Joint press conference - Sydney, NSW

CHRISTINA LUZI, HEAD OF SCHOOL OF PATHWAYS: Good morning, my name is Christina Luzi. I'm the head of School of Pathways here at St John XXIII Catholic College and it's our great honour to welcome the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, the Honourable Michelle Rowland and Peter McDonald from Anglicare. The future as the world keeps changing, the complexity and the dynamic world around us is so important that our young people are given the skills and capabilities to be able to thrive in this environment. We must acknowledge that our young people matter. They have a voice and they deserve the opportunity to thrive. Our learning community has 2,000 young future leaders, and alongside our incredible staff, we believe we are co-creating a future worth wanting, and schemes like the Broadband Network are so important to allowing that to happen. And we thank the Albanese Government for all their support of our young people in Western Sydney. Mr. Prime Minister, Minister Rowland, welcome and thank you for being here today.
 
MICHELLE ROWLAND, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: Thank you so much, Christina. You're absolutely right, it's vital that we give young people right around Australia the tools they need to succeed, and that includes access to the highest quality broadband. I'm here today with the Prime Minister with a really significant milestone, not only in terms of delivery on our election commitments, but also in terms of cost of living relief, and what this government is doing to ensure that we are doing everything we can to assist Australians who we know are doing it tough at this time. Prior to the election, we discovered through the pandemic and the lockdown period that there was some 30,000 families with school students at home, for whom, for whatever reason, didn't have access to the internet, and we knew this because they weren't able to participate in remote learning. This created a digital divide of its own, and we went to the election promising that we would provide these families with up to a year's free internet, and that we would examine what opportunities would be there in future. So I'm very pleased to report that in our budgets, we allocated $8.8 million and partnering with NBN Co, with other referral agencies, with the retail service providers and with our national referral centre, we now have 15,000 families who have been connected to the School Students Broadband Initiative. We've also extended that so this free broadband service will be provided until the end of next year. This has been absolutely life changing for those 15,000 families, and for people who are in those families as well. As I have gone around Australia speaking to people who have benefited from this scheme, it's clear that it has been really transformational. And as I said, this is a cost of living issue. For those families, if you were to sign up tomorrow for example, you would be receiving the equivalent of about $1000 of free internet access, which really means something for families who are doing it tough, and for whom we know access to the internet is so important for their students to succeed. So thank you so much, Prime Minister. This is a story of delivery on election commitments, but also really tangible evidence of cost of living relief that the Government is providing to the people of Australia. Thank you, Prime Minister.  
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much, Michelle. And thank you to St John XXIII at Stanhope Gardens here for having us here. A place of learning where 2,000 students are getting the opportunity to be the best that they can in terms of their future. I said during the election campaign that I wanted no one to be left behind, and that's what this program of free access to the internet through the NBN, coordinated by Anglicare, and we'll hear from Paul soon about how people can apply. That is what this is delivering. Access to the internet is as basic in 2024 as being able to have a pen or pencil and paper was when I was in kindy a long time ago, it must be said. This morning, sitting down with these wonderful students, having a look at the way they're learning, for example, how to spell through their iPads, through an innovative way that's interesting and engaging of these youngest Australians is just an enormous, enormous privilege. And I congratulate Michelle on, once again in the communications portfolio, delivering change to make a positive difference to Australians, not just in her electorate where we are today, but right around Australia. More than half of the students who have engaged with this program, more than half of the 15,000 are in regional and remote communities as well, making an enormous difference to opportunity. Today, on a day after we’ve finalised the agreement, for example, on education funding through Jason Clare with the Northern Territory Government, is about making sure that no child gets left behind. We need to make sure that our greatest resource in this country is acknowledged, and our greatest resource isn't what's under the ground, isn't what is around us in terms of physical or environmental assets, it's our youngest people. It's that great opportunity we have to make Australia more cohesive, stronger in the future, and importantly as well, this is a part of our cost of living relief. Our cost of living relief that's delivering tax cuts for every taxpayer. $300 energy bill relief for every household. That’s seeing real wages increasing again after almost a decade of wage stagnation. That’s seeing cheaper child care. That’s seeing a freezing of medicine costs going forward for those people on concession cards for five years. The tripling of the Medicare Bulk Billing Incentive that’s seeing increased access to the doctor. And of course our Medicare Urgent Care Clinics making a difference as well. All of those things combined with our two Labor budget surpluses, replacing the massive Liberal deficits that we inherit, are all designed to provide cost of living relief whilst we put that downward pressure on inflation. So this helps, not just these young students, but obviously is of assistance to their families as well. Part of our commitment being delivered, of course, through the NBN - another great Labor reform that was instituted when we were last in government. I'm really proud to be here today and to be Prime Minister of a country that understands that we need to give every Australian the best opportunity in life to be the best that they can and to succeed. And it's wonderful as well to see the passionate teachers and carers here at this wonderful school who, quite clearly, are so proud and they are right to be so.
 
