Snowy Hydro 2.0 Powering Ahead

Snowy Hydro 2.0 is already employing 350 people and will create more than 5000 new jobs during the construction phase of the development.

The game changing project, will have enough capacity to provide 350,000 MW/h of power for a week, enough to meet peak demand continuously for 500,000 homes.

Snowy Hydro 2.0 will help safeguard the energy security of the eastern seaboard, particularly on hot summer days and cold winter nights, while providing a jobs bonanza during the construction phase.

The Turnbull Government today confirmed a new $8 million accelerated agreement between the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and Snowy Hydro had been reached to drive planning for the construction of the project and insight for future pumped hydro projects into the future.

ARENA is finalising details on the injection of funding with Snowy Hydro Ltd.

The total spend on the planning phase will be $29 million and be completed before the end of the year.

Extensive drilling and analysis is already underway on the western side of the mountains around Tumut.

In its first stage of construction, the project will see a 2000MW of underground generation and 29 km of tunnels between existing reservoirs in the Snowy Mountains region.

Under the agreement with ARENA, Snowy will provide information on future trends for pumped hydro and energy demand, as well as the latest information on technology such as reversible pumps or variable load generation.

This information will help the potential next wave of pumped hydro projects, such as the nine pumped projects being examined in Tasmania.

The Australian Government’s support for pumped hydro is part of our commitment to ensure reliability and affordability in the energy system and to build an energy network we can rely upon while reducing emissions.




Radio interview with Fifi Box, Dave Thornton, Brendan Fevola, and Byron Cooke, FOX FM

FIFI BOX:

Prime Minister, welcome to the show.

PRIME MINISTER:

Hey, it’s great to be with you. How are you going?

FIFI BOX:

We’re great and Malcolm we must say, we’ve been so keen to get you on our show for so long. I hope you don’t mind that we used your name as somewhat of a pun, because we had the official line out there; Mal-come-on-our-show.

[Laughter].

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I’m here. I’m here on your show and I’ll be back. I’ll be back.

FIFI BOX:

Yes!

PRIME MINISTER:

To quote Mathias Cormann. Or was it Arnold Schwarzenegger? I can’t remember.

FIFI BOX:

One of them.

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

It goes a little bit like; “I’ll be back”.

FIFI BOX:

That’s actually Brendan Fevola. Now Mr Turnbull before we go on, can we just talk for a second? You are aware – and I love this – that over a million households are paying too much for power. You are getting to the bottom of this. Is this right? You’re going to reduce energy prices for Australians?

PRIME MINISTER:

That’s exactly right. We met with the retailers a little while ago, I’m meeting with them again this week. What we are securing is their commitment to make sure that their customers know whether they’re on the right plan or not.

Now, we think there is at least 1 million, possibly more – a lot more in fact – who are paying more for their electricity than they need. Because they’re either not on the right plan or they were on a plan and it’s expired and then they flipped over to the standard offer and nobody has told them. Obviously people have got busy lives, they’re running around, looking after the kids, going to work, doing a million things and some of that paperwork slips their minds.

But I want to make sure that as far as we can manage it, no Australian is paying more than they need to for electricity. That is why we want the retailers – they’ve given a commitment to do this and we will be reinforcing that this week – to be getting in touch with people and making sure they get the right deal.

Now we’ve already seen reports of people being offered 25-27 per cent discounts, but you know, on an electricity bill, average house, family bill for a family in Victoria, it would be over $2,000. Maybe $2,300 – $2,400, $2,500 a year. You know, that’s big, that’s a lot of money. So a 25 per cent discount on that –

FIFI BOX:

Huge.

PRIME MINISTER:

Even a ten per cent discount on that, it makes a difference, yeah.

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

That’s great. Now onto more pressing things Malcolm, Mr Prime Minister. Cricket, beer, day off, beach, sun, eskies, barbies, Australian flag. I’m talking Australia Day.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yep.

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

Can you please put your foot down to all these councils around Australia and make Australia Day, Australia Day? It’s a day we all celebrate, it’s a day we get together and we just –

DAVE THORNTON:

Fev is on an editorial rampage here.

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

Well –

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, Fev you’re absolutely right. I completely agree with you and I gave a speech about that in the Parliament just the other day. I had a bit to say about the issue of trying to deny our history on the weekend too.

Look, Australia Day ceremonies as we all know, we all go to them, they begin with an Acknowledgment of Country. They begin with a recognition of our First Australians – the oldest continuous human culture on earth, 65,000 years – and they end up with a citizenship ceremony where you get a young couple with a baby becoming our newest Australian citizens.

So it embraces everything about Australia, from our First Australians to our newest Australians and all of that extraordinary achievement that has made up the most successful multicultural society in the world.

Look, the government is absolutely committed to sticking with Australia Day, on Australia Day.

FIFI BOX:

I love that Malcolm, and the key there, that inclusiveness. It’s about including everybody.

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

And then we include everybody then we go down the beach in our flip flops and we get our stumps out, we play cricket and we frothies and we have a Barbie and we celebrate it.

[Laughter]

DAVE THORNTON:

I think we all agree councils should stay out of it but the debate will rage on.

FIFI BOX:

Yes. Now we before we let you go Mr Prime Minister, this would be very important to us, if you could join in in something that we are doing which will mark, it’ll be a moment in history, we are hoping this will be a celebration that will be marked for the future to come.

