Campaign Transcript

TRANSCRIPT OF PRIME MINISTER KEVIN RUDD PRESS CONFERENCE GLADSTONE 2 SEPTEMBER 2013 E & O E PROOF ONLY _____________________________________________________________ Subjects: Plan for Queensland; Australian Industry Participation Plans; Assistance for Small Businesses; Apprentices; TAFE Funding; Mr Abbotts $70 Billion of Cuts; Defence Spending; Syria; Polls; Marriage Equality; Newstart; National Broadband Network, Schoolkids Bonus; Paid Parental Leave, Asylum Seekers. _____________________________________________________________ PM: It's great to be back in Gladstone, which is a great part of Australia, a great part of Queensland, I've been here three times in recent times, with this very decent bloke, whose names CT, Chris Trevor, who I am pleased to count as a friend of mine and he's been a good, strong, loyal friend for many, many years, and more importantly, over a lifetime has made it his mission to stand up for the good people of this region. He is regarded by many as a local legend. Today, as I'll be doing around the country in the coming week, I want to release our plan for Queensland. This puts together in a single document that which we have invested already in the great State of Queensland and what we'll be investing in the future. This is a proud record of supporting jobs, hospitals, and schools and broadband right across the State of Queensland. Because we believe in Queensland's future, we believe in building Queensland's future, and we think the last thing Queensland needs at the moment is Mr Abbott cutting Queensland's future and joining company with Campbell Newman to do the same. Today, I'm in Gladstone to talk about building the new industries of the future, the new jobs of the future and the new apprenticeships of the future. One of the ways in which we build the new industries of the future is to get behind new innovation partnerships and in recent weeks you would have seen me speak about the importance of high-tech manufacturing and our new partnerships there, our medical technology research partnerships when we visited the Translational Research Institute in Brisbane.

When we were in Perth we spoke about the new oil and gas industry partnership, which is to take our expertise in that sector and turbo charge new jobs in the oil and gas sector for the future, also the Biotechnology (inaudible) we have launched to help take our research findings there and commercialise them into new job opportunities for the future and today, I'm talking about our new mining innovation partnership - Mining Equipment, Technology and Services Innovation Partnership, which we'll be basing in Queensland. This is important because this sector represents just under three per cent of the Australian economy and is one of our fastest growing export sectors. We're good at this and we need to turn it into not just what we use here domestically in Australia, but in a new plan for export and platform for export across the word. This partnership will bring together core partners, Austmine Limited, the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane Marketing Economic Development Board, the CSIRO, the Centre for Mining Technology and Equipment Development, Queensland University, Curtin University and the Australian Industry Group, and others, and this investment is worth $16 million through to 16-17 to be matched by industry and research partners. This is part of our $1 billion investment in future industry partnerships right across the country. We're not just talking about our investments in the car industry, we're talking about our investments also in the new manufacturing industries of the future, like the type you saw with us when you visited the Australian Hearing Hub in Sydney. The new industries which will be created through oil and gas technologies, selling them around the world, the new industries to be created also in what we're doing with medical research and biotechnology and now also in this critical sector, mining equipment and technology services. We are world class in these industries, world class in our research, and therefore our challenge is to turn that into new export industries for Australia to grow new jobs in these sectors and to provide for new apprenticeships in these sectors, as well. The other thing I wanted to talk to you about today is how we also make sure we are building industry opportunities locally, and job and training opportunities locally across Australia, as well. I've announced that with the Industry Participation Plans, we have taken that requirement for firms to draw upon local industry and local jobs from what was a billion dollar threshold to a half billion threshold, now to a $300 million threshold. I remind you that this is all about when big projects come, like they come to Gladstone, that there is a genuine opportunity to access those economic opportunities for local businesses, local jobs and local apprentices. That's why we've done it and I am stunned by the fact that Mr Abbott voted against this plan in the Parliament when we had it at $500 million. I presume therefore he'll be voting against this plan now that we've brought it down to $300 million. We have a plan to build the new industries and jobs of the future through Australian Industry Participation Plans. Mr Abbott has voted against those plans which represents a cut to local industry opportunities, a cut to local jobs.

