Well, G'day, everyone, we're here in Bennelong. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners, the Wallumedegal and thank the Prime Minister for coming. This is the PM's fifth visit to Bennelong, if my count is correct, and what an extraordinary day we've had here today, officially opening NextSense as part of Macquarie University, this incredible ecosystem of hearing, health and innovation. To have the Prime Minister open this facility, with a quite sizeable Australian Government investment, gives me a lot of pride, and it gives a lot of the kids and families and workers here a lot of pride too. NextSense do extraordinary things - change lives. 10,000 people come here a year, and the impact of what they do across our society is just extraordinary. So I'd like to thank the PM for his time here this morning. I'd like to thank NextSense for everything they do to change Australians' lives and give them more opportunity through vision and hearing support. PM, I'll pass over to you and thank you again. Hope to see you for a sixth time, as some point.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I'm sure you will. Jerome. It's fantastic to be back here in this wonderful part of Sydney, in this precinct at Macquarie, which is a part of an innovation hub that, particularly when it comes to medical areas, in research and in innovation, is one of the leading parts of the country. If I could be so bold as to say, one of the leading parts of the world. NextSense, here, is a great honour for me to open. $12.5 million federal contribution to this extraordinary facility that will change lives. 10,000 people each year, from our youngest Australian to today, I met someone who was 72, who had benefited from a cochlear implant. I met another gentleman who, due to an unrelated health issue, suddenly found himself without hearing in his middle age. Four years ago, he got his first cochlear implant. Today, he's able to drive a car, participate fully with his family, have all of the activity that most of us just take for granted. To deliver the same opportunities for people with hearing or sight issues is extraordinary. It's what we mean when we say the 'fair go' in Australia, what we mean when we speak about opening up the doors of opportunity. We want every Australian to be able to fully participate in society. The work that NextSense does here, from the youngest person through to the school age people, who we've met here, people, audiologists, the specialists who are here, the teachers, deserve our absolute praise. This is world's best practice, and it's being done right here in Macquarie. What it is, as well, is what a future made in Australia looks like. Cochlear was an extraordinary Australian invention, a small device that transforms lives, something that is so small but is so large in its impact, in enabling people to fully participate in society. I give my great credit, a big shout out to all those people involved with NextSense, who've contributed money to this extraordinary development. Also, a thank you to the philanthropists who've made a contribution here as well to making a difference to the lives of their fellow Australians. Importantly, as well, this centre here will engage with the entire world, and will give Australian innovation and Australian values of creating opportunity, that outreach to the world, and it's something that we can all be proud of. I'm very proud, as the Australian Prime Minister, to be here today. Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, should Australia have resumed funding for UNRWA or should it now be stopped again, after nine staff from the organisation were sacked overnight for their involvement in October 7?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, they've taken action, that's the point. UNRWA does vital work. We resumed funding on the basis of the strong steps that had been taken to ensure that there was integrity in UNRWA operations. We paused those operations until we received those assurances that the integrity would be secured. It is a good thing that the United Nations have taken this action. We know that the events of October 7 were appalling, and we unequivocally condemn them, as would all who value human life.
JOURNALIST: With the raising of the terror threat level, what do you expect ordinary Australians to do? And could a further escalation in hostilities in the Middle East add to any dangers here?
PRIME MINISTER: We want to see a de-escalation in the Middle East. We've made that very clear. These are dangerous times. I reiterate my call for Australians who are in Lebanon to come home while commercial flights are available, and reiterate with an exclamation mark that Australians shouldn't continue to travel to Lebanon. We have continued to see Australians travel in recent weeks, in spite of the very clear warnings that are being issued by the Australian Government. We want Australians to be safe. The decision made by the Director-General and announced yesterday to up the warnings from 'possible' to 'probable' is a sensible move. It's based upon the view that it is more than a 50 per cent chance there will be either a terrorist act or a planned act in the coming year. We know there have been eight events in recent times that have either been conducted or have been attempted or planned. We know that we need to make sure that we turn down the heat on political debate in this country and on engagement. Australians should be able to go about their everyday activity. The Director-General made that very clear and I have every confidence in the work that our security agencies do.
JOURNALIST: Of those eight events, all have occurred in New South Wales. Do you see New South Wales as having a specific problem when it comes to that, or maybe specific challenges it needs to address more than other places?
