I, of course, begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people, their elders past, present and the future. 

Can I also acknowledge any veterans who are with us today, serving men and women of our Australian Defence Force and say to them thank you for your service.

Can I also acknowledge today the beautiful Abdallah and Sakr families on this first national i4Give Day, as we remember their four beautiful angels - Antony, Angelique, Sienna and Veronique - who were taken from us this day a year ago.

I also welcome the very many of my colleagues who are here today. Of course, led by the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. It is great to have you all here today and I acknowledge you all and the great job you have been doing and I know you will do over the course of this year.

In 2020, I said we would not let this virus break our Australian spirit.

It hasn’t, and it won’t. 

I said we always believed ourselves as Australians to be a strong people but we were about to find out just how strong we really were.

And we did. We found, our generation, the same strength, good humour, resilience and mateship that enabled past generations to rise to the challenges of their time.

Today, Australia stands out across the world in our response to the pandemic.

We continue to report zero or negligible cases in community transmission.

We have mercifully so far avoided a third wave over this summer.  We have the third lowest mortality rate from the pandemic among G20 nations.

And our record on saving lives is matched, importantly, by our record in saving livelihoods, where we have outperformed economically the world’s most advanced economies.

With more than 90 percent of the jobs lost already back, our comeback has not just begun, it is gathering pace.

As Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics observed earlier this month, ‘You’d rather be here than almost anywhere else.’

Now, that is my default setting, I’ve got to say, regardless of the circumstances and I’m sure it is for most Australians. It’s very true now.

But there is still so much more to do, though.

The pandemic is still raging. It is not petering out.  The virus has not gone anywhere. Indeed, it is morphing into new and more virulent strains.

So we must remain vigilant. 

We have all learned a lot over the past twelve months and we have also led the way in so many areas.

We must take these lessons into 2021 and continue to make our own way through this crisis.

Our Australian way. 

That respects our liberal democratic values, our expert institutions, our business-led market economy and the responsibilities and accountabilities of our federal system.

An Australian way where our decisions to protect public health are guided by our respect for science and expert medical advice. And I acknowledge Brendan Murphy who is here amongst us today.

An economic response driven, as the Treasurer and I outlined, by clear principles to navigate uncertainty.

A response that is proportionate, timely, scalable and targeted. 

That is aligned with other arms of policy, in particular, monetary policy. 

That uses existing delivery mechanisms wherever possible to avoid mistakes and delays of the past. 

And a response where emergency measures are temporary and accompanied by a clear fiscal exit strategy. 

You can’t run the Australian economy on taxpayers money forever.

And finally, a response that lifts productivity to enable the Australian economy to sustain an even stronger growth trajectory on the other side.

But you know, above all, our Australian way depends most on the character and resilience of Australians. 

Each of us understanding we have a contribution to make. And for that, I say thank you to the Australian people.

Australians have made the difference.

So to our focus in the year ahead.

There are five priority areas that I want to speak about today in relation to 2021.

1. Suppress the virus and deliver the vaccine;
2. Cement our economic recovery to create jobs and more jobs;
3. To continue to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on;
4. Protect and secure Australians’ interests in a challenging world; and 
5. Care for our Country

 

So let’s talk about the virus and the vaccine.

We enter 2021 in a relatively strong position and I acknowledge the great leadership of our Health Minister, Greg Hunt, in taking us through this difficult period.

Our 2020 achievements have bought valuable time on vaccines, to ensure they are safe and can be effectively rolled out across our population.

But even with the roll out of the vaccine, there can be no let-up in the three vital suppression measures that have served Australia so well in 2020 and must be the focus of continuous improvement throughout 2021.

Our international border restrictions and robust quarantine system.

Our high rates of testing, our contact tracing systems and our management of outbreaks in localised hotspots. 

And physical distancing and sound hygiene practices.

In 2021, these suppression measures which must be exercised, I stress, in a balanced way to also protect jobs and livelihoods, will be complemented by the COVID-19 vaccines.

This will be one of the largest logistics exercises ever seen in Australia. We will be vaccinating more than 25 million people, having secured over 140 million doses, enough to cover the Australian population several times over. 

The TGA recently approved the Pfizer vaccine for people aged over 16 years here in Australia. Unlike other jurisdictions around the world, this was a formal approval, not an emergency one. 

We are one of only a handful of countries to have gone through such a comprehensive and thorough level of oversight to ensure the vaccines are safe.

And we have wisely planned for the unexpected. 

That is why we took the decision to take out the insurance of securing our own sovereign supply of vaccines, by investing in COVID-19 vaccine production here in Australia. 

Australia is one of a small handful of countries, once again, to have sovereign vaccine manufacturing capacity. Subject to TGA approval, we expect to be able to supply COVID-19 vaccines to the entire Australian population through CSL’s manufacturing plant in Melbourne.

Today, we are releasing further details of the Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Strategy, setting out how vaccines will be rolled out to the Australian people.

Our aim is to offer all Australians the opportunity to be vaccinated by October of this year, commencing in just a few weeks’ time.

Our guidance, I stress, is that first vaccinations remain on track to be in Australia, ready for shipping and distribution to priority groups, from late February. 

However, the final commencement date will ultimately depend on some of these developments we’re seeing overseas, which we will continue to monitor closely and update the Australian people accordingly.

Now, the Strategy is backed by an initial allocation of around $1.9 billion in new support for the vaccine roll out. This is on top of more than $4.4 billion allocated for vaccines purchases, medical research and support for our partner countries. It is a big job. This brings the Australian Government’s total support for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to $6.3 billion.

While working closely with our partners in the states and territories, we are also working with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian Medical Association, the big logistics companies including DHL and Linfox, and general practices and community pharmacies from around Australia to administer the vaccine.

We'll have thousands of points of presence across Australia - Hospitals, GPs, Pharmacies, Respiratory Clinics, Aboriginal Health Services and a specialist surge workforce.  This will ensure we get the vaccine to all Australians, including people in rural, remote and very remote areas and others who are hard to reach. 

