Transcript: Julia Gillard, Press Conference, Packenham
Julia Gillard
posted Wednesday, 11 August 2010
E & O E – PROOF ONLY
Subjects: Welfare reform; economic stimulus; NBN; banks; climate change policy; troops in Afghanistan; Internet filter; campaign
PM: Well I’m joined today by our candidate for La Trobe, Laura Smyth, thank you very much for having us in your local area and I’m joined by our Minister for Families and Community Services, Jenny Macklin, and during the course of the campaign and particularly this week I’ve been talking about the long term need for productivity and participation growth in our economy. The Government made the right set of economic choices to support jobs when the global financial crisis threatened. Now, of course, we want to build on that opportunity that has been created. The opportunity of coming out of the global financial crisis with lower unemployment and debt and higher growth than advanced economies around the world, major advanced economies like our own, and to seize the benefits that this opportunity provides we need to send some very clear messages for the future.
First and foremost to seize the benefit of growth. To have the opportunities that we want Australians to have for the future requires people to step up to some responsibilities. The responsibility to make sure that children are at school. The responsibility to make sure that people who do have the capacity to work do work.
During the course of the campaign I’ve announced some measures to increase school attendance, to make sure that kids are at school. We announced the changes in the Family Tax Benefit to better support teenagers tied with teenagers being at school.
We announced the policy of No School, No Play to encourage children, through sport, to attend at school. Now I understand that there are those that of the view that that policy has a harsh edge. Well I make no apology for it. Kids should be at school. Today as a compliment to those policies I announce that a re-elected Gillard Government will also ensure that kids have the health checks they need as four year olds to make sure that when they get to school, they have been checked to see if there is any health complaint that might enable, that might prejudice their ability to learn when they get to school - to make sure that children are developing normally, to check their sight, to check their hearing as we saw checked by the doctor today.
So a re-elected Gillard Government will tie the provision of the annual supplement in Family Tax Benefit for welfare families to having the appropriate health check for four year old children. As a Government we created this healthy kids check for four year olds. Now, for families dependent on welfare, we will ensure as a condition of receiving their annual supplement at the end of the year, that if they have a four year old child, the four year old child has had the appropriate health checks.
Part of making sure kids are ready to learn. Part of making sure we step up to our responsibilities to have kids at school and today I also announce that to seize the opportunities of the future we will be stepping up efforts to make sure that people who can work, who do have a capacity for work do productive work in our society.
Today I announce that we will be introducing relocation bonuses to enable job-seekers to move from their home location to another location in order to take up a job. As I’ve talked about during this campaign there are parts of the country that are experiencing rapid growth and crying out for more workers. We want Australians to get the benefit of those opportunities.
So we will make sure that there are relocation bonuses that work in three ways to increase work incentives.
Firstly, for someone on Newstart or a working age payment who has been without work for more than 12 months – if they take a job in an area and need to move, they will get assistance with their relocation costs. $3,000 if they are moving to a metropolitan area. $6,000 if they are moving a regional area.
This incentive for work will be added to by the fact that their employer will receive an incentive of $2,500 for the job opportunity for that relocated job-seeker.
And third, there are measures to make sure that the system works. If a job-seeker relocates to get a job and then loses the job in a six month period they will have a further preclusions period from government benefits when they become unemployed again.
Three incentives working together to get people to take jobs in parts of the country where jobs are available. The relocation bonus for the individual or assistance with relocation costs for the individual, the incentive for the employer to employ the relocated worker and, of course, the penalty arrangements if the job is lost during the first six months.
In addition to strengthen work incentives and compliance, to make sure that people are actively looking for work, today I announce that there will be new arrangements if people do not (noise from protester) If people do, uh, we’ve got a very friendly assistant out there who’s quite well dressed for winter weather.
