PRIME MINISTER: We are meeting on Ngunnawal land and we acknowledge their long custodianship of this land and their elders past and present.

I am delighted to be here, thrilled to be here to celebrate women’s football in Australia.

So many I want to acknowledge – Steven Lowy, Chairman of Football Federation Australia, David Gallop, Chief Executive, Greg Hunt, the Minister for Sport, Michaelia Cash, the Minister for Women and all of my Parliamentary colleagues – is Bill here? I can’t see Bill, he’s on his way I’m sure.

And above all of course, the present and future Matildas – Clare Polkinghorne, Kyah Simon and Michelle Heyman welcome.

And it is wonderful to have the next generation with us – the Young Matildas and the ALDI MiniRoos as well.

We celebrate the achievements of our current and future football stars. 

The Matildas are leaders on the international stage and they are wonderful role models in our community.

Last year, all Australians got behind the Matildas in their thrilling campaign at the Rio Olympics. 

And wouldn’t it be fantastic to have the Matildas contesting a Women’s World Cup on home soil here in Australia?

It is a great initiative, it is a great goal and I’m excited to announce that the Government will be backing the FFA’s bid for Australia to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

This bid will help us increase the exposure of women’s football in Australia. It will raise its profile even more. 

And it’s even more special for a proud sporting nation such as ours.

We are recognised internationally for our sporting achievements and for showcasing some of the biggest sporting events in the world and when we do, we do it triumphantly, we do it successfully, we do it to great acclaim. We set the bar to the highest level in hosting great global sporting events.

The 2023 edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup will bring together 24 nations, and it will reach a global audience, its estimated, of over 700 million people.

Now the opportunity to host this event is significant, not just for the economic and tourism benefits it would bring, but for what it does for women’s sport.

That is the great power of sport – it is those moments that motivate us, that unite us, that enthral us and bring out the best in us. That inspire us all, old and young alike.

Inspiration, dedication, commitment, teamwork, loyalty; these are all the qualities we see in sport. Like Kyah Simon here today, who became the first Indigenous Australian player to score a goal in a FIFA World Cup, in 2011. What an inspiration.

A Women’s World Cup hosted in our backyard would inspire a new generation of women and girls right across Australia. It continues our Government’s commitment to promote female participation in sport from the grassroots level, from the little ones, right up to the elite level, the Matildas.

So today, we celebrate the achievements of our women’s football stars and we kick off the campaign for Australia to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

Thank you very much for all your support.

The Turnbull Government will support Football Federation Australia’s (FFA) bid to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia.

Australians love sport – it’s an important part of our culture and identity – and we have a proud history of hosting world-class sporting events.

On the back of the successful Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Asian Cup in 2015, Australia has a well-deserved reputation for hosting high profile football events and should be a strong contender to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The AFC Asian Cup brought together Australian football fans of all nationalities in a vibrant multicultural celebration of sport, and was recognised internationally as a huge success.

To assist Football Federation Australia to prepare its bid, the Australian Government is providing initial funding of $1 million. This will be used to establish governance arrangements and begin developing the technical material required.

Further funding of $4 million will also be made available in December if the Government is satisfied that there are reasonable prospects of success and that the process conforms with the highest standards of probity.

We are acutely aware that the previous bidding process for the 2022 Men’s World Cup was called into question with the most serious probity allegations. Our advice is that FIFA has reformed and is committed to an open and transparent bidding process.

However, in order to manage public money carefully and prudently while also supporting women’s sport, we are taking a cautious two-step approach to investing in the bid.

The Women’s World Cup will bring together 24 teams from around the world to play 52 matches over 30 days. Our national team, the Matildas, is currently ranked eighth in the world.

With the profile of women’s sport in Australia increasing, hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 would represent another opportunity to inspire girls and young women to engage in sport for fun and to improve their health.

Hosting a FIFA event also brings many economic benefits. Televised matches play to a global audience of more than 720 million, boosting domestic and international tourism and job creation.

It is expected final bids to host the event will be due by late 2018, with FIFA expected to announce the successful host in early 2019.

Today at COAG first ministers have discussed issues of the most vital importance to all Australians.

Above all keeping Australians safe, our most important duty. Ensuring that security of the Australian families in the face of a rising threat of Islamist terrorism.

We have also discussed and received a very important report on energy security, so, that we can achieve a national energy plan that delivers affordable, reliable energy and meets our emissions targets.