Initially, we will need to prioritise the most vulnerable and those likely to experience a serious disease, as well as frontline health and care workers and other essential service workers.

We will then extend vaccination to the balance of the population as quickly as possible, building towards protecting the entire community by the end of this year.

We want as many Australians vaccinated as quickly as possible and as safely as possible. The COVID-19 vaccines will be made free to all Australians and we strongly encourage all Australians to get vaccinated.

We are working with states and territories and will be providing guidance for employees, employers, customers and industries on the vaccine shortly. 

And, as Maris Payne knows and Zed Seselja knows also, we have not forgotten our overseas partners, our family here in our region.  The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for International Development and the Pacific are already working with their counterparts on a dedicated vaccines program designed around the needs and health systems of our Pacific family and Southeast Asian neighbours.

On the economy and jobs, the comeback in Australia’s economy is already underway and betters the experience of most advanced economy nations in the world today.

Now, Australians are now voting with their feet to join the economic recovery that is occurring here in Australia.

The unemployment rate has fallen from 7.5 percent in July last year down to 6.6 percent in December.

And importantly, the effective rate of unemployment, that takes into account hours reduced to zero and people leaving the workforce, has also fallen to now be in line with the headline rate at 6.6 percent, after hitting almost 15 percent at the height of the crisis.

Almost 800,000 jobs were created in the past seven months and it is very pleasing to see women taking up the majority of those jobs.

90 percent of the jobs lost to COVID-19, as I said before, had returned by the year’s end.

Our participation rate has recovered and reached a record high of 66.2 percent. 

While consumer and business confidence has recovered as restrictions have come off and this will be further supported by the vaccine rollout.

Our task now is to continue our economic recovery by sticking to our Economic Recovery Plan and, importantly, exercising the fiscal discipline necessary to ensure that we do not overburden future generations and continue to spend taxpayers’ money wisely. 

We are not running a blank cheque budget.

While our medium-term strategy remains to stabilise and reduce debt, low interest rates are alleviating debt servicing pressures as lower rates not only apply to new issuances but our pre-existing debt as it rolls over.

Because our debt is getting cheaper to service at a faster rate than it is getting larger, that means our net interest bill will decline as a share of the economy. We’ve got this.

As this chart shows, our $251 billion in direct economic support, unprecedented in this country, while largely delivered in 2020, has a long tail in providing ongoing support. It’s put gas in the tank.

Treasury analysis has shown that our direct economic support measures are expected to result in economic activity being 5 percent higher in 2020-21 and 4.5 percent higher in 2021-22 compared to if no support was provided at all.

Now, we know that our temporary JobKeeper payments and our many other supports have helped to boost families and businesses balance their balance sheets by more than $200 billion. This has been a game changer like no other we have seen in this country, JobKeeper, for millions of Australians.

It saved not just livelihoods, it saved lives.

There is now a large sum of money available to be spent across the economy and that is what is going to help to create jobs and maintain the momentum of our economic recovery and that is where it needs to be right now, those funds -  in Australians’ pockets.

Indeed, in 2021, the Government will continue putting more money back into Australians’ pockets, protecting more of what they’ve earned, to support their families and businesses.  

The legislated Low and Middle Income Tax Offset, the tax cut from 26 to 25 percent for small and medium businesses. Full expensing for new business investments, creating jobs, and our loss carry-back,  providing a much needed cash flow boost for those businesses who continue to do it tough.

And from today, the first round of JobMaker hiring credit claims can be lodged. 

It is important to remember, employment of those aged 15-34, as you see in this chart, remains 3.3 percent below pre-COVID levels, while those aged over 35 are back at their pre-COVID levels.  

Working through the National Cabinet in 2021, this will be a year of generational change in our skills and vocational education sector.  

This is a big piece.

It includes: 

• $4 billion to help employers retain and take on new apprentices and trainees through wage subsidies, with support for up to 100,000 new apprentices.  
• Our national $1 billion JobTrainer Fund is providing over 300,000 training places to help reskill workers for the COVID recovery. 
• A new skills agreement to provide more transparency and better link funding to actual skills needs will be done this year.

Minister Cash is going to be very, very busy.

We are also providing for up to 30,000 more university places and 50,000 more short courses this year. 

In the Parliament, we will be seeking that support for the changes we believe are necessary to help businesses to put more people back into work in the post-COVID recovery for the changes we need to make in industrial relations.

Nearly $29 billion in infrastructure investment will hit the deck this financial year and next. That includes bring forwards as part of our pandemic recovery plan, which will especially assist rural and regional communities, including our new road safety initiative, which I know the Deputy Prime Minister is especially passionate about. Investments made through the national water grid will add further to this effort.

Our economic recovery plan, I should stress, is underpinned by something incredibly important, and that is delivering affordable and reliable energy in a way that positions Australia to be successful in the lower and ultimately net zero emissions global economy of the future. 

Our goal is to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050.

But when we get there, when we get there, whether in Australia or anywhere else, that will depend on the advances made in science and technology needed to commercially transform not just advanced economies and countries, but the developing world as well.

Science and technology will, as it always has in these areas, set the pace and in the developing world this is important because it is in those countries that dominate the emissions horizon.

In Australia, we will do this by investing and partnering in the technology breakthroughs needed to reduce and offset emissions in a way that enables our heavy industry in particular, industry more broadly, jobs and living standards, especially in regional Australia, to continue and to keep energy costs down.

In Australia, my Government will not tax our way to net zero emissions. I will not put that cost on Australians and I will particularly not ask regional Australians to carry that burden. 

Getting to net zero, whether here or anywhere else, should be about technology not taxes and high prices.

In Australia, we’re not waiting on this, we’re getting on with it.

Emissions fell by 3 percent in the year to June 2020, to their lowest levels since 1998, meaning we are now nearly 17 percent below 2005 levels. These are the facts. Now, this compares to reductions of approximately 9 percent on average across the OECD, 1 percent in New Zealand and less than 1 percent in Canada. So we’re not waiting.

This year our $18 billion technology investment roadmap gets going, and I commend Minister Taylor for the great job he has done in pulling this together. With a $1.9 billion commitment to develop clean energy technologies such as hydrogen, green and steel and CCS. 