PAUL MCDONALD, ANGLICARE VICTORIA: Thank you, Prime Minister. Thank you, Minister. Hi everyone, I'm Paul McDonald from Anglicare Victoria, and we run the National Referral Center in partnership with the NBN in placing and connecting families onto the internet. And first of all, Prime Minister and Minister, I want to just congratulate you on this inspired piece of policy thinking. This is not only life changing, but this is life making for so many children who were not connected with the internet and attending school. School and the internet, education and the internet in this country are completely interlocked, and yet if we have school students in family homes not on the internet, tethering off or hot spotting off mum's phone and their credit goes down, or going to malls and shopping centres to do the homework. I mean, that's no way we want to see our young children and our young people do their education. And what we want to provide here is that connection to the internet through the NBN. We've had 15,000 families from Darwin to Devonport, Perth to Parramatta, right around the country, from remote communities, regional communities, through the city, connected with the internet. And we have estimated that 40,000 children now are connected to the internet in their family homes. And as a mother said to me once, she said, ‘My 10 year old and 12 year old didn't want to bring anyone home’. Well, why not? ‘Well, we don't have the internet, Mum. We don't have the internet, I don't want to bring any children home’. So not only are we changing education pathways, but social pathways by the offer of this internet free through to the end of next year. So we're encouraging schools, like the school community we’re in, schools, community agencies, neighbours, to continue to refer to this fantastic initiative where we're connecting children and young people straight onto the internet so that they can - it's a level up in opportunity for these young people and children in disadvantaged families. And we're able, through our call centre, connect these families with their intersecting issues. It might be mental health, things might be going wrong, financial counselling or alcohol and drug issues. So when they call our call centre, wherever they are in Australia, we will also connect them into the local services for any needs that they may need over and above the internet. Our phone number to call, 1800 954 610, is a number that I hope resonates right across the country. My fifteen staff are ready to take your calls, and we see this 15,000, we feel there are other families. And I'll say this, you can take for granted in this country that everyone's on the internet, and I can attest there are many families that have been able to pull themselves, their lives, their financial circumstances, as the Prime Minister said, the pressures they've got on cost of living, and this goes right to the heart of them feeling able. They feel, they're proud as parents. They're, you know, we're reaffirming what they can do by providing this very effective, significant, both cost of living, but educational pathway for their children. So again, I congratulate the Prime Minister and Minister Rowland for this initiative, and get on the phones Australia and get more families and young people onto the internet. And it's only a simple criteria, I'll finish by saying - The simple criteria is that if you haven't been on broadband internet for the last 14 days and you've got school aged children, you'll qualify, and will get that connection made. Thanks very much, Prime Minister and Minister Rowland.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks Paul, and thanks to Anglicare for the role that they're playing in this rollout. Happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned the Northern Territory funding agreements, but some states are refusing to sign up to the latest school funding agreement, accusing your government of not offering enough. What's your message to them and what happens if they don't sign up by September?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well - get on board. We have now WA and Northern Territory signed up. There's nothing unusual about states and territories, over federal government funding, saying that they want more and the negotiations going forward. But we have on the table a very generous offer. It's an offer that ensures as well that states have to do their bit as well, importantly. We want every student to be lifted up to the standard which is expected. And there is that opportunity there. We have a very significant funding offer, more than double digit, with billion dollars, attached to it, and we want to see that every student gets the best opportunity in life.
 