PRIME MINISTER: No. Look, I think this is an issue when we look at the appalling events that happened in Queensland, in the Darling Downs, we know that this can happen anywhere. It can happen in city and urban community. It can also happen, in that case, in a rural community. We need to make sure that we're vigilant, that precautions are made. This declaration is important step in doing that. We want Australians to continue to go about our activity and that's important, it is also important that we continue to take action. We have empowered the eSafety Commissioner to remove extremist and violent content online. We're requiring platforms to employ measures that prevent the hosting of extremist content. We've brought forward the review of the Online Safety Act, which is important, and we're embarking on that national conversation about age limits for social media. We also are engaged in our national intervention program. What that does is help individuals disengage from violent extremism. We established new criminal offences in December last year for possessing violent extremist material online, or sharing the material online as well. We know that the world is a difficult place in 2024 and we'll continue to work with authorities, but work with each other as well. This is something that we all have a responsibility, in whatever vehicles we are in, including in the media, to make sure that we don't engage in activity designed to cause tension. That we're responsible in how we engage in the language that political leaders are using, but also in the way that things are reported is important as well.
JOURNALIST: Does it concern you, the rise of what we're seeing described as mixed and unclear ideologies, generally speaking to the right wing, people who are influenced in their bedrooms, online, at home?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we know that the ASIO Director-General has given, but it's not exclusive, to be clear, he spoke about males aged between 14 and 21, often potentially acting as lone wolves, as by themselves, being radicalised, often in home, in isolation, in a way that's difficult to identify. That is something that need to be conscious of. The Director-General has also been clear that this could be anyone, of any age, of any gender, of any ethnicity. There was a case that I'm sure I'm allowed to speak about publicly, because it's one of the cases that have been out there, where someone was engaged in activity or had resources that were Antifa-related, so - extreme left, and neo-Nazi. You had the extreme left and extreme right meeting, if you like, with this same person being radicalised and just made angry. I guess that is my call - we could do with less anger in political discourse and in general, in how we deal with each other. Kindness and empathy is not a weakness. We need to behave responsibly in whatever forms we are. When I look at what has occurred, the vision in the United Kingdom in recent days, it breaks your heart to see that anger, which is there from so many people. We, by and large, are a harmonious society. We're one where we're able to participate in events like this today, which are just wonderful celebrations of our humanity. We need more of that.
JOURNALIST: Should the Iranian Ambassador to Australia be expelled after he tweeted that Israel should be wiped out by 2027?
PRIME MINISTER: We have called in the Iranian Ambassador to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as is the protocol when something like this happens. I make it clear there is no place for the sort of comments that were made online in social media by the Iranian Ambassador. They're abhorrent. They are hateful, they are anti-Semitic and they have no place.
JOURNALIST: Will market volatility make the RBA's job harder?
PRIME MINISTER: Market volatility just reminds us of the global nature of our economy and that events, in this case, in the United States, have rippled around the world with an impact on stock markets in Japan, in Europe, and in Australia. We are interconnected. Just like the inflationary challenge is connected with the Russian invasion of Ukraine that's having an ongoing impact, with some of the activity in the Red Sea that's having an impact. The conflict in the Middle East and any escalation could have an impact on oil prices that then has an impact on the supply chain. This is just a fact. What we need to do, though, is to make sure that here in Australia, we do what we can with two objectives. One is provide cost of living relief. The second is to do it in a way that moderates inflation. My Government, with our tax cut for every Australian, the $300 energy bill relief, fee-free TAFE, cheaper child care and the increase in wages that we've seen, is having an impact on cost of living and helping to make that life a little bit easier for people who are doing it tough. That is important, but it's important how we've designed it as well. That's why measures like the energy price relief isn't a cash payment, it's a reduction in bills. Fee-free TAFE reduces bills to zero. Cheaper child care has meant an 11 per cent reduction in child care. All of those measures are important. The Reserve Bank has made it very clear that, as has Treasury, that Labor's two budget surpluses that we've produced, we're turning the Liberal Party deficits into Labor surpluses, is having a positive impact as well. We are seeing inflation moderating. We need to see it moderate further. At the same time, what we don't want to do is to see people punished and hurt. We want to see people continue to be employed. I'm very proud that 930,000 jobs have been created since we came to office, more than at any time in Australian history.
JOURNALIST: You said the Iranian Ambassador has been called in, should he be expelled?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we've done, we've made clear our view to the Iranian Ambassador, very clearly and unequivocally, to send him a message that it's entirely inappropriate for him to engage in that way.
JOURNALIST: A sad day for our veterans, we've lost our last Rat of Tobruk in Tom Pritchard.
PRIME MINISTER: We have and Tom Pritchard was the last standing of an extraordinary group of Australians. Today, every Australian will pay tribute to him and think about all the others who've fallen before him. A generation of Australians who made extraordinary sacrifices in circumstances, which we cannot imagine. They did us proud, and the way that they conducted themselves after they came home, did us proud as well. Those who knew Tom describe him as having all the characteristics for which the Rats of Tobruk were known. He was a larrikin, self-resourceful and he had a wicked sense of humour. At 102, it's a great age, and we salute his service to our nation. As Prime Minister, I salute him personally. I also take today the opportunity to salute every single Rat of Tobruk, a great group of Australians, of whom we can all be proud. Thanks very much.
