SENATOR THE HON. MICHAELIA CASH, ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is fantastic to have the Prime Minister back in Western Australia and as I look behind me, surrounded colleagues from the Western Australian Federal Liberal team, my cabinet colleague in Melissa Price, the Minister, Andrew Hastie, the President of the Senate in Slade Brockman and of course, our candidate for Fremantle, Bill Koul. Welcome to Western Australia on a quintessentially Western Australian day. But in particular, we have an incredibly important announcement that the Prime Minister will be making this morning. This election, as we hear the Prime Minister say, is all about choice. Who can provide the strong leadership for the strong economy going forward? And when it comes to being a friend to Western Australia in relation to that choice, we have a friend in Scott Morrison. I remind everybody it was Scott Morrison as Treasurer and then as Prime Minister who delivered the GST forever deal for Western Australians. Scott Morrison recognised that Western Australians were not getting their fair share of GST. We put in place a process. We brought the rest of Australia with us. And today, as we stand here, it is locked in forever, the GST forever deal for Western Australia, but also when the Prime Minister has touched down previously during the election campaign, he has made some incredibly significant announcements. Significant for people with cancer, the Comprehensive Cancer Centre. Of course, the additional funding working with the Western Australian government in relation to the Perth City Deal, making our great city even better. And then, of course, out at Henderson, the up to $4.3 billion that we will invest here to ensure that we have a world class shipping precinct here in Western Australia. As the Prime Minister says, it is all about jobs. And the announcements that the Prime Minister has made to date, but in particular will again make today - are all about providing that secure economic future for Western Australians. So, Prime Minister, it is fantastic to have you back in Western Australia and you really are a great friend.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much. Well, it's great to be back here in the West. It's great to be back here in particular at Henderson, a place where we are constructing 10 Arafura Class Offshore Patrol vessels. That's two 265 jobs. 21 Guardian Class patrol boats, $510 million, that's another 200 jobs. The sustainment of eight Anzac Class frigates, costing some $338 million, directly employing over 400 people. The sustainment of ships, the disposal of the HMAS Sirius alone, which is $10 million right here at Henderson over the next year. The Regional Maintenance Centre West. The Defence Industries Pathways programme. We're not just building ships here, we're building workforce here, we're building skills here. The skills that Australia needs to power our economy that is so integral to the economic plan that we've taken forward. An economic plan that I know is working because Australians are working and they're particularly working here in Western Australia. The unemployment rate here in Western Australia, down to 3.4 per cent, is the lowest in the country across all the states. And that means that in Western Australia, this is one of the most important parts of our economy. For our national economy to be strong, the Western Australian state economy must continue to be strong. It has played an incredibly important role during the course of the pandemic that we've experienced over the last couple of years, which has enabled us to be in a position where Australia now has the strongest economic performance of so many advanced countries in the world. But particularly stronger than the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan. Outstripping their performance not just when it comes to economic growth, but also when it comes to jobs. Almost 400,000 more jobs today than there were before the pandemic. That demonstrates that our economic plan is working and our defence industries are incredibly important to that plan. They are a key sector identified in our modern manufacturing initiative, but they're also absolutely essential for Australia's sovereign capability so we can keep Australians safe. And today we are making an announcement that will bring the total number of Evolved Cape Class patrol boats, two of them you can see just behind us here, up to eight, and that is an investment of some $124 million to build two more of these Evolved Cape Class vessels. And that brings the total investment to some $400 million. The purchase will strengthen our naval patrol force, but it will also ensure that with the Cape Class boats, that will go to Border Force, it will take them from eight to 10. Now, you cannot invest in Australia's naval ship building capability, you cannot achieve over two per cent this year of the size of our economy, investing in our defence forces to restore it from those terrible lows we saw when we first came to government. There's only one way you can do that, and that is if you can manage a strong economy, and if you're able to manage money. I've been making this point, if you don't understand the economy, if you can't manage money, you can't guarantee the essential services Australians rely on like Medicare and you can't guarantee the safety of Australians and to keep Australians safe, by investing in our defence capability and our border protection capability. Now these vessels will play an ongoing and important role in Australia's border protection capability. And just bear with me as I tell you why that's important, particularly as we go into this next election. When I was the Shadow Minister for Immigration, we were dealing, in this country, with an even worse border protection crisis than was fixed up by the Howard government. We were seeing 1,200 people, that we know of, who perished at sea. And for two years, we worked to put in place a policy that we knew would work. It didn't come overnight. For two years, we worked with those who were experienced in this area. I travelled overseas. I went to the United States, the United Kingdom, I went to Malaysia. I went to Indonesia. I pulled in people who knew what they were talking about. People like General Molan and we worked with others, retired in the Defence Forces, and we built Operation Sovereign Borders. And we set out very clearly that the way to fix this problem is to have that three strand cord of temporary protection visas, of offshore processing and turning back boats where it was safe to do so. Now I can tell you at that election, but the least popular of all of those policies, the one that people