Source: Australian Executive Government Ministers
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s fantastic to be here with the Premier of Tasmania, Jeremy Rockliff, with my Education Minister, Jason Clare, with Senator Helen Polley and with Deputy Premier, Michael Ferguson here this morning. And this is a big day for the Commonwealth and a big day for Tasmania. The two services that are most important to people’s lives are health and education. And today, we have some fantastic announcements on both. First of all, it’s great to be here at Launceston General Hospital. I do want to thank the administration and the staff, the doctors, the nurses, the volunteers who’ve shown us around here this morning. It’s been a great privilege, and I do want to take the opportunity to thank them for the difference that they make to people’s lives here in Northern Tasmania. But I want to say that it’s a good day for them too, it’s a good day, most importantly, for the people of Northern Tasmania. Because this announcement today of $120 million from the Federal Government for a Northern Heart Centre will make an enormous difference. People in Northern Tasmania should not have to cross the Bass Strait to the North Island in order to get the health care that they deserve. They should get it here in their local community and this Northern Heart Centre, which is well advanced in terms of its planning, will make an enormous difference for research. Most importantly, to be able to get that early detection and early care here, so that if you avoid a traumatic incident, then you actually save money as well as saving lives. And that’s why I’ve been talking with the Premier about the importance of this. This will mean more beds and less pressure on the hospital’s Emergency Department. The Centre will have its own dedicated lab that can diagnose and treat various heart conditions, allowing patients to bypass the Emergency Department with its own access to the intensive care unit and medical imaging. That will make an enormous difference here in Northern Tasmania. And I’m very proud that this is a part of my Government’s commitment to strengthening Medicare and providing better healthcare for all Australians, regardless of where they live. Further today I can announce that my Government and the Tasmanian Government have signed a historic agreement that means all Tasmanian public schools will be fully and fairly funded. We promised we would fully fund schools in Tasmania and today we deliver. Tasmania is the third state now after Northern Territory and Western Australia to sign up. The Commonwealth has $16 billion on the table to make sure that every school can reach that designation of fair funding that was first put forward by Gonski, by David Gonski, in his Review. The other thing that it will do of course, is the nature of education as well. Because we want to make sure it’s not just about dollars, it’s about how education is delivered. And the signing up of this agreement will make sure that the priorities that parents talk about, making sure that the basics are looked after, make sure that we lift literacy and numeracy right across Tasmania, but right across the country, is what we want to see. We want to make sure that if a child falls behind that a school is in a position to be able to lift them up. Simple as that. During the election campaign in 2022, I spoke about no one being left behind and no one held back. And that’s what education and health are at the centre of. Making sure that no one’s left behind. Every child has the opportunity to fulfil their potential, but also making sure that people are looked after in terms of their healthcare. So, this is a really exciting day and it’s a good day. And I do want to thank Jeremy for the relationship that we have, in spite of the fact we’re from different political parties, we’re just concerned about getting things done. And that’s what this is about today. Getting things done in the interests of Northern Tasmanians when it comes to healthcare and getting things done on behalf of all younger Australians, Tasmanians and their families, importantly going forward as well. So, I want to thank Jason Clare as well for the extraordinary work that he has done. Mark Butler, our Health Minister has worked hard on this as well, and that is a very good thing that we’ve been able to achieve this today. I’ll hand over to Jeremy, I will then hand to Jason Clare, the Education Minister, and then I’m happy to take some questions and I’m sure that Jeremy will as well. And then we have some document signing that we’re going to do to fulfil this delivery that we’re announcing today.