We will be ensuring that there are additional compliance measures for people who are engaged with our Centrelink and Job Services Australia system. So if people miss their first appointment, if they become unemployed and miss their first appointment, then benefits will be suspended until they re-engage and make contact. If people miss a second appointment, then benefits will not only be suspended but even after the job-seeker makes contact, they will be withheld. This is part of making the point very clearly that people who can work, should work. We expect compliance with obligations under our Centrelink and Job Services Australia system.
At this stage I’ll turn to Jenny Macklin for some comments.
JENNY MACKLIN: Thanks very much Prime Minister. As the Prime Minister has just outlined, this Labor Government is determined to modernise our welfare system. We have put in place some of the most significant changes to our welfare system over the last couple of years and as the Prime Minister has indicated this morning, we intend to keep pursuing those welfare reforms to make sure that our income support and family payments system is there to support families and to support children as they need it but to also make sure that the fundamental obligations on each and every one of us – to care for our children, to make sure their attending a school, to make sure that everyone does the best they can to get a job and keep a job. That’s what we’re on about as a Government.
It’s this Government that has put in place the new non-discriminatory income management approach, first of all in the Northern Territory, which will then be rolled out to other disadvantaged parts of Australia.
It’s this Government that has said if you want to receive extra benefits for your 16 to 18 year olds in the Family Tax Benefits system, then you must make sure that your children are at school or in vocational training.
It’s this Government that is saying if you’re in that age bracket, over 16 of age you should be learning or earning. We want young people to be engaged in education or to be at work and the announcements that we’re making today continue this theme. What we’re saying today to parents is we’ve provided a healthy child check for all four year olds. We want your four year old to get that check before they start school and so the announcement today is that if you’re on income support, you must make sure that you have this four year old child health check to make sure that your child is ready for school. Any hearing problems can be picked up. Any problems with eyesight can be picked up before your child starts school and we’ll tie the provision of the end of year Family Tax Benefit Part A Supplement to the delivery of that child health care check.
We also know how critical it is that people do the right thing when they’re looking for a job, that when you’re expected to keep an appointment with Centrelink, or with your job service provider you do so and that’s why these new rules will be put in place to make sure that people, who are getting support through Newstart or Parenting Payment, do the right thing and turn up for their interviews. We also know that its important to provide support to individuals and families to encourage them to move where the jobs are and that’s what this relocation assistance is all about today – encouraging people to take the jobs that are available and making sure we provide that additional financial support.
PM: Just before we go to questions, can I just conclude by saying of course this is a further part of our economic plan and what our economic plan is about - its about opportunity, it’s about responsibility, its about jobs, skills and infrastructure including building the National Broadband Network.
It’s about returning the Budget to surplus and across this range of economic choices on each and every occasion, Mr Abbott has made the wrong choice. He didn’t support economic stimulus, he didn’t support jobs. He’s got no plan to return the Budget to surplus. His only plan for the future is about cutting education, cutting health, cutting the National Broadband Network and putting a tax on groceries and when we look at those cuts in health and education – no computers for kids in schools, no electronic health records, no National Broadband Network. Now this is a recipe to have this country in the dark ages while the rest of the world moves forward. We’ve got to have the skills and the infrastructure to compete in the modern world. It requires government to play its part – like building the National Broadband Network, like supporting economic stimulus. The message today is it also requires Australians to play their part to seize the benefits of opportunity by showing responsibility. Sid.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on the economic stimulus, there’s reports this morning, I’m sorry, that the Auditor General has found on several occasions that the stimulus was not rolled out on time, that Treasury had to reduce it’s growth forecasts over time. Now doesn’t this undermine your argument and your numbers on the job creation figures and I guess the other question is are Australians paying higher interest rates because the Government stimulated a growing economy?