We have a little segment on this show called ‘Are you smarter than…?’ and it’s essentially a trivia contest Mr Turnbull.

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh.

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

“Oh.”

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh dear. ‘Things look grim for our young hero’.

[Laughter].

FIFI BOX:

Look, it’s a tiny segment we do at usually 6.20 in the morning, it’s hidden and we’re hoping to make it an arena spectacular. We’re going to take it to Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne or HiSense and we’re going to have a massive trivia night.

Now if we could get you to somehow endorse it, we just think we’ll get those big –

PRIME MINISTER:

A massive trivia night? You reckon you can fill up the Rod Laver Arena?

FIFI BOX:

That’s the aim.

DAVE THORNTON:

It’s a ridiculous aim. I don’t think we can Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER:

Trivia nights are fun. I mean, I think they’re good. I mean at the very least you always end up learning something you didn’t know, typically something fairly useless –

DAVE THORNTON:

Brilliant.

PRIME MINISTER:

But yeah, you know, it gets back to what Fev was saying about Australia Day; anything that gets people together having a good time, meeting people they haven’t met before or catching up with old friends, all of that social interaction is very important. It’s very easy for us to get lost in our own little world on our smartphones nowadays.

FIFI BOX:

It is.

PRIME MINISTER:

So you know, the more socialising the better.

FIFI BOX:

A wonderful endorsement there Mr Turnbull and before we let you go, Fev is very competitive in this segment and he usually cracks it when someone beats him. We thought, could we find out whether the Prime Minister of Australia is smarter than Fev? Would you be happy to just take on a quick quiz? It will take literally 60 seconds.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yep, sure. Let’s do it.

DAVE THORNTON:

Here we go – it even has its own jingle Prime Minister. It is Fev versus the Prime Minister.

FIFI BOX:

It is the best out of three. Question one, jump in when you know the answer: What is the capital of Hungary?

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

Me, right now.

PRIME MINISTER:

Budapest.

DAVE THORNTON:

Budapest is correct.

FIFI BOX:

Yes, Budapest is correct Prime Minister.

DAVE THORNTON:

Prime Minister one, Fev zero.

FIFI BOX:

Question two – it’s a popular culture question here – name the school Harry Potter attended?

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

Hogwarts.

DAVE THORNTON:

Fev! Hang on, he’s done it!

PRIME MINISTER:

Yep, good on you. We both knew it but Fev got in first.

DAVE THORNTON:

Brings out the worst in people this segment doesn’t it?

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

This is a tie-break, this is it.

FIFI BOX:

That’s one all. The tie-breaker, the Prime Minister versus Brendan Fevola.

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

Please be sport.

FIFI BOX:

It’s science.

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

Oh no!

FIFI BOX:

Here we go. On the periodic table what does ‘He’ represent?

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

Gas!

PRIME MINISTER:

Helium.

FIFI BOX:

Correct!

DAVE THORNTON:

The Prime Minister has done it! He is smarter than Fev and that is a relief for the whole country!

BRENDAN FEVOLA:

I was so close!

PRIME MINISTER:

Well done.

DAVE THORNTON:

Thank you so much Prime Minister Turnbull for joining us.

PRIME MINISTER:

Thanks everyone, great fun. See ya.

FIFI BOX:

Bye!

[ENDS]




Television interview – The Project

PETER HELLIAR:

Welcome back, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah good to be here. Welcome to Sydney.

PETER HELLIAR:

It’s great to be in Sydney as always. Tony on the turps there, we thought we might give you a little present. This is an alcohol breath-tester.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah okay.

[Laughter]

PETER HELLIAR:

Need this before the next Cabinet meeting, perhaps?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well yeah there you go, how many tests can it do?

[Laughter]

PETER HELLIAR:

You might have to buy your own batteries.

PRIME MINISTER:

I’m sure I’ll manage that. Good, well thank you very much.

PETER HELLIAR:

Our pleasure.

PRIME MINISTER:

I’ll keep that in mind. Everyone will have seen you giving that to me and that will ensure a higher level of sobriety.

PETER HELLIAR:

It’s on public record now.

PRIME MINISTER:

There you go, good on you.

DR CHRIS BROWN:

Given the events we just discovered about with Tony Abbott, is it time to introduce parliamentary lockout laws? Where you can’t get a drink after ten o’clock.

PRIME MINISTER:

Can I tell you, with a majority of one, we don’t want to lock anybody out!

[Laughter]

We want to lock them in to be there for the vote.

Rachel Corbett:

Getting serious for a minute. You’ve had plenty of-

PRIME MINISTER:

That’s pretty serious, actually!

Rachel Corbett:

I know, I know, very serious, very serious!

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

Keeping all of our people in to vote to ensure that we win the divisions is very serious.

Rachel Corbett:

Nice way to bring it back around.

You’ve had plenty of flak about your plan to drug-test welfare recipients. Some medical experts say that this won’t work. What makes you thinking that it will?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, they don’t know whether it will work or not. I think it’s a very – it is a trial.

Everyone says governments should do new things, should experiment, should trial things – well we’re doing that. There’s going to be 5,000 people that will be tested. We believe it will be successful, but we’ll find out.

