MIKE O’LOUGHLIN: Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Mike, it’s great to be back here in Launnie.
O’LOUGHLIN: Tell us, now you’re here for a major forestry announcement. Can you run us through that story and what, how much money we’ll hopefully get?
PRIME MINISTER: Well yeah, that’s exactly why we’re here. We believe in the traditional industries of the regions of Australia. And at this election, yes it is about the economy and particularly in regional areas, a choice about a Government that understands what drives regional economies and a Labor Opposition that people just don’t know. And the announcements we’re making today is $106.6 million to boost Australia’s forestry research and development capability and a further $112.9 million which was in the Budget as well, in grants to accelerate the adoption of new wood processing technologies.
Now what that’s all about is A, making sure that we don’t support any shutdowns of the native forestry industry and that we work with the state governments – and I’m looking forward to seeing Jeremy this morning, the new Premier who I’ve already spoken to him obviously after he became Premier – and ensuring that we create permanent timber production areas. But we’ve also got to keep getting smarter and smarter and smarter about how we ensure the future of this industry. It wasn’t that long ago when I was down here and I announced the $86.2 million in a new plantation establishment programme because we just believe in the future of the forestry industry. Making new and innovative timber building products, turning wood into waste and residues into products like biofuels, and replacing fossil fuel based plastics with biodegradable, wood based bioplastics. So, the forestry industry can have a bright and big future. It employs 73,000 jobs across the country and, of course, a very strong employment driver here in Tasmania. So, we believe in it.
O’LOUGHLIN: If I can actually, tell me about the $100 million to establish this Australia-wide ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Institute for Forest Products Innovation, and the main hub being in Launceston.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s exactly right. $100 million over five years. And this is all about ensuring the forest products, we become, you know, the best in the world, I would hope, on how we can develop new forestry products, and that will be a central host hub located right in Launceston, and there will be up to five other regionally located centres of excellence across Australia.
Now we’re already seeing with our regional forestry hubs plan, that we have announced, and we’ve been putting that into place, people on the ground, whether it’s farmers, whether it’s in the forestry industry or others, working together, working out the best science and research about where best to plant these plantations. Where the best take up scientifically which can maximise the yields that we get from this industry. And research and science, working together with the universities, working together with the industry, working together with farmers. That all creates a future for this very important sector. And when you’re, you know, you’re looking at the construction of high rise buildings now and I mean, the large apartment blocks things like that across the country, not just here in Tasmania, then you know, the way wood products are used in those industries is changing and we want to be right there understanding it and connecting it back to our primary producers in the forestry industry, especially here in Tassie.
O’LOUGHLIN: Now, another – it’s wonderful that, and I’m very pleased that you’re coming to Tasmania, so early on in your campaign visits. It just shows how important our state is for the upcoming election, and particularly the three seats that you’d be hoping for. And I know we’ll have a number of chats over the next five and a half weeks. But to, look, but with this, the main things concerning Tasmanians, PM, at the moment are definitely health, which we’ll get to in a moment, but also cost of living. We didn’t see too much in the Budget for renters. There was temporary relief for fuel, one-off payments as well, first home buyer assistance, but nothing much for the long term. But what do the Liberals plan to do about the cost of living and the housing struggles facing Tasmanians in the long term?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the first thing is that getting Australians into jobs and we’ve got an unemployment rate here in Tassie of 3.9 per cent, but we also want to see those jobs up here in northern Tasmania as well. There is a bit of a difference, as we know, between northern Tasmania and down south, and we want to make sure that we’ve got those strong industries here where people can get those jobs to support their incomes. Now, in addition to that, there is, of course, the $5.1 billion we spend every year on Commonwealth Rent Assistance, supporting people who need help with their rents. That has been a long time responsibility for the Federal Government, and we’re continuing to provide that support to some 1.4 million Australians across the country. Another innovative thing we’ve done, and I did this when I was Treasurer, I set up an agency which was called the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Housing, Finance and Investment Corporation. And what that does is it borrows money at extremely low rates and enables community housing organisations, which are the very [inaudible] ones in Tassie to be able to go and develop affordable accommodation, whether it’s here where I am today or across the state, and do that in partnership with the private sector and ensure that within even the developments that people just see along the roads or in housing estates or indeed in a multi-unit dwellings, that there is affordable housing in those projects. That’s the things we can do.