And we are taking the roadmap global, pursuing ambitious partnerships with countries like Japan, the US, the UK, Korea and Singapore. 

We are implementing our multi-billion dollar energy and emissions reduction agreement with NSW and other states are following.

Agreements are in place to accelerate major transmission projects in NSW and Tasmania, with Victoria and South Australia to follow this year. 

We are building Snowy 2.0. 

We are rolling out our $200 million program to build new diesel storage facilities.

The Beetaloo strategic basin plan has been released, with four more coming The pipeline market will be further improved as will the liquidity of the Wolumbilla gas hub. All important changes.

Affordable and reliable energy is also the cornerstone of Minister Andrew’s $1.5 billion manufacturing strategy.  

Now, this plan focuses as you know, because I spoke to it here, on the priority areas of resources technology and critical minerals processing, food and beverage, medical products, recycling and clean energy, defence and space. 

Our priorities are clear. We’re investing, we’re encouraging others to do the same.

This will be backed up by the implementation of our $5.3 billion Digital Business Plan that will accelerate 5G application development, build the digital skills of our SMEs, strengthen our cyber security and expand the Digital Identity Program.

And, of course, we will continue to work across government to cut red and green tape, and that includes the single touch approvals for environmental assessments with state governments that are before the Parliament.

 

Guaranteeing the essential services Australians rely on has always been a passion of mine, and you will recall it, from when I spoke about it as Treasurer. The economy is for something and it provides the services Australians rely on.

In 2020 our health, disability, aged care, social services and education systems successfully adapted to a new COVID operating environment, and I thank all of those Australians who made that possible, from the front line to those in the management offices. 

Everybody had to change a lot and they had to move fast and they did an extraordinary job and they were aided by significant federal funding to help them get that job done and I know it was appreciated. We were doing our bit and they were doing their bit.

Now, this will continue as we manage the ongoing impacts of COVID-19.

But this will not, through the pandemic, interrupt our pre-pandemic agenda of the investments to guarantee the many essential services that Australians rely on.

The additional funding for public hospitals and schools, that’s continuing. Guaranteeing Medicare and the listing of affordable medicines that save lives through the PBS. Record investments, that continues. 

And the continuing to roll out the NDIS which, by the way, now has approximately 412,000 participants – an increase of around 100,000 participants over the past 12 months. That’s what getting on with the job looks like in a pandemic and I commend Minister Robert for leading that process.

In 2021 our Government will deliver step-change reforms in important services areas. Aged care, mental health, while continuing the work of Closing the Gap for Indigenous Australians.   

In this year’s Budget, we will deliver the Government’s response to the Aged Care Royal Commission’s Final Report, a Royal Commission I initiated.

This response will add to the significant steps already taken, including an additional 59,105 Home Care Packages I have announced and out in place since I announced the Royal Commission. That’s a 47 percent increase in in-home care places since we announced the Royal Commission. It's around tripled since we first came to Government.

A key focus of our response to the final report will be growing and upskilling the aged care workforce. Workforce challenges are some of the biggest challenges Australians face economically and it is essential to both our economic agenda and services delivery agenda to meet demand.  

COVID has only strengthened my commitment also to mental health and suicide prevention ‘towards zero’ goal.  

This year, there will be a new National Agreement on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. And I am greatly encouraged by the strong support I am receiving from premiers and chief ministers on this as well. We’re looking forward to moving on with those issues as soon as we’re able to come to agreement on those matters.

It will provide the foundation for a comprehensive, coordinated, consumer-focussed and compassionate mental health and suicide prevention system as we learn the lessons of COVID.

And after bringing together a landmark new National Agreement on Closing the Gap with peak indigenous groups - that was a big change - later this we will release those fully funded, further implementation plans that put that Closing the Gap agenda into place.

To protect and secure Australians interest has always been a core, if not the most important, objective and responsibility of the Federal Government. It is made even more difficult in the challenging world in which we live.

The challenges of COVID-19 are not only testing us at home.  

Australia must use its agency to shape the world in our interests . 

This starts in our own region. 

This week I will join our Pacific family Leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum, where we can speak to another strong year of delivery in our Pacific Step Up program, led by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for the Pacific.

The same is true for our engagement with ASEAN, which sits at the heart of our vision for the Indo-Pacific. 

With Indonesia, we will continue to implement our new IA-CEPA economic partnership agreement and provide support with their vaccine programme.

We have also recently upgraded our relationships with Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand just last week and have a new digital commerce agreement with Singapore. 

For the third year in a row, I have been invited as a guest to the G7 Summit, which will be held in June in the United Kingdom.

This is an important recognition that Australia’s contribution is valued.

Co-operation between like-minded liberal democracies, market economy nations has never been more important than it is today.

That is why I asked Mathias Cormann to be Australia’s candidate for the role of Secretary-General of the OECD. And we’re doing pretty well.

As the world grapples with the recovery from COVID-19, this grouping, the OECD, of 37 market-based economies has a fundamental role to play in keeping markets open, bolstering the rules-based system and modernising rules for the digital economy.  

The geopolitical environment will remain very challenging. 

I am confident that our alliance relationship with the United States, which will turn 70 this year, will grow even stronger in partnership with the Biden Administration.

The defence relationship will remain the bedrock of that partnership, as we know, and our commitment to playing our part is reflected in our pledge to invest $270 billion on defence capability over the next decade.

Our work in the Quad, which embraces the US, Japan and India, has been deepened and broadened, as evidenced by mine and Minister Payne’s recent visit to Japan.

Our cooperation with Five Eyes nations has also grown, extending into new areas of common interest, particularly with the Treasurer’s involvement, areas in the economy and technology. 

We need to work with close partners to develop and protect sensitive critical technologies, including quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

We will also need secure critical minerals supply chains for the new clean energy technologies of the future.

The evolution of the United States relationship with China will shape the geopolitical environment in the foreseeable future, as it indeed has in the past.

For our part, we remain committed to engaging with China.

Our peoples have benefited greatly, both ways, from the depth of our economic ties.   

