Australian Prime Minister Doorstop Interview – Sydney 4 March
Good morning everyone, my name is Ash Ambihaipahar. I am the Labor candidate for the seat of Barton for the upcoming federal election. I just want to welcome everyone here today. In particular, we have some amazing people here at Carlton South Primary School for a wonderful announcement. We have the Prime Minister and we’ve got the Premier, we’ve got a couple of ministers as well here, and also we’ve got the candidate for Banks, Zhi Soon. So, I want to welcome everyone here today. Thank you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well thanks very much, Ash, and it’s great to be here at Carlton South Public School for what is a very historic announcement indeed. Labor at both state and federal levels regards education as absolutely central to the role of government, providing opportunity for every child to be the best that they can. We want those doors of opportunity not just left open, but we want them widened. And that is why we have worked so hard to get now seven out of eight state and territory governments signed up to the National School Resourcing Standard that was identified more than a decade ago by David Gonski in his landmark study. Looking at what do we need to do to lift every child up to make sure no child falls falls behind. And that is precisely what this commitment today has done. And I want to thank the Premier of NSW and the Deputy Premier for the work that they’ve done in working together with myself and my Minister Jason Clare to get this done. Because there is nothing more important for government to do than to leave a legacy that creates opportunities for this and generations to come. And that is what this does today. This will provide a $4.8 billion injection from the Commonwealth into NSW public schools over the next decade, lifting up our contribution by an additional 5 per cent. This will support some 770,000 public school students, or more than 2,000 schools. To put this in proper context, this is the largest ever federal injection of funds into NSW schools ever by any government. And it is so important, importantly as well, under this agreement, every single dollar of additional funding will go towards helping children learn as part of this agreement. It’s not a blank cheque. We want to make sure that it’s tied to real reforms like evidence based teaching practices, phonics and numeracy checks, catch up tutoring, more mental health support. And we know that these are objectives that are shared by the NSW Government, led by Chris. This is a great day, but we need to acknowledge as well the contrast which is there. When the Government changed hands in 2013, people were told that there would be no cuts to education and no cuts to health. And then in the first Budget, there was $80 billion ripped out, $50 billion from health under Peter Dutton as the Health Minister, and $30 billion ripped out of schools funding in that first 2014 Budget. And ever since, we’ve been trying to play catch up, ever since, students have fallen behind. There are real world consequences for young Australians as a direct result of those cuts that were made. And indeed, public school completion rates dropped from 81% in 2014 to 73.6% in 2023. At a time where Australia needs to compete on the basis of how smart we are, on the skills and education of our workforce coming up, the idea that we’ve gone backwards over that decade as a direct result of the cuts that were made by the former Coalition government is an indictment on their values. What today represents is the values of who we are, not just as the Labor Party, but in my firm view, the values that we have as Australians. The values that want every young Australian, such as these brilliant young students here at Carlton South, to have the best opportunity in life, the best start in life. And that’s why we’re so committed to this. And I want to thank personally the Premier of NSW. We’ve engaged very directly in this and the Premier has played a leadership role in making sure that this can be delivered.