PM: Well I’m very happy to answer your questions and in terms of answering them, first and foremost can I say Treasury has acknowledged that it initially had a more conservative estimate about the impact on growth and confidence of our economic stimulus package. What it didn’t foresee as fully as proved to be the case is that economic stimulus kept the economy moving and economic stimulus and the actions of the Government, including guaranteeing our banks, meant that there was more confidence from households and confidence from business and it is unambiguous, as a result, that the difference between providing economic stimulus and generating that confidence in our economy is the difference from the economy having continued to grow as opposed to going backwards into recession. The Treasury figures make that clear.
So we supported jobs. We supported jobs – 200,000 extra Australian jobs in our economy. We kept our economy out of recession and because we created that platform of stability we are now in a position to make announcements like the announcement we’re making today about how Australians can seize the benefits of future opportunity by taking responsibility.
JOURNALIST: Does it matter that the Government missed its targets though in rolling out the economic stimulus and didn’t that undermine the effectiveness of the economic stimulus?
PM: Well as people would see, critiques from business, critiques from leading economists, critiques from international economists who have looked at this country, the acknowledgement is that our stimulus was targeted, it was temporary, its timely in order to support jobs. That’s how it calibrated the stimulus, that’s what it’s done and its kept this country out of recession and of course this points, on the other side of politics, to the startling lack of judgement by Mr Abbott who would not have supported jobs, who would have seen this country go into recession, who is hankering for us to perform just like New Zealand did with a deep recession and all the loss of jobs that that implies.
JOURNALIST: Given the support that the Government has provided for the big banks, I mean, do Australians have a right to feel pretty screwed?
PM: Well I think, obviously, we want a stable banking system and that’s what we achieved during the very difficult days of the unrolling of the global financial crisis where in other parts of the world people were actively concerned that banks were going to collapse. We moved to offer a guarantee to our banking system. Obviously our banking system had greater stability than many countries around the world but I think from the perspective of Australians, they want to make sure they get a fair go from banks and we’ve made it easier for Australians to get a fair go by, for example, legislating so that you can’t have unfair exit fees to stop you changing and shopping around to get a better deal on your mortgage. So I’d say to Australians, keep the pressure on your banks by shopping around.
JOURNALIST: With the welfare changes, what will happen if somebody legitimately misses an appointment, say if they’re sick or something like that? Is it going to be difficult for them to get that message to Centrelink to not have their benefits stopped?
PM: Look, of course, Centrelink offices will show common sense, common sense about why people miss an appointment but the message here is we want the same degree of responsibility being shown in going to these appointments as people in their day to day lives have to show when they turn up for work. I mean, every employer understands that someone can be sick, ring in sick, have to go to the doctors, have a family bereavement, have to attend a funeral – these are the ordinary circumstances of human life. Employed Australians negotiate these circumstances in their workplaces every day, employers deal with them every day, the same common sense approach will be taken by Centrelink. We all know what it is to step up and take responsibility. We also all understand the basics of human life that can make that impossible on any given day. Yes, Latika?
JOURNALIST: Just on the health checks, for example, are there are enough GPs out there to see all these children and also Tony Abbott said that he’s not a control freak and he doesn’t need to be across policy details and trusts his Ministers to do that, is that an acceptable approach do you think from a Prime Minister or someone trying to be PM?
PM: Well, can I say firstly on the question of GPs, of course we’re investing in more doctors. We’re investing in GP Super Clinics. These checks can be undertaken involving GPs, also involving nurses in clinics and we are supporting primary care. When we look at the track record of Mr Abbott of course he left this nation short of general practitioners and he would cut GP Super Clinics now. So we are confident that these health checks can be done. We want people to step up to the responsibility of getting them done and that’s why we’ve tied them to the end of year supplement for welfare dependent families.
Can I say my attitude as Prime Minister is that I do trust my Ministers. I trust my Ministers. I want to run and have been running a traditional system of Cabinet Government but as Prime Minister your jobs is to get the big calls right and the problem for Mr Abbott is not that he doesn’t know a micro detail, the problem for Mr Abbott is that he doesn’t get the big calls right. You know, I know he’s been questioned about the National Broadband Network. I don’t expect anybody thinks Mr Abbott should have the degree of knowledge of a technician who rolls out the National Broadband Network or works in the industry but what Australians are entitled to expect is that Mr Abbott gets the big calls right. He’s made the wrong call on the National Broadband Network.
