Derryn apparently wants to be number eight.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Yes.

PRIME MINISTER:

So I think the courts got plenty on the docket.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Well they sure have, they’ve got their hands full for now.

Alright, let’s talk about North Korea. We’ve got pictures in from overnight showing dictator Kim Jong-un laughing as he watched the launch of a ballistic missile right over the top of Japan. You have warned he will be signing a suicide note if he starts a war. Overnight, US President Donald Trump has tweeted saying ‘after 25 years of talking, that’s no longer the answer’. Is military action shaping up to be the only option here?

PRIME MINISTER:

No, it’s not shaping up to be the only option, but it clearly is an option. What we want is for this matter, this issue to be resolved peacefully; we want North Korea to come to its senses. The best way for that to happen, and the most peaceful way for that to happen is for the UN Security Council sanctions – economic sanctions – to be enforced, and in particular by China, who has said they will.

Remember China has the overwhelming dominant economic relationship with North Korea. They have the greatest leverage and therefore the greatest responsibility.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

And if diplomacy fails, which it is at the moment and Trump picks up the phone and calls you and says will you join us, in military action, will we provide troops?

PRIME MINISTER:

I’m not going to speculate on that. I have been asked about the ANZUS Treaty, and clearly, if the United States were attacked, then under the ANZUS treaty we would come to aid of the United States.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

So we would go to war-

PRIME MINISTER:

If the United States were attacked that’s right. We could come to the US, the United States aid, just as if we were attacked under that treaty the United States would come to our aid.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

How much – I mean this is our region, we not necessarily meant to take the lead but we certainly have to be involved in our own region. How much danger are we in here?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, the whole region is in danger from the instability and you know the risk of conflict that North Korea’s reckless activities entail. I mean they are essentially, they’re stand over merchants. What they are seeking to do is to intimidate other countries to not impose sanctions, and that’s why the sanctions must be imposed. The economic pressures have to be bracketed up on North Korea, so that they see that they will not be rewarded for their illegal and reckless conduct.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Okay let’s head home now. We’ll talk about power prices, we’re calling you the ‘power ranger’ this morning. I don’t know if you appreciated that.

PRIME MINISTER:

I’ll take it.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

You negotiated with energy retail bosses yesterday.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yep.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

They are now saying – you have asked them to send letters to Australian households to outline better and cheaper deals for households.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Is that enough, is that doing enough here?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it certainly is going to result in millions of households, millions of families, over two million are paying less for their electricity bills and the typical savings that people are achieving are in the – you know hundreds of dollars.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

But is shopping around the answer if they’re all much of a muchness and they’re all expensive?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well no Sam, promise you, people should go – you don’t have to wait for the letter to be alerted to it. The letter is really a reminder, because look all of us are busy, all of us are running around chasing after kids and grandkids and working, and so we don’t pay enough attention to our electricity bills, and there are a lot of people that are paying more than they need to. So the-

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Yes, but this seems to be out of control now… Is there no way you can legislate against the power companies against their increases, their outrageous increases?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, what we are legislating is to ensure that when somebody comes to the end of a plan, that they should be – they will be notified…

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Is there more that you can do then that?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well just hang on, let me just finish this, this is a very important message.

If you want to see what savings you can achieve for your energy bill, go to EnergyMadeEasy.gov.au, it’s an Australian Government website and I’ve seen many examples of people saving $300, $400, $500, $600, and more sometimes on their energy bill. So this is real dollars in the here and now.

Now longer term, we’re making big investments to make sure we put downward pressure on electricity prices. Snowy Hydro 2.0 is a very good example of that, but obviously a new power station, new generation takes time to build.

We’re also taking action to bring down the price of gas, and that’s already starting to happen, but in terms of cutting your electricity bill right now, the actual we’re taking with the retailers is going to deliver, for millions of households, hundreds of dollars of savings a year.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

And were they receptive, did you feel like it was a productive meeting?

PRIME MINISTER:

It was a very productive meeting. I mean look, inertia and complexity are the friends of the retailers. I mean very often, if you ring up and say to your retailer, you know I am sick of paying this high bill, what will you do for me they’ll give you a discount so they make money of the people that way-

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

They rely on people to be too busy to challenge them.

