Well, firstly, congratulations to Billy Slater and to Queensland on a big Origin win last night. I’m sure New South Wales will take a lot out of the game, a lot of first timers, and it’s pretty tough to play 12 on 13 but look forward to the second game in Melbourne. But here in Adelaide, I was at the ACTU Congress last night, and it is a great gathering of working people. And this morning, I’m back in Adelaide, in the electorate of Sturt, and we’re here for a really important announcement that I’ve asked Claire Clutterham to stand as Labor’s candidate for Sturt. And I’m very confident that Claire will receive the support not just of the ALP to be the candidate, but of the people of Sturt to become their local Member and their voice as part of a Labor Government for the second term that we will be seeking next year. This is an important electorate, one which is held on a very slim margin. We seek to be a majority Labor Government on an ongoing basis so we can continue the work that we’ve done. We handed down a Budget just a month ago, a Budget that will provide for a tax cut for every taxpayer in Sturt. A Budget that will provide energy price relief for every household in Sturt. One that will strengthen Medicare for families when they need that support of an Urgent Care Clinic taking pressure off the emergency departments of our hospital and making a difference where people can go and get the care they need, with just their Medicare card, not a credit card. A Future Made in Australia, remember when there was a Government, federally, that said that we couldn’t build a canoe here in Adelaide? Well, what we’ll be building here in Adelaide in the future is nuclear powered submarines. What we’ll be building here in South Australia is green metals powered by green hydrogen. What we’ll be building here in South Australia is advanced manufacturing driven by clean energy, including green hydrogen. But the other assets that we have here, the best quality magnetite in the world, here in South Australia, that can make an enormous difference, and I want Claire to be a part of that team as a voice for South Australia in our national parliament. And that stands in stark contrast to the former Government that in one of its first acts, told the car industry to leave this great state. That had an enormous impact, not just on the people directly employed there in the car industry, but the multiplier impact that it had. Now, Claire brings a great wealth of experience. She’s a local councillor here in Norwood. She’s someone who’s worked as a lawyer and had a distinguished career and will bring that capacity to assist the people of Sturt. She’s here, of course, her family here as well. And welcome to Niamh and Ben, who are here. She’s a local. She’s someone who’s passionate about representing this electorate. It’s what brought her to run for local council. When I asked her how it was that she got elected, she knocked on doors, she spoke to people, she engaged with them. And that’s the sort of capacity that Claire will bring. She’s someone who’s worked around the world as well, someone who was raised in around South Australia, but went on to work right around the world, really, right around the world, as a distinguished lawyer. And Claire will add to our rather extraordinary South Australian team. I say this, when I look around the Cabinet room and I see Penny Wong, Don Farrell, Mark Butler, Amanda Rishworth, South Australia punches above its weight in our national Government. What Claire will do is to bolster that South Australian team, along with the extraordinary Members we have in other electorates here in South Australia. The local Member here sunk without a trace. Say what you like about Christopher Pyne, everyone knows he was there, he was someone who remains a friend of mine, someone who was outspoken about this community, but this community needs someone who will stand up for it, Claire will do that. I’m happy to introduce her today.
CLARE CLUTTERHAM: Thank you, Prime Minister. It’s wonderful to see you again. It’s fun to be here this morning in my local cafe, Nathaniel’s, and to be with you and the Prime Minister’s support is incredibly humbling. I’m absolutely delighted to accept the invitation to run in this great electorate of Sturt. I’m looking forward as of this week to getting out back into the community to build on my work as a local councillor, as I get out there, listen to the concerns of the community, to earn trust of every single voter in Sturt and send that message and that promise to the people of Sturt that, if elected I will be a fierce advocate for the people of Sturt and the people of South Australia in Canberra. So I’m looking forward to getting started and returning this Government to a second term.
PRIME MINISTER: Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Why the jump from local council to federal politics?
CLARE CLUTTERHAM: My work on local council has been incredibly inspiring, fulfilling, in the sense that I get the opportunity every day to meet with residents and to take steps to make good change for people, I firmly believe that if you have the capacity to do it, you should speak up and advocate.
JOURNALIST: A Ministry reshuffle, is that something that you’re planning?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
JOURNALIST: So is that, are you ruling out a reshuffle?
PRIME MINISTER: That was a pretty clear answer, wasn’t it? What we’re doing is we’re getting on with the job of governing. We commemorated two years in office, a short period of time ago, since we were sworn in. The first Government in a long while that’s been stable, that’s been orderly, that has done what we said we would do. We said we’d look after people, and we’ve done it. Said we’d support AUKUS, and we’ve turned what was essentially a framework into something that’s real. We have delivered a Budget that is dealing with the immediate concerns that people have of lifting those cost of living pressures, whilst looking to how do we get that economic growth in the future, for the Future Made in Australia. My Government has been stable, that compares with the shambles that we replaced. A shambles in which two years in, Tony Abbott was no longer the Prime Minister, having led the Liberal Party to a significant victory in 2013. He faced an empty chair challenge that almost beat him in their party room. They then had another challenge, and Tony Abbott didn’t make it to two years. They then replaced, the person who replaced Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, during the next term, and in the next term, Peter Dutton blew the party up and had a challenge where he said his main platform at that time was that he would smile more. Well, he’s broken that commitment, because they haven’t seen a smile since. My Government is stable, is orderly, and is getting on with the job of building that better future for Australia that we promised.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of the comments from Justice Hollingworth that the Opposition Leader could be investigated by the national security watchdog?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course, legal proceedings, I don’t comment on the specifics. But can I say this, we’ve had three reviews in the Department of ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Affairs and Immigration, including the time when Peter Dutton presided over a complete mess. It was dysfunctional. We had, when we came to office, we inherited more than a million people in the queue for visas. You had systematic dysfunction and a shambolic approach, and that was recognised by people such as Dr Martin Parkinson, who did one of the reviews into the department. It’s recognised as well across the board, former head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the former Coalition Government, recognised by Christine Nixon in the review that Christine Nixon did, as well as the review of Dennis Richardson. We’ve been busy cleaning up the mess that Peter Dutton left in that department.