So while we're building local jobs through Australian Industry Plans, Mr Abbott is cutting into local industry opportunities and cutting into local job opportunities, and if you've got doubts about where he stands on the future of jobs in the future, at the local area, just don't vote for him. Also you know that in supporting local industry and local apprenticeships we have also announced that with Australian Government-funded infrastructure projects, that for all the hours worked on those projects we will in the future require 10% of those hours worked to be dedicated to the training of apprentices. The other thing we've done to support apprentices is increase the Tools For Your Trade grant to $6,000, so that these young blokes I saw here earlier today can get a helping hand going out to buy their new drills, their new saws, their new hammers because it all adds up, particularly when you don't have much in your back pocket when you start an apprenticeship. I also spoke yesterday about our plans to build on apprenticeships in the future by giving TAFE a future and not just a past. I've seen too much of cuts to TAFE across Queensland and across Australia, by Liberal State Governments, it's time to put TAFE on a new footing for the future and that's why we're out there backing TAFE for the future, as well and that means looking at ensuring that the State and Territory Governments maintain or increase their effort over time. Secondly, that if we're increasing our Budget, which we have, they're not simply pulling the money out the backdoor. Thirdly, if they fail to do that then working out individual contracts with individual TAFE colleges, where we would fund them direct, and finally if they don't cop that, I've said loud and clear that we'll take that $7 billion of Australian Government TAFE funding and invest directly into a new TAFE Australia Network for the future. All of these are about building new jobs and new industries for the future, so that young apprentices like these guys get a fair opportunity. The last thing I want to mention is also the other part of our industry initiatives, which goes to the critical role of small business. We've got 3.2 million small businesses in Australia, we've got 650,000 in Queensland. What we're offering all those small businesses is a $5.4 billion tax boost, including the measures that I referred to yesterday, to increase the immediate tax boost to $10,000 for small businesses with turnovers of less than $2 million. So if you go out there and buy equipment for your business and you're a business with a turnover under $2 million, you're able to get a huge slice of that back within that financial year. It's all about making sure that the turnovers and profitability of small businesses is supported by our tax system, and the reason for that is small businesses are also the sort of folks who employ apprentices like these guys. So, if you're helping on the one hand, small business cash flow by our small business tax boost, which runs to some $5.4 billion together with the other measures and frankly, that's giving a hand up to small business with what I see with Mr Abbott

taking small business for granted is he's going to rip instead four to five billion dollars worth of tax support from them. Let conclude with these remarks today - I believe that these set of alternatives represent a clear, clear message for the country's future, and simply this, on jobs, on industry, on apprenticeships, we have a clear plan but if you the Australian people have doubts about where Mr Abbott's $70 billion of cuts will fall, don't vote for him. If you got doubts about where his $70 billion of cuts will fall on your local industry, your local jobs or your job security, don't vote for him. Over to you folks. JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, do you accept that $70 billion figure that you keep using has been found by independent fact checkers to be wrong and if so, why do you keep using it? PM: We simply base that on statements provided by Treasury and Finance spokesmen by the Coalition and secondly, the Coalition as of now have not provided any full compendium of their cuts and policy undertakings for this election with four to five days to go and, therefore, we look forward to Mr Abbott coming clean. On this question I go back to the core proposition. People in Australia are uncertain about where his billions of dollars of cuts will fall. They've got every right to be uncertain about that because it could affect their job, their school and their hospital and if you've got doubts about where those cuts are going to fall then, frankly, don't vote for him. JOURNALIST: On the issue of defence spending, when you came to office in 2007 you promised to maintain defence spending. The reality is it's fallen as a percentage of GDP. Why haven't you kept your word on that? PM: On defence spending, if you look at the numbers our defence spending I think this year is running at about $26 billion. It will probably rise to about $30 billion in the years ahead and we are strong supporters of the Australian Defence Force as demonstrated by the large number of capital acquisitions coming on board. Our target is to maintain- our target is to have defence expenditure growing at 2% a year. These have been difficult economic times, but we have made sure that we have made the right investments where they are necessary in the future of Australia's defence requirements. Defence is a core responsibility of national security and on the question of national security, interesting things have been said in recent times by others on the question of Syria and our broader engagement with the rest of the world. JOURNALIST: On Syria, Tony Abbott has said this morning that respected world leaders such as David Cameron and Bill Clinton have used the terms good guys and not so good guys, do you think they also don't have the temperament to deal with an international crisis? PM: You know something, there is a chemical weapons attack within the last two weeks on the people of Syria. This is the central debate around the world now on