And look, let’s face it – if you love somebody and they’re on drugs, what do you want to do? You want to get them off drugs. If you love somebody and they are unemployed, what do you want them to do? You want them to get a job.

And frankly, do you really want your taxes being spent on drugs? I don’t. I don’t want welfare money being spent on drugs. It is not fair to the taxpayer and it is absolutely not fair, and not going to work – not helpful – for the person on welfare. So I think this is a good exercise, it’s worthwhile. Australians support it, and we’ll see how it goes. It is a trial.

NATARSHA BELLING:

Prime Minister, many Australians right now seem very disillusioned with Australian politics and seem very concerned-

PRIME MINISTER:

Have they ever been otherwise?

[Laughter]

NATARSHA BELLING:

I think particularly-

PRIME MINISTER:

Natarsha, let me tell you – let me tell you, I started off as a young journalist in the state parliamentary press gallery in the mid-70s, right, so more than 40 years ago. I think Australians have always been – I don’t think Australians have ever been wandering around ecstatically saying, “I cannot believe how fabulous our politicians are, why do we have such amazing politicians? They are practically perfect!”. They don’t say that. We’ve always – we have to work really hard as politicians to win the support of the public and they are hard markers. And fair enough. That’s what democracy is about.

NATARSHA BELLING:

But what about the perceived lack of leadership on both sides? As Prime Minister, what do you want to do to change that and what do you want your legacy to be as Prime Minister?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, what I want to do is to continue to deliver the opportunities that Australians need to get ahead and realise their dreams and their aspirations, and, of course, at the same time, providing the security that we need to keep us safe, because that’s the foundation of everything that we do.

And look what we’re doing – I mean, we are delivering big reforms, the biggest reforms to school funding in the history of the Commonwealth. Everyone in the press gallery said, “You’ll never get it through the Senate.” You know what, we did.

We’ve brought the rule of law back into the construction sector. These are the same militant, bullying, thuggish unions that control Bill Shorten and for whom he apologises every day. We’ve got those laws through the Senate. A lot of people in the media said we wouldn’t get it through – we’ve got that through.

We’re reducing tax for small and medium-sized family business, most of them family businesses, Australian businesses, and why are we doing that? Because if they invest more they will employ more.

PETER HELLIAR:

It makes you want to say, “Aren’t politicians great”!

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it should! It should, and you know everyone, you’re sort of all tearing your hair out during the election campaign when I kept on talking about jobs and growth. Do you know what, in the last year, 240,000 new jobs. That’s real. That’s delivering.

TIM BLACKWELL:

Well we got you here on Sunday, you’re not even wearing a tie.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah I know.

TIM BLACKWELL:

So let’s talk about the big issue, the big fight.

PRIME MINISTER: 

It’s great, it’s liberating!

[Laughter]

TIM BLACKWELL:

It is, look at this.

Rachel Corbett:

I think we need to breathalyse him!

PRIME MINISTER:

What are we looking at you’re-

TIM BLACKWELL:

Not me! I want your opinion on the fight today, Prime Minister, were you happy with the result, with Mayweather?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well look, I didn’t watch the fight, I’m not a fighting – I’m not a you know a boxing fan.

PETER HELLIAR:

You are a lover!

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh yeah that’s right I’m a lover not a boxer, yes, that’s right!

PETER HELLIAR:

Tony Abbott’s the boxer and you’re the lover.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well yeah he did – he was a boxer at university, that’s true. I had a good football week. My Swans and Roosters both won in AFL and the NRL, but obviously the Wallabies came really close, but then got pipped at the post.

NATASHA BELLING:

Yes.

PRIME MINISTER:

But it was a great effort. It was a great comeback. Anyway, getting back to the fight…

TIM BLACKWELL:

The big fight.

PRIME MINISTER:

..I have had a look at some of the clips. It would have been great if Conor McGregor had won, naturally, but he obviously was – did much better than anyone expected, I don’t know, maybe – you are interviewing Jeff Horn later, maybe Jeff Horn can – they’re three kilos heavy, they are super welterweights and Jeff I think boxes at welterweight. But there’s not a lot of difference, I’m sure-

PETER HELLIAR:

Jeez, you have been well briefed! You didn’t even watch the fight and you know the kilogram differences!

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

It’s amazing, those weight differences.

PETER HELLIAR:

I don’t think they’re weight differences!

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

You and I would be in the heavyweight category. The only thing we’ve got going – we can qualify for the weight.

PETER HELLIAR:

Yes.

PRIME MINISTER:

It’s just the boxing that we’d fail at I think.

PETER HELLIAR:

I don’t want to go toe-to-toe with them on boxing. But we have things in common, one we’re both for same-sex marriage we’re both-

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah we are. Yes, vote yes!

PETER HELLIAR:

There you go, absolutely.

PRIME MINISTER:

But above all, vote. Above all vote. We want a high participation in the vote. And I think we’ll get that.

PETER HELLIAR:

We’re both republicans and we both struggle with drills. This is you on Friday.

[VIDEO PACKAGE PLAYS]

PETER HELLIAR:

All they asked you to do was drill a nail into a plank of wood.

PRIME MINISTER:

But I got it in! It was a soft tapping screw which I’d never done.

PETER HELLIAR:

Sweet sounds.