CHRIS MINNS, PREMIER OF NEW SOUTH WALES: Thanks Albo. Really appreciate everybody being here at Carlton South Public School this morning, not far from my home in the electorate of Kogarah. And it’s great to be here with the Prime Minister, the Deputy Premier, the Minister for Education, candidates, parents, kids at this wonderful public school. This is an example of what public education can do for the country. We regard the spend on education in NSW not as a cost to the Budget, but an investment in the future and the dividend will live on for a long time. What it means is that the next generation of young Australians get access to the world’s best education. A lot of people have been fighting for these changes to funding when it comes to public education in NSW for a long, long time. In particular, parents groups, the Teachers Federation and I want to acknowledge Henry Rajendra, who’s here, the Secretary of the union who’s been a passionate advocate for fairness when it comes to public education. If we want to compete in the world over the next 10 years, we need to make sure that we are putting as much money and effort and resourcing into the next generation as possible. And by any objective measure, the COVID years did have an impact on educational outcomes for young people in schools, whether they were in public or private schools. What I can say without fear of contradiction is this investment from the Commonwealth Government will make up for the hits that we’ve taken in education over the last few years and see us jump into the future with the kind of investment that education desperately needs. This is a game changer for NSW. And I know we speak about big dollars and multi year agreements and interstate state federal agreements, but what does this mean for parents? It means that phonics and numeracy checks for Year One kids will become standard across our public education system. So we can identify early in a child’s learning where something’s gone wrong and where we need to correct it. It means that we’ll have evidence based teaching and targeted intensive support in small groups. I think every parent would know a situation or even have it in their own family where they had a child that was in a large classroom that just got missed and it’s nobody’s fault. Big classrooms with teachers in the past had been a problem when it comes to public education or education in general. What this money means is that we can have intense small groups so that no child is left behind. This is the kind of the promise of the Gonski reforms from over 10 years ago. It’s the final element. It will make a massive difference. I know that the Federal Minister for Education and also the Deputy Premier, the Minister for Education Prue Car, have been fighting for this agreement for a long time. It’s exactly what the state needs. The Commonwealth drives a hard bargain, but we drive a hard bargain too. But this is the agreement that state and Commonwealth need. And I think it also gives the final element to the public’s expectation that the state and the Commonwealth will fight their corners but in the end come to an agreement that’s in everyone’s best interest. That’s what we’ve done over the last few months. This is an agreement that’s a game changer for the next generation of young Australians and we’re very proud of it.
JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks, Chris. This is a massive day for public education. Until today, we’d signed agreements with six states and territories across the country. But this is the big one. NSW is the biggest education system in the country. And this is the biggest investment in public education in NSW by an Australian Government ever. Ever. And it’s also the biggest reform to our school system in decades. But it’s even bigger than that. This is about making sure that every child in this country gets a great start in life. What every parent wants for their child and what every child deserves. It’s $4.8 billion invested into our public schools. But it’s more than that. As the Prime Minister said, it’s not a blank cheque. It’s tied to real and practical reforms to help children who fall behind when they’re little to catch up and to keep up and help make sure that more young people finish high school. I want to thank the Prime Minister from the bottom of my heart. This is happening, Albo, because of your leadership. This is real leadership in action. And I want to thank you, Chris. And I want to thank you, Prue. This is teamwork. This shows what we can achieve for the next generation of Australians when we work together. Good education changes lives. A good education system can change countries. It’s changed ours. And it’s our public schools that are at the bedrock of that. They’re the ones that do the heavy lifting. Today, about one in 10 children are below the minimum standard that we set for our kids in literacy and numeracy. But it’s one in three kids from disadvantaged backgrounds that are below that minimum standard. And the overwhelming majority of those kids are in our public schools. It’s our public schools that do the heavy lifting now. Non-government schools are funded at the level that David Gonski said they should be at all those years ago. It’s public schools that aren’t. This fixes that for them and for the next generation of kids. For kids that aren’t even born yet, this will change their lives, give them the opportunity that they need and that they deserve, but also build the country of our imagination, build the country that we need, build a better and a fairer education system. And guess what? You build a better and a fairer country. We’re the best country in the world, but we can be even better. And this investment is going to help make that real. So, I want to thank you again, Prime Minister, on behalf of all the kids that this is going to help in NSW. But frankly, right across the country and children that aren’t even born yet, this investment is going to make us an even better country.
PRUE CAR, DEPUTY PREMIER OF NEW SOUTH WALES AND MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND EARLY LEARNING AND WESTERN SYDNEY: Thanks, Jason. As everyone said, there is no more valuable investment than any government at any level can make than in public education. To the Prime Minister, to Minister Jason Clare and to the Premier, I also say thank you, because for years, for more than a decade, reasonable people around the country have been asking people like us why is it that public schools aren’t fairly funded? Today that finally ends now. Public schools in NSW are finally on a road to becoming fully and fairly funded. In NSW we talk a lot about public education. In fact, it was one of the main reasons why we were elected in March 2023. We were elected on a commitment to rebuild public education, to tackle the teacher shortage crisis, to stop the merged and cancelled classes in our public schools. We’re really well on our way to achieving that. We began this year with a 40% drop in teacher vacancies. We’ve halved the number of merged and cancelled classes. We’re introducing things like numeracy checks. But what this historic investment means is that can now be start to be rolled out everywhere. It means if your child, and I’m talking to the parents of NSW now, if your child is going to start to fall behind, we will be able to catch them. And now a federal and a state government will support our wonderful, wonderful teachers to have the time to have the professional development and to have the support and resources they need to be the experts that they are. Because everything that we do in public education relies on them and their expertise. This is one of the very biggest days ever in public education. I’m really proud that we have been able to come to this agreement on behalf of all of the students of NSW. So, many people through the years have been calling for this. The Premier called them out. The Teachers Federation for decades has been campaigning for full and fair funding, the P&C on behalf of parents, every school principal that I have spoken to in the past almost two years. Now it’s up to us to make sure that every single one of these dollars is spent on the future of our children. And they cannot wait to get to work to ensure that this full and fair funding means that every single child in NSW, in a public school, has every opportunity in the world to realise their true potential.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks so much, Prue. Happy to take questions about this firstly.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, with the education funding, we have seen a decline in standards despite an increase in funding. How can we make sure that we’re not just throwing good money after bad.