PRIME MINISTER:

Correct. So that is why what I’ve done is say to the retailers now you’ve got to look after your customers. Your customers, you know you’ve got to look after them and one of the ways you look after them is by making sure that as far as possible, no one is paying a dollar more for their electricity than they need to. I’d like every Australian family to be on the best deal for them. That’s the goal.

SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE:

Okay, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, thank you for your time today.

PRIME MINISTER:

Thank you very much.

[ENDS]

Up to two million Australian households will be contacted by their electricity providers and offered a better, cheaper deal on their power bills.

The agreement was reached during a second meeting between the Government and the nation’s biggest energy retailers. It is the latest step in the Turnbull Government’s drive to cut energy prices for households and businesses.

Retailers confirmed their commitments from the first meeting on 9 August to ensure that an estimated 1 million families on expired discount offers are contacted and directed to the best electricity plan for them.

At today’s meeting, retailers agreed to go further; contacting another 1 million customers on ‘standing offers’ – usually the most expensive rates.

This means up to two million Australian households will be given the opportunity to move to cheaper rates, reducing their annual power bill.

We know that 50 per cent of households have not moved retailers or contracts in the past five years, even though savings can be as high as $1500.

At the urging of the Turnbull Government, companies will move towards marketing their offers in dollar terms, speed up switching between different providers, provide more flexible billing (such as monthly where smart meters are in place) and work with government and regulators to communicate more clearly and effectively with customers.

The Government also secured a commitment from the retailers to make available to customers their consumption and payment information, working with the Australian Energy Regulator on a QR code, or equivalent, on their bill which they can scan using a smartphone and instantly compare offers from other retailers.

The Government acknowledges the support retailers give through their hardship programs and both agree to identify and share best practice elements and examine potential improvements.

Electricity is an essential service. Australian households and small businesses rightly expect they have access to the best possible deal and these commitments from retailers represents significant progress towards this end. 

These measures are part of the Government’s efforts to improve competition and lower energy prices, including commissioning the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to review the electricity market.

PRIME MINISTER:

Thank you all for joining us again today.

As you know, too many Australians are paying more for their electricity than they need to. It’s our commitment to ensure, working with you, that no Australians pay any more for energy than they need to. But we need your help.

We’re very focused on putting downward pressure on energy prices. It’s one of the reasons we’re working on long-term projects like Snowy Hydro 2.0 but that’s years away, six years away Paul promised, and we’ll hold him to that by the way.

But the reality is we need action now.

I want to thank you for the commitments you made at our last meeting. We reached a number of agreements whereby you would contact your customers who had discounted plans that had expired and advise them that they were paying more than they needed to. That’s very important.

You’ve given support for a rule change under the electricity law to make this mandatory in the future.

You’re taking steps, ongoing, to ensure customers are aware of better offers and giving clearer, more user-friendly information.

So we’re looking forward to hearing your progress on all of that but we think there is a lot more than we can do.

It troubles us greatly, it’s very concerning that in addition to those Australians that are on expired plans, there are up to a million households, possibly a lot more, still on standing offers which are often, as you know, the most expensive proposition for a customer.

So we want you to write to them as well and explain to them that they could potentially save hundreds of dollars by switching to a cheaper rate.

As you know, the gap between the best and worst offers can range from $900 to $1,500 depending on the household and even within market offers, the gap between the best and the median offers is up to $400.

So these are very large sums of money for Australian families.

Ensuring that no Australian is paying more for electricity than they need to – in other words, that your customers are getting the best deal you can offer them – is absolutely critical.

We want to address that and I know you’re committed to doing so.

We need to do it urgently and directly.

We’ve got a lot of good policies underway, we’ve got a lot of good projects underway but they’ll take time to build.

We need action right now in the here and now and with your support, we’ll be able to ensure, working together, that Australians are not paying any more for electricity than they need to and that millions of Australian households will be able to save hundreds, in some cases thousands of dollars.

So thanks very much for being here.

We look forward to having a very good and constructive discussion that will ensure we’re all working together to make sure Australians get the best deal on energy that they can.

Thank you.

[ENDS]