We have also discussed vital issues, social and economic issues that will enable all Australians to have the opportunity to do their best and realise their dreams.

Now we’ve seen in recent days a tragic loss of Australian lives to terrorism, in Brighton, in Melbourne, in London, and in Baghdad. Around the world, the threat of Islamist terrorism rises.

We are utterly united, Australian governments, and Australians, to find the terrorists and doing all we can to ensure that their plans are disrupted, uncovered and that they are put behind bars and stay there.

Now, to overcome this threat, governments cannot simply set and forget. We have to be as agile, as those who seek to do us harm. We have to be smarter, more prepared, we have to use technology in the most advanced forms to keep Australians safe.

Now, at my first COAG as Prime Minister, we agreed to develop post-sentence detention laws, to keep terrorists in jail after their sentences are finished, where they have not rehabilitated and where they are found to remain a threat to the community.

These laws were implemented last December, along with the most significant national security reforms in a generation, and I want to thank all the other jurisdictions for their support here.

Now today I can report that we have made further progress. We have agreed that states and territories will strengthen their laws to ensure that there will be a presumption that neither bail nor parole will be granted to those who have demonstrated support for or have links to terrorist activity.

This presumption is a vital element in keeping these people who are a threat to our safety, and our safety of our families, off the streets. Violent criminals with terrorist links should not be walking the streets. They belong in jail and this is a very important change and an indication of the resolution of leaders of our governments, of Australia’s governments to defy and defeat the terrorists.

Now we have very tight engagement, cooperation, between state and federal agencies. Between the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, other federal agencies, including Border Force, and the relevant state and territory police forces. And this is coordinated through joint counter-terrorism teams in each state and each jurisdiction.

Now, we’ve agreed to even further strengthen the joint counter-terrorism teams, that there will be cleared, a suitably security cleared corrections service officers will be part of the joint counter-terrorism team. And so this will enable more information to be shared, more collaboration, it’s very close, it’s very intense, as it is, we’re going to make it stronger.

We have also agreed that we will hold a special COAG on security, very shortly. As soon as practicable. It is going to comprehensively review our nation’s laws and practices which are directed at protecting Australians from violent extremism. Again, this is not an area of policy where you can ‘set and forget’. We’re going to very proactive, constantly upgrading our defences. We had reports today from the Director-General of ASIO, from the Acting Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, from my cyber-security advisor Alastair MacGibbon and also from Tony Sheehan, the counter-terrorism coordinator.

We discussed a wide range of issues relating to national security, but in particular for protecting Australians from terrorism and in particular, the work that’s been done to protect crowded places or places of mass gathering.

Let me turn now to the briefing from the Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel. The objective as I said at the outset, is to the achieve three things; affordable energy, reliable and secure energy and ensure that we meet our emissions reductions targets. We know there has been, in the politics of energy over many years now, there’s been too much politics, too much ideology. My commitment is that my Government is focusing in terms of energy policy, on economics and engineering. That is what we need to do and we have now those independent recommendations in detail and with our energy ministers, they’ll be reporting back in August as to how those findings can be implemented. It’s a very good piece of work by Dr Finkel and we thank him for it.

I also outlined the Commonwealth’s commitment to nationally consistent, needs-based funding for schools. We must end the school funding wars and move on to what parents know really matters; getting better outcomes for our children and grandchildren.

Our $18.6 billion additional investment over the decade means by 2027, a school in Hobart with the same characteristics as a school in Cairns, will receive the same amount of federal funding. That commitment will finally deliver on  David Gonski’s vision of consistent, transparent, national needs-based funding. This stands in marked contrast to the 27 deals, separate deals, that were done by the former Labor government and of course, which produced – as ministers, chief ministers and Premiers here know – very different outcomes across the nation.

We have reaffirmed as leaders, our shared commitment to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which is a mighty, nation-building, economic and social reform that my Government has now fully funded with the commitment to raise the Medicare levy by 50 basis points. We focused on the NDIS quality and safeguards commission, which provides protections for people in the scheme. More than 60,000 jobs will be created by the NDIS and we are committed to ensuring that workforce is in place to support the growth of the full scheme.

We have agreed to keep Australian children safe from preventable diseases by lifting our immunisation rates as to close to 100 per cent as possible. The only excuse for not vaccinating your child, must be a medical excuse. We are working towards a national approach to childhood vaccination, including importantly, making vaccination rates at child care centres available to parents.