But it’s not surprising that there will be differences between two nations with such different economic and political systems.

Our task is to ensure that such differences do not deny Australia and China from realising the mutual benefits of that partnership, consistent with our own respective national sovereign interests.  

China’s outlook and the nature of China’s external engagement, both in our region and globally, has changed since our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership was formed and going further back than that, certainly in the decades that have led up till now.

We cannot pretend that things are as they were. The world has changed.

An enduring partnership requires both of us to adapt to these new realities and talk with each other.

That begins with dialogue at both Ministerial and Leader level. 

A dialogue focussed not on concessions but on areas of mutual benefit, committed to finding a way for our nations and peoples to beneficially engage in the future.

Now we, of course, Australia is open to such a process.

We will continue to create new opportunities for our exporters and I know Minister Tehan is chomping at the bit, already out there, via a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom and their potential involvement in an expanded Trans Pacific Partnership. And I thank Minister Birmingham for the great job he has done in setting up all of the opportunities for Dan to now go and complete.

It is also about accelerating our negotiations on an ambitious and comprehensive agreement with the European Union, especially targeting barriers for agricultural goods.

And, as always we will keep Australians safe.

Countering the threat of terrorism and extremism with stronger laws and record investments in our key agencies.

Countering the threat of foreign interference and espionage in defence of our national sovereignty.  

Keeping our borders secure and taking down organised criminal gangs. 

And protecting families, businesses and national infrastructure safe from malicious cyber activity with our record $1.7 billion investment in cyber security. It is a big agenda.

 

Finally, caring for our country. For millennia, Indigenous Australians have lived the principles of caring for country. 

I believe those principles must underpin how our Government exercises our environmental stewardship.

In addition to carrying on the work on:

• emissions reduction; 
• climate resilience; 
• implementing our export ban on waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres and; 
• rolling out $600 million in funding for new and upgraded recycling facilities around the country to build a world-class waste management sector.

This year we will turn the spotlight on agriculture and the environment - soils, water and oceans.

Australia’s soils are estimated to store some 3.5 percent of the total global stocks of soil organic carbon against our 5.2 percent of global land area.

Native vegetation clearance and poor soil management have, and continue to result in, the loss of soil organic carbon. That’s what makes the National Soils Strategy so important.

The Strategy will be delivered as part of the 2021-22 Budget the Treasurer will hand down later this year. It will include practical actions and focus on the development of a national monitoring program to assess the condition of Australian soils, research and development, and to assist with implementation, capacity building and extension.

It will be a fitting legacy to the great work and advocacy of our former Governor-General, and national soils advocate, the late Major General Michael Jeffery.

The National Soils Strategy is one pillar of our Ag2030 plan that’s backing the sector’s ambition to be a $100 billion industry.

The importance of investing in the health of our soil, water and landscapes was borne out by the recent independent review of our national environmental legislation, and by the findings of the Bushfires Royal Commission. 

While we have always contended with extreme weather, our new normal is increasing and more severe droughts, floods, fires and storms. We will continue to harness the natural resourcefulness and innovation of Australians to ensure we adapt and build resilience to these challenges.

This will be a project that both Minister Littleproud and Minister Ley will work on together.

In 2021, we will also continue the roll out of the $1 billion ‘Phase Two’ of the National Landcare Program that supports regional communities through controlling weeds, improving soil health, fencing off sensitive waterways and remnant vegetation, and re-planting species. Practical stuff that makes a big difference.

2021 will also see the first phase of our healthy oceans plan, giving effect to our commitment to sustainably manage 100 percent of the ocean within our national waters.

The ocean supports almost 400,000 jobs in Australia. 

Our unprecedented $1.9 billion commitment to reduce runoff and pollution flowing into the reef, control the Crown of Thorns starfish, and deploy cutting-edge science to secure the reef’s resilience to marine heatwaves is more than just a drop in the ocean.

100 percent of fisheries managed by the Australian Government have a sustainable management plan in place. And we are supporting our Indo-Pacific neighbours to manage waste, protect coral reefs and mangroves, and crack down on illegal fishing.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, you have been very patient. Despite one of the toughest years in our nation’s history, Australia stands strong at the start of 2021.

There is still much to do, but we know our comeback is underway.

The actions we take this year will continue to recover what has been lost and enable us to build again for the future.

In 2021, I am supremely confident and optimistic that we will continue as a people to make our own Australian way through the challenges ahead and that Australians will once again emerge stronger, safer and together on the other side.

Thank you very much for your attention.

UNOFFICIAL

UNOFFICIAL

The Hon. Scott Morrison MP

Prime Minister

 

TRANSCRIPT

Q&A, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB

BARTON, ACT

MONDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2021

 

EO&E…

 

LAURA TINGLE, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB PRESIDENT: Thank you, Prime Minister. You've emphasised the need to wind back spending, that you're not running a ‘blank cheque budget’ as a result of the pandemic. You're also encouraging everyone to get out and get vaccinated. You're spending $24 million of taxpayers funds on a vaccine campaign to build public confidence in the safety of the vaccines on offer. But aren't we wasting taxpayers' money if, at the same time, you don't reign in your own government MPs who are spreading disinformation about both the virus and the vaccines on social media?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we've been very clear to point out where you get your information from. You don't get it from Facebook. You get it from official government websites, and that's what I encourage everybody to and that's what we're doing and that's what we're investing in. Don't go to Facebook to find out about the vaccine. Go to official government websites. If you want to understand about vaccines, go and talk to Brendan Murphy over there, that's who I talk to.

 

LAURA TINGLE: You don't go to Craig Kelly?

 

PRIME MINISTER: He's not my doctor and he's not yours. But he does a great job in Hughes.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Well, we will go to our journalists here today, and I remind everybody it is one question, despite what I just did.

 

PRIME MINISTER: Leading by example, Laura, right from the get-go.

 

LAURA TINGLE: David Crowe.

