Press Conference, Darwin

BOWMAN: I'm Scott Bowman, the Vice Chancellor of Charles Darwin University. A very warm welcome to everyone. This is a fantastic day. It's a day that we've been waiting for. It's the day when we open this incredible facility, Danala. This will be home not only to many of our staff and students, but it'll be a home for the community as well, a facility that we will welcome people into, into our libraries, into the NTG library, into the Radicle Centre, which will be like a mini Questacon right here in Darwin. This is really exciting. We've been waiting for this for a long time, and here we are. And now I will hand over to Luke,

GOSLING: Thanks, Vice Chancellor. It is an incredible day for our city and for the Territory and for Northern Australia more generally. And can I start by acknowledging the Larrakia and this wonderful precinct, but to also acknowledge Scott's leadership across northern Australia, with the vice chancellors of James Cook University in northern Queensland, but also Central Queensland University and working with WA universities, so that across northern Australia we are doing the best research that there is to find in our incredible part of the country where there's so much potential for growth. And why do I say that is because the Prime Minister has recently given me the honour and privilege to be the special envoy for defence veterans in Northern Australia, and this new precinct as part of our excellence in Northern Australia here is really going to turbocharge the future for Northern Australia, working in concert with our colleagues across the state borders into the NT and Queensland.  I really want to thank the Minister, Catherine King, our federal minister, for being here with us today to officially open this incredible campus. As the Vice Chancellor said, it is going to be a game changer. We've been working in Canberra to make sure that the NT has enough international students coming through for the current capacity, but we have a vision to grow that into the future, so that not only Territory kids have every opportunity to get a great education, but people from our region do as well. This precinct is going to really help in that endeavour and student accommodation for international students as well. So it is a great day. Scott made a reference to the Radicle Centre. Now this Radicle Centre, if anyone's been to Canberra, is going to be like a mini Questacon right here in the Centre of Darwin city. And that's going to engage a whole group of young Territorians with STEM, with the sciences, about being inquisitive and setting them on a lifetime journey of education. So that's going to be a great asset here, as is the library and so many other function areas and community purpose areas, which means that this is going to be an open campus. It's going to be open to the community, and young kids will start to see what they can become as more and more opportunities open up here in the Territory. Darwin's the best place to live, and it is the best place to study. So we look forward to the students coming in. I want to thank DECO, the builders, who've done an incredible job here, and without further ado, I'll hand over to our federal minister for infrastructure and so many other things, Catherine King.

KING: Thanks very much for that, Luke. And can I also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather, the Larrakia people, and pay my respects to elders past and present. To Scott, thank you again. You hosted me here back in July. The building wasn't quite finished then, but what an incredible job you have done alongside the builders here. To Luke, my colleague, the Member for Solomon, and also to Jo Hersey, the new NT Minister for Education. It's lovely to be here with you. Well, what a great day for Darwin and what a great day for Charles Darwin University. This isn't just about a new university building. This is about reactivating a precinct of the city of Darwin, opening the arms of the university to the entire community here in Darwin and the Northern Territory, opening its arms for people to learn. The library now being located here, science precinct, being able to bring your kids in here, to be able to learn. It is about lifelong learning, and opening the arms of the university to the entire community of Darwin.  We're very proud to have partnered with Charles Darwin University with a $97.3 million grant, as well as NAIF funding of over $126.5 million to make sure this precinct becomes a reality. I was really delighted to be able to, as I said, get a preview of the building back in July and to really see just how this space is going to be used by the community. Again, having the library here is a game changer, being able to actually have, you know, often universities are places of mystery to people who haven't actually been in them before. What this building is doing is activating this precinct, bringing people in and making sure that learning is not a mystery. Learning is for everybody, young and old. And the opportunities that this building provides, not just to Charles Darwin University students, of which I know many are going to be very interested in coming in on I think there's a semester starts on Monday, new semester on Monday. So coming in being able to be in this building, but people curious about what this university might be able to do for them and for their kids into the future. So I do want to say congratulations to everybody here, and to people of the Northern Territory and people of this beautiful city of Darwin. This is your space. This is your university. Please use it. They are opening their arms to you in the community, Just very briefly before I hand over to Minister Hersey and I will take questions after. There is a couple of things I just wanted to comment on as well that are running nationally, but we'll start just with the social media story today. As the mother of a 16 year old, I, like many parents, have been grappling how you deal with social media and how you deal with access of your teenagers to social media. I've been grappling with that in my family for several years now, as my son is now 16 years of age, and I know parents across the community are highly concerned about it. We know that social media is doing harm. We know that it is doing harm, particularly to young people, and we can't just sit by and do nothing about it. The Prime Minister has announced we'll be legislating this year about protecting young people from social media. It's not about punishing them. It is about protecting them from the harms that it is doing, and providing tools to parents to be able to say, this is what we expect from our social media companies, and to being able to say to their teenagers and young people, this is what the rules are in terms of social media. This is what we can and we don't, don't want to have happen in our household. And so the Prime Minister today has written to all of the states and territories to consult. We want to you know, this is an all-in effort. We all need to work together on this, to consult over the legislation that we'll be bringing forward. We know that that input is really important as states and territories are doing a variety of different things as they work their way through what is a significant social issue. But this is a responsibility of all of us, and the Prime Minister, in writing to states and territories today is moving that legislation along, making sure that we get this right to really help parents with the tools that they need to protect young people who we really do know are being harmed by social media. I'll hand over to Minister Hersey to say a few things, and then I'll be happy to take some questions.

