GLADYS LIU MP, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CHISHOLM: So welcome everyone. It’s great to be here again at the synchrotron and thank you, Andrew. And also, so many of you and the scientists for showing us around and it’s great to be here with the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and also Minister for Health Greg Hunt. Every time when I come here, I just find it so amazing. It is the scientific hub. It is the innovation. It is the R&D and it’s the future for not just Australia, but the world. We are witnessing all the amazing things that are happening here. And I get so excited with the announcement today it will top it off as well. So amazing things that all the scientists are doing here. Well done to all of you and I look forward to working with you all more in the future. But to top it off, I just want to say three out of three for Carlton. Go Carlton.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Josh will be very happy with you over there in Western Australia, can I also thank you Gladys and Greg, my dear friend being here with me here today. Can I also thank Shaun Jenkinson, the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Synchrotron. It’s great to be here with you today and thank you very much for the tour around this amazing facility. Professor Andrew Peele is the Group Executive of the Nuclear Science and Technology and Director of Australian Synchrotron. It’s wonderful to be here with you today. To William Hladik, the Managing Director of Global Medical Solutions. Mr Doron Ben-Meir, is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Senior Vice-President of Monash University, and Professor Rebekah Brown is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Senior Vice-President of Monash University. And David Cade, the CEO of Telix Asia Pacific.
I was very keen to welcome everybody today because … and I welcome everybody up here today. Give yourselves a big cheer. You do an amazing job for our country. Great to see you up there. And more importantly, what we’re, what we’re viewing onto here, which is, you know, we talk about major pieces of infrastructure in this country. You talk about the Snowy Hydro scheme. You talk about the major pieces of all of the mineral resources infrastructure in the country, the big ports, the airports, the massive infrastructure that has driven Australia’s wealth and opportunity over hundreds of years. But, you know, this is the infrastructure of the future that is creating jobs, you want to have a sovereign manufacturing capability here in Australia then get yourself one of these. And this is the most amazing piece of infrastructure to support our scientific research and medical community to ensure that they’re developing the pharmaceuticals, the scanning technologies, the answers to the big questions that are being asked in medical science and research in particular, but much more broader than that right here in Australia. You know, once upon a time, this all used to go overseas. You had to. The researchers had to go overseas, the entrepreneurs had to go overseas. They all had to do that. But back in 2016, as treasurer, I had the great opportunity to sign off on the acquisition of this synchrotron and make it part of the national science infrastructure of this country. And what that has meant is they’ve been able to have a platform upon which they could build and build and build. And so we’ve had more partners, both in the research community and in the commercial community. And what they’re doing here now is leading the world in so many specific areas, particularly having the opportunity for human beings to be able to get scanning here right here at this very facility, the most advanced X-ray machine for clinical patients anywhere in the world. And that’s all tremendously exciting.
But as Prime Minister, this is all about jobs. Because here in this Monash precinct, we are building an ecosystem right here in Gladys Liu’s electorate. We are building an ecosystem of people, of scientists, obviously, of the research infrastructure, of the education research infrastructure at Monash University and many others that have the ability to participate with. And as they move between each other they’re doing one thing: they are unlocking the wealth of our nation and they’re not doing it necessarily by pulling things out of the ground. They’re doing it by bringing out the innovation and the ingenuity and the research capability that is creating the discoveries that is setting up incredible commercial opportunities for jobs in this country. Well into the future. Well into the future. Whether it be it pharmaceuticals and many other places. This is all about manufacturing jobs where we are today. And the research and the science and the collaboration that makes that possible.