 

DAVID CROWE: Thank you, Laura, thanks, Prime Minister. David Crowe from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. So many big themes in the speech, PM, so little time. So one question on JobSeeker, you talked about the fall in the unemployment rate. We still have a million people  who are on $51 a day. The coronavirus supplement ends at the end of March. What's the reason to keep them in suspense and unsure about what their future is and where they stand on that dollar amount? And what are the factors on your mind when you make a decision about where to set that rate for the longer term? Is it participation? Is it the unemployment rate? What are the factors that are going to decide that rate?

 

PRIME MINISTER: It is all of those things, David as you would expect. We are awaiting right now some further information on the labour market, particularly on the last step-change, gear-change, on both JobKeeper and JobSeeker at the end of December. Not all that data is in, I‘ll tell you, if there is one thing I've learnt over the course of this last 12 months is in a pandemic, don't get too far ahead of yourself, things have a habit of changing on you. I think that isequally true here. The difference between JobKeeper and JobSeeker is that with JobKeeper, that involves the business community and the arrangements they have to put in place because they are a partner in the delivery of that. The Government makes the arrangements on JobSeeker. We will be continuing to meet, the Treasurer and I, Minister Ruston, in particular, of course, Simon Birmingham, as the Minister for Finance, to work through those many issues. The Australian labour market is coming back and I think it is coming back far more strongly than I think many anticipated but it still got a long way to go. It is true, and Michael McCormack would tell you, and I was up there, in you know, in regional Queensland just last week, the week before I should say. There are real shortages out there. You see, workforce challenges this year is one of, and next year, and going forward, are I would have to say one of the biggest, if not the biggest single economic challenge we have in this country. People having the right skills, people being where the jobs are and where they're needed and ensuring that's plugged into a broader economic understanding of where the opportunities lie ahead. That's why we put so much in skills. That's why we've put so much in additional university places. That's why we're looking to have a new National Skills Agreement. The labour market is very sensitive to all these issues and of course the settings that sit around the unemployment benefit. Now it is true that we've maintained it at a much higher level through the COVID supplement but at some time these arrangements will adjust. Now we haven't made those decisions yet, and we are looking at the many issues that relate to where people are at and their needs, but of course the need to also have them in jobs because you will always get paid more in a job than you will on a benefit. At least, that's how it should be. 

 

LAURA TINGLE: Just, Prime Minister, the way the legislation is written that the Government is still considering, it's basically March 28 and that's it, and it specifically says you can't extend it?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's, I mean, we're still in January- February, today. So there's plenty of time for us to deal with any, any new settings we want to contemplate.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Lanai Scarr.

 

LANAI SCARR: Prime Minister, Lanai Scarr from The Western Australian. Thank you for your speech and welcome back to the first sitting week of the Parliamentary year. Right now, WA is experiencing its first case of COVID-19 in the community in 10 months. The outbreaks experienced recently in various states have all originated from returned travellers and we know that there are some very nasty and morphing strains in the UK and South Africa. Is it time to consider a different form of quarantine for returned travellers? Do we need to have custom quarantine facilities rather than using hotels, or do we need to simply not accept travellers from countries where the virus is at its worst until the vaccine can be rolled out in Australia?

 

PRIME MINISTER: There’s a lot in that Lanai, and obviously we're all thinking of those in Western Australia, they are going to have some difficult days ahead of them, particularly the business owners there. I think one of the things we've learned is we cannot be too careful around these new strains. There is so much still we don't understand about it and they can move very quick. And you don't want to find yourself on the wrong end of that decision when it comes to how quickly you move, I think where these new strains are coming in. So far, we've been very successful. I mean, the localised lockdown that we saw in the Northern Beaches, and I see Jason here, and your community did an amazing job up there, mate, whether it was there or what was done in other places, and the very brief lockdown we had in Brisbane, which you know I supported very strongly. One of the key reasons for that is you don't know what you don't know and with what's happening in Western Australia now, the extent of the geographic area covered, they're matters for the Premier. But the idea that you give your contact tracers a fighting chance I think is sound. When it comes to quarantine, this matter was addressed last year at some length. Now, if you want to see thousands of Australians come home every week, thousands, then as we work through this with the Department of Home Affairs and the many other important agencies that assist us with these matters the advice was very clear that the most effective way to do that was in a partnership with the states which utilised the very significant accommodation capacity and other services that can be brought to bear to manage quarantine in that way, the idea that we could sort of replicate a sort of border protection failure, detention network that was put in place by the previous Government and, somehow, that that's the way we should have gone down, you will remember that alone led to cost blowouts of more than $11 billion at the time. Heaven knows what it would have been now. The idea that you can do that on that scale and that's the best way to manage it, the clear advice from our agencies was that was not the case. And it was also the view of the states and territories, I can tell you, pretty clearly and we've had a good, I think an outstanding partnership with the states and territories, in managing that process. We provide the support. And that is where the bulk of the Defence Force support for quarantine facilities is. But as you know, when we had the recent strain emerge in Queensland we took a decision together to take the pressure off. We took the decision which I know has real consequences for those that, Marise is working every day to try and get home, that had consequences but we believed we had to take the pressure off that system and we've done that until the middle of this month. So I believe we've managed it quite practically. When you think of the, you know, the half-a-million Australians, or thereabouts, that have come home in the last 12 months and, yes there have been outbreaks but that's why we've always said, you can't just rely on that alone. It is the outbreaks and it is the contact tracing and all the other things that follow from that. Now, I can appreciate that after 10 months in Western Australia they would be, understandably anxious about how the public might react having got into other habits. But I'm encouraged by what I saw in Brisbane. That was not dissimilar. And the response that I saw from the people of Brisbane, I was incredibly impressed with. It matched what we saw coming out of Sydney and Melbourne with record levels of people coming forward for testing and understanding what was needed, and the same we'll see in Perth. We'll get it through again. And I'm confident. Because you know when Adelaide had their outbreak, it was the Western Australian contact tracers that came to their aid as well. They've kept their contact tracing system match fit. They haven't had the game time that many of the other states have had and I think they're pretty happy about that but, nevertheless the states have continued working on that and, through the National Cabinet, and particularly the work that we've done about quarantine systems support and tracing systems support, I think that leaves Australia in a pretty good spot.So you know they will get our support. I'm sure they will get on top of this just like the other states have. 

