north-west
Transcript of media conference with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Treasurer Josh Frydenburg, MHR for Bass Bridget Archer, Susie Bower Liberal candidate for Lyons at Relbia, 21 February 2022.
MS BRIDGET ARCHER MP, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BASS: Well, it’s terrific to be here at Josef Chromy Winery here in the electorate of Bass. We’ve just come from across at the actual winery where we’ve had a tour there, which is actually the electorate of Lyons. I’m here with our candidate for Lyons, Susie Bower, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, and thank you to Dean and to Joseph Chromy for hosting us today. So Susie might tell us about the tour that we’ve just had.
MS SUSIE BOWER, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR LYONS: Yeah, it was great. We actually had a look at some of the wines there, had a little bit of a tasting. So, we just, you know, needed to make sure that the wine was very good, which is excellent in Tasmania, as we know. Got on the bottle line with the Prime Minister and his wife, which was great. I think we worked that out pretty well. But it’s fantastic, obviously, to have the Prime Minister here in Bass and Lyons. And without further ado, I’d introduce the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Well, thank you, Susie and thank you, Bridget. And it’s great to be here with my colleagues, my dear friend the Treasurer, as well as Clare and Wendy. It’s great to have you both here with us.
But to Joseph, to you and Dean, Jenny and I had the great privilege to meet Joseph and Dean just over a week ago at the Ethnic Business Awards, where Joseph was honoured, taking out the major award of that night. Joseph came to this country, fleeing then Czechoslovakia, and he escaped with two other young men and he was the only one who got through, and he came to this country like so many have. And he has established something absolutely magnificent here in Tasmania. He is an incredible Australian story. He’s an Australian hero. And I asked him a little while ago, as we were walking through the bottling area, and I said, did you ever think it would get as big as this? And he said, I just thought I’d have a butcher shop, and look at all this. And it just shows what is so possible in this country. And, so Joseph, congratulations, I’m so pleased to be here with Jenny to honour you here in, on your vineyard.
And I’m looking forward, though, to many more coming to Australia, not in the way that Joseph had to come, but as the international visitors – there’s 1.2 million visaed up and ready to come as of today, and the flights are starting to come and they will continue to build up. And here, particularly in Tasmania, our Tasmanian tourism industry and our, the Tassie, the tourism industry isn’t just hotels, it’s places like this. It’s so many parts of the economy which depends on international tourism, and Tasmania has world’s best tourism product, not just world’s best chardonnay here at the winery here, but world’s best tourism product. And to be have the international visitors come back, that wait is over for them and that wait is over for us, which means we can safely reopen.
And I want to commend the Tasmanian state government for the great job they’ve done here on the ground in managing COVID, and Premier Gutwein and the whole time, which means that we can be opening these borders up and we can be opening the international borders. And all of those tourism operators that have persevered and pushed through can now get to the point where they’re welcoming those tourists back into the wonderful experiences that we have here in Tasmania and right across the country.
So it’s a very exciting, a very exciting day, one that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. From the day that I first shut that border right at the start of the pandemic, which enabled us to have one of the lowest death rates from COVID anywhere in the world, one of the strongest economies to push through this pandemic, and one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, we are set up as a country now to really take advantage of the economic opportunities ahead of us, and Tasmania in particular.
You know, there are half the number of people without a job here in Tasmania now than there were when Labor was last in office at a federal level. We’ve cut the number of people out of a job in Tasmania in half, and that is a tremendous achievement by the small and medium-sized businesses, particularly here in Tasmania, the strong leadership of the state government here in Tasmania, with good strong economic policies, working together with a strong Liberal-Nationals government at a federal level, which is giving businesses lower taxes. And I’ll ask the Treasurer to speak more about that.
Before I do that, there’s another announcement we’re making today, and I’ll have a bit more to say about it with Senator Duniam a little earlier, a little later on this morning. But we’re also announcing $86 million to support our forestry industries in new plantations all around the country. The forestry industry has taken, like the tourism industry, quite a hit, and particularly on, in their case, because of the terrible bushfires we had all around the country. We’d already invested $80 million helping, whether it was the saw millers or the plantation owners or others trying to get back up on their feet. And now we’re investing $86 million. That’s 150 million trees, new plantings, that will help us achieve our goal of ensuring that we have a sustainable forestry industry, not just here in Tasmania but all around the country.