what to do about people who've committed acts of mass murder against their civilian population. Furthermore, what I would say is that Mr Abbott by saying that this Syrian conflict is a simple matter of not goodies and baddies, but baddies versus baddies, trivialises what is a major foreign policy, international relations and national security question for not just Australia, but countries around the world. (inaudible) The last time I used the term goodies and baddies, I think, was when I was playing Cowboys and Indians in the backyard. What about you? We had Cowboys and Indians in the backyard. We talked about goodies and baddies, I think I stopped doing that at about the age of 10. Were talking about serious questions of national security, serious questions of international relations, and the alternative Prime Minister of Australia is referring to this as no more complex than goodies versus baddies or baddies versus baddies. I'd say this, if you have doubts about Mr Abbott's ability to handle complex national security and international relations questions, then don't vote for him. And I think his statements of the last 24 hours give everyone pause for thought on that, and the fact that the Liberal Party campaign secretariat have been going through their research rotor engines to find some references here or some references there to someone else who might have used a vaguely similar term somewhere else, indicates they know they have a problem and they do have a problem it's their leader and their leader is not confident in this area. Remember, John Hewson said of Tony Abbott he is innumerate. Mr Costello said, he is not comfortable with economics, and doesn't know the first thing about it. What these remarks demonstrate is that he's not confident and comfortable with national security and foreign policy. I think underneath it all, most Australians get that they understand Mr Abbott is not comfortable on economics. They understand that Mr Abbott is uncomfortable about detailed questions of the economy. He's uncomfortable and uncertain about how to handle questions of national security and if the Australian people have doubts and anxieties about that, they should listen to them and not vote for him. Ill come back to you, mate. JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you keep saying if people have doubts about Tony Abbott don't vote for him but according to todays Newspoll, he now leads you as preferred Prime Minister, does that suggest voters have more doubts about you? PM: Can I just say that the good people of Australia will make their minds up on election day and my job is to explain our plan to build Australia's future and to explain Mr Abbott's plan of how he would cut Australia's future - jobs, hospitals, broadband, schools. That's a choice for the Australian people come the weekend. By the way, my advice is that weve got somewhere north of 15 per cent of people out there who remain undecided with about four to five days to go in this election campaign, and this is when the Australian people start to lock on, in the last week of a campaign. In the last week of a campaign they lock onto questions of jobs and their jobs. They lock onto questions of who best handles the country's national security. They lock onto questions of who best handles funding for their schools and hospitals. And on those questions what we pick up right across the country is a deep level of uncertainty and anxiety about Mr Abbott on these questions. Sure, the