 

LAURA TINGLE: Andrew Probyn.

 

ANDREW PROBYN: Hi, PM, Andrew Probyn. I've noticed that your, in your speech that you ever so slightly, hardened your language on climate change, net zero by 2050, that you would like to see it preferably by 2050 when it comes to Australia. Given that you’ve said that the solution has to be technology and science based, do you think that in the next months that you will be so assured that you can achieve it by 2050, that you might harden that even further towards a commitment by the time Australia goes to the Glasgow Climate Change talks?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, what I can say is what I said to the Australian people at the last election. When I can tell you how we get there, that's when I'll tell you when we're going to get there. I gave them that commitment Andrew at the last election, and I'm going to stick to that. When we are in a position to know that, then we’ll be in a position to say potentially more. But that point in time has not yet arrived, and I'm not aware of it arriving, frankly, in too many other places. See we like to think that we can make these commitments and somehow they’ll just make their own way there. If you don't get there by technology, if that's not what actually gets an economy to net zero, there’s only one other way that that’s achieved and that is a tax. That’s the only other way you get there. So my commitment to Australians that I will not tax our way to net zero by 2050 is a very, very important one and I will hold my faith with the Australian people on those issues. So we will see how the technology develops. We will see the great work that Alan Finkel is doing with us and with Angus Taylor and so many others. But Australia’s approach will be technology driven, not taxes driven, not higher electricity prices, not an electricity tax. None of that. The person I have got running our energy policy and emissions reduction hasn't spent a lifetime coming up with new taxes. He's spent a lifetime coming up with new technologies. 

 

LAURA TINGLE: Chris Uhlmann.

 

CHRIS UHLMANN: Prime Minister, Chris Uhlmann, Nine News. The World Health Organization has said that after countries, rich countries, have vaccinated their frontline workers and their most vulnerable, they should then pause and make sure that poorer countries get the vaccine. Is it your intention to do that?

 

PRIME MINISTER: We're doing this in partnership with our Pacific family, in particular and we're in those planning phases even now. Marise and Zed have spent much of the summer speaking to those leaders and going through their plans. The first thing, the first challenge we have in many developing countries but particularly in the Pacific is working with their workforce to be able to deliver the vaccine, and that's not a small task. And so that's where we begin and that's work we envisage also doing in South-East Asian countries as well. So I think we'll be acting very much in the spirit of what that is seeking to achieve.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Rose Lewis.

 

ROSIE LEWIS: Rosie Lewis from The Australian Prime Minister. If your Government does manage to legislate the media bargaining code and Google makes good on its threat to exit the Australian market, are you confident that alternate search engines are going to be able to fill what would be a massive void left by Google and Australians won't be left worse off?

 

PRIME MINISTER: I can tell you, Microsoft's pretty confident. When I spoke to Satya the other day, there was a bit of that. Look, these are big technology companies and what's important to Australia, I think is that we set the rules that are right for our people. And having a news environment in this country that is one that is sustainable and is supported commercially, then this is vital to how democracies function. Even when I was Treasurer, as Josh knows, when I would go to the G20 I would be talking not just about are they paying tax and how do we best address that, but I began the conversation, when I was Treasurer, with the G20 about antitrust and competition policy issues that I said we were going to have to address. Now Australia is being true to our word, again. I would like to see more alignment between the world's economies on these sorts of things. You know, our simple rule around the digital, as Paul Fletcher knows, is that we just want the rules in the digital world to be the same that exist in the real world, in the physical world. And that means you can't go around abusing people and carrying on like people do. You wouldn't behave like that in a room like this. Well, I don't think you would. And similarly when it comes to antitrust practices, paying your taxes, all of those things, Australia has just taken a very consistent, and I think, principled stand. We want to work through with the companies on these sorts of things, we want a practical outcome, we don't want things sitting in the courts and all those sorts of things forever. But the world has changed, digital technology has affected that, and we are trying to ensure that our regulatory system keeps pace with that change to ensure that the journalists can do their jobs, not just in taxpayer funded organisations but commercial ones as well. 

 

LAURA TINGLE: Phil Coorey.

 

PHIL COOREY: Hi PM, Phil Coorey from the AFR. In your speech you sort of said the year ahead your priority was the vaccine rollout and otherwise a sort of careful stewardship of the economy recovery and getting people back on their feet. To purists probably listening in, there is a lack of bold reform ideas or proposals. You're not talking about large-scale economic reform or anything like that. Is it your view that people just aren't up for that at the moment given what they've been through for the last year, and, in that context, where are you up to at the moment on your thinking on superannuation and having a crack at that?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, you're talking to someone who has had pretty heavy involvement in superannuation over the last five years and there were a few more that we've been taking through Parliament. But Phil look, I'm aware of this narrative. I’ve just outlined to you, $29 billion of infrastructure investment, this includes massive projects in Snowy, major transport projects, Sydney West Airport, the Inland Rail. A $5 billion-plus digital transformation strategy. We've taken albeit modest industrial relations reforms forward to the Parliament, I note that’s not proving any easier to get through the Parliament. So I’m now, see I'm not one that likes to pursue things for the sake of vanity. I like to get things done and not waste time on things that don't get done because that doesn't help anybody. The changes help people. The workforce challenges I really think are being underappreciated in a lot of this commentary. I mean when I read those articles, what I hear is, "You want me to put on a carbon tax and you want me to put up the GST." Apparently they are the holy grails of economic reform in this country. I'm not putting on a carbon tax and I'm not putting up the GST. They're just tax increases. That's all they are. Investing in skills, transformationally changing the way that we train our young people based on the skills they're going to need in the future, rather than the rear vision mirror where we just used to throw money around and hope it found its way to someone somewhere, that’s, these are the big changes we need going forward. The trade agenda equally. I mean we are abolishing an entire schedule of personal income tax, an entire schedule. So look, we're doing the things that are needed to grow the economy. And to grow the economy this year in particular, the health strategy around the vaccine is obviously fundamental, but the economic recovery plan that we're pursuing is strong, it's consistent, it's getting done and it's getting results.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Mark Riley.