We’ve also discussed the need to restore confidence in the GST sharing arrangements in Western Australia and across the federation. That is why we’ve commissioned a Productivity Commission review into the impact of the arrangements on productivity, efficiency and economic growth. That is our commitment to ensure that there’s public confidence in the system. As I’ve said previously, once the system has rebalanced, we should consider a percentage floor below which no states or territories share of GST receipts can fall.

It’s been a very productive meeting. I want to thank first ministers for their collaboration, for the commitment, above all, to ensuring that we keep Australians safe. We keep Australians safe from terror, we will never change our way of life under the threat of terrorism, or those who seek to take our sovereignty away from us.

Australians are proud of their freedoms. We fought for them, generation after generation, and we stand for them today, resolute, unbowed, committed to defying the terrorists, seeing them off, defeating them in the field, and at home disrupting them, catching them, and keep putting them behind bars, and keeping them there.

PRIME MINISTER:

Good morning.

I’m looking forward today to the leaders of Australia’s governments committing to stronger and consistent laws relating to the granting of parole and bail so that there will be a strong presumption against the granting of parole and bail to persons who have shown support for or have links to violent extremism or terrorism. This is vitally important.

With our national security laws and practices, we cannot have ‘set and forget’. That is why as Prime Minister I have consistently led reform, agile reform.

We must be faster, smarter, more agile, more responsive than those who seek to do us harm.

At my first COAG meeting, I asked the states and territories to agree to a regime that allows post-sentence detention for persons who have been in jail on terrorist offences and have not rehabilitated and have been shown to continue to be a threat. That is now the law of the land.

We have seen with parole, with the terrorist attack in Melbourne this week, we have seen a person granted parole that shouldn’t have been granted parole, with his track record, with his shocking track record of violence and connection to terrorist causes.

So the consistent, stronger approach that I am confident state and territory leaders will adopt today in the national interest is one that will give reassurance to Australians.

Equally, we will be presented today with a report from Dr Finkel on energy security. Again, it is important that we commit to ensuring that we deliver the certainty, the investment certainty that will enable Australians to have affordable, reliable electricity and of course, meet our emissions reduction targets. So we look forward to Dr Finkel’s report.

JOURNALIST:

Will the Finkel reports proposal for a CET or an LET, actually allow bipartisanship in Australian politics? And are you confident you’ll be able to get it through the Coalition Party Room and end the climate wars?

PRIME MINISTER:

The important objective that we have is to take the ideology and politics out of this issue.

As I have said for a long time now, my approach to energy policy, my government’s approach to energy policy, is grounded in economics and engineering – not in ideology, not in politics, not in partisanship.

The focus has got to be to achieve those three things – affordable electricity, reliable and secure electricity, and of course meet our emissions reduction targets.

Now, that’s the task Dr Finkel has been set and we look forward to his report, which will be very carefully considered by governments, obviously today and in the weeks that follow.

JOURNALIST:

Do you think the Victorian proposal for federal courts, federal jails for terrorism? Does that abdicate the state responsibility for those issues?

PRIME MINISTER:

I’m not sure what proposal you are referring to but let me just make a couple of points very clear, I want to reassure Australians about this – there is, right now, the closest cooperation between state and federal law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies, security agencies on the matter of terrorism. On many other matters, I might add. But in particular, with respect to counter-terrorism – in each jurisdiction, there is a JCTT, a Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, the members of which are the state police, the AFP, the Australian Federal Police and ASIO. There is the closest cooperation now – the operations that are going on in Melbourne today is an example of that level of cooperation.

You’ll recall the 12 plots that have been disrupted and uncovered, terrorist plots including the major conspiracy to launch an explosives attack in the vicinity of Federation Square just before Christmas, in Melbourne – they are an example of the intense degree of cooperation.

Now, the decision for granting bail or granting parole I should say, to a person who has been convicted of a state offence and is in a state prison, is ultimately a decision for the state government. Now if it chooses to have a parole board to do that, then it is a decision for the parole board but ultimately it’s the responsibility of that State Government.

But all of the information about a prisoner’s antecedents, are all available through the JCTT, through to the state police and then through to the body making the decision about parole.

But I can assure you that my commitment is to work as closely as possible with state governments.

We have very, very close collaboration and that is why we have been able to prevent 12 terrorist attacks and arrest 63 persons on terrorist charges since September 2014.