PRIME MINISTER: We make sure through the nature of this agreement, which I might ask Jason if he wants to add something here. But we want to make sure that part of this agreement is that the four per cent for capital depreciation can’t be counted as part of education funding. But other direct investment by both the State and the Commonwealth will count as education funding. A 75-25 split. And can I say this, that NSW haven’t waited for this. NSW injected substantial additional investment when they were elected to government. So this is making sure that that investment is directly related to education. But secondly, as well as part of the agreement, things like phonics testing, literacy and numeracy being prioritised the testing in Year One. At the moment, the NAPLAN tests kick in when a child is eight years old. The problem with that is – nothing wrong with that, it’s better than what was there before – but by the time a child gets to eight, they can have fallen behind. Doing that testing in Year One means that that early intervention to give a child that extra leg up, that extra assistance, that one on one or small group assistance, will make sure that they don’t fall behind.
MINISTER CLARE: It’s because this is not a blank cheque, as the boss said. This is about tying the funding to real and practical reform. Sorry, are you going to jump in?
JOURNALIST: The Premier’s been asking for this for three years. Why has it taken an election to get this over the line?
MINISTER CLARE: Well, bottom line is this should have been done a decade ago, but the Liberal Party, after promising not to cut funding to schools, ripped the guts out of public schools. They ripped $30 billion out of our public schools. Guess where the $600 billion is going to come from for their nuclear reactors? You can guess that it’s going to be things like this. But back to your original question about why this is so important. We know that of all the kids who fall behind when they’re little in that first NAPLAN test, when they’re eight years old, only 20% of them, or one in five, have caught up by the time they do NAPLAN when they’re 15. So, it’s too late to wait til eight. You’ve got to intervene early. And over the course of the last two and a half years, working with Prue, but also working with other education ministers across the country, we’ve worked with experts on what we should invest this money in. As I say, it’s not a blank cheque. It’s going to be tied to practical reforms that we know work. And all of the advice coming to us is that you’ve got to identify children early on who are falling behind through a thing like a phonics check or a numeracy check in year one. And then when you identify the child who needs extra help, make sure that you give them that extra help. And so that’s what catch up tutoring is about, individualised support. You know, tutoring is expensive. Ask any mum and dad how much they fork out for tutoring. And they’ll tell you that it can often be a fortune. This is free, funded in our schools, acting early, supporting children when they’re little. We know that if they get that support where they might come out of a class of 30, four days a week for maybe 40 minutes at a time, they can learn as much in six months as you’d normally learn in 12 months. Chris, you talked about the pandemic. Murat can talk with expertise about this as well. The pandemic, because of all that lost learning, meant that NSW and other states invested in catch up tutoring. We found out that, guess what, it works. You provide a child with more individual support and they can catch up. If they catch up, they’re more likely to finish high school and then go on to TAFE, then go on to university and build the life of their dreams.
JOURNALIST: Would it stem the flow of the exodus to private schools?
PRIME MINISTER: What this is about as well is making sure that every child is valued. At the moment, private schools have met the School Resourcing Standard, but public schools don’t. And public schools are under pressure. That’s why the Commonwealth is stepping up to provide support to state governments to make sure that that’s delivered.