The thing I’m concerned about is he doesn’t understand the power of this technology for the future. He doesn’t understand that it will support 25,000 jobs directly. He doesn’t understand that it will support the jobs of the future and without this technology we will decline behind the standards of the world and in comparison with countries around the world our schools and hospitals will be as if it was the dark ages. Mr Abbott doesn’t understand those big picture calls. That’s the problem. Yes, yes, Dan.
JOURNALIST: On the welfare payments, by increasing the non-payment period for people who lose the job within six month, won’t that make people vulnerable to exploitation from unscrupulous employers?
PM: Well obviously we’re a Government that’s stepped up to provide proper protections for people in the workplace. The message here, of course, is that if we want people to be out there, actively looking for work and people to be looking in those parts of the country where work is available. Yes.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on the relocation bonuses, Tony Abbott came up with a similar idea earlier this year and basically the mining industry said we don’t like this idea because we don’t want severely unskilled people coming and operating our expensive equipment. Is it just enough to relocate unskilled people from one part of Australia to another? Do you need to do something for them when they’re there? Do you need to teach them a new skill?
PM: Well when we look at Mr Abbott’s track record on all of these things, to coin a phrase, Mr Abbott’s all talk and no action. Of course, as a Government Minister he could have made these changes. He served as a Government Minister in this direct area of policy – track record of reform equals zero. Track record of reform out of health equals cuts. That’s Mr Abbott’s track record in Government.
So yes, you know, he writes books and, you know, chatters away about these things but in terms of getting anything done, this is the Government that has stepped up to welfare reform and we will step up again to reinforce the basic messages – kids should be in school and people who can work, should work.
Now of course, that does require investment in training and we’re a Government that has taken seriously investment in training - supplying our productivity places program, in the most recent budget supplying our package for skills through sustainable recovery including with a focus on critical skills areas like the resources industry. If you check what Mr Abbott is saying during this campaign, he says that that’s all ripe for the picking and ripe for cutbacks. Yes?
JOURNALIST: Can I ask two questions, if that’s ok. Firstly, Tony Abbott says he’s no tech head but you say you’re not one either. Is he verballing you on that one? And secondly, on the Commonwealth Bank’s $5.6 billion profit, do you think that’s fair and do you foresee any further policy changes to try and make Australians aren’t ripped off by their banks?
PM: Look, my point about, you know, technical matters, whether it’s the National Broadband Network or anything, any other area of Government policies, of course we could engage in a pop quiz here where you could ask me a thousand questions about all areas of Government policy and there would be some level of detail I couldn’t tell you off the cuff. Obviously. But what people expect from a Prime Minister is they’re not asking us to play pick-a-box every day. What they expect from a Prime Minister is they expect you to get the big calls right. The problem for Mr Abbott is every economic call he has been called upon to make, he is making wrong. No support for jobs, no support for economic stimulus, no plan to return the budget to surplus, cuts into education, cuts into health, cutting the National Broadband Network. No economic plan for the future to create jobs. And the cuts he is making are cuts to things that flow from being a modern nation. We need electronic health records, we need kids understanding computers at schools, we need the National Broadband. In each of these areas, Mr Abbott stands for the wrong judgment call. Sorry, you’re –
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: And we believe in facilitating competitive pressures on banks and we’ve done that. Yes?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there was a woman on TV this morning, Jenny Sturrock who has a rare blood disorder, and she’s made a plea to you to help her with the funding of that drug. Soliras, I think it is. Is there anything you can do for her?