JOURNALIST: Can you confirm that changed to Direction 99 will be introduced today?
PRIME MINISTER: They will be released at an appropriate time, and the changes will make it very clear that the first priority is the safety of the public. That will be the motivation here. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal, of course, we passed legislation to abolish it and replace it. It was essentially an employment program for failed Liberal candidates and that’s why it made decisions that were simply not in line with common sense or community opinion. The Administrative Review Tribunal would be able to consider, as well as while the AAT continues until that new body is up and running, the new direction.
JOURNALIST: What made you finally join with Peter Dutton to call out the Greens and anti-Semitism?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve called out anti-Semitism my whole life.
JOURNALIST: Can you confirm those changes will be made today?
PRIME MINISTER: If I did that you’d have nothing to look forward to. So, you know, when we release things, that’s when you find out that they’re released. So people have been working on it, that was announced last week, and I can confirm that you won’t have that long to wait.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: I support the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Commission have having proper processes.
JOURNALIST: How will your Government kickstart the economy that’s reaching closer towards a recession?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we have, let’s be very clear, there was 30 years of consecutive economic growth due to the reforms that were put in place by Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. The only recession that’s occurred in recent times has been on the Coalition’s watch. We have been building a stronger economy by dealing with the immediate pressures which are there, and our Budget was in the sweet spot. If you look at the commentary of some of the Coalition and indeed, some of the commentariat, who would have wanted us to have some form of austerity Budget in May, that wouldn’t have been appropriate. We’ve got the settings right. We have the economy continuing to grow. We’ve created 820,000 jobs on our watch, with the time where real wages are growing, including with the 3.75 per cent increase in the minimum wage that was handed down by the Fair Work Commission that will impact people on awards, as well just this week, we’ve got the gender pay gap at a record low. We have business investment that’s up. We are continuing to see an economy that’s dealing with global pressures, which are there, but there’s nowhere you’d rather be than Australia. Well positioned as we are, to benefit from the opportunities that are there with the shift in the global economy towards clean energy.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re working through those issues across the Parliament, we’ve had meetings, and a lot of work has been done on aged care reform, and indeed, already, if you look at the work that we’ve done. Last night, I spoke to aged care workers who have benefited from the 15 per cent increase in their pay that we delivered. We’ve delivered, on top of that, an additional amount of money in two Budgets now for the aged care workforce that was really important to get things done. In addition to that, we have promised to have a nurse in nursing homes, who knew that that wasn’t a priority, but it wasn’t under the former Government. What we have done is deliver that, and it is pretty close to 99 per cent of the time. And there are literally millions of additional hours of care being given to our older Australians who deserve dignity and respect in their later years. That’s what my Government is doing. We as well, will be pursuing the changes in the Aged Care Act. We’re working through that across the Parliament to make sure that we get those settings right.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, so what are the secret plans that the Coalition have to change (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Coalition have in documents that have been released, including from correspondence from Michaelia Cash, has spoken about a range of changes that would make a negative impact on working people. We know that they’ve spoken about contracts, they’re addicted to WorkChoices, we know that’s their preferred model. We know as well that every time there has been an increase in the minimum wage, they have said the sky is falling and it will impact negatively on employment, in spite of the fact that that hasn’t been in place and 820,000 jobs created at the time where real wages are increasing. We know that they’ve said as well that on casual employment they don’t want people to have the security of a permanent job. Now, casual work in a place like the one we’re in here, this cafe, can be really important. I did many casual jobs when I was studying at university and at other times. But what shouldn’t occur is for that definition of casuals to be used simply to penalise people by not giving them that security. We know that they’ve opposed the concept of same job, same pay, and they removed some of the provisions that have been adopted, and you can have people working side by side with the same experience, doing the same job, having a massive pay differential between them. All of these measures are ones that have been promoted by the Coalition. They continue to oppose the right to disconnect. I said last night to the ACTU Congress dinner that if you want to see Coalition members spring into action, just suggest that they should have to sit in Parliament on Friday or a Saturday, all of a sudden, they’re happy to pass legislation or to get things done, but they think that workers should be online and in contact and available 24/7. Now for some jobs, of course, in emergency services and a range of jobs such as politicians, I’m on call 24/7, but people should have the right to disconnect. Shouldn’t be penalised for not being available, and that’s all the common sense provisions that were put in the legislation will do that. That’s something that’s been done and they said that they will roll back, like they’ll roll back other measures. We know one of the big differences in Australian politics is that we believe that the economy should work for people, not the other way around, and that means that we want good jobs, secure jobs with rising living standards, including rising wages, particularly those people on low and middle incomes. And that’s why we changed the tax cuts to make sure that all 13.6 million Australians will get a tax cut on the 1st of July, the Coalition would have left those people behind. We want people to earn more, and we want people to keep more of what they earn. Petter Dutton wants people to work longer the less. Thanks very much.
