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]