JEREMY ROCKLIFF, PREMIER OF TASMANIA: Thank you very much, Prime Minister. And it’s great to be here with the Deputy Premier, Michael Ferguson, Federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare and Senator Helen Polley. Thank you Fiona, for your commitment and passion to healthcare across the North. As Chief Executive of the Launceston General Hospital, can I say to you a big thanks to all the people that you work with on a daily basis. From administration to the healthcare professionals, to the volunteers that make up this wonderful institution, the Launceston General Hospital, delivering healthcare for many, many thousands of Tasmanians across north and north west Tasmania. This is a great day for healthcare. This is a great day for our schools, education and public investment in education. And I want to thank the Prime Minister for the great collaboration that we have had over the course of the last couple of years. It’s not the first time I’ve stood alongside the Prime Minister when it comes to announcing key partnerships in health. Whether that be GP recruitment, whether that be Urgent Care Clinics. It’s not the first time, of course – we’ve also got partnerships when it comes to urban renewal projects as well. And so what Tasmanians expect is their federal and state governments to work together in the very best interests of them and in this case the best interests served in healthcare and indeed our schools across Tasmania. We made a very clear commitment at the last election that we will deliver a $120 million Heart Centre and that is exactly what will be delivered at this site over the course of the next few years. That commitment has been realised through the strong collaboration and working relationship with the Federal and State Governments. A $120 million commitment from the Federal Government. And can I say Prime Minister, thank you to you, to Mark Butler – who I worked with very closely as Health Minister for a number of years – but also on behalf of all Tasmanians that will of course be cared for through this facility. Northern and north western Tasmania have the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in the country. This is why this investment is so critical and the partnership will endure. The partnership of capital investment from the Federal Government and of course the operational investment from the Tasmanian Government means that this will be delivered. It will be delivered by 2029 and will be servicing Tasmanians, particularly Northern Tasmanians, for many, many decades to come. Can I also pay tribute to Jason Clare, the Federal Minister for Education, and of course our State Minister for Education, Jo Palmer, who would be here if it wasn’t for Budget Estimates in southern Tasmania. I know Jason and Jo have worked very closely in securing this Agreement on behalf of families across Tasmania, our students, of course, in public schools. There is no better investment in productivity and wellbeing than education. And having been Education Minister for seven years, I can well and truly appreciate the need for fair funding when it comes to our public schools, particularly our schools of disadvantage across the country and indeed in Tasmania. That’s why I was very proud to be part of the Gonski Two Agreement as Education Minister, where you apply that fair funding model to support students across our public school environment. What this will mean is an additional $300 million into our public schools over the course of the next five years, focusing on early intervention when it comes to numeracy and literacy, focusing on students well being as well. And when students have good wellbeing, they have a very strong learning environment as well. And so we are committed as a Tasmanian Government, in partnership with the Federal Government, to deliver significant uplift in funding for our public schools over the next five years or sooner. So, thank you for working with us, Prime Minister and Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare. It is a great example of federal and state governments working together. At the end of the day, what Tasmanians care about is good quality services and what they want to see is cooperation in partnership between federal and state government, irrespective of political colour, to deliver for them. And today we have delivered in spades for our public schools and healthcare across Northern Tasmania. And with those few words, I’ll hand to Jason.
JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks Premier. Can I start by paying credit to the Prime Minister and the Premier. These are two leaders who know how to get the job done and these are two leaders who understand the power of education. The power of education to change children’s lives. And this investment, this announcement that we’re making today, will change the lives of children here in Tasmania. Can I also thank you Deputy Premier. And can I thank my dear friend, the Education Minister of Tasmania, Jo Palmer, who, as the Premier said, can’t be with us because of Estimates. She is a great Education Minister. It’s a privilege to work with her and I’m looking forward to implementing this Agreement that we’ll sign today with her. This is a historic day for Tasmania. It’s a historic day for public education in Tasmania. Today we sign agreements that will make sure that every public school in Tasmania is fully funded, as the Prime Minister said, at that level that David Gonski set for us all those years ago. And the Premier talked about the money, about $300 million. But he also made the point, and I’m glad you did, Premier, about what this money will be invested in. Because it’s not just about the money, it’s what it does. This money will help us to invest in things like a phonics check and a numeracy check in year one or in the early years, to identify children who are falling behind when they’re little and then make sure that we intervene and provide them with the sort of supports that will help them to catch up and to keep up and to finish school. Things like catch up tutoring. We know that when a child’s falling behind in a classroom of 20 or 30, if you take them out of that classroom, into a classroom of two or three, with one teacher, four days a week, 40 minutes at a time, that they can learn as much in six months as they’d normally learn in a year. In other words, they catch up. And if children catch up when they’re young, they’re more likely to go on and finish high school and then go on to TAFE or to university. And the investment in health and wellbeing is just as important. There’s a real and obvious link between education and health. You see it in these two announcements today, but we also see it in our classrooms. Because children that are experiencing mental health challenges are more likely to not be at school, to be absent from school. And by year nine, they’re about a year and a half or three years behind the rest of the children in their class in literacy and numeracy. So, investments in things like psychologists and counsellors to provide that wrap around support at schools can make all the difference in whether a child finishes school or not. Can I end where I began – this is a fantastic example of our two governments working together. And most importantly, it shows what we can achieve when we work together. And when Parliament returns, I’ll introduce legislation to make this extra investment in our children and in Tasmania a reality.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Jase. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, has your Government asked Treasury –
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve got an announcement to help every child in school and can we have questions about this first? And then I’m happy to go down whatever direction you want. Are there any questions about today’s announcements?