You know, in other states, in Labor states, they’re trying to shut the forestry industry down. Here in Tasmania, we know how important it is. And that’s why I really appreciate the great partnership we have with the Gutwein Government here, who believes in the future of the forestry industry on a sustainable basis. So do we. And that’s why we’re putting funds in on a shared arrangement. We put in 40, state governments put in 60, and then that’s matched wholly by the private sector.
So what does that look like? That means we can provide a $4 million grant for a new planting here in Tasmania. The State Government puts in $6, and then the private provider puts in $10. Four million leveraging $20 million of investment in new plantings for our forestry industry. And we need this, as the Treasurer will tell you, the pressures that are on timber prices and getting access to timber products to support so much of our housing construction industry, absolutely critical. So this is an exciting plan and this is in the Budget. We’re announcing, it is in the Budget. This is locked in funding to be there to support our forestry industry and the forestry industry jobs right here in Tasmania. There’s never been a question mark when it comes to the Liberals and Nationals and our forestry industry. You can’t say the same about our opponents at this election. They’ve got a very checkered history. And when you look at what’s happening to the forestry industry in other states and territories where Labor Governments are running the show, they’re running those down. Not here, and that’s why I’m pleased to be supporting Premier Gutwein in the work we’re doing in Tasmania on this issue. I’m happy to take questions after, but I’ll allow the Treasurer to fill you in on other issues.
THE HON. JOSH FRYDENBERG MP, TREASURER: Well, thank you very much, Prime Minister. It’s a real pleasure to be here with you and Jenny in sunny Tasmania and to be here with my and the Prime Minister’s colleagues – and Bridget and Susie and, of course, Clare and Wendy. Thank you for your very strong advocacy on behalf of the people of Tasmania. And Joseph, congratulations on building this wonderful business. I understand at the ripe old age of 76, your young age, dare I say it, and what you’ve done here and now into your 70s, still hands on and still growing a wonderful business.
Well, the Morrison Government has stood by the people of Tasmania every step of the way through this pandemic. More than $3.5 billion has been provided to the people of Tasmania, and as our economy strongly recovers, it’s easy to forget what the conditions were like back in early 2020. And when we announced JobKeeper, that provided $1.4 billion to the people of Tasmania, including more than 70,000 workers across this state. The cash flow boost provided another $700 million to the people of Tasmania, and other payments also contributed to Tasmania’s strong recovery. And now Tasmania has its lowest unemployment rate on record, at 3.8 per cent, lower than the national average. And as the Prime Minister said, when the Coalition came to government the unemployment rate here in Tasmania was eight per cent. It’s now less than half at 3.8 per cent, and more than 30,000 new jobs have been created. And we’re providing tax relief to more than 230,000 people in Tasmania – an average tax relief of more than $3,000 to those people. And of course, small business taxes are now their lowest level in 50 years and more than 60,000 businesses here in Tasmania are benefitting from our small business tax cuts.
And, of course, we continue in the Budget in just over a month’s time to lock in that recovery, sticking to our economic plan – lower taxes, more investment in infrastructure, more investment in skills, manufacturing as a key driver of growth across the economy and our energy plan. And, of course, the digital economy, which we’re investing in heavily. That’s our plan to create more jobs here in Tasmania and across Australia. And let’s not forget that the unemployment rate today at 4.2 per cent nationally, 3.8 per cent in Tasmania, is the lowest unemployment rate nationally in 13 years, and we’re heading to the lowest unemployment rate in some 50 years. That’s an enormous achievement, and it’s possible because of people like Joseph who are investing in their staff, investing in their business, growing, hiring and innovating.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Happy to take some questions. Josh if you want to join me.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can I ask you about AGL?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JOURNALIST: And the takeover and plan by Mike Cannon-Brookes to get rid of coal as fast as possible, it would seem. The barbarians at the gate. How do you, how do you guarantee price and supply for the
rest of Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let me start with what we have done. In the last two years, electricity prices have fallen by eight per cent. In the last 12 months, they’ve fallen by five per cent. Now, that compares to when Labor was in government, where it increased by over 100 per cent. And so whether it has been our our work with the, with the gas price mechanism that we put in place, which has been able to keep gas prices down, which is critical to also to keep electricity prices down, and the many other measures we’ve done to support affordable, reliable energy, that is what has been enabling us to keep those electricity prices down, and that is our record. And, so, going forward, we will continue to get the balance right when it comes to ensuring affordable, reliable energy, and ensuring we’re developing the new energy sources that are renewable and have low emissions. We’ve got $21 billion invested in those projects, and Susie in particular would know about this in terms of hydrogen and the great opportunities in Bell Bay when it comes to hydrogen and the massive investments we are making in that area. And in doing that in partnership with so many other countries around the world.