Government has had its challenges, I concede that, but the bottom line is the bottom line here is that people are scratching their head wondering, and I believe worrying, about Mr Abbott's ability to manage a $1.5 trillion economy, and to manage our nation's national security, particularly when the world is divided between goodies and baddies, and baddies and baddies. Life is more complex than that. JOURNALIST: The question we have for you is, you've told us your stance on marriage equality, something that we back you 100 per cent with. The question I want to know for you is could you actually marry someone like Tony Abbott if you were in a same-sex relationship yourself? PM: (LAUGHS) Pass (LAUGHS). Seriously on that question, as I've said before, marriage equality and people in same-sex relationships deserve to be treated with respect and equitably under the Australian law, and that underpins my position. JOURNALIST: Yesterday your wife Therese spoke about your family's struggles when tragedy struck and your mother became a single parent. I just remind you in the days after you became Prime Minister for the second time you said that Cabinet would reconsider the issue of welfare cuts to single mothers. You haven't mentioned that issue since then and for the tens of thousands of single mums and their kids living on $35 a day, what can they attribute your silence to? A lack of empathy, forgetfulness or just complete indifference? PM: Can I say that the lot of all folks out there who are doing it tough is of deep and continuing concern to me, the Government and to all our Ministers. And on the question that you've just referred to, I have long believed, and that as our budgetary circumstances permit, that we need to provide more support there. It's tough and it's hard, and we've had many, many long internal discussions about this and it's been a very difficult set of decisions. But I understand just how important it is to be providing support to all such folks. Remember, across the board on cost of living pressures for all families, the same folks that you are talking about would also lose their Schoolkids Bonus, which is a cheque, if they've got a couple of kids, of $1,200 a year, but also lose a series of, I believe, other critical supports for the facilities that they use. So yes, I can see this is a tough area and as budgetary circumstances permit in the future, if the Government's returned, it's one we need to attend to. I fully accept that. JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, in July, 4,200 asylum seekers arrived, in August it's been about 1500. You started this campaign promising a positive campaign. Instead of talking about the success of your policy, we hear you criticise the Coalition's asylum seeker policy and a range of other issues. Why have you not kept your promise to run a positive campaign? Why are you so critical of Mr Abbott rather than talking about what Labor's done right? PM: I said at the very outset that our critique of Mr Abbott would be policy-based. It is. I said that at the very beginning and I haven't changed from that one bit. I also said I'd put out a positive plan for the country's future. We have. I've also indicated that we are consolidating that plan for every State across the country. We have. And furthermore, we have a plan to build the industries of the future, a $1 billion investment partnership in the new industries of the future. We have also a plan to build the number of the nation's apprentices. We have a plan which is a hospitals

and health plan to bring funding up by $19 billion to 2019. We have a Better Schools Plan which injects another $10 billion into the schools of the country, and we have a plan to complete the roll-out of the National Broadband Network, and we have a plan to help families under financial pressure by boosting child care through out of school hours care on the one hand, and on top of that, helping those families by retaining the Schoolkids Bonus. They're our positive plans. They're out there, and guess what, they're all costed. Theyre out there. And so what I have said consistently since day one, is that yes, I'll run a positive campaign about our plans for the future. They're out there, theyre practical, theyre costed, and I will be shining a spotlight on the policy differences we have with Mr Abbott. That is what an election's about. It's about a choice. Talking about our positives as I've done in this press conference today, and outlined yet again, a further element of our industry participation plans for the future, and what we're doing for apprenticeships for the future. And on the other side of the ledger, if Mr Abbott won, running away from providing people with transparent access to his $70 billion worth of cuts, which both of his economic spokesman have said they will make. Number two, running away from telling people where those cuts would fall on your jobs, your schools, your hospitals and your NBN. And number three, shining a policy spotlight on whether you can trivialise a conflict in Syria as to becoming a game of Cowboys and Indians in the backyard when you're 10 years old. So I intend to keep presenting the alternative, because as I said before, if you've got uncertainities about where Mr Abbott's plans on job cuts will hit you or his ability to run complex international relations questions, don't vote for him. JOURNALIST: I just wanted to clarify your answer to that previous question. It's your intention when budget conditions allow to reverse the decision shifting single parents onto Newstart when their youngest child turns eight? PM: I believe this is something which needs to be attended to as soon as budget circumstances permit, and for me if the Government is returned, that is priority - a real priority. I think folks like that are doing it really tough. We've gone through all the numbers on it, but because we have put all of our costings out there and we've tightly costed everything that we've got, I wanted to be completely transparent about what we can do now, but what I regard to be a priority should we be re-elected. JOURNALIST: Your Minister for Foreign Aid, Melissa Parke, told a candidates forum in Fremantle last week she had severe difficulties with the Government's policy on asylum seekers. This is even though she is responsible for administering some of that policy through the AusAid budget. What's your reaction to what would seem on the face of it to be a clear breach of frontbench solidarity? PM: For goodness sake, you've seen the Liberal Party split right down the middle on Paid Parental Leave scheme. You've seen Malcolm Turnbull say well, this is far too generous, we can't afford it. That's a divide down the middle of Tony Abbott's central policy for this election campaign. His crazy idea to give $75,000 to millionaires and billionaires. We've seen the National Party say they'll never vote for it. If you want to see a split right down the middle of any political party, look at that. What I have said before what I have said before about our policy on peoplesmugglers is that it is very difficult for all of us to get the balance right. And what I'd