 

MARK RILEY: Mark Riley 7 Network. Prime Minister, what concrete action will you take to ensure those companies that took billions, or tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers for JobKeeper and then funnelled it through to executive bonuses and dividends, pay that money back?

 

PRIME MINISTER: I'm not in the politics of envy, Mark. I'll leave that to my opponents. We put in place a scheme with JobKeeper that gave this country certainty at the most profoundly challenging period they’ve faced since the Second World War. You know, when you go through a crisis and you're some 10 months down the track, sometimes we forget what it was like 10 months ago. Josh and I don't. And neither does my Cabinet. We were staring into the abyss. And some countries have gone into that abyss. We have not. And the way that was achieved was providing the certainty that those businesses that were facing that environment had the certainty of that support and we legislated it. Six months, it's in. You can bank on that. You can put your plans to work on that. You can employ your people and keep them in jobs. JobKeeper saved 700,000 jobs. I'd say that's pretty significant and I’d say that made a big change. Now, the law is the law. The law that we put in place and passed through the Parliament ensured that those funds were provided into the corporate sector. Now, if there are some companies that feel that they want to hand that back, great! Good for them. But let's not lose sight in some sort of envy narrative that that program did not change the course of the nation.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Michelle Grattan.

 

MICHELLE GRATTAN: Michelle Grattan from The Conversation. To go back to your climate and energy remarks, Prime Minister do you expect to attend the Biden climate conference, and do you think this might provide an opportunity for a face-to-face meeting with the President?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Oh, well, look there will be those. At this stage, we haven't received the details or nature of the event at this point. As you can appreciate, things are very busy over in the White House at the moment, and they will be communicating that to us and then I'm sure the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne and I, and Angus Taylor, and others, will discuss what is the best way for us to participate in that and how that will work. But we welcome it and we look forward to supporting it.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Prime Minister, the ABC is extending by 10 minutes, the broadcast today.

 

PRIME MINISTER: Sure.

 

LAURA TINGLE: So we're just wondering whether you're happy to take a few more questions?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Always, always.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Excellent. Andrew Clennell.

 

ANDREW CLENNELL: Prime Minister, Andrew Clennell Sky News.

 

PRIME MINISTER: Hey, Andrew.

 

ANDREW CLENNELL: Last year you started out saying the policy was suppression, and that we had to live with the virus. And ensure we had enough ICU beds, that we were flattening the curve. Now you've supported the Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth lockdowns, despite hardly any cases in those jurisdictions. Have you given in to the view of the vast amount of Australians they want zero cases of coronavirus, none at all? Are you pursuing eradication now? And would you therefore consider, given we're looking at a whole bunch of short, sharp, lockdowns now, some sort of programme like JobKeeper where when the government shuts down economies it helps fund business for that?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Well the answer to your first question is, no, my view hasn't changed. Right from the outset of this pandemic it had always been my view that localised lockdowns were a good way to suppress the virus and its spread through metropolitan areas. Professor Murphy will remember that very, very well. We spoke about it a lot and I think what you saw in the Northern Beaches of Sydney was a good example of that approach and how effective that approach can be. One of the things you learn, as you go through a pandemic like this, is you don't get to set the rules. The pandemic tends to write those, and you need to work and adapt to the things as they change. And I've heard this, there's only one case. It's not just one case. It's a case of a more virulent strain of which we know little about. And so, I would caution an equivalence with earlier strains and the responses there. The other thing, I think, we've learnt is, I'm sure Victorians would agree with me, no-one wants to go into a four-month lockdown again and by giving our contact tracers a weekend's head start, which is effectively what those things were. Then that has avoided something far more significant. All of these are judgements you make at the time based on the evidence you have with the health officers in the room but ultimately Premiers, Chief Ministers, Prime Ministers, Health Ministers have got to make calls on these things and we will seek to make the best possible calls that we possibly can. You know that I’ve been very respectful of the Federation, and I am respectful of the Federation, I'm a federalist at heart, and what that means is, sure, states can make decisions about what they intend to do in areas of their responsibilities, but they're then also responsible for also dealing and mitigating the impacts of those decisions that they make. It is not a blank cheque. And when it comes to what level of government has stepped up and backed-in the Australian economy, small businesses, medium-size businesses, those working right across this country, employees, and those who've lost their job, there has never been a government at a federal level that has provided more support than this one. So I'd say the Federal Government has done its fair share of the heavy lifting here, and we will continue to as my presentation is set out today. JobKeeper is one of many, many initiatives that we're doing to support and sustain the Australian economy, but it changes over time. You don't rent your economy. You actually grow your economy. And that's what we're doing and the states have an important role to play in that. But I would agree that greater certainty about how these rules are put in place, and I've urged the Premiers on this front, they need to keep that in mind as they put these things in place. But suppression is our strategy. Hasn't changed, not a day.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Peter van Onselen.

 

PETER VAN ONSELEN: Peter van Onselen, Network Ten. Prime Minister, you mentioned in your speech that the past year has been one of the toughest in Australian history. What have you learned about leadership over the last 12 months?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Listen. You've got to listen. That's something I've sought to do across my public life. But I tell you what, over the last 12 months, my ears have gotten very sharp and I listen carefully. I really enjoyed getting up to Queensland the other week with Scotty and Michael, and David, and Keith. I spent a bit of time in a lift with Keith. We got out. But the opportunity, and once again, even over that short break I had again back at the Shoalhaven Heads Hotel, to listen where Australians are at. And one of the hardest things over the past 12 months, I have got to say, Peter, is I've been here, necessarily, necessarily but that has prevented me from in so many days from doing what I love to do and that is to get out and about across the country and listen. I listened carefully when I was up in Gladstone the other day and what was happening with the LNG industry and the oil industry, listened very carefully about what they need. And there is no substitute for that. Whether it is listening to Brendan Murphy and his amazing team, Dr Kennedy and his incredible team, we are well served by the public servants of this country but there are many channels of advice in to my Government and the ones I listen to most carefully is those Australians I get to meet all across the country. 