HERSEY: Jo Hersey, Minister for Education, it is a pleasure to be here today at the opening of this fantastic new building. I haven't been here since we had a walk around with the Vice Chancellor maybe 18 months ago. It is a great place where students can come. We welcome them into the city here to make the city a vibrant place again, try and get some reconnect into the city for the businesses. Those students will be able to be employed by some of those shops that are in the city here. And so I think bringing back that, re engagement into the city, and connecting with the students here is just, I really look, I welcome that, and I look forward to seeing how that looks in the future. Also, we welcome more international students here, and we know here in the Territory, we do things a bit differently, and we can take more of the international students here in the city. So I welcome that, and I welcome the opening here this morning. And it's an absolute pleasure to be here for this grand opening this morning. Thank you.

KING : Any questions?

JOURNALIST: Jo, while you're up? We haven't heard too much, I don't think, from the CLP, while you were in opposition about tertiary education and your strategy for tertiary education, can you just sort of outline, I guess, what the next sort of four years of your sort of tertiary education policy will look like as minister?

HERSEY: Yeah, so we obviously,  international students, there's been a cap on numbers. And I was just talking to the Vice Chancellor before about the numbers that they need for this university, you know, to reactivate the city, and for it to be a great place for people to come and study here. And we know that we have lots of amazing things here in the Territory for opportunities for young people in the work while they are studying, and we look forward to working with the federal government to get more international students here to the Territory. 

JOURNALIST: What  kind of cap, or what kind of, I guess, exemption from the cap would you like to see from the Federal Government.

HERSEY: So I know that with that cap, we have been talking to the federal government about and also acknowledging the Member for Solomon. Member for Solomon has been working with the federal government and talking to the federal government about increasing that cap as well. So I think the numbers that we've got here at the moment, I know that we can get more here. We've also got land here that the Northern Territory Government has given for student accommodation, because we know that accommodation is key to getting those students here in the Territory. So we are happy to get more students, as many more as we can have, because we know that what happens down in the southern states and on the east coast is not the same as what we have here in the Territory. So we welcome as many students. As the Vice Chancellor, I'm sure, would attest to that, that we need as many students as we can get here to make the building a more vibrant building, get people into the courses that are going to, you know be beneficial here to the Territory.

JOURNALIST: Catherine, I just want to ask about the Australians having secured flights on from Beirut tonight. So I guess how many Australians have secured their seats on that flight?

KING: So there are 500 seats available. There are two flights coming out of Beirut. They'll be flying out mid-morning and mid-afternoon. The advice to Australians on those on those flights is to get to the airport by 6am Beirut time, and then from those flights will be flying into Cyprus, and Qantas has offered free flights from Cyprus back into Sydney, which will be flying on Monday. So that is what's available at the moment. It is important that people register with DFAT. Many people have already done so, but if you are seeking access to those flights, you need to register with DFAT. I will give the number out for that. You can do that via the crisis portal on the DFAT website, or by ringing + 61 26 26 133 05, it's important that people register with DFAT. Obviously, we will advise people if there are further flights available, but that is going to be very dependent on conditions on the ground. Our message very clearly to people in Lebanon at the moment is, do not wait. Do not wait to get the perfect flight home that connects you everywhere. If you are offered a flight, then you need to go. You need to leave now and take that first available opportunity. The situation on the ground is very serious, and we cannot guarantee that we can get everybody out. We want to make sure we're doing, that people take every available opportunity and not to wait until you get the perfect flight that connects you all the way home. Get out now on the flights that are available and don't wait. 