PM: Yes. Look, I saw this matter reported today and obviously I would say to Jenny, it’s very hard for me, I think it’s very hard for all of us to directly imagine what she is going through with this condition; the impact it’s having on her personally, the impact it’s having on her family, the impact it’s having on her desire to have a child. So I’m very, very sympathetic to her personal circumstances. We do have a program of facilitating support for life saving drugs. Of course, we do that on the basis of technical advice, of expert advice, and that comes from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. The Minister for Health has sought further urgent additional advice from those very experts to inform a decision about supporting Jenny and about this drug. We need to get the benefits of that expert advice and that’s been called for urgently. We’ll just go here.
JOURNALIST: On the relocation bonuses – that program’s being funded from unused funding from another employment program. Why was that in the budget if it’s not being used and if that program’s not being used, why do you expect that this one will be taken up?
PM: Well, obviously we’ve designed this program because we think the design features meet modern needs. And in terms of using budget areas, and across the campaign, there have been times when we’ve indicated there have been some parts of the Government’s budget that may have been underspent, and we are obviously looking each and every day of the campaign to make sure that we acquit our promise that the budget comes to surplus in 2013 and that nothing we do during this campaign adds a cent to the budget bottom line. And I would say on that matter, we are being very transparent about this, very frequently publishing our savings and expenditure list. It’s a pretty big contrast to Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey, $7 billion apart, racing towards $30 billion of commitments, not getting their promises in for appropriate costing. And it’s no wonder that in those circumstances Mr Abbott is running from an economic debate, although I would say, of course, Mr Abbott and I are going to be in the same place tonight in Sydney. I’m up for the economic debate that we should have. He’s still got time to agree to an economic debate this evening. Yes?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) How was your pie and wouldn’t you rather be upstaged by Mark Latham than (inaudible)?
PM: The pie was very nice, thank you, and I do understand we are joined by a friend who’s concerned about carbon pollution, as am I, and I think I share, perhaps not our friend’s look, but our friend’s frustration that we weren’t able to get the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme through the federal parliament. And the friend outside may want to raise that matter directly with Mr Abbott, who crashed the consensus we had in the federal parliament. Yes?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) in Afghanistan has warned that it’s likely that Australian casualties will rise as the Taliban is pushed into Uruzgan province. Do you think Australians are ready for that?
PM: Look I have as Prime Minister said when I’ve spoken on Afghanistan and indeed written on Afghanistan that this is, you know, tough dangerous work. We’ve sustained losses, the danger continues. It is what they call fighting season in Afghanistan and of course this is a dangerous mission. But we should also acknowledge our troops are well trained; they are well led, they have the best force protection that we can provide them. They are committed to the mission and I am committed to the mission. Yes Michael.
JOURNALIST: How many people do you expect to take up the relocation bonus and Jenny, is concern about child abuse part of the motivation for the four-year-old health checks?
JENNY MACKLIN: On the first question, we do estimate around 2,000 eligible job seekers will be able to take up the re-location assistance so that’s the way we have costed the initiative. On the other part of your question, we are of course as a Government concerned about child protection. We’re the first national Government to negotiate and put in place a National Child Protection Framework with the states and territories and with non-government agencies and to also share information. One of the important things that will come out of this child health care check is of course information that can, if a doctor finds it, can then be passed on to child protection authorities. It’s not our primary focus, our primary focus is about making sure that children get their health care check done but of course we also want to make sure that all children are protected from abuse and neglect.
PM: OK we might just go to our very polite friend here who almost missed out yesterday and having done that we’ll come back. I think that’s a demeanour that everybody else should study in the press camp. Yes.
JOURNALIST: Polling showed that the internet filters, one of your most if not the most unpopular policy. Is it your WorkChoices?