Now in in relation to the the bid being put up by Brookfield, I should stress. I mean, Brookfield are about 80 per cent of this deal. Mike Cannon-Brookes is about 20 per cent of this deal. My advice this morning is that that hasn’t been accepted by the board of AGL, and so there’ll be quite a process to run there. But let me be really clear about something. We need to ensure that our coal-fired generation of electricity runs to its life, because if it doesn’t, electricity prices go up, they don’t go down. And so our Government is very committed to ensure we sweat those assets for their life to ensure that businesses can get access to the electricity and energy that they need at affordable prices to keep people in jobs. And what’s essential is that we get the balance right with our energy policy. Our opponents at this election, the Labor Party, have emissions reduction targets which are not forecast to be achieved when it comes to the current policy settings. So they’ll have to do more. Our policy is about technology, not taxes. Labor’s is technology plus taxes. And so we will always focus on getting electricity prices down, getting the balance right and ensuring that those important generation assets that underpin people’s jobs and keep their cost of living down are protected.
JOURNALIST: Treasurer, would you also consider using your FIRB powers in this context?
THE HON. JOSH FRYDENBERG MP, TREASURER: Well, as the PM said, there’s a long way to go with this bid. It has yet to be accepted by the shareholders, and of course, there would be the proper regulatory approvals that would be required. The ACCC, the AER and others would be heavily invested in that process, and, of course, FIRB would be as well. So I wouldn’t want to pre-empt any decisions out of that because we’re not yet at a point where the bid has been accepted by the shareholders. But the key point here is that Australia is investing heavily in renewables and we’ve got a plan out to net zero by 2050. But a key issue for Australians, together with lower emissions, is the affordability of power, and across the rest of the world we’ve seen energy prices go up. I mean, inflation is higher in the United States, it’s higher in the United Kingdom. One of those reasons is because of electricity prices. Yet here in Australia, our track record has been to lower electricity prices, whereas when Labor was last in government, electricity prices doubled.
PRIME MINISTER: So and emissions are down more than 20 per cent. So we’ve got electricity prices down by eight per cent in just the last two years. And we’ve got emissions down on 2005 levels by 20 per cent. Now that’s the quinella.
JOURNALIST: The Tasmanian Premier is doing a media job at around the same time this morning. Why aren’t you together?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll, we hopefully will catch up when I’m here. I’m, not on every occasion I come to Tasmania, do we get to catch up. But we do speak very regularly. We’re working through some important issues around the Lyons Link, the Marinus Link project, at the moment. The Treasurer and the Energy Minister have been involved with that. And so if the opportunity presents, then, as always, I look forward to catching up with Pete when I’m here. I’m not going to play him at pool though. The last time I played him at pool in Launceston he completely cleaned me up over at Sporties. But I think I’ll, next time I’m pairing with him when we’re playing doubles. He’s too good.
JOURNALIST: But how do you think that looks to Tasmanian voters that you’re not appearing at a media job together?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we both have our jobs to do. Today he’s focusing on the things he is doing in Tasmania. I’m focusing on the things we’re bringing to Tasmania. I don’t agree with the implication of the question at all. I mean, he’s doing a fantastic job and he works closely with me on all of these issues. And if we get the opportunity to catch up in Hobart, which I hope we can, then that’ll be great.
JOURNALIST: Speaking of, you are here now, obviously in one of the more marginal electorates. Do you plan many more visits in the lead up to the election?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course.
JOURNALIST: When can we expect you back?