As we know, state housing is a state responsibility, of course it is. But we thought that was a really smart way about how we can get the community housing sector involved and financed, to be able to finance projects, on the same basis that governments can, and particularly work with the private sector to understand that this is an important part of meeting local housing needs. But you know the best thing we can do, is build more houses, build more houses. And in Tassie, that’s a need. Last time I was here with Gav Pearce, we were over with some young apprentices who are working on new housing estates in northern Tasmania, and we need to build more of these houses, release that land for those projects, because the more houses there are, then obviously the more supply there is and the less pressure there is on the price.
O’LOUGHLIN: And what about the health crisis? Let’s move on to that. I know we have got limited time. We spoke with the Australian Medical Association yesterday about their election platform. They had a number of concerns. Are you looking at that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course. And that’s why we’ve been increasing our investments in hospital services, here in Tasmania. I mean, health funding under our Government is up 59 per cent in total. Education and skills, that’s up 77 per cent and GST related payments is up 75 per cent – $3.2 billion – and that’s what’s supporting health and hospitals here. We’re also investing heavily in telehealth, which is supporting our local health services, which is important, particularly in regional areas.
But it’s no substitute for actual doctors, and that’s why I was concerned the other day when Labor made an announcement down here about the psychiatrist services. Now, yes it’s good to have telehealth, but their policy was actually rejected by the medical health professionals in relation to the delivery of psychiatry services because it would discourage psychiatrists coming and basing here, whether here in Tasmania or other regional parts of the country. The problem with their policies, you know, it’s all well-intentioned with Labor, but they don’t think it through. Even these GP superclinic policy, I mean, it was Kevin Rudd’s policy, and they say they’re going to put $2.7 million per clinic over four years. I mean, the GPs themselves know, I mean they took a bad policy off Kevin Rudd and they somehow managed to make it even worse.
O’LOUGHLIN: Well, I believe he tried to, he said what 50 and was able to get around 1 running. I know that’s been asked of, but those super clinics, but the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has labelled Tasmania’s services, GP services, in crisis, as in one in five Tasmanians don’t have equitable access to a GP, which is dreadful. I mean, when you think about it and when you’ve got over the last, what 10, 20 years, the erosion of the Medicare rebate that hasn’t kept pace with the cost of providing quality service. I mean it hasn’t changed. Do we see, will there be a change or will there be some access to GPs a little easier? With, health is really in crisis here in Tasmania.
PRIME MINISTER: No, I agree. It’s always been a very important issue, particularly up in northern Tasmania. And this is, I think Bridget Archer’s been doing a terrific job with Gav Pearce to ensure that we can get more focus on this, the Rural Doctors Plan that was set out in the Budget. A critical part of our plan is training doctors in regional areas to make sure that then they stay in those regional areas and there’s supports for them to go and do that. In fact, just last night, I met a young man who’d migrated from overseas. He’s a trained doctor from overseas. He’s currently working in the hospitality industry. He’s moved here to Tasmania because of the regional migration program, which enables him to come here to Tasmania and, and get, be able to be on a pathway to permanent residency. And now he’s working through the process of getting his accreditation as a doctor. So they’re the sort of things that you’ve got to be smart about. You make your migration program work with your health program, your training program – and it is a challenge. I, I absolutely know it’s been a challenge. And Bridget and Gav raise these issues with me all the time. Susie Bower also in Lyons is our candidate. We know how important it is, and that’s why we’re working hard to get those doctors here in regional areas.
O’LOUGHLIN: Can I also, speaking of Bridget Archer, she’s supporting a wage increase for aged care workers. Federal Labor has promised to pay the extra $5 if they made government. That’s $5 an hour more. Will your Government give the aged care workers a pay rise?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we’re following the Fair Work Commission’s advice, and Labor doesn’t have a policy, because they haven’t costed it. I mean, their policy is to write a letter to the Fair Work Commission. I don’t know how powerful Mr Albanese’s pen is, but the Fair Work Commission will make a decision on that, and we’ve always said that we’d work with industry to abide by that. I mean, it’s a challenging sector. We’ve put $19.1 billion in the last two years in our response to the Royal Commission on Aged Care. That includes $10 extra per resident per day, particularly to deal with things like their nutritional needs and that response of training more people in the workforce to get them into the aged care sector. We’ve got more and more people becoming reliant on those services. It’s an incredibly complicated area of policy. There are no simple solutions there, but at $19.1 billion in investment additionally in aged care to deal with these problems – it’s the single largest response any Federal Government has ever taken to an issue that has been difficult for 30 years and a couple of glib announcements by our opponents that they haven’t thought through does not match a $19.1 billion comprehensive response to a Royal Commission that I called.