PRIME MINISTER:

… It goes in!

PETER HELLIAR:

Does it really?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah it does!

RACHEL CORBETT:

Not yet!

PRIME MINISTER:

Not yet.

[Laughter]

PETER HELLIAR:

You are pushing hard! Get in!

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, look I’m not…

[Applause]

..I tell you, I was surprised by that, because they didn’t have a little guide hole.

PETER HELLIAR:

So were we.

PRIME MINISTER:

Normally you drill a little hole to provide the guide for even a self-tapping screw like that.

RACHEL CORBETT:

They can’t make it easy for you.

DR CHRIS BROWN:

Did we just see why the renovations in The Lodge blew so much over budget?

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

Not during my time! But I’ll tell you what for the amount that was spent on the renovations on The Lodge, which was about 12 million bucks – staggering.

PETER HELLIAR:

You could’ve brought this network.

PRIME MINISTER:

You could have built several two new houses of that size, anyway. But anyway it won’t happen again. I’ve made sure we’ve got some adult oversight on any further works that are done on those residences.

DR CHRIS BROWN:

Prime Minister, it is Sunday, so thank you very much for joining us in here on The Sunday Project.

PRIME MINISTER:

Good on you, thank you.

[ENDS]




Doorstop with Ann Sudmalis MP

ANN SUDMALIS MP:

Well good morning everybody. I’m very proud to be having our Prime Minister, Malcolm here, to show off one of our best disability employment services. We’re very, very proud Mark, please come over here because you are very special. We’ve seen some amazing work here and it’s a really fantastic institution here. I’m very, very proud that Malcolm is here to see it and see all the work that they’re doing.

Malcolm, thank you for coming.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well thank you Ann and Mark, congratulations, you are doing an amazing job here.

We’ve had a terrific morning talking to your participants, talking to your team, talking to your carers, getting a real insight into how well the NDIS is rolling out here in Moruya.

Of course, we are celebrating the fact we are up to the 100,000th participant in the NDIS.

When it’s fully rolled out of course, over the next couple of years, there will be 460,000 Australians receiving support through the NDIS – this magnificent, compassionate, nation-building enterprise.

It’s being deployed right across the country. It’s going to be nearly 4,000 participants in Gilmore, Ann, and over 1,000 people will be working, 1,000 jobs created by the NDIS.

We have had some great insights talking with Lily and Jarrod about the way they are taking a very innovative approach. I was really impressed at the way Lily is working with the local caterer to learn cooking skills, much to the satisfaction of her parents, I noted. They said she was developing into a very fine cook.

But it is great, because it’s giving real freedom, real flexibility and real autonomy to the participants.

This is a vitally important national enterprise.

Now as you know, when we came into government, we found the NDIS was not fully funded. It is vital that we pay for this. We haven’t been able to get other measures through the Senate in the last Parliament, so now we know the way to fund it, the way we can certainly fund it is by increasing the Medicare levy by 0.5 per cent.

That is the legislation we have introduced and we’ll be calling again on the Labor Party – who say they back the NDIS, it’s all very well to back it and say you support it – but you have got to be prepared to pay for it. We’re looking for that support and of course from the crossbenchers in the Senate.

Then we will be able to say to the parents here and right around the country, that the NDIS and the support for their children, is fully funded and fully paid for.

It is a great, compassionate, nation-building enterprise and it’s worthy of all our support. It’s great to be here Mark, and well done. Do you want to say a few words?

MARK BRANTINGHAM – CEO, YUMARO INDUSTRIES: 

Thank you very much Prime Minister.

On behalf of Yumaro and all of our supportive employees, we have got about 120 people with a disability who work at Yumaro and do our different programs.

We’re just absolutely so thrilled and excited to have the Prime Minister, it’s just amazing. It is a credit to you that you’ve placed a priority on meeting people with a disability and their families. There are ongoing issues with supported employment and the sustainability of that in the future so it’s been great to be able to talk to the Prime Minister about that today.

We just thank you so much for coming down, it’s brilliant. Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well thank you, Mark. Before we go to some questions, I just wanted to make a historical observation and recognition.

75 years ago there was the Battle of Milne Bay and we’re commemorating that today.

It was a battle in Papua New Guinea, in which Australian and American forces turned back a Japanese invasion force aimed at Port Moresby.

1942 was a year that Churchill described as the “hinge of fate” and the course of the war could have gone either way.

There were three great battles that determined the fate of Australia.

There is the Battle of the Coral Sea, which we have already commemorated. A great naval battle.

Then there was the Battle of Milne Bay where there was an amphibious landing by the Japanese seeking to take and occupy Port Moresby and thereby cut Australia off from our allies.

And of course, then there was the Battle on the Kokoda Trail.

So at that time, Australians, many of them, “Nashos,” national servicemen who had been conscripted into the army, barely trained, fought and held the onslaught of the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy in partnership, in alliance with our American allies.

So it’s a very important commemoration today and a reminder that our freedoms have been very hard won by the service and the sacrifice of the men and women who have worn Australia’s uniform, defended our freedoms in those wars past and of course are defending our values right now, in the Middle East.

So we honour the Anzacs of the past and the Anzacs of today, as we commemorate the Battle of Milne Bay.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister on the Medicare levy rise you just spoke about, are you willing to negotiate on the threshold at where that rise comes in?