PRIME MINISTER: Soon and often. I love being in Tasmania, I love being in Tasmania, and, you know, Susie and Bridget and Gav they are going to make, be a great team, a great Liberal team for Tasmania, and what they’re able to achieve. You know, they’re they’re feisty, they speak their mind, they stand up for their electorates, they put their electorates first and they bring the voice of Tasmania into my Government. And I’m really keen for Susie to join that team and to ensure that she can be speaking up for what is such a large part of Tasmania and in the electorate of Lyons, and to ensure that their industries have a future, their heavy industries have a future. But also they’re playing a role, particularly in hydrogen and new energy economy opportunities, that’s being realised here in Tasmania. So the trifecta of what you see, together with Bridget and Gav with Susie, I think will be a great team for Tasmania as part of my government.
JOURNALIST: You definitely still back Bridget, even though she has been speaking out against some things lately?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course. I mean, there’s a difference between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party, and my dear Victorian colleague can speak more to this about the Labor Party in Victoria than I can. But in our party, we don’t throw people out because we don’t always agree on everything. That’s the nature of the Liberal Party. It’s called Liberal for a reason. The Labor Party throw people out when they speak up on important issues to them. In Victoria at the moment, the Victorian Labor Party is looking to run out of town, run out of their party, someone who’s blowing the whistle on alleged corruption in that state. And what’s the Labor Party’s response? To throw out a female Member of Parliament, run them out of the Labor Party, because they’re standing up on an issue that’s incredibly important. Now that’s not what we’re talking about here in my government. Bridget, I know, is passionate. Bridget has come with life experience to our team that I greatly value and I greatly respect. You know, we love Bridge. We really do. And I’m really pleased she’s on my team, and she’s on my team and she’s a fiery member of my team and she’s a fiery Member for Bass.
JOURNALIST: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister says he spoke to Marise Payne about providing military technical support. Can you spell out what that would include?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don’t think it is appropriate for me to go into details of what are effectively very sensitive matters, particularly given we are in a situation in Ukraine where we have Russian troops amassed on the border. And so we are working very closely with our partners right across the region, in Europe and more broadly. That involves the actions we would take with sanctions should Russia follow through on their threats of violence and intimidation on Ukraine. And while I would hope that these last gasp diplomatic efforts will have some success, what we can’t abide is authoritarian regimes threatening and intimidating their neighbours for the purpose of trying to grab some sort of advantage. The threats against Ukraine are uninvited, unprovoked, unwarranted, and unacceptable, and we cannot have a situation where any authoritarian regime and autocratic power can go and seek to use bullying and intimidation as a way of extracting advantage. There’s a lot at stake here in terms of what’s happening in Ukraine. We see this in our own region and our government has stood up more to those threats of intimidation more than any other government before. When it comes to seeing that, you have to go back to the Second World War. And so our Government will continue to be strong of against threats of intimidation against Australia.
I mean, we’ve seen over the weekend you would have seen the reports of a Chinese naval vessel using a laser to target a Australian Defence Force surveillance aircraft. This is completely unacceptable. And so we have demanded that there be an investigation on the behaviour of what occurred on that vessel. It was dangerous, it was reckless, and it was unprofessional for what should be a sophisticated Navy. So we expect China to provide some answers on those matters and we are going through those appropriate channels to achieve that. And we expect, and not just Australia, all countries in the region demand an answer to this because it’s an Australian surveillance aircraft this time. Who’s next? And so it’s very important that China explain themselves for this act of recklessness in our exclusive economic zone. They had every right to be there and travelling through those waters. Just as Australian vessels has every right to be up through the South China Sea, as well as the British and the Americans and the Japanese and the French and the Germans and and the Canadians and everyone else sails through there. But it’s not okay to be doing what occurred there on the weekend, and we expect a full explanation.
