On behalf of my family and Erin and Natalie, managers of Lake Nash, and their staff, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to the Prime Minister, also Minister Catherine King and the Member for Solomon Luke Gosling. We're really chuffed about this. I don't think a Prime Minister's ever visited Lake Nash. It is nearly in the centre of Australia, it's a wonderful place and a wonderful piece of country. Very good cattle country, and it's great to have you come out to look at it, though it is a fairly short visit it is short but sweet and I welcome you very much and wish you all the best.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you so much for the very warm welcome here to Lake Nash station. This is a station that's been around since the late 1800s and it has up to 60,000 head of cattle here. And it's an important part of Australia. This station is as big as a small European country. And it says something about Australia, our history, but also our ongoing economy that a station like this can provide work and sustenance for these families, three generations. And you can see here from the young ones who are with us today, more generations to come. The beef industry is a really important one for Australia. We have provided support for biosecurity, more than a billion dollars. We, when live cattle exports were threatened by foot and mouth disease, we worked with the cattle industry to make sure that industry continued to have the exports to Indonesia and continued to provide jobs and an ongoing sustainability for the industry. When it comes to the export of red meat as well, the main export destination from here at Lake Nash station is China. China, before the suspension of beef exports, was importing $2 billion of Australian red meat. All of the export limits have now been lifted. And as a direct result of that, exports have gone back stronger to even where they were beforehand, and now will exceed, over the coming 12 months in 2025, will exceed $2 billion. We're very confident of that. This provides a life blood for employment here in the Territory. And I just want to thank the families and owners of Lake Nash for the very warm welcome here. We had a meeting a little while ago in Sydney, came to visit us, and I said, I'll come and visit you. And that is something that I'm very proud of, that I stick to commitments. And I made that commitment, we were going to come in December, but we've got here in the first week of January. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than here in Northern Australia, meeting great Australians who make such a contribution to our nation.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible). Will you work with the NT Government on this?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we work with the NT Government across the range of issues. Policing matters are a matter for the NT Government. And I give a shout out to police officers who are here today who travelled long distances.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible). What's your Government doing about that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, these are the responsibilities of the Northern Territory Government, but we work cooperatively and we engage. We're providing record funding for the Northern Territory, whether it's education, whether it's health, whether it be community services. We have a Federation in Australia. The Northern Territory Government are, of course, responsible for the provision of those services. I had a really constructive meeting with the Chief Minister on Christmas Eve and we discussed a range of issues, and we'll continue to work with the NT Government, as we do with all state and territory governments in a cooperative way.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible). Water supply has been trucked in. And the Northern Territory, I'm told, has withdrawn $400,000 in funding for the local school. Sounds like there is a lot of need here, is that the something the Commonwealth (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: The Territory Government, we do have three tiers of government and the Territory are responsible. I'll say this about water. I'm aware of the issues which are there. That's about the water supply and the level of fluoride that has been in the water supply. Water has been trucked in to communities here. On education, we have provided more than $700 million of funding for schools in the Northern Territory. We have doubled funding for education services here to bring the entire Territory up to the standard of resourcing that Gonski recommended all those years ago. That's something that I'm really proud of, that we worked with Jason Clare and former Northern Territory Government to make sure occurs. And we have, as I've said, doubled education funding. There's no reason why we want to make sure that funding flows through to give every young Territorian, no matter where they are, the best opportunity for a starting life. Just like the record funding for housing that has contributed in the Northern Territory as well. It is about overcoming overcrowding, dealing with those issues because overcrowding and a lack of housing can create not just economic issues, but social issues.
JOURNALIST: There's been talk about, obviously, our prices going down with economic issues in China. Are you concerned the same can happen with the beef industry?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the beef industry is a strong one. And there's no better beef than right here in Australia. And our Australian product is the best in the world. And what I'll do as Prime Minister is talk Australia up. I'll talk Australia up at every single opportunity. And the beef exports, one of the reasons why, what's quite interesting, as China has resumed trade between Australia and China, what we've seen in so many areas, whether it's beef, lobster, barley, is our products not just bouncing back, but bouncing back stronger than they were before. Beef, as I said, is expected to be higher than the $2 billion that was there beforehand. When it comes to lobster, the trade resumed on Christmas Day. So, two weeks ago, there's already been 565,000 kilos, with 760 different allotments exported to China. That's because it's a good product. Whether it's Australian beef, Australian lamb, Australian seafood, it's the best in the world. It's pristine. You know it's clean, it's green, and it is the best product in the world. We need to make sure that we continue to talk that up. And when I went to the Shanghai Trade Fair last year as part of the resumption of more improved relations between Australia and China, I attended that trade fair. And I did it so that, along with there were over 100 Australian businesses represented there, companies, and they were all selling their products. And that was a really proud moment. Because when you think about what we do here, particularly for regional Australia as well, this is one of the industries that drives our national economy. And that's why I want to see as Prime Minister, firsthand here to see it for myself, but also to be here to promote this, not just domestically, but promote this internationally as well. Thanks a lot.