 

LAURA TINGLE: Katherine Murphy. 

 

KATHERINE MURPHY: Hello, PM.

 

PRIME MINISTER: Hi Katherine.

 

KATHERINE MURPHY: Science, as you’ve dwelled on a bit today, and in your references to people like Professor Murphy and Dr Kennedy here. Science determined Australia’s response to the coronavirus, that was your decision. And that’s why Australia has fared better than many other countries and many other governments but in today’s speech, you’ve said that technology will determine the pace of decarbonisation. So my question is very simple, if science determines Australia’s response to the pandemic, why doesn't climate science set the trajectory for how fast and far Australia needs to change, given both, given pandemics and climate change both represent existential threats to humanity.

 

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Katherine, well look I’ve got the text of the speech here, I’m quite confident that I said science and technology, 

 

KATHERINE MURPHY: I don’t have the text.

 

PRIME MINISTER: Science and technology is what I said. And that's true. Technology is the product of science. So I'm not sure the point you're seeking to make. What I am saying is if you go back across the energy history of the world, you will find that the big transformational developments that have happened in economies have happened because of the changes in technology borne by science. Shale oil for example, in the United States, completely changed not only the price of energy, which drove a manufacturing revolution in the United States, but for the first time, I think since Nixon first called for it, the US had energy independence and that had a profound impact on their global outlook. That happened because of science and technology, and research, and major advances, and it changed the world. And if we go back across all of this, whether it's electric vehicles, or whatever it happens to be, batteries, the work we're doing on hydrogen, I mean is going to change the world, then it comes from science and technology. The science I'm talking about is the science that fixes things, that gives you solutions, that actually creates a path. I'm simply saying that if, and I thought, Special Envoy Kerry was making this point the other day, he said the US could reduce their emissions to zero tomorrow and it wouldn't solve the problem. Why? Because all the emissions increases are happening in developing countries. Now, they're not going to switch off their economies. They're not going to do it. I tell you why they will do it, in terms of making a change, if there's commercial technology that enables them to do it. And that's why we want to partner with them, we want to partner with India on these issues, with Indonesia, with Vietnam. We have got to focus on the how, now. That's what we need to do to get emissions down because that is what's going to change things. And that's what we're doing. That's the action we're taking and it's science-led all the way.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Science does deliver the technology, Prime Minister, but the point is that the science also tells us what we should be trying to achieve. Isn't it going to be better to have opinion galvanised by looking at what the science says about what we need to do?

 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, as I outlined, we're seeking to get to net zero. We'd preferably like to see it happen by 2050, as I’ve said. It could happen sooner with significant technological change. But I tell you, if there isn't the technological change, then it's just a bit of paper. So we all know where we need to go. Now is the time to focus on how we're going to get there. So if we can produce hydrogen, as Angus tells me at $2 a kilo, then, we can get there. If we can't, it's going to be very hard. And so, they're the targets I'm interested in, achieving those, because I know they'll achieve the bigger target, which is where we're seeking to head. And if we do that, I don't have to put, and will not put that tax burden on Australians, particularly regional Australians, that some seem to want us to do.

 

LAURA TINGLE: We’ve got time for one more question from Tamsin Rose.

 

PRIME MINISTER: Sure.

 

TAMSIN ROSE: Thanks, Prime Minister. Tamsin Rose, from the Herald Sun. A report released yesterday found that Collingwood Football Club has a problem with structural racism and that the club should publicly make amends to those who've paid a high public price for speaking out about it. Does Australia have a problem with racism?

 

PRIME MINISTER: I'll give you a personal view. This is an issue that has vexed, you know, countries like ours and the United States, Canada, New Zealand for centuries, and we are each struggling to find peace for our nations along this journey. We've had significant challenges in this country but I believe we're working to overcome them. The Closing The Gap initiative that was set up by Prime Minister Rudd, a very noble and I think an outstanding initiative,  one which I supported and our party room supported at the time, but we had to get beyond, we had to get beyond what was a very noble intent and actually get a much more cooperative set of targets that actually got us to the end of the journey. Reconciliation will be achieved in this country when young Indigenous boys and girls in this country can grow up with the same opportunities as every other Australian. That's my goal, and I'm very committed to it. But when we spoke about Australia Day this year, we talked about, of course, our 60,000 years of Indigenous heritage, we talked about those who first came in chains in ships including my fifth great grand-father, and then we talked about the waves of migration that have come. I believe, no, I know that Australia is the most successful multicultural immigration country on the planet. And when I speak to other leaders, they ask me about how we’ve achieved this. That doesn't mean we have our challenges or our issues, but it does mean that we're very conscious of the great benefits of the cohesion of our society, and where there are problems, we try and deal with them, we try and deal with them. And so, I think that is the noble spirit of Australians. And I would encourage us to continue on that path.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Prime Minister could I just ask you, very finally, to perhaps comment on the developments in Myanmar today?

 

PRIME MINISTER: These are rather disturbing developments. I am aware of those troubling reports and the Foreign Minister has been following them closely and Marise you’ve already issued a statement on this matter as I understand it. The details I’ve got to say are very limited, because of communications that were reportedly cut and it is still relatively early in Myanmar. We have been a long standing supporter of Myanmar's democratic transition, including the election in November. In fact I was the first minister of our Government first elected in 2013 to visit Myanmar when I was the then Minister for Immigration. So I am somewhat aware of the significant challenges that country has faced over many years, as it seeks to take their path forward. And clearly, there are very significant hurdles for them still to overcome and the tensions are still very present. We have joined in a statement last Friday, opposing any efforts to alter the election outcome and urging the military and all parties to adhere to democratic norms. We have done that with Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the EU countries as well. So we all hope for Myanmar, we all hope for what I know the Myanmarese people want to achieve. I found them the most beautiful of people when I was there, so peaceful in nature but having suffered such terrible violence over the course of their nation's history. And I, I hope.

 

LAURA TINGLE: Ladies and gentlemen, please help me thank the Prime Minister.