JOURNALIST: In the past the government’s been reluctant to publicly name China when laser attacks have occurred. What’s changed? Why would the government, why has the government been so quick to call this out?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it happened, and it is indisputable. It was a Chinese naval vessel. It wasn’t operating under some other flag. I mean, I’m, it was possible that people could even see the vessel from our mainland, potentially. And so we disclosed it, which is entirely appropriate, and we disclosed it because this needs to be called out. This is not ok, and there needs to be an explanation, not just to Australia, but all peace loving nations within our region. We can’t have this sort of behaviour going on in our region. It’s not on.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how do you respond to unions saying that they’re pushing hard for wage rises now? That’s kind of what the Reserve Bank says they should do. What’s your response to them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, all I know about the unions today is in my home city of Sydney they’ve shut down the city with a massive big strike, and they’re the international gateway for international tourists to Australia. And the union movement has decided to set out a big welcome by shutting down the trains and causing gridlock around the city. I mean, Joel Fitzgibbon, the Labor Member, said today that Sydneysiders would be sympathetic to this. I don’t think so. If you’re trying to get your kids to school this morning in Sydney, or you’re hit with a $60 Uber bill just trying to get to work, or you’re sitting in gridlock traffic and can’t get to that meeting because the unions decide to put on a strike at 2am this morning, throwing Sydneysiders into complete chaos. I mean, this is what Labor think they can get away with when they think they’re going to win an election. Imagine what they’d be like if they actually won it. We had the AMWU just over a week ago protesting against AUKUS for goodness sake – protesting against the most significant step forward in Australia’s security arrangements with our partners since ANZUS itself, and only last year we had to stare down the Maritime Union who were trying to cause havoc on our wharves. So, you know, if people want to hand the country over to unions, under a Labor Government led by the most left wing Labor leader in 50 years since Gough Whitlam, and that’s probably being a bit unkind to Gough, you might have to go back further than that, then this is what they can expect. Weakness cannot stand up to that sort of intimidation by unions.
THE HON. JOSH FRYDENBERG MP, TREASURER: And this is, this is not just this strike. Just a few weeks ago the ACTU were promising and threatening wider strikes to our supply chains. Now our recovery’s not yet locked in. We are acknowledging the fact that the unemployment rate has come down and that fiscal and monetary policy will start to normalise, but we can’t take the gains that we’ve made for granted and we can’t put them at risk by this unnecessary and threatening behaviour by unions.
PRIME MINISTER: Our businesses will be more prosperous as the economy grows, and I expect that businesses will be able to share those proceeds with their workers. They understand that. I mean, the workers today are in more demand, with unemployment where it is, than it’s been and we’re heading to in 50 years. And so employers understand they need to keep their staff. They need, they know they need skilled staff to be competitive and it’s in their interest to make sure that they’re supporting their employees and their workforce in the way they need to.
Yep. Sorry you’ve had quite a few, there are others who’ve been patiently waiting for a question.
JOURNALIST: When’s the $20 million for Tasmanian forestries likely to flow?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that will depend, you’re referring to this current program we’ve announced today? We’ll be, we’ll be writing out to the premiers and chief ministers as a result of this announcement. But with the engagement we’ve already had with the Tasmanian Government, they have always been a very strong supporter of the Tasmanian forestry industry. And so I would be surprised if there was any hesitancy there, and I would have thought Tasmania would be one of the first ones to move.
JOURNALIST: Why didn’t the Federal Government respond to Tasmania’s request for a new assistance package for businesses in recent times?
THE HON. JOSH FRYDENBERG MP, TREASURER: I can refer to that. Premier Gutwein did write to me and, as you know, the New South Wales Government also asked us for further economic support, but we took a decision that the economy is recovering strongly and we have to draw some lines. We were there when the economy went into hibernation, with JobKeeper and the cash flow boost. We were there when New South Wales and Victoria were hit by the Delta outbreak and we put in place the COVID support payments for families, which we picked up the whole bill. And then we went into a 50-50 arrangement on business support payments. But you have to draw the line somewhere.
Now, again, there’s a real contrast between our approach and the Labor Party. They have made more than $80 billion of additional spending promises through COVID. They wanted JobKeeper to be extended and expanded. They wanted those COVID Disaster Payments through Delta to keep going, even when we brought them to an end. And now they want further support payments to be rolled out across the economy. We are now drawing some clear lines and the Budget will seek to lock in the gains that we’ve made, but also, as the Prime Minister has outlined, sticking to our five step economic plan, ensuring that we are going to reward Australians with more money in their pocket with lower taxes, that we invest in skills like the JobTrainer program, like wage subsidies for apprentices, that we roll out our $100 billion 10-year infrastructure pipeline, that we continue to invest in the digital economy, as we’re doing. And that, of course, we focus on lower energy prices with our plan to get to net zero but in a cost effective way. And then, of course, the manufacturing sector, which is really a great opportunity for Australia in six key areas. That’s our economic plan. That’s what we’re investing in. That’s what we’re sticking to. And that is what has helped deliver Australia the lowest unemployment rate in 13 years, even in the face of the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression.
