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]