O’LOUGHLIN: Prime Minister, on another issue North West firm Elphinstone Pty Ltd., which I’m sure you’re aware.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. I know Dale and the family, yeah.
O’LOUGHLIN: Yeah, they’re actually waiting to see if the announcement there on the bids for that $27 billion to build infantry fighting vehicles. And they haven’t had an answer yet. Is the bid coming across? Is that going to be this a decision where Elphinstone will get that contract?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s obviously being done at arm’s length from Ministers. That’s done by the Defence Department, in making those decisions. I know they’re progressing well and I’m aware of where that’s up to. I’m not anticipating that there will be an announcement by the officials on that before the election, and I know that Elphinstone are aware of that. I think it was originally scheduled for some time around September of this year before it was coming back. So they’re working through that.
But what is good news, I was out of Elphinstone out at Burnie the other day. And what we’re doing there is they’re part of the new Hanwha artillery project, which is actually based up in, in regional Victoria, out there at Avalon. And Dale was there with me for the announcement because they’re one of the big suppliers of that ultimately project and that’s going to create more jobs. And I, we saw, saw where those jobs were going into there in Burnie as the magnificent transformation they’ve made at the plant there in Burnie. And so they’re benefitting from that project I announced just the other day in Melbourne.
O’LOUGHLIN: Can I then, I know I’m running out of time here, but –
PRIME MINISTER: You’re right.
O’LOUGHLIN: Can I just, from you, the idea of the Indue card, because it’s been apparently, not so allegedly, I wasn’t at the meeting myself. A Labor member at a forum at Burnie Senior Citizens Club saying that aged pensioners they’re next to get this –
PRIME MINISTER: Oh yeah. I heard –
O’LOUGHLIN: … card, a Coalition Government will extend the scheme to, I mean, is this, I mean I know Anne Ruston has said, even on my program that they’ll never have such a plan as the Indue card. What, what is your answer to that? Is that, you know –
PRIME MINISTER: This is, this is a disgraceful lie and deceitful lie from the Labor Party. And they’ve been doing this all around the country, trying to frighten pensioners. Just, you remember they did that with Mediscare?
O’LOUGHLIN: Yep.
PRIME MINISTER: With Bill Shorten back in 2016. And they said, oh you know, they’re going to take Medicare away, all of this. Well Medicare, we are spending over, we’re spending $32 billion on Medicare, it was $19 billion when we came to Government. So all of those scare campaigns and those lies have been demonstrated over the last six years to be complete lies. And this is another lie. The Commonwealth Government, my Government will never, ever use the cashless debit card on pensions. We won’t. We just won’t.
It’s been in the trial programs around the country in areas where we’ve been working directly with communities who have been supporting the card. But when it comes to pensioners – no. We, that it is just an out and out lie and it’s been pushed around on social media, and I have no doubt they’re calling pensioners homes and telling them this and trying to frighten them. That’s what you do if you’re Labor and you don’t have an economic plan. And they don’t have an economic plan. I think we’ve seen pretty clearly this week that Labor don’t know what they’re doing on the economy. It’s not that Anthony Albanese, he says he’s forgot a number. I suspect he just didn’t even, never knew what was in the first place, but because they’re not focused on economics. But the point about it is, is a strong economy supports Medicare. And if you don’t know how to manage money, you can’t guarantee Medicare. We do. That’s why we’ve been able to increase our investment in Medicare and the disgraceful and deceitful lies trying to scare pensioners is exactly what we saw Bill Shorten try to do back in 2016. And because he doesn’t have an economic plan, Anthony Albanese is working away in the darkness there, trying to frighten pensioners at night about the cashless debit card in the same way they did on Mediscare.
O’LOUGHLIN: Well, I appreciate your time this morning. I know you’re busy and please feel free to call in again when you next visit Tasmania, which I gather will be soon. There’s three important seats there for you. So Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, I do thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks. And just before I go, I was really pleased, I was just down in Georgetown the other day, you know when we were announcing in the India-Australian Free Trade Agreement.
O’LOUGHLIN: My hometown. Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah. It was terrific! Saw some, some great crays down there, big beasts, I’ve got to tell you. But it was great to see that the price of fuel, because of the cut in the fuel tax that we put in, in the Budget, it’s already dropped even further. So the last time I was here, it was just over two bucks out there and now we’ve, you know, fallen down about, about $1.85, which is fantastic. It’s good to see the trends also flowing through in Tassie now, as we’re seeing in other parts of the country. It’s good talking to you.
O’LOUGHLIN: You too. Thank you, Prime Minister.