PRIME MINISTER: Now, the Treasurer’s being modest, because we’ve maintained our AAA credit rating.
THE HON. JOSH FRYDENBERG MP, TREASURER: That’s true.
PRIME MINISTER: And one of the reasons we’ve been able to do that through the pandemic is rating agencies have looked at what we’ve done. They’ve understood the investment’s significant, unprecedented, in this country – JobKeeper, the cash flow boost, the COVID Disaster Payments, all of this – and they could see that it was supporting our economy to ensure it could come through, and indeed it has. But if there’d been an extra $80 billion, as Labor had sought to do, it would have certainly put that at risk. And what does that mean for people listening on at home? If you can’t have control of your Budget and if you don’t manage your finances carefully, that puts pressure on inflation. It drives inflation up, which means you’re going to see interest rates rise as well. Now, the Reserve Bank sets interest rates, and the pressure on interest rates to rise is only going to increase over the next few years. The pressure on inflation is only going to increase. What Australia cannot afford is a Labor Party that doesn’t know how to manage money. That will see you pay more for everything.
Sorry, over here. You haven’t had a question.
JOURNALIST: When do you expect tourism levels to return to pre-pandemic levels now that international borders are open?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think it’s going to take some time, to be honest. I mean, it’s not just here in Australia. The whole world is winding up again and its international business. I mean, as you know, I’ve worked in the tourism and travel business. I mean, all of the distribution systems in international travel products, so many of the companies that were involved overseas in bringing tourists to Australia, the people who were working there are gone. Many of those businesses have fallen over and there’s a lot of work to do in rebuilding all of those channels, supply channels, to be bringing tourists to Australia. And Tourism Australia has kicked off their $40 million campaign to start that in all of our key markets where they can come to Australia and they will, and we’ll see it build up over time. But it’s going to require a lot of effort, working closely with the tourism industry, to ensure they build this back up. But, you know, look around us, this is the best tourism product in the world. It’s the best tourism experiences in the world. This is what they’ve been waiting for. We’re opening up and we will see it build again, with the aviation links being restored, with the support being provided to to work with the tourism and travel operators around the world to bring tourists back to Australia, and products here in Australia, businesses that have been able to keep their staff, keep their business whole because of the support we’ve given through JobKeeper, cash flow boost and so on. So it will recover. And my hope is it will recover strongly and soon. But we shouldn’t overestimate the challenge that we have ahead because everyone else will be competing with us and we’ll be right out there competing against them and working hard to achieve what we all want to achieve. Last one.
JOURNALIST: Can we get your response to the news overnight that the Queen has caught COVID?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, this is very upsetting, and I’m sure particularly for Her Majesty and her family. At 95, obviously getting COVID is more of a concern than for at other age groups, and we wish her a full recovery. And there are a few more resilient people than Her Majesty. She’s demonstrated that over a lifetime. Now I’ve met her on a number of occasions, and I met her with Jenny, and I have no doubt that she’ll be taking good care of herself and she’ll be getting the best of care. I’d send her a message that I was able to congratulate a lady in my own electorate in Sutherland Shire who just turned 101, and she’d just come through COVID herself. So if they can do it in the Shire, I’m sure they can do it at the Palace too. And I reckon they’re both made of the same metal. Thanks very much, everyone.
Transcript of ‘doorstop’ with Member for Braddon Gavin Pearce, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Dale Elphinstone at Wivenhoe, 22 February 2022.
MR GAVIN PEARCE, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BRADDON: Well, good afternoon and welcome to the north-west. I’m joined today by the Prime Minister behind me, of course. Prime Minister, welcome to the north-west. Welcome to Tassie again. And we’re being hosted here today at this magnificent facility, this manufacturing epicentre of the north-west, Elphinstone Underground. Dale, the owner, and Kelly, his daughter, have been kindly welcoming to us all here today and we’ve seen the first class product that they produce here in Elphinstone.
We’re here today, of course, around an announcement of the Defence 8116 project, which is a self-propelled artillery piece, 155 mm howitzer, which projects a rocket assisted propulsion projectile up to 50 kilometres. The thing will do 67 kilometres an hour. It weighs up to a combat weight of 47 tonnes. And, as a soldier, and many of you will realise that, that I spent 20 years of my life in the military, I understand completely how important it is to put the very best, most reliable and well-built pieces of equipment in the hands of our men and women of our Defence Force. When your life is on the line and you’re protecting those around you, you want the very best and you want to have faith in that. And I today have got no more faith than the faith that I’ve got in the Elphinstone group. I know that you can do this and I know that you can set the example for many others to follow.