JOURNALIST:

What about the news the UK will be heading for a hung parliament?

PRIME MINISTER:

Few things should surprise you in politics in the 21st century but I will leave the commentary to experts like yourself.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister do you support the idea of having federal prisons for terrorists?

PRIME MINISTER:

That is an idea that hasn’t been raised with me. We have a system that is working at the moment in terms of incarceration.

What is critical is that people who are a threat to Australians are not out on the streets.

Let me be very clear, if you have someone who has terrorist sympathies and who has a propensity to violence, every day they are not on the street is a good day, it is a good day.

And so we want to ensure that people with those characteristics are not out on the streets.

Now, that is why I look forward to the First Ministers today agreeing that there will be a strong presumption against bail or parole for persons who have shown support for or have had links to terrorism or violent extremism.

The critical thing is to protect the public, is to protect the safety of Australians. That is what Australians expect their leaders, here assembled in Hobart, to agree to do.

So that’s our job, to provide the security and the assurance that Australians need.

JOURNALIST:

What did you make of Saudi Arabia not observing the minute’s silence in Adelaide last night for the victims of the London terror attack?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I haven’t seen the video – it was just raised with me on the way here.

The whole world, the whole free world is united in condemnation of that terrorist attack and terrorism generally, and in sympathy and love for the victims and their families.

The heartbreaking, heartbreaking loss of young Australians in London, of course in Baghdad, and just this week in Melbourne to these murderous terrorists – everybody, everyone should be united in condemnation of the terrorists and love and sympathy and respect for the victims and their families.

Thanks very much.

[ENDS]

PRIME MINISTER:

Well thank you Will, for hosting us here in Hobart for the 44th meeting of the Council of Australian Governments. And welcome to the COAG leaders’ table for the first time, Gladys Berejiklian and Mark McGowan. Gladys and I have been friends for a very long time, and Mark I look forward to building a strong relationship with you to deliver for the people of Western Australia.

Our agenda today is vital, perhaps more compelling than ever before.

We face today threats to our security from Islamist extremism with an intensity that is growing greater all the time.

We’ve seen a shocking attack in Melbourne this week, following hard on the heels of a terrorist attack in London where two innocent young Australians were killed. An Australian was killed in Melbourne, and of course not long before that young Australian was killed in a terrorist attack in Bagdad. 

This is a global threat, it is evolving rapidly and it will be a key focus of our discussion today.

I know that we will all be united in ensuring that we do everything to keep Australians safe and I look forward to our agreement that we will ensure that there is a strong presumption against the granting of parole and bail consistently across the country for persons who have shown support for or have had links to violent extremism or terrorism.

That’s important to keep Australians safe, to keep those threats, those people who threaten our way of life, threaten our safety, off the streets.

We will also be discussing energy security.

Now as we all know for a very long time this topic has been riven with uncertainty, with ideology, with politics, with partisanship. What we need is an energy policy, an energy strategy for the nation that is guided by economics and engineering, and is focused on delivering affordable energy, affordable electricity and gas, reliable and secure energy, and enables us to meet our emissions reduction commitments. Those are the three things we have to achieve. So we look forward to hearing from Dr Finkel with his report that COAG commissioned some time ago, and he is coming to speak to us today.

We’ll also be discussing education. Now the Commonwealth has proposed and set out in the budget, as you know, the real Gonski, actually endorsed by David Gonski, a man whose name is often taken up in political circles. But what we have proposed is a national approach to Commonwealth funding of schools which is rigorously needs-based so that schools in the same circumstances, students in the same circumstances, get the same level of funding wherever they may be around the country. So we look forward to progressing those discussions this morning.

As you know we’ve got important discussions on the National Disability Insurance Scheme and again, we’ve taken, at the federal level, the strong, tough decision to raise additional revenue by raising the Medicare levy by 0.5 per cent to fully fund our part of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. There are many other issues that we’ll discuss but the fundamental point I think is this: the security, the opportunity for Australians, is in our hands as the leaders of Australia’s governments. They look to us, Australians look to us, to be united in that objective, to secure their future, to secure their safety. To ensure they have the affordable, reliable energy that meets our emissions reduction commitments, that gives them the opportunity to build their businesses, to get a job, a better job, to get ahead.

So I look forward to very constructive discussion here in Hobart. Will, thank you for your hospitality and I have to say this is the most magnificent view I’ve seen from a COAG meeting.

So thank you very much.

[ENDS]