JOURNALIST: And if they don't sign up by September?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well I'm very confident that state and territory governments will see that this is a very generous offer, stands in stark contrast to what the former government did which was to walk away from the Gonski reforms. Of course we had year after year of it not being delivered by the former government. What we've done is put in place a generous offer. We have a passionate Education Minister in Jason Clare who's discussing these issues constructively with state and territory government.
 
JOURNALIST: And there's been billions going towards school funding in recent years, but students’ performance in key subjects are really falling behind. Why do you think that is and is more Gonski funding the answer?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is part of the answer, but there is other responses as well. I note the work done by Paul Martin here in New South Wales, to Prue Car as the Education Minister here in New South Wales, looking at the curriculum and looking at what's taught, how it's taught, in a way that really is practical, and I think will resonate with parents. There is a range of issues, what we need to make sure is that we deliver for students. In part, what this announcement today of the milestone of 15,000 is another way of making sure that no student is left behind, and that's what my government is very much committed to.
 
JOURNALIST: How worried are you that a broader Middle East war could escalate at any moment?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm very concerned, and that's why I issued a Joint Statement again, the third one that I've done with the Prime Minister of Canada and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, just last Friday. We warned about the escalation, the potential, that was there. We warned as well about the role of Iran and its proxies, whether it's Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis in Yemen, playing a negative role. We want to see a de-escalation. We want to see a ceasefire. We want to see the hostages released, and we want to see a plan for peace and security in the Middle East, where both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security with prosperity. That's the objective that my Government has. We’ll continue to play a constructive role in that. But as well, I take the opportunity to say to Australians, do not travel to Lebanon at the moment. We have a very clear statement that has been issued through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and for those Australians who are overseas, they should take the opportunity to come home to Australia. There is a risk that the Beirut airport might not be open for commercial flights, and given the numbers of people who are there, there's no guarantee that we can just guarantee that people will be able to come home through other means if that airport is shut. So we say to people, listen to the warnings which are there and please – over recent months, we've seen people continue to go travel to the region, and we have made very clear warnings about that.
 
JOURNALIST: Aussie families in Lebanon say some members have visa issues, will the Government fast track visas so people can get out?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Australian citizens don't need visas, they get to come home. There's thousands of them in Lebanon right now.
 
JOURNALIST: Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, is in Israel at the moment. Is his presence over there helping or hindering the current situation?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, that’s a matter for him. I'm aware that he is there, and I certainly hope, of course, that he remains safe, and I'm sure that there is security ensuring that that occurs.
 
JOURNALIST: On the Disability Royal Commission, the Government provided its response yesterday. The community was devastated by how few recommendations were accepted in full. What would you like to say to the community today?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's 130 recommendations, have been agreed to in principle. Many of the recommendations...
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry Prime Minister, my understanding was there was just over a dozen that were accepted?
 
PRIME MINISTER: There's 130 recommendations have been accepted in principle, and many of the recommendations don't go to Commonwealth Government action. They are recommendations that go to state and territory governments, or they go to the private sector, they go to access. My Government, the Labor Party, of course, created the NDIS. We have something in the order of 700,000 Australians having access to the NDIS. We have a range of other supports that we have provided funding for. We're working through the recommendations of the Royal Commission in an organised, consistent way, which is what you would expect the Government to do.
 
JOURNALIST: The Productivity Commission's found four targets in Closing the Gap are going backwards. What's being done by the Government to mediate that?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, my Government is committed to Closing the Gap, to working with Indigenous communities, to listening to Indigenous communities across the full range of issues, whether it be economic empowerment and the decision that we made just in the last days about no mining at Jabiluka in response to the request from the Mirarr people, the traditional owners of that part of Australia and its incorporation into the Kakadu National Park is just one example. But there are other examples as well. The agreement in the Northern Territory about education will significantly benefit students from those remote communities. We've put $4 billion into remote housing, making sure that those communities get access to not just a secure roof over their head for itself, but that's the key. You can't get improvements in health and education if you have overcrowding in communities and you have homelessness and people being crowded into – multiple families – into tiny places, relatively. We have provided record funding in places like Central Australia, a $250 million program that is looking at health with increased access to dialysis support. I'll be in the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory, in Arnhem Land tomorrow with the new Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy. We're committed to making a difference. The challenges are there. You can't resolve intergenerational inequity overnight, but what you can do is be committed to making a difference. My Government is. Quite clearly governments of all persuasions at all levels have not done good enough in the past, but we're committed to working with those communities, but also, of course, working with the private sector as well to make a difference.
 