Talking about following when it comes to defence, that it brings me to the introduction of the Prime Minister. And there’s no person that I’d want to follow in relation to defence and the the serious nature and the back backing that he’s put into not only defence funding but also support for defence has been second to none, and it gives me great pride to introduce the Prime Minister to you all today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Gav. Well, thanks also to Dale and Kelly for being here with you today. It was actually some years ago when I was here in Burnie, meeting with Dale at the time, and it was about the time when they were doing the transformation of this very, this very plant, this very shop here from Caterpillar into what is now Elphinstone Underground.
Dale and his family have been mainstays of this community in the north-west. This community wouldn’t look like this if it were not for the investment that Dale’s family and what they’ve been able to create here over many, many, many years and through some pretty hard times. I remember, Dale, when we had that conversation about five years ago, the town was going through a pretty, pretty rough time, and you guys, you dug in and and you doubled down and committed, and here we are today to be able to talk about a really important contract, which is not only going to add further capability to Elphinstone and bring 55 jobs here, it’s going to significantly lift the capability of our Defence Forces.
Now the project we’re talking about, and Gavin well-articulated its technical merits, let me tell you a couple of other things about this contract for the howitzers. This was one of the programs that Labor cut. So when they were cutting defence spending, this was one of the programs they cut. And this is one of the programs, particularly as Prime Minister, I restored. The program that now sees these important parts of that capability being built right here in the north-west. Now this was a program that we were able to land the final procurement contract when the Korean President was out here recently, some of you may recall when the Korean President was here, and sometimes people say, what was all that about and what does that mean for me? Well, if you’re living in Wynyard and you’re one of the 55 who’ve got a job as a result of this contract, then you know exactly what that program is all about.
So at this Wynyard base manufacturing facility, I should say, I should say, at the Wynyard base manufacturing facility here, we’ve got 55 new jobs, 45 turrets and hulls for the Australian Army’s new Huntsman, what’s called the Huntsman capability, and there’ll be parts of the project which are done here, a small part of the project here. And the majority of it will be done down at Wynyard. So incredibly exciting times, I think, for the north-west.
Our defence industry procurement strategy is all about building our defence industry capability. You want a strong Defence Force, then you’ve got to have sovereign manufacturing capability in your Defence Forces. And we’ve lifted that from a a low level when we first came to Government, about 1.5 to 1.6 per cent of GDP. That was the lowest level, you have to go back to 1938. That’s what Labor left us. They were cancelling defence contracts, they were cutting defence spending. We’ve turned that around. We’re over two per cent now and we’re getting on with these important projects.
But, Dale, tell us a bit more about what it means for your company and what it particularly means here for the north-west.
MR DALE ELPHINSTONE, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, ELPHINSTONE PTY LTD: I think I think the first thing I’d like to say is acknowledge the Federal Government’s confidence in manufacturing in Australia because, I guess, we’ve gradually seen our car industries, the manufacturing capabilities that we have be whittled away, and we see this as a vote of confidence from the government in what we’ve been able to do. We’ve been here for 45 years building underground mining machines in this facility. We compete on a global stage every day of the week. We do that without subsidy. And this, I think the Prime Minister made a very good point. [Phone rings]
PRIME MINISTER: There’s another order, Dale.
MR DALE ELPHINSTONE, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, ELPHINSTONE PTY LTD: It is. Sorry. That’s alright. The the Prime Minister made a very good point that we’re here because of the mining industry and we are now capable of building because of what we’ve built here, capable of building our military products, which is a, is a distinct benefit that we gain from from, I guess, the mining industry, aside from all the other things it does in the country. But we’ve been at this for, I think Kelly said to me last night – Kelly’s particularly led the charge on this – and we’ve been at this for seven years and you probably know we bid the LAND 400 Phase 2. We weren’t successful, but we don’t give up. So we’ve stayed with this and we’re very thankful now with Hanwha to be joining them for this product. And this will give us entree, we hope, into other bigger and better things that, as we demonstrate our capability to manufacture in Australia, because that’s what’s really important to us. And we need to do, and if I’ve got to give the government any encouragement, is to do more things in this country for ourselves so that we are more self-sufficient on any and everything that we do, because we’ve got the capabilities in this country to get that done. I don’t know whether you want to add something, Kel.