JOURNALIST: When can parents expect to see some of these changes because there is a real crisis of confidence in public education at the moment with parents leaving to go private. And do you expect some of those enrolments to come back?
MINISTER CLARE: Connor, the answer is the money starts to roll out from next year and we want parents to have a real choice. We want parents to know that the public school down the road has got all the resources and all the support that your child is going to need. And that’s absolutely what this is all about. The truth is that reform is hard and that reform in education takes time before you really see the true impact of it. It’s like planting seeds in a garden that take time before you see them take root and have a massive impact. But I tell you what, it’s worth it. This agreement signed today makes sure that this money rolls out. The only threat to it is if Peter Dutton is elected and passes legislation to rip it out.
MINISTER CAR: Can I just actually take up on what Jason said was there? I think the fact that we’ve just signed that document that it’s bedded down, that this is not an election commitment. This is something Commonwealth Government and the state government actually have agreed to and we funded that gives some surety to NSW public schools, that this is money that’s in the Budget over the life of the agreement. That shows our commitment to actually get this done properly, this is not an election promise, this is actually what has been achieved for the first time ever, 100%. But in terms of how we will use this money to restore public confidence in public education, we’re hard at work in NSW and this money will help us really, I hate to use this word, but turbocharge this in NSW. We’re hard at work to ensure that we build the schools where they are needed. The previous state government in NSW left communities in the growing northwest and southwest of Sydney in particular without schools, tens of thousands of people without schools. You cannot enrol a child in a school that doesn’t even exist. We are doing that in addition to ensuring that, using this full and fair funding agreement to ensure there’s a teacher in front of every child to make sure that we continue to drive down the number of merged and cancelled classes. Because that’s the stuff that will drive enrolments to public schools and really give parents a choice, now that we can say that non-government schools are funded where they should have been and now finally public schools are funded where they should be, this is a historic moment and we hope it does impact on enrolments.
JOURNALIST: For you Minister Car, will some of this money be spent on building new schools and if so, how much?
MINISTER CAR: We’re ourselves as a state government building schools where they’re required. This money is about actually the teaching and learning inside those classrooms. And I think every parent would realise that’s really where the magic happens. We were elected on a really ambitious target in terms of building schools where they were really needed. We’ve already opened some of those schools in places like Marsden Park and Box Hill and Gregory Hills, Gledswood Hills. We’re continuing to roll that out. By day one, term one, 2027, a whole new lot will be built. But this money is about ensuring that the teaching and learning in the classroom will benefit every child and no matter where your child goes to school, that they will have the real chance to be able to not just keep up, but really excel in NSW public schools.
JOURNALIST: Eight independent MPs have written to your government –
PRIME MINISTER: Hang on. We’re talking about education. We’re talking about education. It’s pretty important.
JOURNALIST: Eight independent MPs have written to the Government to index income tax thresholds so Australian’s aren’t paying –
PRIME MINISTER: I’ll come back to that.
JOURNALIST: I’ve got a question about Russian oil.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay.
JOURNALIST: Eight independent MPs have written to your government calling on you to –
PRIME MINISTER: Have they? Or have they written to you? Because I haven’t got the letter.