PRIME MINISTER:

The proposal that we put is fair. It is very fair, particularly to people on lower incomes because of the way the Medicare levy phases in so we are working to persuade the Senate and the crossbenchers in particular to support.

JOURNALIST:

Parents are telling us that as of two weeks ago, not one child aged between 0 and 6 was able to access an NDIS package here because there weren’t the certified resources yet in the [Inaudible] to do that. Is there anything specific you can jump in and do to get that fixed?

PRIME MINISTER:

I’ll say something generally and then throw to Ann to talk about the specifics.

The NDIS is a massive national enterprise and there are always going to be teething problems as it is introduced. So, as you know, we have refreshed the Board. We now have Helen Nugent as the Chairman. But we are very focused on delivery and we’ve had a very good discussion about the way the service is operating with Mark’s participants here today.

But Ann, do you want to say some more about the local position?

ANN SUDMALIS MP:

Just a couple of words Kerrie. Muddy Puddles of course has been talking and advocating on this for quite some time. For those of you who don’t know, Muddy Puddles is our disability service for young children in our region. They’ve identified that self-same problem and we are working with them.

As it happens I have a meeting with the TAFE coordinators here. They are trying to introduce a welfare certificate which will have the planning which will accelerate the way younger children are put into the disability plan system so will get them on to the NDIS much faster.

It’s a process happening right now and it’s a fabulous question because it’s one we need to work on very, very hard.

JOURNALIST:

Have you brought with you buckets of money for Yumaro today?

ANN SUDMALIS MP:

Good try.

[Laughter].

PRIME MINISTER:

Well as you know, we’ve already committed $20,000 to Yumaro and I know that Yumaro has a very charismatic and persuasive chief executive and an equality charismatic and persuasive federal member.

ANN SUDMALIS MP:

We are working on it, let me tell you, we are working on that one.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister, on Islamic State, they have issued a video from their base in Marawi – it threatens ‘retribution’ for the air strikes in the Philippines and describes Australia as the ‘guard dog of America’ in the region. Have your national security advisors yet assessed that video? What is your assessment as to exactly what sort of stronghold IS is now building in the south of the Philippines?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I’m not going to run a commentary on ISIL propaganda videos. But can I say to you that we are determined to ensure that ISIL does not establish a foothold in our region.

We have a very strong vested interest in ensuring that the ISIL insurgency in the southern Philippines, in Marawi, is defeated.

We are providing assistance as you know, to the government of the Philippines in their actions to retake Marawi and extinguish this ISIL insurgency.

We have a very strong collective vested interest. When I say collective, I mean all the nations of our region. A very strong collective interest, as was discussed at the Shangri La Conference in Singapore where I spoke a few months ago.

A very strong collective interest in ensuring that insurgency is defeated.

JOURNALIST:

Would Australia be willing, if it was requested by the Philippines – and I know we already have the P3s there – but if there was a request from the Philippines for ADF boots on the ground in the southern Philippines, would that be something the government would consider?

PRIME MINISTER:

I don’t speculate on hypotheticals.

We are already providing assistance to the Philippines and will continue to provide the assistance that we currently have deployed.

JOURNALIST:

Mr Turnbull when you go to the Pacific Islands Forum soon, will Barnaby Joyce be Acting Prime Minister and is that appropriate given his case won’t be heard until mid-October?

PRIME MINISTER:

Look, Barnaby Joyce is entitled to be a minister because he is a member of the House of Representatives.

The citizenship cases, and there are quite a lot of them now, will be determined or heard by the High Court, in the second week of October.

I am very confident that the Court will find that Barnaby and the senators that have been caught up in this citizenship by descent issue, including Nick Xenophon, will be found not to be disqualified from sitting in the Parliament.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister there’s a report today suggesting that Labor shadow’s cabinet doesn’t have the necessary life experience to understand the business world. Does this background of our politicians matter and how important will aspirational voters be in deciding the next election?

PRIME MINISTER:

I think background does matter. You know, Ann has a background both as a teacher and a small businesswoman. Our Party Room, the Coalition Party Room, has a range of experiences and backgrounds. It’s difficult to think of any profession or occupation that isn’t represented. So it is a very diverse range of skills.

The Labor party is increasingly made up of a very homogenous mix of trade union officials and political apparatchiks.

So they don’t have that business experience. I thought it was a big problem with the previous Labor Government. I thought that was one of the reasons they mishandled the Global Financial Crisis so badly, because they didn’t have any business background in their cabinet.

I am not saying businesspeople are the answer to every problem, but you’ve got to have a mix in your party room and we do. We’ve got people who have been in the armed forces, who have been in the police, been in businesses large and small, have been farmers, every occupation, you know, medicos – every occupation you can imagine is represented and I think that’s a great strength.

It’s very important to understand the scale of the threat that Bill Shorten represents to our nation and to our economy and to the opportunities for young Australians.

The fact is, he is running, now, on the most left-wing platform we have seen from the Labor Party in generations.

He wants to increase taxes on small and medium businesses, while we’re reducing them.

He wants to increase taxes on family businesses.

He wants to increase taxes on property.

He wants to increase taxes on investment.

All the while saying that he is trying to do something about inequality. You know, you don’t build a strong economy by pulling people down.