And today, I’m very pleased to announce that we are investing $23 million in funding to global medical solutions. Australia’s Precision Medicine Enterprise Project under the collaboration stream of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative. What that means is we’re building a cyclotron which deals with protons, not electrons. I can reliably inform you, as I’ve been reliably informed today. But that’s what we do. If you want to have a sophisticated, strong economy that makes things, then you’ve got to do this. And this just didn’t happen overnight. We started this back in 2016. This has been part of our economic plan. This is why Australia has had the biggest economic recovery, as was revealed in the budget last week in 70 years. I’m not kidding. 70 years. What did that mean for the budget? It meant that the budget was able to turn around to the tune of over $100 billion in 12 months. The unemployment rate has fallen to four per cent and it’s still falling. We’ve been able to ensure that we’ve been able to invest to get our economy through, whether it’s apprentices or whether it’s those going through studying advanced physics that we see here. Coming through, staying in jobs, keeping jobs and now setting Australia up for the big opportunity that’s ahead. That’s what this investment is all about. This is what a serious economic plan does. This is why Australia has one of the strongest, if not the strongest advanced economies coming out of the pandemic. And we’re ready to go. And we’re ready to go because the plan that got us here is the plan that’s going to take us into the future. Because if you don’t have an economic plan and we have not seen an economic plan from the alternative that seeks to put themselves forward, Labor Party in the next election. Our Liberal ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s plan is investing in the infrastructure, whether it’s the roads out in the outback or the ports where they need to be built, the pipelines that need to be built, the dams that need to be built, or indeed the cyclotrons that need to be built that set up our economic opportunities for the future because a strong economy needs a stronger future. And on that note, I’ll ask Greg to make some further comments.
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Thanks very much to PM and to Gladys Liu. Precision medicine is the future of medicine, and that’s happening right here at the synchrotron. And it will be happening right next door at the cyclotron. But we can only do these things if you’re able to pay for them. And I’m in a very privileged position that in this budget, we were able to add $34 billion dollars to health investment in Australia over the coming four years and that came because we were able to get the response to COVID right. One of the highest vaccination rates in the world, one of the lowest rates of loss of life and therefore one of the strongest economic recoveries that led to the investment in health that led to the 10-Year Year Medical Research Future Fund Plan. And all of this comes together in investments in projects such as the synchrotron and the cyclotron. Here, some of you may have heard of Venetoclax. Our brilliant researchers helped do the underpinning science for Venetoclax. Walter and Eliza Hall Institute then turned that into a reality, and in turn, that is now a medicine that’s on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, treating patients with conditions such as lymphoma and leukaemia. The next stage of precision medicine, which is about identifying our genomics, STEM cells, but is also about using nuclear medicine and that next stage is the cyclotron. So with this $23 million under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative, the cyclotron which GMS and Telix and Monash University are bringing together will allow radio isotopes to be brought forward and they can be used, these isotopes, for nuclear medicine to diagnose and to treat. So diagnosis and treatment. To put it very simply, it’s a better, faster way to treat many different cancers and conditions, such as kidney disease. We just saw one of the beam lines here at the synchrotron, and that beam line is about having the world’s most powerful X-ray to help diagnose breast cancer earlier and therefore to treat it earlier and more effectively. Next door, the future is being created with the cyclotron to help provide nuclear medicine treatment for people for their cancers for their kidney diseases that will create jobs. But ultimately, it’s about saving lives and protecting lives.
PRIME MINISTER: Now, particularly given we’re at a scientific community establishment here it is right for me to celebrate our scientific heroes first, as I had when I came, but I don’t think you’d mind me in celebrating our female sporting heroes after having done that today, particularly with the Women’s World Cup win. So to Meg Lanning, in particular, the whole team, I want to say, congratulations, you’ve done a terrific job. You’ve done us proud. I’ve been in touch with the Boris, the last few text messages I’ve been able to have with Boris on the cricket have been pretty good, I’ve got to say. And anyway, he always takes it in the good spirit. But I do want to congratulate Heather Knight for the great job they did with their team. It’s always great having the old battles with the old enemy, there out on the cricket pitch and to see Meg and the girls take it home. Congratulations. We’re just so, so proud of you. Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when are Australians going to the polls?