PM: Well of course WorkChoices was about ripping benefits off working families, things like penalty rates that families relied on. On the internet filter, the Minister Senator Conroy has worked with internet service providers. He, a number of weeks ago, was able to announce that he’d reached for the first time agreement with some internet service providers about this matter, about filtering. We obviously stand for faster broadband, that’s why we’ve committed to rolling out the optical fibre to make sure that people have access to super fast broadband. We also are committed to doing what we can working with internet service providers to have the same restrictions on content that we accept as reasonable in our cinemas and on our TV screens so you know at base here I think there is an important judgement and I’ve made it. It’s not appropriate for people to go to a cinema and watch visual images of child abuse for example, obviously we make that illegal and we make it illegal for good reason. The same set of judgements should apply to what you can get over the internet.
JOURNALIST: Do you think Tony Abbott’s failure to well what we saw last night, do you think that actually says something broader about what he thinks of broadband and perhaps he doesn’t see it as the rest of the community might?
PM: Oh well, clearly Tony Abbott doesn’t understand the impact of the National Broadband Network. He stands for not rolling out the National Broadband Network, he stands for cuts and you know, in terms of the items in the Government’s budget that he’s chosen to cut, cutting computers in schools, cutting electronic health records, cutting out the National Broadband Network. These are benefits for a modern economy and a modern society that we need so Mr Abbott, made the wrong judgment, you know in my view it’s very clear from his interview last night, but more generally that Mr Abbott is making the wrong judgment on the National Broadband Network. We will build it, he will not, just like he’s making the wrong judgment on a series of other economic matters. No stimulus, no support for jobs, cuts to education, cuts to health, a tax on groceries and no plan to return the budget to surplus.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) feeling about tonight? And what sort of questions you’re expecting from the audience?
PM: Well I’m looking forward to it. I’d also be looking forward to a debate with Mr Abbott if he’s up for it. Yes.
JOURNALIST: This morning’s La Trobe yesterday it was Corangamite and Boothby, there’s been a rash of spending announcements in marginal seats. Do people in safe seats need to move to a marginal seat to get anything from Labor?
PM: People in all parts of the country I think are looking to government to have a strong economy which offers them the benefits of jobs and opportunities, they’re looking to government to have the benefits that can flow from a strong economy, into education and health. They’re looking to government to have the benefits that they need for the future like the National Broadband Network, and certainly I would say for this Government when we look at big infrastructure investments, the investments in schools, the GP Super Clinics, the investments we’ve made in roads and beyond, we have responded to need. We’re here today in La Trobe, we could have been in my electorate of Lalor talking about these matters but we also could be talking about benefits to schools in my electorate or here in La Trobe, we could be talking about the benefits to hospitals in my electorate or here in La Trobe, because we’ve taken the approach that we govern for all Australians. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Parramatta Rail?
PM Parramatta Rail, ah, sorry, we’ve just has a local, a local question here. Can I just say on the rail link that I will be addressing this matter in more detail today with Premier Keneally in New South Wales. So I look forward to seeing you again for that. But I do, just given you’ve raised the issue, I do want to make the point that the funding for the new infrastructure investment into Sydney, is funding that we will have from our Nation Building Infrastructure program. The next section of it. It will be provided for out of the provision for infrastructure that is a standing feature of the budget and it will not add a cent to the budget bottom line. It is already provisioned. Ah, yes, local question?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) funding to remediate Stevensons Road landfill. Would you be responsive to that if you were elected again?
PM: Well, we’re a Government that’s sought to have relationship with local government and also to invest in important projects for local government. What I can say standing here with Laura Smyth is that she would be a very strong advocate for this community and for local projects and she might have something to say on that individual project.
SMYTHE: Look, certainly we’ve had an opportunity to meet fairly regularly with the local council, so I’d be keen to continue that dialogue and hopefully there will be an opportunity for me to advocate on their behalf post August the 21st.
PM: Could I also just thank Jacinta Collins, Senator Jacinta Collins who is here, and our candidate for McMillan, Christine Maxfield who has joined us today. Thank you very much.
Tags: Abbott, broadband, Gillard, NBN, stimulus, welfare