JOURNALIST: They’ve written to the Treasurer, said that Australians aren’t paying higher income tax over time, including from 2030 when the benefit of a revamped Stage Three tax cuts will be wiped out. So, could I please ask, will your Government do anything to address bracket creep in the next term?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, two points. One is no one’s written to me about those issues. No one’s written to me about these issues. So, I haven’t seen a letter. But I’ll take it on face value that you’ve seen the letter, but I haven’t. Our policy when it comes to tax was pretty clear. What we did was we did the gutsiest decision that my Government has made is to go to the National Press Club and say we are going to change the legislated tax cuts to make sure that every Australian gets a tax cut. Every single taxpayer, not just some, all 13.6 million of them. And as a direct result, some 98% of young people, more than 90% of women and some eight in 10 Australians got more than they were going to get previously. In addition to that, of course, the big winners of that were low income earners and were middle income earners. Up to the average hit, of course, was around about $75,000, you were a big winner. Now you remember that when we did that, not all of the media, including the Fin Review front page, wasn’t welcoming of this decision at the time. What we did was go out there and argue, okay, because it was the right thing done for all of the right reasons. And as a result of that though we had the Coalition say they wanted to. First of all, they said they’d oppose it before they saw it. Then they said they would roll it back. And then Peter Dutton a year ago was demanding an election be called immediately to stop these tax cuts going through. That’s how much Peter Dutton hated it. So, that’s our income tax policy. It’s been there for all to see. And when people vote in the coming period, they will have an opportunity of whether they support the action that the Government took at that time or whether they’re going to do what Peter Dutton, perhaps the question for him is will he do what he said he would do at the time. And multiple people, Sussan Ley, said they would absolutely roll it back. Are they going to roll back those tax cuts, which would mean increased taxation for low income earners, increased taxation for middle income earners, but people like the ministers here getting an extra $4,500 in their kick, that is what the income tax debate has been about. That’s what it should be about the next term. Peter Dutton, also on tax, has called for when he was in Mount Isa, called for regional taxation, a zonal tax, that is, if you live in a particular area, you will pay a different tax rate from when you are in Sydney. Here, someone who lives in Kogarah or Carlton would pay a different tax rate from someone who lived in Mount Isa. Now, Peter Dutton is the alternative Prime Minister of this country. He needs to be held to account for these thought bubbles which come out day after day and which are then dismissed and he walks away from once he says it. So, zonal taxation and cutting or increasing the tax rates for everyone who’s a low and middle income earner is what he needs to be held to account for. As for letters that I haven’t seen. Well, I’ll comment when I get to see letters.
JOURNALIST: I just wanted to ask about PNG security treaty. How effective is it if Port Moresby is not giving us a heads up about threats from Chinese neighbours?
PRIME MINISTER: We gave a heads up to Port Moresby.
JOURNALIST: A recent report from the Centre of Research on Energy and Clean Air revealed Australia was the single biggest buyer of oil products from Indian and Turkish refineries that use Russian oil. So, the equivalent of $5.5 billion of Russian oil that we’re buying through these third countries should and will Australia stop doing that, considering that it could potentially arm Russia against Ukraine?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, our position on Ukraine is very clear. We stand with the people of Ukraine and we stand with President Zelenskyy and the brave struggle of the people of Ukraine to defend their national sovereignty. But also what they’re fighting for is the international rule of law. Now Australia stands ready to assist. We’ve contributed $1.5 billion with $1.3 billion for military assistance directly. There’s discussion at the moment about potential peacekeeping. And from my Government’s perspective, we’re open to consideration of any proposals going forward. Australia has historically played an important role in areas including in Africa, in Cyprus, in a range of peacekeeping areas. We want to see peace in Ukraine, but we want to make sure that the illegal, immoral actions of Russia are not rewarded and that Vladimir Putin and his designs, which are imperialistic, not just on Ukraine but on other countries, are not rewarded or encouraged.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister employees across the food supply chain have raised concerns over energy price hikes. Will Minster Bowen and Australia’s energy producers be part of your new National Food Council?
PRIME MINISTER: What we’ll do is that announcement is coming up later today and I note there’s a front page article doesn’t really give attribution to former political connections with some of the people who are quoted in that article, and that’s a matter for them. But what is actually being called for is being announced today. What is being called for is being announced today by Minister Collins.
JOURNALIST: The US administration has called Zelenskyy a dictator, falsely suggested Ukraine started the war and voted with Russia in the UN. Has this prompted any re-evaluation of the reliability of the US as an ally partner? And can you give us details about what we’ve been asked for in that peacekeeping mission in Ukraine?
PRIME MINISTER: We haven’t been asked for anything. That’s what I just said. There are proposals being discussed. If a request is made, then we would give consideration to it. With regard to the US, the US is an important ally of Australia. That remains the case since an alliance between our nations. With regard to Australia’s foreign policy, Australia determines our foreign policy. We do it in Australia’s national interest and it is in Australia’s national interest to stand with Ukraine. And that’s what my Government is doing.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned a high-risk domestic violence offender was able to cut off their ankle bracelet, and is now on the run, only 20 minutes after they were released from Silverwater Prison?