attacked us most on was on the policy of turning back boats. People said it couldn't be done. It couldn't be done safely. But we had done the work to ensure we knew how we could do it so. We didn't spend two years just talking about the failures of the then Labor Government on our borders. We did the hard work of preparing ourselves for government, preparing ourselves to have a policy we could run with the minute we were elected, and we did. We put it in place carefully, we established Operation Sovereign Borders and it would be one of the most successful border protection policies anywhere in the world. So successful that other countries are taking their lead from Australia's successful approach and why? It's the humane thing to do. It enabled us to close 17 detention centres. It enabled us to get all the children out of detention. It enabled us to get those children off Manus Island that Labor put on Manus Island. People forget this, when Labor was last in power, they put children on Manus Island in a detention centre. And I know, because I saw them there. I visited them. I spoke to their parents who were in that facility with them. So when you lose control of your borders, as Labor did, that is the consequence. And so I just don't buy it from Labor. I don't buy it that they are strong on border protection because when it matters, when there was a policy there for them to support that was making all of the difference and would make all the difference, they turn the other way. I'll finish on this point before I ask Melissa Price to speak more to the announcement we're making today, and then I want to come back to make some other comments on our housing policy announcement today. In August of 2008, Kevin Rudd abolished temporary protection visas. That was the green light to Labor's border protection failures. You want to date it? That was the day they said people smugglers are in business and from that day on, the boats came and they just kept coming and they just kept coming. And people kept on drowning. And Labor had no credibility answers. And so I am just amazed that after all of this time, Anthony Albanese is saying that he would abolish temporary protection visas if he were to become Prime Minister. After all of this time, Labor has learnt nothing when it comes to border protection. And I think that's very disappointing because it does set out, I suppose, a very clear choice - a government that knows how to protect and secure our borders and a Labor opposition that you just don't know at all. And with that, I'll ask Melissa to make some comments and then I'll come back to that housing promise.
THE HON. MELISSA PRICE MP, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY: Thanks PM. Thanks very much. Great to be talking about our $270 billion investment in defence capability. Our government has a very ambitious shipbuilding plan, and today's announcement of two additional Cape Class to be built by Austal down here in Henderson is a part of our very ambitious shipbuilding program. Now this is as much about capability as it is about making sure that we have the jobs of the future. With our ambitious shipbuilding program, we need 15,000 people across our country to work in shipbuilding. We have around 4,000 people at the moment. When we talk about jobs in shipbuilding, this is absolutely necessary when it comes to the defence of our nation. What we will see with the two additional Cape Class, this is going to support over 500 West Australians working in our supply chain. Many of those are employed directly by Austal, but also many of them work in our SME sector in that supply chain, defence industry supply chain, which is supporting Austal right here at Henderson. The announcement today is in addition to the up to $4.3 billion investment in a dry dock. This is a significant announcement for Western Australia. This will mean that the only place in Australia where we'll be able to build those large vessels, like the LHDs, like other large commercial vessels to support the oil and gas industry, the only place where we will be able to build those vessels is right here in Western Australia. In addition to that, we announced some six months ago up to $30 billion of additional navy capability being built right here in Henderson. Hydrographic vessels, underwater surveillance vessels, also Naval watercraft, sorry Army watercraft to name but a few. If ever you were in doubt about the importance of the West Australian shipbuilding industry to the defence of our nation, I think today's announcement underlines that. Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Melissa.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm going to the housing announcement today because that is the opportunity we have to speak to that. Today, we're also announcing an expansion of our Home Guarantee Scheme. As I have said, that goes up to 50,000 places a year, but in addition, we are increasing the price caps that determine the eligibility of properties under the Home Guarantee Scheme. That means, as we've noticed with rising house prices around the country, we want to ensure that more Australians, those 50,000 each year, are able to get access to those Home Guarantee packages, which is getting Australians into their own homes. More than 300,000 Australians have been directly assisted into their own home by our government over the last three years. It was one of our key commitments we made at the last election to get more Australians into their own homes. And we've done that by reducing the deposit that they would need from 20 per cent, down to five percent, and for single parents down to two per cent. Now that is saving on average around four years, what people have had to wait, how long they have had to wait to get into their own home. It's a highly successful policy. And that combined with the HomeBuilder program, the First Home Super Saver program and the National Housing Investment Finance and Investment Corporation. This year alone in Western Australia has directly financed about more than a 1,000 affordable homes working with community housing organisations. We're about getting Australians into homeownership, but we are also about helping Australians who are dealing with the affordability of rent. (Inaudible) We know there's pressures on them, and that's why we're going to continue to support people getting into their own home as we have done - over 300,000 and will be 50,000 every single year as we continue those very successful programs.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we are in WA. Are you still committed to building the quarantine facility here in WA?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes.