MS KELLY ELPHINSTONE, DIRECTOR, ELPHINSTONE PTY LTD: Oh no, other than absolutely I think for the, for the state and the community, for the Federal Government to really put, get behind the Australian or the AIC or Australian Industry Content for defence, is why we’re all standing here today, because they’ve honoured that commitment. And for Hanwha to also respect that the capability exists here. We’re not the only Tasmanian business to be part of this defence contract, but it certainly is about building a new industry here in Tasmania. It’s, the Australian defence industry is really important to us here in Tassie and I think we’re demonstrating that we’re capable of doing it just like any other state. So very happy to have you here, Prime Minister, and very appreciative of the opportunity for our people and our supply chain.
PRIME MINISTER: Ok, we’ve got time for a couple of questions. [Inaudible]
MR DALE ELPHINSTONE, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, ELPHINSTONE PTY LTD: Just one other comment, sorry, that I think is really important. In our discussions with Hanwha, this may will lead to us building products for other countries overseas. So there’s a real opportunity here for us that’s been initiated by the Government for us to join with them to be in the supply chain of much bigger things than we’re looking at here. And that’s really what we’re in, we’re interested in investing our people’s time and efforts and our capital in to make sure we can get that done. So I think that’s a really important point.
PRIME MINISTER: I agree, Dale.
JOURNALIST: You were met outside by a protester upset about the proposed MMG tailings dam. What’s your reaction to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s not surprising that not everybody agrees with what the government our views might be. But what we were announcing today was about our commitment to the forestry industry here in Tasmania, and our government is committed to the forestry industry.
JOURNALIST: She wasn’t happy with what Sussan Ley had to say about it. Have you actually looked into the proposal yourself for a tailings dam in the Tarkine?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’ll take my advice from the Minister and I think the Minister’s been making the points well.
JOURNALIST: Petrol prices and cost of living are a big concern for Australians today, in particular. What’s the government doing to address them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, electricity prices are down eight per cent. They’re down five per cent in the last year. What we’re seeing with petrol prices, they’re obviously being impacted by the global uncertainty we’re seeing around. That’s why we took steps as a government to boost our fuel security. We were doing that through the pandemic – accessing reserves and making sure we were well stocked. But at the same time, Australia is not immune from the global uncertainty that we’re seeing at the moment. When you’ve got what’s occurring in Europe, particularly on the borders of Ukraine, well, these are troubling and uncertain times. And Australia can’t be completely insulated from those sorts of things.
But the best way to ensure we keep downward pressure on inflation and we keep downward pressure on interest rates at a time of great uncertainty is you’ve got to have a government that knows how to manage money, and we have demonstrated that. And the objective evidence of that is we’re one of nine countries, only nine in the world, to have maintained our AAA credit rating from all the leading credit agencies in the world. You want to have downward pressure on interest rates, downward pressure on inflation and the cost of living, the best way to do that is have a government that ensures, that knows how to manage money, which we’ve demonstrated at one of the most difficult times our country has seen since the Great Depression and the Second World War. We have had to invest significantly to keep businesses going.
I was saying to Dale before, to meet those apprentices here today is a great thrill. One of the first things we did, in fact, the first thing that the Treasurer and I did, it was before JobKeeper, we put in place the wage subsidy for apprentices. The reason we did that is we had a great fear that with the economic tsunami that was going to hit Australia through the pandemic, would see all of those skills, all of those apprentices and trainees who had just started or would have started during the pandemic, gone. Last off, first on, their training over. Now, we invested in keeping those skills in businesses just like Dale’s and Kelly right here. And you know what that means, it means coming out the other side of the pandemic, Elphinstone can bid on this contract with Hanwha and be able to secure it because they’ve had the people to actually go and do that job. Had the Government not stepped in and kept those apprentices in training, they’re now finishing their apprenticeships. I met a chap down there, he’s got a couple of months to go. He would never have finished that apprenticeship. We’ve kept people together in their businesses so they can now go and be competitive, and to be doing it in an area of sovereign manufacturing capability is incredibly exciting. Thanks, everyone. Thanks very much.