JOURNALIST: The Education Union has been calling on this for some time. Why are you choosing to fund it now?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve been in government for two years and we’re getting it done. We’ve got it done now with the Premier, Roger Cook. We’ve got it done in the Northern Territory, which in particular required a substantial lift up per person in the Northern Territory because so many schools there, particularly in remote areas, have missed out. And we’ve got this done in Tasmania and we’re hopeful of getting it done in other states as well, are imminent. I’ve been speaking with Premiers and Chief Ministers. At the last meeting of the National Cabinet, the Premier and I, as well as other Premiers and Chief Ministers, spoke about how important this was, that we get this done. David Gonski did this work some time ago in the Gillard Government to look at what the level of funding was needed to bring every child up to the best of their potential. And that’s what Jason has spoken about – practical differences that it makes. I think it helps, the fact that Jeremy’s been the Education Minister and gets it. And so I’d encourage the other states to sign up. We’ve got $16 billion on the table. This means that the Commonwealth contribution will be lifted up to 22.5 per cent of that standard and the state contribution will be lifted to 77.5 per cent. Making sure that this is realised, because this is so important and we’ve been able to get it done and we’re getting it done today.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the Heart Centre. We know right across Australia, Tasmania is no exception, that there is a critical shortage of healthcare workers. How confident are you that there will be the workers that are needed to make this Centre a success?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re very confident that that can be done. One of the things that we’re doing as well is making sure that we train additional doctors, that we train nurses and healthcare professionals. I’ve been into TAFEs here in Tasmania, for example, I met young people and people retraining to go back into the health system. That has been very important. So we’ll work as well, we have – as Jeremy said, we had quite an innovative plan for additional GPs here that we announced. I think just down the road in Devonport at the Mercy Hospital. We are working with the Tasmanian Government to make sure that we have that capacity. We do need an appropriate workforce in order to deliver. But the other thing is, if you don’t do the right thing, sometimes you can end up chasing your tail. So, emergency departments get more and more pressure on them, which creates more difficulties in the system. So, we have, for example, our four Urgent Care Clinics that have opened here in Tasmania. We’ve got a fifth coming and there’s a potential of more there. They have seen tens of thousands of Tasmanians – all Tasmanians have needed is their Medicare card, not their credit card. They’ve got the care that we need. I’ve been into the Urgent Care Clinic there in Hobart that has been an enormous success. There’s one here in Lonnie. And what we do if you do that is you stop people going to the emergency departments of hospitals, if they have a broken arm or the kids fall off the bike or the skateboard, or they cut themselves preparing dinner – they can get that care on the spot when they need it, where they need it and for free as part of our commitment to extending Medicare. So, that’s made a difference as well to the system. Okay. Happy to take other things.
JOURNALIST: Have you asked for a modelling on the impacts of negative gearing, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I’ve seen those reports and what we do is we value the Public Service. So, from time to time I’m sure the Public Service are looking at policy ideas. That’s because we value them. But we have our housing policy. It’s out there for all to see. It’s currently being blocked. At the risk of being partisan here, it’s currently being blocked by a No-alition of the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens in the Senate. They’re blocking our Help to Buy scheme that’s about increased home ownership. They’re blocking our Build to Rent scheme. I mean, why you would block – the Greens position is that they’re blocking the Build to Rent scheme because if you have medium density housing built, it’ll be built by developers. Well, yeah, hello. I’m not sure who they think builds houses and medium density housing and increases supply. So, our focus as a Government is on supply.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: Is your Government considering making changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions?
PRIME MINISTER: What our Government is considering is fixing housing supply by getting our legislation through the Senate. That’s what we’re considering.
JOURNALIST: Would you rule out changes to negative gearing and property taxes this term or next?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we’re doing is doing the legislation that we have before the Senate. So, I talk about what we’re doing, not what we’re not doing. And what we’re doing, is trying to get through that legislation through the Senate.
JOURNALIST: But just to confirm, Prime Minister, your Government has asked Treasury for modelling?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I didn’t confirm that. Treasury, I’m sure, like other departments do a range of proposals, policy ideas. I want a Public Service that is full of ideas.
JOURNALIST: The RBA is looking through your rebates (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry?
JOURNALIST: The RBA is looking through your rebates. Have your attempts to get a rate cut failed?