JOURNALIST: Have you received any advice, have you received any official advice suggesting that if Labor does win, there will be an influx of people smugglers sending some big boats to Australia?
PRIME MINISTER: I don't go into intelligence matters. What I do know is the experience and I know this experience because I lived it. And I know that when Labor abolished temporary protection visas in 2008, the armada of people smugglers boats came to Australia. And that was the launching point, and I know the people smugglers are very aware of my resolve, of Peter Dutton's resolve, who followed me in the portfolio, and Karen Andrews, who has followed Peter. Labor can't even tell you who their Home Affairs Minister is going to be. The leader of the Labor Party, Anthony Albanese, said he couldn't ask someone to do something he wouldn't do himself. Now it's fine for people to say they agree with it many years after the fact. But when it matters, when people were dying at sea, Anthony Albanese was one of the most vocal critics of the government's border protection policies. He was wrong then, and he is still wrong.
JOURNALIST: Do you support new coal mines in the Galilee Basin, would that be something you would welcome? Given the hostility towards fossil fuels from some of the Climate 200 backed Independents, you have ruled out any deals with the Greens, if there's a hung Parliament. Will you rule out deals with some of these Independents in order to stay in Parliament if there is a hung Parliament?
PRIME MINISTER: We intend to win a majority government at this election.
JOURNALIST: You have ruled out a deal with the Greens. Do you rule out one of the climate independents?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm anticipating that the Liberal members in those seats will be returned for doing a great job on the ground in those seats. And this is a very important point you raised because with those Independents, which is hard to call them that because they're only running against Liberal members, it's not like these teal Independents are running against Labor Party members. They're not doing that. They are targeting a number of Liberal seats and you just don't know what you're going to get. You just don't know. You don't know who they're going to support, who they're not going to support. You don't know what their policies are, they are not costed. They don't explain what they'll do on the economy, and the great risk of voting for an Independent in one of those (inaudible), is that you throw the parliament into chaos and uncertainty. And that's why it's important to vote for your local Liberal candidate and your local Liberal Member or Parliament to ensure the stability and the certainty that is enabled us as a country under our government, a majority government, even though it was a very slim majority, we were able to ensure stability and certainty going through one of the most challenging times this country has seen in generations. So a vote for those Independents, is a vote for uncertainty, it's a vote for instability. You can't - contracting out your decision to an Independent candidate who doesn't know which way they're going to jump. I don't think it's a vote for stability and certainty. if you want that certainty about employment, the management of the nation's finances. The security of Australia, the security of our borders and then a vote for the Independents is not a way to achieve it. Vote for your local Liberal National candidate.
JOURNALIST: How many interest rate rises are you expecting over the next 12 months? Do you expect the official cash rate to go well over one per cent? And today there was analysis which found that in the last quarter alone, Woolworths and Coles prices have gone up three to four percent. What's your long term strategy or is that just international forces and we have to live with it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, as you would know, the international forces are impacting on other countries far, far more than here in Australia. Now I know the cost of living pressures are real, and that's why we took the decision in the budget, a budget that we were able to provide relief to Australians in because we have had the biggest turnaround in Australia's budget performance, over $100 billion in 12 months because our economic plan was working. Now that meant we were able to halve the petrol tax. It meant that we're able to provide additional support to pensions. It means we're able to provide additional point to working Australians by ensuring they could keep more of what they earn when they put their tax returns on the 1st of July.
JOURNALIST: It's all temporary.
PRIME MINISTER: So the inflationary pressures that we're seeing around the world, yes, they impact here in Australia, but they're impacting far greater in other countries. And I'll tell you one of the reasons why I believe that's true. What we've been able to do as a country throughout the course of this pandemic is we've been able to maintain our AAA credit rating. Now, Australia is only one of nine countries in the world that has been able to maintain that. Now that has happened at a time when we've had to invest significantly and borrow heavily to ensure the Australian economy came through this pandemic so that we could keep people in jobs. You know, 700,000 jobs were saved through JobKeeper.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, interest rates.