PREMIER MINNS: Look, I’ve obviously seen those media reports this morning. They’re very concerning. It’s another example of an individual having access to a privately funded ankle monitor. I’ve spoken to the Attorney General about this. We’re going to end that practice in NSW. It’s clearly not working. There’s repeat instances over and over again of individuals who are accused of very serious offences in the state having access to private monitoring and then going on to commit other offences. So, we’re ruling a line in the sand. Obviously, we need to work out transition processes for particular individuals that might have the ankle monitoring on at the moment, but we’ve had enough and the evidence is in.
JOURNALIST: Jason, I had a question about higher education.
PREMIER MINNS: Sorry, we might just go to Chris. There’s been a few over here. Yes, we’ve got a NSW gallery here, too.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PREMIER MINNS: That’s exactly right. I want to make it clear that this particular offender, who’s facing these serious charges, wasn’t subject to the Government’s changes to bail conditions and electronic monitoring that we moved through the Parliament last year. But nonetheless we’re still responsible for it and we need to change.
JOURNALIST: Just on the weather, can I grab an update on the situation in the north and what your advice is to residents there?
PREMIER MINNS: Yeah, a couple of things. Firstly, Alfred, obviously a major concern for NSW, tropical cyclone warning that we haven’t had in the state for decades. But we have had major natural weather events. The Northern Rivers has gone through hell over the last few years. We’re particularly concerned about some of those communities. We can expect the surf to pick up in the coming days, then winds of up to 100 kilometres an hour, and then as we head into the weekend, the tributaries and rivers and flooding in the Northern Rivers in particular. So, my number one message is download the Hazards Near Me app, listen to emergency broadcasts, particularly from the SES. And lastly, but most importantly, don’t drive through flood waters. It’s the single best way of killing yourself, someone else in your car or an emergency service worker who has to put their own life in danger to try and rescue you.
JOURNALIST: Panic buying has already begun in the Northern Rivers and people are inquiring about getting generators. What will you do to make sure communities aren’t cut off?
PREMIER MINNS: Yeah, look, one of the most important things out of the 2022 floods was early information. We will get as much information into the hands of residents as early as possible. There’s no reason to panic but what will happen if you take everything off the shelves is that you’re not going to leave enough for your neighbours and your friends and other people in the community. We’ve got good logistic and supply contingencies in place in the worst case scenario. But obviously people should just use some common sense and also think about your community rather than clearing the shelves. Most people don’t act this way, by the way. Most people are fantastic and the Northern Rivers community are the most resilient people in the country. They are tougher than anybody else. It’s a shame they have to go through this again, but they’re ready for it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister on the issue of the cyclone, will it have any effect on the election timing?
PRIME MINISTER: We’re governing and that’s what we’re doing today. I know there’s others are interested in election timing. What I’m interested in is getting things done on behalf of the country. This is a big announcement today. I intend to be in Queensland tonight / tomorrow. I’ve been discussing with Premier Minns and with Premier Crisafulli circumstances. The Emergency Management Minister as well as the Treasurer, are on the ground in Queensland this morning with Premier Crisafulli.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will the Federal Government take back the Port of Darwin?
PRIME MINISTER: We wouldn’t have sold it. We wouldn’t have flogged it off to a company. And I was on the record at the time as the Shadow Infrastructure Minister, opposing what is clearly a national asset. It’s our most important port in Northern Australia, and if you look at the globe, you don’t have to think very strongly about what areas are most important for the defence of Australia. And so we wouldn’t have sold it in the first place. And I think it says a lot about, frankly, the hypocrisy of the Coalition who like to talk big. They talk big about national security issues and from time to time they talk about how strong they are in standing up. Well, they flogged off the Port of Darwin, one of their ministers, who was the Trade Minister, ended up on the board of that corporation. They talk about ships, well, they had ships in Sydney Harbour that were from the People’s Republic of China, happily docked there at Garden Island. So, that was the one time they kept their eye on these ships. When the ship was off Western Australia coast in 2022, there was no surveillance whatsoever.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’ve had your chequebook out in recent weeks ahead the election. Have we seen most of your big spend promises?