say to all of you on the question of people-smugglers is, we believe we have got the balance right. Do you know why? Because we have said, and we have increased, our allocation of refugees under the humanitarian quota, indicated that we'd go further, contingent on the successful implementation of this policy, while providing a mechanism for making a clear-cut message to people-smugglers, there in black and white that if you try to bring someone to Australia by boat without a visa they will not settle in Australia. Just compare and contrast the conclusions where all that's taken us. The Immigration Minister, Mr Burke, has made it very plain what the consequences for that have been over the course of the last month, and so therefore, we see the effectiveness of the measures that we have taken, while there's still a long way to go. And that is our approach. The alternative approach is this other crazy idea of Mr Abbott's, crazy idea of Mr Abbott's, to not turn back the boats but buy back the boats in Indonesia, creating a virtual boom in the Indonesian boat building industry. And I may have said last night, on people-smugglers Mr Abbott can find, it seems, millions of dollars to buy back boats from millions of Indonesian fishermen, but can't find an extra dollar to co-invest in the future of the car industry in Australia. On priorities, if he thinks that Australians will buy a set of priorities which says: I'm Ton y Abbott, I can't find a dollar extra to invest in the car industry but I can find extra dollars to invest in the Indonesian boat building industry - I think that says everything about his priorities. JOURNALIST: If the polls do prove correct on Saturday, but you are still elected in Griffith and that is in doubt PM: So we have hypothetical one, hypothetical two, whats the third one? JOURNALIST: The polls have been consistent across the campaign. PM: Your hypothetical was the application through it JOURNALIST: Will you go to the backbench and will you serve a full term? PM: I have said and said again that I have one intention in this campaign and that is to prevail in this election on behalf of the Australian Labor Party. I've said consistently from day one, I will not engage in any hypotheticals to the contrary because the Australian people have an expectation of me as the Leader of the Government, and of Mr Abbott, to engage in a policy contest of ideas. And the policy contest of ideas was that which I outlined in my statement to the policy launch of the Australian Labor Party yesterday . It's very clear-cut, and which way the Australian people choose to vote is a matter for them. I emphasise again that based on our advice more than 15 per cent of voters are undecided at this stage, and there's a reason for them being undecided. One of the reasons for them being undecided is that they have profound doubts, worries and uncertainities about whether Mr Abbott can effectively do the job of being Prime Minister of Australia - either on the economy or on national security. My message to the Australian people this week is, here are our plans, they're fully costed, they're out there. Mr Abbott, he's hiding the cost for the plans that he's put out, and he's hiding some plans altogether. We're upfront, he's hiding his in a box

because he's frightened that they're going to frighten people. And, all I'm saying is that if you are uncertain about what's in Mr Abbott's secret mystery box of cuts to your jobs and your schools and your hospitals, and if you're worried about how he'd handle national security questions, just don't vote for him. Thanks folks. ENDS