PRIME MINISTER: Spending has an impact on interest rates, spending has an impact on inflation Andrew, that is how the economy works.
JOURNALIST: But how much do you expect? How many rises can we expect?
PRIME MINISTER: The Reserve Bank of Australia, as you know, sets independently, the cash rate in this country, and that's their job. What our job is to do, so we can't set interest rates, they are done independently by the Reserve Bank. What my job is and what the Treasurer's job is, is to ensure that we are managing the budget appropriately. We're investing in things that actually build the strength of the economy, like what we're doing here, not just with the development of our defence industries that are on display here. The $4.3 billion right here at Henderson, which is actually building the capability with the dry dock facility, which sets up business and economic opportunities in the future. Now you have a strong economy that's backed in by a well-managed budget, that's what puts downward pressure on interest rates, that's what puts downward pressure on inflation, and that's what our economic policies are designed to achieve. And the other thing we do in our budget, is we ensure that we don't put taxes up. Now I know the Labor Party wants to abolish the speed limit on taxes. Now it is a 23.9 per cent speed limit on taxes that I put in as Treasurer. And I'll tell you why I put it in place because it does two things; it gives Australians the guarantee that the economy won't take, that the government won't take more out of their pockets than they can afford, and it ensures that people can keep more of what they earn, because if you tax your economy too highly and it slows growth and it kills jobs. Now, I don't understand why the Labor Party wants to take the brakes off taxes. I don't know why they want to take that speed limit off. The only reason you do that is if you wanted to break it and that is exactly what Labor would do. People know Labor can't manage money and when they can't manage money they come after yours with higher taxes.
JOURNALIST: So on the boats that you've announced today, when did border force ask for this funding, how many boats did they ask for? And when was the decision made to fund them?
PRIME MINISTER: These investments are part of - all of our investments and Melissa may want to speak to those. But these these aren't for border force, these are for the Navy. And so these two additional vessels that we're building here take it from six to eight. And that means the two Cape Class, which are being used by the Navy, they will go across to Border Force and they'll be used as part of their fleet, and that will take them from eight to 10. And so this has been part of our planning because this is in the budget. So it was obviously done some time ago and I am not going to go into the details of that, those are things we decide in National Security Committee, as well as in the Expenditure Review Committee. But this is all part of our plan to ensure that we've had increased assets on the water, to deal with the many threats that we face. And the other thing you'll note, you will have seen the Guardian Class patrol boats out there. one of them is going to the Marshall Islands and and the other one going to the Cook Islands. This has been part of our investment in our Pacific family to help them patrol their fisheries, to secure their own national security arrangements. I mean, we call it the Blues Pacific nations because there is more sea than there is landmass and they are managing what, when you take into account the sea boundary, very large areas. And so we're supporting our pacific family by giving them those tools, training their crews making sure they can do their job to keep the Pacific safe. And we're backing them in to do that.
JOURNALIST: With rental stress, it's quite a big issue for a number of families at the moment. What is your advice to them? And on Medicare, can you rule out there will be no cuts, there seems to have been some confusion this morning?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Anne Ruston, who I announced yesterday, should we be successful at the election, would be taking on the role of Health and Aged Care Minister, said yesterday - there wouldn't be any cuts and I would repeat that today. I was pretty clear about that yesterday. Why can I say that? Because under our government, we went from $19.1 billion in expenditure on Medicare to $31.4 billion. We took a bulk billing rate from 82.2 per cent to 88.8 per cent. And the reason we've been able to achieve that is the same reason we can invest in these ships behind us, because we've been running a strong economy and we know how to manage a budget. Now that is the best guarantee you can ever have on essential services. But on top of that, as I remarked yesterday, I introduced the legislation to guarantee Medicare, and to guarantee the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Because if you can't manage money, which people know, Labor can't, the consequences of that is essential services suffer. When Labor were last in power, they couldn't list medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme because they couldn't manage money. They cut defence spending down to the lowest level we have seen since prior to the Second World War. Why? Because they lost control of our borders, causing a budget blow out of over $11 billion, $11.4 billion from memory. And on top of that, they couldn't manage the rest of the budget and so they started cutting defence. They did not commission one naval ship over the course of their six years in government. Now, they couldn't do that because they couldn't manage money. Sure, he might not have been able to remember what the unemployment rate was or things like that. He should know that. I think we all know that. But that said, what is the consequence of that? What is the consequence of not understanding how the economy works and not being able to manage money? You can't build ships like that, and you can't guarantee Medicare.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you didn't finish my other question on rental stress.