What you have got to do is make sure that you have equality of opportunity and we are absolutely committed to that. And provide a generous social welfare safety net for those who fall behind. That’s what a compassionate nation does, that’s why the NDIS is a very big part of that. But you have to encourage enterprise and investment.

The Labor Party, the most left-wing Federal Labor Party in generations, does not have one policy that would encourage one business to invest one dollar, or hire one employee.

If you doubt my word for that, you can go to Bill Shorten himself. He was asked on the ABC: “What’s your plan for encouraging investment and employment?” He said, after thinking for a moment: “I support public transport”.

Well, that’s terrific, I support public transport too but you have got to do a bit more than that if you want to get the economy going.

We talked about jobs and growth in the last election – it’s a slogan – it’s also an outcome. 240,000 new jobs created in Australia in the last year. We want to see more of them. We want to see more jobs, more highly-paid jobs. We want to see wages higher. All of that comes from the stronger economic growth and the demand that follows.

So it’s a very big gap between Labor’s anti-business, anti-aspiration policy of higher taxes, politics of envy on the one hand. We’re backing enterprising Australians and ensuring that we have got the resources to provide the compassionate welfare safety net that Australia needs, but we can only afford with a strong economy.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister briefly on Mr Abbott, Tony Abbott. You said this morning that you were disappointed that Tony Abbott missed the vote on the economic stimulus-

PRIME MINISTER:

This was a long time ago, it was about nine years ago.

JOURNALIST:

It was a bit of political history. Why were you disappointed? Why did you say you were disappointed at the time?

PRIME MINISTER:

I’m disappointed when anybody misses a vote. It’s a numbers game, I can assure you and whenever anyone misses a vote, we are always disappointed.

JOURNALIST:

What do you think voters would make of it? I mean you’ve got Mr Abbott here missing a vote because he had too much to drink, at the same time as your government is drug testing young people on welfare.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well look, it’s not, obviously it isn’t a good look but Tony has fessed up to it – i’m sure he feels embarrassed by it but he’s made a clean breast of it. It is an item of political history and one from which he and no doubt others will learn.

JOURNALIST:

Briefly on Ahmed Fahour, briefly, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER:

Ahmed Fahour, yep.

JOURNALIST:

You’ve criticised executive salaries and Mr Fahour’s salary. We hear today there is a payout of some $11 million.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah.

JOURNALIST:

Do you believe that is also excessive and are we ever going to see its like again?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, you won’t see its like again at Australia Post. Obviously it was some decisions taken by the Australia Post board quite some time ago.

My views about that Ahmed’s salary is that it was too high. We’ve now made changes to ensure that the Remuneration Tribunal sets the salary of the CEO of Australia Post. They do have a new CEO appointed and her salary is a fraction of what Mr Fahour was paid.

So, look, we’ve taken steps to ensure that the salary is proportionate to the task at hand. Okay, well thank you all very much.

JOURNALIST:

Can we ask, just to Ann? Will you be releasing the advice from the British Home Office regarding your citizenship?

ANN SUDMALIS MP:

As soon as Bill Shorten tables his paperwork, I’ll put mine on the table.

JOURNALIST:

Why are we in the situation that both sides are essentially refusing to release paperwork?

PRIME MINISTER:

Look, can I just say this to you, that the position with citizenship and Mr Shorten’s papers are concerned is that, to be honest, I don’t know why he doesn’t produce the documentation. It’s perfectly clear that he inherited UK citizenship by descent through his father. That’s not in issue. He says he’s renounced it, but he doesn’t want to produce one sheet of paper.

It’s up to him whether he wants to do it, but this is a guy who is not known for transparency. It is not his long suit. You know, citizenship is one issue. What about in the last sitting weeks, where we secured passage through the Senate of legislation which ensured that businesses could no longer make secret, corrupting payments to unions? So the effect of the law that we passed, was to say that if businesses were to pay money to unions it had to be for a legitimate purpose and it had to be published, it had to be public.

Now, you would think that had always been the law. It’s honest, it’s straightforward. You’d think that always the law. Well, it wasn’t, as the Heydon Royal Commission demonstrated.

Who was the fiercest opponent of that law? Bill Shorten.

So it’s not just with respect to citizenship matters. He does not believe that members of his union, the AWU, are entitled to know when their union or their union officials are getting payments from business. Now, that tells you a lot about his character.

Transparency, openness, integrity – that’s what our legislation did. We only passed it with the support of the crossbench and in the teeth of ferocious opposition from the Labor Party.

This is the most left-wing Federal Labor Party we’ve seen in generations and it’s led by a man who is a wholly-owned subsidiary of very militant left-wing unions who have so little regard for their members that they are prepared to take secret payments from business and not tell their members about it. It’s pretty crook.

So, Bill Shorten has got a lot of transparency issues he has got to front up to. If he wants Australians to see him as fair dinkum, then he has to be on the side of transparency and integrity.

He failed Australians and in particular, failed union members when he opposed that legislation in the Senate in the last sittings.

Thanks a lot.

[ENDS]




Radio interview with Annabelle Brett and Brad Blisset – Power FM Bega Bay

BRAD BLISSETT:

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, good morning.

PRIME MINISTER:

Good morning Brad, good morning Annabelle. 