JOURNALIST: Thanks Prime Minister. Prime Ministers almost always announce, or at least present when they respond to recommendations for a Royal Commission. The disability community wanted your leadership on this. Why didn’t you do that yesterday?
 
PRIME MINISTER: That's just not true. I was not there when the Aged Care Royal Commission was released. And I'd ask for you to point to, specifically, given the nature of that question, which Royal Commission that's been handed down while I've been as Prime Minister was I present?
 
JOURNALIST: Well, the community’s response was that you weren’t present but you were needed.
 
PRIME MINISTER: With respect, you don't get to speak on behalf of the community. We have engaged, we have engaged substantially, and I've engaged directly with communities. I continue to do so. I continue to do so, and I reject the implication which is there in your questions. And with respect, I think that you could do better.
 
JOURNALIST: ABS statistics yesterday showed that retail trade turnover has fallen again, that's now eight quarters in a row. How long can businesses hold on and what are you doing to help them?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we're doing is providing support through energy bill relief, particularly for small businesses, again, the second round. But in addition to that, we're making sure that Australians don't fall behind by changing the tax cuts, for example, from tax cuts that were skewed to the high end towards low and middle income earners, because we understood that people were doing it tough. So people who are earning under $45,000 a year, were not going to get a single cent. People who were earning average incomes are now getting double under Labor's tax cuts compared with what they would have got had those changes not being made. Now, all of that means that for low or middle income earners, there's a higher propensity to consume because people can't afford to just save that money, they will spend that money. But that is counteracted, as Treasury advised, in terms of the impact on inflation by the fact that it will also increase workforce participation, because people will be more inclined to work an extra day, or work go back into the workforce earlier, because of the incentive which is there. So, that balances up the fact that it will not be inflationary, something that was acknowledged by the Treasury and by the Reserve Bank. That's why we picked the $107 billion figure, which was important. We have a plan for economic growth, a plan for making sure that we don't succumb to what some economists would suggest, which is to just let unemployment rip, not worry about the impact. We want an economy that works for people, not the other way around, which is why we have made those changes to support business at this important time.
 
JOURNALIST: I’ll just ask one more and then I believe I have a student here who wants to ask a question as well. But just first, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has questioned your decision to move ASIO back under the Attorney-General's Department. He's saying that the First Law Officer shouldn't be responsible for both administering the security agencies but also holding them to account. Does he have a point?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Malcolm Turnbull’s wrong, and every expert in national security says that he’s wrong. This was a move that was made by Malcolm Turnbull in partnership, of course, with the former Secretary of this big Department of Home Affairs, and with the support, of course, of Peter Dutton. What every national security expert, people I spoke to, including people who were national security advisors at the time, past and present ASIO Directors General, have all welcomed the move. And I know people like – not just Mike Burgess, who I consulted very directly about this – but people like Dennis Richardson and others, have been very clear about the appropriateness of the ASIO organisation and other domestic agencies, ASIO and the AFP, being accountable to the Attorney-General. That's why we have done this. It's been welcomed by everyone in the national security framework. And Malcolm Turnbull got many things right. On this he got it wrong.
 
Yeah, young man, what's your name?
 
IBRAHIM, STUDENT: My name is Ibrahim.
 
PRIME MINISTER: Nice to meet you Ibrahim.
 
IBRAHIM: Nice to meet you too. I’m a student here at St John XXIII Catholic College. My question is, what do you see as the importance of education for young Australians in ensuring our economic future, and how will changes in technology benefit students, like the ones at our school?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you so much, Ibrahim, for the question and best of luck - you're in year 11?
 
IBRAHIM: Yes.
 