PRIME MINISTER: That’ll be in mid-May. Remember last year- three years ago, the election was on the 18th of May and I’ve been very clear over the course of this term. I’ve always had it in my mind that we would serve out our term and then go back to the Australian people. And so after three years, then that’s when you go back to the polls, so there’s nothing new about that. But let me say this about the next election campaign. The Labor Party, and particularly the leader of the Opposition – Leader of the Labor Party – Anthony Albanese, has been skating away there without a lot of scrutiny, without a lot of attention. Sort of pretty happy to try and get an election as quickly as he can and try and avoid the scrutiny of an election campaign. Now, as you know, I stand before you all the time and people can certainly throw plenty at me. But here I am, standing strong, standing tall and this election campaign is an opportunity for the Australian public to scrutinise the alternative. Last week, Thursday night, he had the opportunity to lay out an alternative economic plan for the country. He didn’t. The opposition, the Labor Party and the Greens are a blank page when it comes to economic policy. What does that mean for you? It means that if he hasn’t, after all this time, told you what his economic plan is, then how can you trust a Labor Party that when they were last in government, saw unemployment rise from 4.2% to 5.7%? Now when I made this point to Anthony Albanese the other day, he said, “Oh, but you’re forgetting the global financial crisis.” Well, I don’t know where he’s been for the last couple of years. We have had to face an economic crisis 30 times worse than the global financial crisis that the Labor Party had to face, and we’ve got employment outcomes that are 50 per cent better. That’s what good economic management looks like, and when we’ve been put to the test with a crisis 30 times worse than the Labor Party face, we have done 50 per cent better when it comes to getting people in jobs, keeping their jobs and ensuring they can come through these crises. Because if you can’t run a strong economy, if you can’t manage the national finances, then you can’t ensure and guarantee the things you say you want to deliver in government. It all comes back to that. So this election campaign, there’ll be plenty of opportunity for scrutiny, and I encourage people to look carefully at these things. Elections are serious things. As the Australian people know, they know it’s not a reality show, it’s not based on who they like or don’t like. They know it’s about the economy they will live in as a result of the decisions that are taken by their government. Our government has shown that we’ve been able to produce a stronger economy in the midst of the worst economic challenge and health crisis we’ve seen in 100 years on health and 70 years when it comes to the economy.
JOURNALIST: There’s still a question mark over the several liberal candidates in New South Wales. What will you do if the court overturns your picks? And why should the public elect a party unable to govern itself?
PRIME MINISTER: Our government totally governs itself and under our constitution, we’ve selected the candidates, and I’m very pleased with the candidates we’ve been able to select. And I look forward to campaigning alongside them over the course of this election. And this is why we go to elections every three years because we have a strong plan that has been delivered and I’m looking forward over the course of the election campaign about setting out very clearly how our plan has kept 700,000 Australians in work. All Australians remember JobKeeper. Because so many Australians’ livelihoods depended on it during the pandemic, and it’s the way we manage the economy that achieve that. And that same plan is now taking us forward into the future. We have the runs on the board when it comes to how to manage a strong economy. We have the runs on the board when it comes to managing Australia’s national security. And as we get closer and closer to that election, Australians will be able to really measure up. Anthony Albanese wants to slide on in under the scrutiny. What’s he hiding? Why doesn’t he want to share his plans? He can’t go to the election just pretending to be Kevin Rudd – a re-Rudd is not a solution to Australia’s challenges. Our economic plan have proved the solution and will continue to prove.
JOURNALIST: So you’re confident the courts will uphold the preselection for New South Wales?
PRIME MINISTER: The courts will make their decision. It’s currently before the courts, so you wouldn’t expect me to make any commentary about what the courts have been [inaudible].
JOURNALIST: What’s the plan B?
PRIME MINISTER: I’ve already answered the question.
JOURNALIST: Are you prepared to sign a stat dec without the court order, that you [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’ve already utterly rejected those issues, and I dealt with them in some detail yesterday, but more importantly, leaders of Lebanese community have made their own statements and I can put that matter to rest.
JOURNALIST: Are you prepared to go sign a stat dec without a court order, because yesterday you mentioned …
PRIME MINISTER: That’s the only reason you would be required to do one.
JOURNALIST: Mr Towke signed one [inaudible] …
PRIME MINISTER: And there’s no court decisions on any of those matters. I think I’ve been very clear. I absolutely reject that as malicious slurs. It is outrageous, absolutely outrageous. I’ve dealt with it time and again, and the leaders of the Lebanese community, I think voices have spoken most significantly about this matter and just what’s behind all this and I think it’s very clear.
JOURNALIST: Seven days isolation for COVID close contacts. You’ve previously said that’s redundant. Is that still the case?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, I’m looking forward to that being removed. I’m looking forward to that being removed.