PRIME MINISTER: What we’ve done is to reduce inflation to half of what it was. Half of what we inherited. Now, there’ll be new figures out tomorrow, or today, actually, we will wait and see what they show in a couple of hours’ time. But we know that the last time around, the monthly figures showed a rate of 3.5 per cent. Which is half, basically, of what we inherited. And we’ve done that, putting that downward pressure on inflation, by producing two budget surpluses, turning a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus last year. And this year, the financial year just finished, another surplus that will be in double digits in terms of the figures when they’re finally released or finalised in a couple of weeks’ time. So we have as well, we indicated on Monday, that has seen debt decreased by the Commonwealth by around about $150 billion from what was predicted in PEFO, the Pre-Election Forecast, that were there in Treasury of what the former Government was going to deliver. And we’ve done all of that whilst we have given cost of living support. Whether it’s a tax cut for every taxpayer, Energy Bill Relief for every household, 500,000 Fee-Free TAFE places, Cheaper Child Care. While we have delivered all of those measures, as well as delivering important funding, such as what we’ve been able to deliver here in Tasmania. Making sure we’re working to deliver proper services in health and education. That’s what happens when you have responsible economic management. And the Reserve Bank, of course, set interest rates independent of the government – that is their job. Our job is to put downward pressure on inflation, but also look after people. We have had now 980,000 jobs created on our watch. More jobs created since I’ve been elected as Prime Minister than in every previous term of any Prime Minister since Federation. I’m very proud of that. It’s been a difficult economic task, but we have delivered what we have set out to do, which is that downward pressure on inflation whilst we’ve been helping with cost of living relief.
JOURNALIST: On cost of living, will you introduce new cost of living measures in a pre-election Budget?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, one of the things that we are going to do, and you will have seen on Monday when it comes to cost of living as well, is take on businesses when they’re not doing the right thing by consumers. Now, this action by the ACCC in taking Woolworths and Coles to court in order to hold them to account for what the ACCC alleges has happened. When you have a packet of Oreos lifted up in prices and by triple the amount in which they’re then decreased and a sign put on them saying that it’s a special, then that is not doing the right thing by consumers. Now people out there are under financial pressure and they’re looking for value, they’re looking for bargains. And so when they go into a supermarket and see ‘special’ or ‘prices down’, they trust that that is the truth. Now it’s not the truth if a supermarket has increased the price by $1.50 from what it was and then a month later put it down by fifty cents and purported to argue that they have decreased the price. That is a breach of trust, it’s a breach of faith. Australians are rightly angry about it, as they should be, and my Government is taking action. The ACCC are taking them to court. We have released on Monday as well exposure drafts of our changes to legislation, as well as our changes to the mandating of the code of conduct for supermarkets, as recommended by Dr Craig Emerson. It is extraordinary that under the former Government you had a voluntary code of conduct, just expecting that people would voluntarily do the right thing. Quite clearly, that’s not good enough, which is why we’re mandating. That’s a part of dealing with cost of living pressures. So we want wages to increase and we’re delivering that, including in Jason’s area, a 15 per cent increase in the wages of early educators in childcare. We have delivered a substantial increase in the wages of aged care workers. We’ve delivered tax cuts on top of that. So we want people to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. That’s all a part of our cost of living measures.
JOURNALIST: Here in Tasmania, will you exempt the Macquarie Point Stadium from GST calculations?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
JOURNALIST: Why not?
PRIME MINISTER: Because if we did that, we’d have to do the same for the Olympic sites in Queensland, for every infrastructure project in the country.
JOURNALIST: Wasn’t that done for a stadium in Jim Chalmers electorate?
PRIME MINISTER: We won’t, well I’m not sure what stadium with hundreds of millions of dollars you’re referring to in Jim’s electorate in Logan. I’m very familiar with the electorate. So we will be, can I make this point. We’ll be exempting this contribution to the hospital, to the Northern Tasmania Heart Centre from the GST. It’s very different. But infrastructure projects, of course, it all adds up. It all evens out. I’m not sure this is understood fully by people in these positions, but when you have the GST equalisation, if you have a proportion of funds invested around the country, then it evens itself out. This is a separate thing which we’ve agreed to exempt from the GST because it’s about healthcare. But infrastructure across the board is not exempt. I was an Infrastructure Minister for six years, I assure you there was no GST exemptions during that period.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, with the Heart Centre comes a lot of money for Northern Tasmania. How concerned are you about your prospects in Lyons?
PRIME MINISTER: I think Lyons, what I’m doing in every seat, in every state, in the one country of Australia, is governing. We’re doing things here regardless of the political colour. I don’t have a colour coded spreadsheet to determine my funding proposals. And I am working and delivering here in Northern Tasmania, in North West Tasmania, in Hobart. We’re delivering at UTAS down the road here, $65 million each to fix up UTAS and to make it into a much better stadium. We are investing in Macquarie Point, we’re investing throughout Tasmania. We’ll continue to do so and I believe there’ll be an election at some time. If you keep your eye on that white car with the little flag on the front on the day it goes to Yarralumla, then we’ll call an election sometime before, or on or before May, and we’ll put our case to the Australian people. But we have a serious plan for health, a serious plan for education, a serious plan for energy. We’re working here as well. The Marinus Link Project is a great example of the cooperation that was talked about for a long period of time. Well, myself and this Premier have actually got it done. Thanks very much.