PRIME MINISTER: So best of luck with your HSC, you're in the middle of that now, halfway through, and I certainly wish you well. And education is the key to widening the doors of opportunity. I had access to education – I was the first person in my family to finish school, let alone go to university. And my mother, who, because of health reasons, she wasn't well, she didn't get to conclude her Intermediate Certificate, as it was called then, the equivalent of the School Certificate, she didn't get to conclude that. She was absolutely passionate, as a single mum, about me finishing school and encouraged me to go to university as well, because she saw that as the key to giving me an opportunity in life. And I stand here today as the 31st Prime Minister of Australia, in part because of the education that I was able to get and the opportunity that that was given to me. The school I went to was a Catholic school, we didn't have enough money to pay school fees. They were fine with that. And, you know, I owe them – I went to St Mary's Cathedral College – I owe them a lot as well, and the encouragement I got. It is so important, we are in the fastest growing region of the world in human history just to our north. That presents an incredible opportunity. And there are two roads that we can go on. One is to try to compete on wages and conditions. That's a cul-de-sac, that doesn't lead anywhere. The road that we have to go on is to be smarter, to invest in our people, to support our ingenuity, to support our research and breakthroughs, and then to commercialise those opportunities which are there. I think, if we get this right, this decade in particular, is critical with the transition in the global economy to net-zero, and that will make a change. The other thing that makes a difference here, and why the opportunity for Australia is so great, is that new technology is ubiquitous. When there's a breakthrough in one part of the world, it very quickly translates around everywhere, including through the internet. I mean, the games and the learning that those kindy students were doing on an iPad, is something that would have been unthought of when I was at university, let alone when I was in kindy, that that could occur. Now, what that does as well is it changes the equation, because new technology will mean that the differential costs of labour as a proportion of the costs of production will be less going forward because of artificial intelligence, robotics, new technology will change the way that people work. And what that means is that Australia's competitive advantage, if we get it right, because of the people we have, the connections with the diaspora – this school I know, has parents, more than half of whom were born overseas. Those connections with the world are an asset for Australia. Our resources under the ground, the best resources of everything that will power the 21^st century – copper, vanadium, lithium, the prospect of green hydrogen – all of these things, we have the best solar resources in the world as well. All of these things present us with an incredible opportunity going forward. And so the key, though, the way that I sum it up is that we've got to acknowledge new technology and change, shape that future, otherwise the future will just shape us. So we've got to be forward leaning. And your generation, I am so confident, will lead Australia into the brightest future that you could possibly imagine. And I wish you well in your part of it.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on the collapse of Rex Airlines, is this a failure of public policy?
 
PRIME MINISTER: No well, there's a range of issues relating to Rex. One is that a regional airline made decisions to invest in routes that they hadn't previously gone in. Sydney - Melbourne is not a regional route. It's one of the top 10 routes in the world, and at various stages has been literally number one in the world. Now there are – it's a tough industry, aviation. What my Government is focused on is making sure that those people in regional communities continue to have access to aviation services. That's absolutely critical for regional Australia. We're also concerned about the workforce. We thank Virgin and Qantas, have stepped up to assist customers, but have also stepped up in terms of workforce, the potential for redeployment and priority being given there as well. We're working through with the administrators who've been put in place to make sure that any damage that occurs is limited and that we continue to look after the workforce, but we continue to look after those regional communities as well, it's so important.
 
JOURNALIST: Why has your Government done nothing about slots?
 
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's just not true. I've seen some of the comments. Regional slots have been guaranteed at Sydney Airport for a long period of time. So there is some reforms suggested that have been recent. The former Government was there for a decade, didn't do anything about it. We're doing something about it as a result of the recommendations. But the reason why you can fly into places like Dubbo in the morning and regional flights, which are smaller than the big international flights, which obviously carry more, there's more passengers on an A380 than there is on a Saab flight to a regional community, is because there's a guarantee of slots, something that certainly was there while I was the Aviation Minister for six years, and I note that there's been some issues created over a hoarding of slots. That was something that occurred in part with the COVID and occurred while the former Government was in power, my Government is determined to fix it.
 
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there's a New South Wales Parliamentary Inquiry into cannabis laws. They're hearing from a range of groups. Many are arguing –
 
PRIME MINISTER: You've answered your question. New South Wales Government. Thank you. It’s about the New South Wales Government. If I wanted to run for Macquarie Street, I would have.