ANNABELLE BRETT:

We’ve definitely turned the weather on for you today on the Far South Coast Mr Turnbull.

PRIME MINISTER:

That’s fantastic, well I’ll be there with Ann Sudmalis, as you know, the Member for Gilmore and we’re going to be getting out and about and meeting lots of people and learning what the big issues are in Moruya. We’ll be going to Yumaro Industries which is an NDIS service provider so it’s going to be very important to see what they’re doing, the great work they’re doing.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Do you get down to the Far South Coast very often Prime Minister? I mean, not just in your capacity as the PM, but do you sometime holiday in our neck of the woods?

PRIME MINISTER:

You know, I used to have holidays at Kiama actually.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Oh, right.

PRIME MINISTER:

I’ve done, I remember bushwalking like a plateau back in the bills behind Kiama, some interesting bush walks there as a kid. Because it’s a beautiful part of the country, I’m only sorry I’m flying down today, normally I like to get the train. It’s a phenomenal train ride.

BRAD BLISSETT:

We were talking about that earlier, I was wondering if you were going to be on the bus or the train this morning, just rubbing shoulders with the voters.

PRIME MINISTER:

Today I’m not but I often enjoy getting the train down to Bomaderry and general take a few pictures of the views from the cliffs on the way down.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Very nice.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Fabulous. Yeah we can imagine you’ve got a little bit on your plate, I’ve heard you’re a busy man so yeah.

[Laughter]

Now we’ve got a really important question for you.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah?

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Who do you think is the rightful king of Westeros? Game of Thrones!

BRAD BLISSETT:

What?

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, I have got a very strong feeling it’s Jon Snow.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Yes!

PRIME MINISTER:

I think it’s Jon Snow, I think that’s where it’s heading. But we’ll see. That last episode, you know, where the dragon was hauled out of the lake was amazing wasn’t it? The Night King touched the dead dragon and the eyelid flicked open and you saw the blue eye! And you think: “Oh my heavens.” There’s going to be a, sort of, White Walker dragon obliterating everything.

BRAD BLISSETT:

We do have to say though, you may have just spoiled it for people who haven’t seen it yet.

[Laughter]

You might be in trouble Prime Minister.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

It’s been a week!

PRIME MINISTER:

Oh, it’s been a week, come on. I mean you’ve got to be able to talk about it.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

I think so too.

PRIME MINISTER:

I think if you haven’t seen it within 48 hours, you can’t complain.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

No, it’s on yourself. I really do think you’re going to have to set up some kind of fund or centre where Game of Thrones addicts can go once this season is finished. Would you possibly put that on the agenda for me?

PRIME MINISTER:

[Laughter]

I think you’ve just got to wait, this is series seven, I think isn’t it?

BRAD BLISSETT:

Yeah it is, there’s one more. That’s right.

PRIME MINISTER:

They’ve got one more series after this. So then we’ll all be forlorn.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Everybody loves Game of Thrones Mr Turnbull, but do you have a guilty pleasure when it comes to television? Do you have a sneaky watch of The Bachelor on Wednesday nights?

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

No not really, I don’t watch a lot of television, as much television perhaps as I would if I wasn’t so busy. But I enjoy plenty of other dramas, there’s no shortage of choice.

BRAD BLISSETT:

There’s a lot of drama in Question Time as well, I mean –

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Yeah, you’re probably overloaded with drama.

PRIME MINISTER:

It tends to be the same drama every day I think.

BRAD BLISSETT:

You’re tune into ‘who is going to die this week?’ in Parliament. 

ANNABELLE BRETT:

I think I’ve already seen this episode.

[Laughter]

If you’re a bit like me you love the drama – or the tragedy more like – of Australian Rugby Union, you’re probably going to be tuning in on Saturday night. I know you’re a bit of a Wallabies fan?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah well you need to be a very devoted supporter – which we all are – of the Wallabies.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Yeah it’s a tough one and you’re also a Roosters fan aren’t you?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah absolutely. The Roosters are playing the Sharks this weekend and Scott Morrison is a big Sharks fan. So we have Cabinet solidarity on everything but that doesn’t extend to football.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Yes, no and it shouldn’t. As a Broncos fan I’m having a hard time talking to you at the moment because I know you’re creeping up behind me and I’m not okay with it.

PRIME MINISTER:

You know, I was in Perth recently when the West Coast Eagles had just played the Brisbane Lions the night before and absolutely thrashed them, as you can expect. I was catching a train, actually down to Mandurah and I saw a young guy on the platform who had a Brisbane Lions beanie on. I said: “Oh, you must be very disappointed today.” He turned to me with a wry smile and he said: “Mate, I’ve been disappointed for ten years.”

[Laughter]

I thought, that shows real commitment. He was backing his team despite feeling disappointed for a long time.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Yeah that’s like how Brad feels when he backs the Hound in Game of Thrones.

PRIME MINISTER:

No, the Hound? Who is your favourite character on Game of Thrones, surely not the Hound?

BRAD BLISSETT:

I love the Hound. Yeah, he’s so ruthless, he’d be a good politician I recon.

PRIME MINISTER:

Who is yours AB, who is your favourite?

ANNABELLE BRETT:

I’m team Arya. Probably Arya.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah me too.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Because I just love the rock-star little chick. She’s just vicious, she just has no back down. She inspires me because I’m the total opposite.