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh yeah, the Perth rents here are around $500 a week, and as a result, that's why programs particularly like Commonwealth rental assistance, which is some $5.1 billion, which is paid every year to support people on lower incomes and that from memory is indexed on the cost of living. So that continues to be combined with the other payments that we have that people get access to and whether that be an income support through JobSeeker, which as you know, we increased from $40 a week (day) to $46 a week (day) since the last election. The additional supports we've provided, particularly over these last two years through the pandemic, we've extended support to those on income support. The other one that I keep talking about and I'm very passionate about this project, and that is the work is being done by the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. Now I established that when I was Treasurer with all the other Treasurers from all the other states and territories. When it comes to providing affordable housing support, we all have different jobs to do. State governments, of course, they go and build social housing, they are principally responsible for social housing investments. And so they're doing that and we provide over $1 billion a year, each year to the states and territories, and there's also specific funding provided, hundreds of millions each year for homelessness organisations, not for profit organisations. I have visited many of them here - when I was Social Services Minister and Treasurer - who do a fantastic job. Those community housing organisations are supported by this finance corporation, a government agency that we established and there is around about 15,000 dwelling units of affordable housing that they have directly financed. Over a thousand of those here in Western Australia. And they are helping single parents, others in distress, and they're also doing it in partnership with the private sector. So they're not building big towers of public housing. They're actually mixing that up with new development estates, because we have a different approach to the Labor Party. Our approach is to work with community organisations, with the private sector, to ensure we can get more homes built and more affordable homes built. Our role has been in providing that finance and over the $1 billion dollars we provide every single year under the Commonwealth Housing Agreement with the states and territories.
JOURNALIST: This is your third visit to the West in just five weeks, is that a telling sign of how you think that things could go here in the West? That it could go badly?
PRIME MINISTER: What it tells you is that I know and have for a very, very long time, in fact, before I became in the Parliament, that the Western Australian economy is critical to Australia's future. Absolutely critical. And I want to ensure that WA continues to be an economic powerhouse in this country. It is why I'm always here supporting the resources industry, that's why I'm always here trying to ensure we're cutting the red tape and green tape that can frustrate the resources industry here in Western Australia. That's why I've been passionate about ensuring we can get the cruise ships back to Australia and the tourism industry. That's why I am passionate about the manufacturing jobs that are being created here in Western Australia. It's why on critical minerals and rare earths. I joked last time I was here, the Greens think that is something you put in the bath. It's not. It's actually things that you put in solar panels and you put in mobile phones and you put in all the new technology which is actually driving the economy all around the world. And we're investing heavily here, especially in Western Australia, to ensure that we're realising the opportunity of the critical minerals and rare earth sector. I am here, because I know how important Western Australia is. That's why I ensured they got their fair share of the GST, not as some parochial interest, but in the national interest. I didn't need to convince Western Australians that they should get a fair share of the GST. I had to convince the rest of the country, and I had to get legislation through the Australian Parliament, which is what I did as Prime Minister and so Western Australians know that in me as Prime Minister, they've never had someone who, frankly, has better understood both the contribution that Western Australia make to the national economy and how important it is that they recognised for that.
JOURNALIST: A new poll out today has Labor's primary vote falling significantly, but they're not going to the Coalition, necessarily. They're in the undecided column. Is that a concern that after Labor's very poor week that voters aren't necessarily going to the Coalition?
PRIME MINISTER: I will leave all the commentary on those things to the esteemed members of the gallery, who join me every day and those who are back in Canberra. But what I do know is this. I said right at the start of the campaign, and I'll keep saying it, this election is about the future of our economy. The economy you all live in. This economy is what pays for Medicare, this economy is what pays for our defence, it is what pays for the essential services that Australians rely on, and it's important that that economy is well managed, and what we have demonstrated as a government, is the ability to manage that economy and to manage the finances with a AAA credit rating, an unemployment rate of four percent and ensuring that we've had the biggest budget turnaround in the last 12 months we've seen in 70 years. We know our economic plan is working. We know it's working here in Western Australia. The unemployment rate has fallen from 4.1 percent down to 3.4 (per cent) here in Western Australia. When I was last here I was asked about the unemployment rate in Western Australia and it had gone up to 4.1 (per cent). I said it will be coming back down. How do I know that? Because I understand the Australian economy. I understand how it works. I understand what drives the Western Australian economy. And that's what enables me to stand here with confidence before the Australian people and say, I'm going to keep building those ships, I am going to keep protecting the borders, I'm going to keep Australia's economy strong, I'm going to keep Australians safe, and I can say all of that because I know how to run a strong economy and manage the national finances. Thank you all very much.