JOURNALIST: There are 1000s of Australians in Lebanon currently, is the Australian Government thinking about more flights potentially, like a military aircraft? 

KING: Yeah, we've got contingency plans in place. Obviously, we are dealing with the circumstances as they arise. At the moment, the airport is still open. There's no guarantee that that will continue to be the case. So at the moment, we're looking at, obviously, what we've done is secured two charter flights, 500 seats on those to get people out immediately, and we're notifying people as more flights or more things become available. But the situation is very fluid on the ground, and we've got contingency planning for if the airport goes down and what else we might do. But we're dealing with this situation as it is today. 

JOURNALIST: Have you been given advice that the airport may go down?

KING: Well, the reality is, you know, this is a very fluid situation, and so I think that the advice very clearly to people is, do not wait, if you've got a flight out, get that flight out. Do not wait for the perfect set of circumstances that you think will suit you. If you've got a flight and you've got to got a seat, get on it and leave now.

JOURNALIST: Just on the social media bans, you're opening door for (inaudible) commissions instead of (inaudible)? Why was that? 

KING: Well, there's a couple of things, and obviously this is part of talking to states and territories about that. I mean, some of the things that have been raised with us is that there are some young people who use social media for mental health services and trying to make sure that that access is still available. At the end of the day parents are responsible for their children. What we're trying to be able to do is give parents all of the available tools, the best advice we can to try and make sure they can minimize the harms of social media on young people. Parents have been asking for this. It's really difficult when you've got a young person who's other kids in their friendship group have broad access to social media, and you're trying to restrict that. It's really hard to do that. So what we're trying to do is provide those tools to parents to really be able to make that you know, the best choices that they can to protect young people. We don't want to punish young people, but we really want to protect young people from the harms that we all know that social media does. 

JOURNALIST: When could we expect (inaudible)?

KING:  Yep, well obviously the Prime Minister has now written to states and territories, is working our way through them. We've got four weeks of sittings, so I'd be a fair bit it'll be introduced within those four weeks of sitting, if we're doing it by the end of the year.

JOURNALIST :Separate question just about frequent flyers. Do you think the airlines are doing enough to protect frequent flyers?

KING: Well, it's obviously incumbent upon the airlines to protect people's data, including access to frequent flyer points, and I'm disturbed by those reports this morning. The government stands ready to assist the airlines or airports, depending on where this hack's occurred, in terms of strengthening their cyber security arrangements and understanding what's happened, but it is incumbent upon airlines a) to protect people's data, but also to make sure they're informing people of what's actually occurred in this place, and to rectify that if they are at fault. 

JOURNALIST: Just one last one, this might be a little bit more in your portfolio, about the build-to-rent scheme coming before Parliament next week, what's that going to do for renters?

KING Yeah, well, build-to-rent. I mean, I've been in capital cities, particularly, using the build-to-rent scheme. Property developers are building low cost housing in communities across the country now, which is providing affordable rental for people across this country. The build-to-rent scheme forms part of the over $32 billion the Commonwealth is putting in to try and drive more supply of housing. Now we're trying to take pressure off by increasing Commonwealth Rent Assistance. We've got the home guarantee scheme, which is seeing 1000s of Australians own their home for the first time, including in communities such as the Darwin that I'm in now. We've also got the Housing Support Program. We've given money to the Northern Territory Government, for example, where they will be building infrastructure to bring those houses on more quickly and to ensure that we've got the capability within our planning schemes to ensure that we can actually bring those to there, and the Rent To Buy scheme is very much part of it. It is now time for the Greens, in particular, to actually back. You know, they say they want more rental. They say they want more people in housing. Yet time and time again, they do everything they possibly can do to block,  block more housing for people, whether it's at the local council level, where we see them getting in the way of housing developments, or whether it's now at the federal level, where they're blocking this legislation. They need to get on board. We want to build more homes. We want more supply in the market, and it's time they actually got out of the way and let us deliver that. Thank you.