PRIME MINISTER:

I think she’s the – and I mean Jon Snow is so easy to admire, he’s the ‘capital H Hero’ isn’t he? But I think Arya’s a more complex character, she’s very interesting, they’ve done a very good job with it.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Who do you think you are in Game of Thrones, if you were a character?

PRIME MINISTER:

I don’t think I’m in it, thank heavens.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

[Laughter]

They haven’t nailed it yet.

PRIME MINISTER:

No, I haven’t made an appearance.

BRAD BLISSETT:

At the moment, Mr Turnbull, we are doing a promotion called ‘jocks or the rock’. We are for this Father’s Day giving someone the chance to win their dad a fresh pair of underpants, which all dads love, or tickets to see Midnight Oil in Woollongong. You’ve got two kids – they’re grown up now – but back in the day when you used to get presents from the kids, do you remember what the best and worst present was that you got from Alex and Daisy?

PRIME MINISTER:

I never got a bad present. They generally used to outsource it to Lucy so I’d get a combined present. I could always see Lucy’s hand in that. Often, you know – I know this sounds very blokey – but often it involved pieces of hardware. I’ve always been keen on a new drill and saws and stuff. I don’t have time to do it nowadays, but I’ve always like a weekend visit to Bunnings.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Oh right, so you’d just get a pile of Bunnings gift cards?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah and you know, things to do with sailing or kayaking. I remember I got a new paddle one year, so that was good.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Nice.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

An interesting side of you that we didn’t know about. Nice.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well the kayaking is fantastic. It’s a great exercise but unless you are super fit, which I’m not – I don’t think its great cardio wise – because you’re not using your legs. But it is very beautiful, very cosmic if you get out early on the water, when it is still, particularly if you get out as the sun is coming up. It is very hard to beat that.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Definitely.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Interesting. So maybe your transport of choice next time you’re on the Far South Coast, we’ll hook you up with a little kayak so that you can head from Batemans Bay all the way down to Bega.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, that would be quite a haul.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

I’ll make the arrangements for you.

BRAD BLISSETT:

We’ll get you into one of the Dragon Boats, that’d be cool.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, they’re interesting aren’t they?

BRAD BLISSETT:

We better let you go Mr Turnbull, but before you do, you’re going to be celebrating two years as Prime Minister mid-September. Do you celebrate it in anyway? Do they get you a special PM cake? Like, what happens in Canberra when you rack up two years?

PRIME MINISTER:

I think we’ve got a lot done in two years, you know. We have achieved through the Parliament, just since the election which was a little over a year ago, an enormous amount. You know, we’ve got these industrial law reforms, restored the Building and Construction Commission.

Just passed a law in the last sitting to stop businesses paying secret, corrupt payments to unions. You’d think that would’ve been illegal always, but anyway, we’ve banned that despite the opposition of the Labor Party.

We’ve reformed schools funding. I mean, we’ll be going today to Batemans Bay High School with Ann Sudmalis. Now this is a state high school; under our new schools funding policy which is law, which has been passed by the Parliament, Batemans Bay High School will receive $7.8 million in additional funding over the next 10 years.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Great.

PRIME MINISTER:

And the average per-student growth in funding will be 5.9 per cent over the next three years and 5 per cent thereafter to 2027. So these are big reforms.

We’ve had opposition from Labor, but we now have, right across Australia, national, transparent consistent, needs-based funding. Now that is a massive reform.

So when people say: “oh the Parliament is chaotic” or “It’s not working”, it is absolutely wrong. We’ve got much more through this Parliament, despite only having 29 seats out of 76 in the Senate, much more through in the last year than we got through in the previous three years of the previous Parliament.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Oh right.

PRIME MINISTER:

So it has been a lot of progress, a lot of reform, a lot of good policy we’ve bene able to secure the passage of. You know, big child care reforms. As you know, we are now seeking to get the additional 0.5 per cent increase to the Medicare Levy to fully fund the NDIS, National Disability Insurance Scheme which is so important. So we’re getting on with the job. We’re governing. We’re delivering and the Parliament is working.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Very nice.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Absolutely. Well we are very happy for you.

PRIME MINISTER:

Thank you so much.

BRAD BLISSETT:

And this week is book week at the schools, are you going to be dressing up as your favourite Game of Thrones character when you go to Batemans Bay High School today?

[Laughter]

PRIME MINISTER:

No. 

BRAD BLISSETT:

No, okay.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well my favourite book actually, the book I loved reading to my kids and I love reading to Daisy’s little boy Jack, is that Roald Dahl book, The Great Green Enormous Crocodile.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Oh right, yeah, yeah.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Yes.

PRIME MINISTER:

But there are so many great books, book week is fantastic. I look forward to reading some more books with my grandchildren. In fact our granddaughter Alice turns one tomorrow.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

That’s great. What a great weekend you’ve got in store.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah, a one year old’s birthday party.

ANNABELLE BRETT:

Oh fabulous.

BRAD BLISSETT:

Mr Turnbull, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

PRIME MINISTER:

Okay.

BRAD BLISSETT:

We’ll let you get back to it. Enjoy your short time here on the Far South Coast and all the best.

PRIME MINISTER:

Good on you, thanks. Great to talk to you.

[ENDS]