JOURNALIST: Should it be removed right now?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, ultimately, that’s a decision for the Premier. We don’t make those decisions at the Commonwealth level. It premiers who decide, you know, to shut cities down, or open them up. Not the Commonwealth Government. It’s premiers who decide whether to mandate vaccines or not mandate them. They’re not decisions the Commonwealth Government makes.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of [inaudible] last night?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven’t seen those.
JOURNALIST: He pretty much called for isolation to be scrapped.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I’m already on the record of looking forward to the day when we’re able to move past those close contact rules. I am aware of the medical advice, though, that’s come as we’ve been going through this latest wave and obviously Premiers will be very sensitive to that and considering that very carefully.
JOURNALIST: On Newspoll, when you look at two party preferred, you only enjoyed half of the budget bounce you got when compared to 2019. In 2019, you got an immediate four-point turnaround. This time, it’s two. By that metric, has the Budget missed its mark?
PRIME MINISTER: This budget does a number of important things. The first one it does, is it ensures that the most significant turnaround this country has seen in its economy in 70 years is put straight to work to give people a real cost of living relief. And we’re already seeing it at the bowser even now as you move around Melbourne. I was in northern Tasmania yesterday. I’ve been in other parts of the country, and we are already seeing those lower fuel prices find their way to the bowser, which means Australians are already receiving the benefits of a Budget that was handed down less than a week ago. And I welcome that, and I thank the petroleum industry for passing through those savings so quickly, that will soon be followed up by much needed support for pensioners and others who received those types of payments – $250 to support them in dealing with rising cost of living that has been caused by those fuel price increases. And then, of course, on the first of July, there will be the increased tax cuts that are there. Tax rebates for people to keep more of their own money – $420 if you’re earning up to $126,000, which enables you to deal with real cost of living pressures now.
Now the Labor Party, they sought to bag that last week. They were for it, and they were against it, and that’s the problem with Labor. You never know what they’re for because they’re always against everything that they’re for. And that’s not how to run an economic policy. That’s why people don’t know what they stand for, what their economic plan is. But that was the first point. The second point was to invest heavily in Australia’s in our economic plan, and I’ve just announced today another further investment in that economic plan for the future through the cycle for building off the work of the synchrotron. So we’re not just building dams, we’re not just building roads, we’re not just building airports and rail links. We’re building the scientific infrastructure that Australia needs to ensure that we have a sovereign manufacturing capability. Australian manufacturing capability right here. Third point is that this budget guarantees the essential services that Australians rely on, and Greg you might want to speak to some of the health issues here. But you cannot make commitments in areas like health and mental health, you cannot put things on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme like Labor failed to do because they couldn’t run a strong economy last time. When Labor was last in power they could not list medicines on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme because they ran out of money and they didn’t know how to run a budget. That means people were being denied lifesaving and life changing medicines. That’s what having a good budget and a strong economy is all about. And so then of course, there’s the investments we make in our defence and our security and the almost 10 billion we’ve invested in REDSPICE for the project to enhance our cyber security defences and offences. First shot fired in any conflict that Australia might be involved in won’t be in a metal casing, it’ll be in bits and bytes. And that’s why we’ve massively ramped up over these last years we’ve been in government, our investments in cyber defence, cyber offence, and this takes it to a whole other level. Greg, did you want to talk about health?
THE HON. GREG HUNT MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Just very briefly, to build on what we said earlier. There was $34 billion dollars of additional health expenditure and that’s across primary care, hospitals, mental health, medical research to support our amazing scientists and aged care. $7 million in Medicare. $10 billion in hospitals. Additional funding. $10 billion in aged care. But in many ways, the easiest thing to understand is the new medicines. So on budget night there were $2.4 billion of new medicines that were list. And if you want to understand the difference between the current government and our approach to funding and to health and the alternative under Mr Albanese. Under Mr Albanese, they stopped listing new medicines. I’ll give you an example. Symbicort for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. On budget night, the Treasurer listed Trikafta for another respiratory condition, Cystic Fibrosis. 1900 patients over $200,000 savings per annum and changes their lives, saved their lives. And that’s the difference.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Thanks very much, everyone. Great to have you here, and can I thank all of our researchers. You’ve done a fantastic job. Thanks very much.
