PRIME MINISTER

29 November 2013

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MP DOORSTOP INTERVIEW ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Subjects: Health and medical research funding; allegations of wildlife smuggling; GrainCorp; the Governments commitment to repeal the carbon tax; Gove Refinery; Qantas; Ashes test in Adelaide; school funding. E&OE. PRIME MINISTER: Its terrific to be here at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute to be involved with the opening. This is a very good day for South Australia. Its a very good day for health and medical research in our country. As Health Minister, I was responsible for a doubling of National Health and Medical Research Council spending. Over the life of the Howard Government, National Health and Medical Research Council spending quadrupled. One of the commitments that we have made as an incoming government is to ensure that there are no cuts to Health and Medical Research Council funding. We want to drive our medical research dollar further by ensuring that there is less bureaucracy in applications for NH&MRC and ARC grants and of course, weve also committed an additional $200 million to dementia research, $40-odd million to tropical medicine research at James Cook University in Townsville, and $35 million for juvenile diabetes research. So, I am confident that we will do the right thing by Australias health and medical research community. I am determined to build on the fine legacy of the Howard Government. QUESTION: Prime Minister, just on another matter, what do you know, if anything, of bird smuggling on a Hercules thats been donated to Indonesia? Do you know anything about that? PRIME MINISTER:

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Look, Ive had the most cursory of briefings just prior to coming down here now. The matter is under investigation and obviously those investigations need to be allowed to take their course. QUESTION: So, you wouldyou would confirm there is something thats happened; that theres been an interception done? PRIME MINISTER: Look, I understand there has been an incident. The matter is being investigated and those investigations should be allowed to take their course. QUESTION: Is there a bit of an irony that it involves Indonesia? PRIME MINISTER: Look, I want to build the best possible relationship with Indonesia. Indonesia is our most important relationship overall. I am determined that its going to get stronger and stronger in the months and years ahead, and look, from time to time Australians do things in Indonesia and it shouldnt be a complete surprise that occasionally its a two-way street. QUESTION: Prime Minister, in relation to GrainCorp, has the Treasurer been successfully bullied by the National Party in making todays decision? PRIME MINISTER: The Treasurer has been the guardian of our national interest today, as always. We are open for business and I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that we are open for business. We are open for foreign investment. It has to be foreign investment that accords with our overall national interest. So far, my understanding is that the Treasurer has considered some 131 major foreign investment applications and 130 of those have been approved. QUESTION: Prime Minister, what communication has there been with Washington about that decision, to make sure that they dont misinterpret it as a breach of the Free Trade Agreement? PRIME MINISTER: This is a decision that is, by law, in the hands of the Treasurer. Hes made it very conscientiously and in accordance with law. QUESTION: And how exactly is this decision in the national interest? How would the takeover been against the national interest? PRIME MINISTER:
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Well, its very important that we consider all of these applications against a range of criteria a broad range of criteria and looking at it, against those broad criteria, given the fact that there was division in our community, given the fact that the Foreign Investment Review Board itself was divided on this, the Treasurer made the decision that he did. QUESTION: Do you feel youve been fighting, this week in particular, just multiple policy battles on various fronts, whether it be Gonski, whether it be Indonesia, whether it be GrainCorp? Has it been one of those weeks? PRIME MINISTER: I am absolutely honoured to be the Prime Minister of our country but in the end its not about me, it is about our country and a better future for our country and while, inevitably, all sorts of issues come up on a day to day basis, this government will stay its course and its course is clear: to stop the boats, to get the budget under control and to repeal the taxes that the former government hit us with, and to build the roads of the 21st Century. Now, the coming fortnight is going to be absolutely critical for our country because the Parliament will have the opportunity to give our country the best possible Christmas present to give every household a $550 a year boost by passing the carbon tax repeal legislation. On that point, I want to make it absolutely obvious to the Labor Party what the stakes are here, because how can Labor accuse the Government of breaking a commitment if it tries to stop us from keeping the most fundamental commitment of all: the commitment to repeal the carbon tax. How can the Labor Party ever accuse us of damaging the welfare of Australian families if it is stopping us or trying to stop us from delivering the greatest benefit of all to Australian families the repeal of the carbon tax? So, this is a very important fortnight coming up in the Parliament and I will do everything I humanly can to honour the pledge that I made to the Australian people to end this toxic tax. QUESTION: Prime Minister, just back on SAHMRI, theres a proposal to build a sister SAHMRI next door, which would house the CSIRO. Can you find money for that, do you think? PRIME MINISTER: I have not, to the best of my knowledge, seen an application. Obviously these are tougher fiscal times than existed when I was the Health Minister, when I was able, quite regularly, to provide substantial support for health and medical research infrastructure. We do have to get the Budget under control, and the commitment that Ive given is that there will be no reductions in medical research funding and as far as we can when the fiscal circumstances permit, we would like to increase medical research funding. QUESTION: Prime Minister, the Indonesian police chief has told their Parliament that they will stop detaining asylum seekers whose destination was Australia. How seriously does the Australian Government take that? PRIME MINISTER: Well, the point I make is that it is illegal to engage in people smuggling ventures in Indonesia. People smuggling is a serious crime under Indonesian law and I am confident that the cooperation that we have had in the past we can have again in the future. Im very confident that we can have that. QUESTION:
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What is your reaction to Rio Tintos decision to mothball the Gove Refinery and the loss of 1,000 jobs? PRIME MINISTER: My understanding is that what Rio is likely to announce is a phasing down of production at the refinery. This is obviously very bad news for the workers there but my understanding is that Rio is hoping to be able to offer new jobs within the Rio Group to those who are currently employed at Gove but who may not be employed there in the future. The people who I feel very sorry for are those who have bought homes and businesses in Gove on the expectation of a very vibrant ongoing continuing economy and who are now in a very difficult position. I think these are the people who Rio does have a moral debt to, if not, necessarily, a legal debt. QUESTION: Prime Minister, just in regards to Qantas, can I ask if Qantas has come to the government with any specific proposal to help back their debt either a call for an equity injection or a debt guarantee? PRIME MINISTER: No, there has not been at this stage a specific proposal. I want to make a couple of points. First, Qantas is a great Australian icon and the Government wants to see a strong and continuing Qantas. Second, what we want to see is a strong and competitive aviation sector here in Australia, and that's obviously what we've got. There are a range of proposals obviously being debated out there in the community. Let's see where that all goes, but obviously, we want to see a strong and continuing Qantas. QUESTION: Prime Minister, do you wish the English cricketers well here at the new Adelaide Oval next week? PRIME MINISTER: Obviously, I want to see a good game and based on the results of the first Test we will get a good game and let's hope the right side wins. QUESTION: Prime Minister, just on education funding, Christopher Pyne says the Government doesnt enter into five or six year arrangements. Does that apply for things like the National Disability Insurance Scheme, too? PRIME MINISTER: We are committed to the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the National Disability Insurance Scheme is obviously going to ramp up over a period of years and it will be fully operational in 2018/19. But we do budget on a four-year basis and we will absolutely keep our commitment made pre-election to provide the same quantum of funding over the four year period than Labor promised. In fact, we'll do a little better than that. We'll put $230 million more in to ensure that next year, schools got what Labor promised or what Labor offered and the really interesting thing is that the shadow Treasurer has come clean and admitted yes, Labor did rip $1.2 billion out of schools funding just a couple of weeks before the election. Now, that the shadow Treasurer has come clean and admitted the Labor school funding rip-off, now we can have a sensible debate about the best way forward. QUESTION:

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Can you guarantee that South Australia will receive as much money as was agreed to by the previous government? PRIME MINISTER: I can guarantee that the money that was agreed to for next year will be fully delivered. In fact, there will be $230 million more next year from this government than there would have been from the Labor Party had it won the election. The other thing I can guarantee is that what you will get under the Coalition is a school funding system that is both national and fair. There won't be first class schoolkids in one state and second class schoolkids in another state. The system will be national and fair and it will be entirely in accordance with the commitments that we made prior to the election. Thank you. [ends]

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