PRIME MINISTER: What we’ve been doing, we’ve been working on this for some time and the funding kicks in from next year. So, we have gone through methodically. As part of our agenda this term, health and education in Labor’s DNA. But we’ve had a strong economy. We have managed to produce not one but two Budget surpluses. We’ve got inflation down, wages up. We are in a position where interest rates have started to fall. So, at the same time, as we’ve been managing the economy responsibly, we’ve created the space to be able to have the reforms so that everyone can see a doctor with just their Medicare card, not their credit card, and so that every child can have an opportunity in life, whether they go to a private school or a public school. We’re agnostic. What we do say, that’s a decision for parents and families. What we do say is that kids who are sent to a public school, like my son was, should get the same opportunity in life as my mum happened to send me to a Catholic school. I didn’t pay fees, but happened to do that. We want every kid to not be left behind. I went to the election in 2022, saying no one left behind and no one held back. This is about not leaving people behind, but also about not holding back from being the best they can be in life.
JOURNALIST: The Coalition want public servants to work from the office 100% of the time. Can we get your response, please?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Coalition want public servants to be at home all the time, 36,000 of them, because they want to sack them. Be very clear here. So, on the one hand, they’re saying you can just stay at home because those additional public servants, where we’ve put $6 billion into clearing off those queues in Veterans Affairs, they’re saying you can just stay at home forever. Because you can’t cut 36,000 public servants, which they count for multiple expenditures that they’re committing to without doing that. But that’ll just be the start because they’ve got to find $600 billion for their nuclear reactors. $600 billion which is going to be spent. You know, we don’t have to adopt all of America’s policies. What we have here from Peter Dutton is that he’s so policy lazy, him and his team, that they just, if they hear something, you know, on the news, an announcement from overseas about sacking public servants or people working from home or DEI, you know, the dreaded inclusion policy that they’re so worried about, they say, yeah, I’ll have some of that. Well, what we need and what we will see, of course, as well, with user pays in the health system. What we need is Australian policy for Australian conditions, because we are unashamedly the best country on earth and we don’t need to borrow off anyone else.
JOURNALIST: The last couple of years have been quite trying for your Government. You’ve talked a lot about social cohesion. We’ve had a lot of antisemitic incidents here in NSW. But some communities, like multicultural ones here, say that there’s a double standard when it comes to social cohesion. What do you say to that? And are you worried about that in the electorate where there’s going to be backlash because of the Government’s positions when it comes to political interference, for example, when it comes to prominent Arab and Muslim Australians?
PRIME MINISTER: We support social inclusion. My Government is a government that embraces multicultural Australia, that –
JOURNALIST: But the actions don’t match, the actions don’t match.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that’s an assertion by you and your, whatever your organisation is, that’s an assertion by you. What my Government has done is to continue to bring people together. Yesterday afternoon at The Lodge for Project Rosanna. Brought together leaders of the Jewish and Palestinian community. That’s what we do. And they travelled by bus down to The Lodge. Wasn’t about show. It was about just bringing people together. We’re a great country and one of our great strengths is our diversity. We need to respect each and every Australian regardless of their faith and regardless of who they are there.
JOURNALIST: When will Minister Farrell meet with Secretary Lutnick and are you still optimistic about carve out for Australian steel and aluminium?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ll be doing our best to advocate and I note that Jim Chalmers was over in the United States just in recent days, met with the Treasury Secretary. We continue to engage with all of our American friends. We’ve had meetings across the board with the Defence Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Treasurer. I’ve engaged directly with President Trump and will continue to do so to put our case. Free trade is something that is in the interests of both of our countries. We have a free trade agreement. The US enjoys a surplus with Australia and has done so since the Truman presidency. It is in our national interest, but it’s also in the US’s national interest as well.
JOURNALIST: There’s a group of, a collective, the group of mayors. But very angry mayors in Sydney’s southwest today that are unhappy about the lack of public transport down there. What are the plans for greater public transport in that part of the region?
PREMIER MINNS: Look, it’s probably not a scoop to hear that there’s some angry mayors out there, but I would say that we have worked really hard on ensuring that infrastructure goes to Western Sydney communities and it hasn’t been easy. But if you look at the Government’s record when it comes to building public transport infrastructure, building new educational facilities, as well as three brand new hospitals or one brand new hospital and two massive rebuilds at Canterbury and Fairfield. We just can’t make up for it in one term of Parliament. It’s going to take time. Part of our response to the pressures on Western Sydney is to build up density closer to the eastern seaboard where there is existing enabling infrastructure. And we’ve copped a lot of grief for it, but that’s how we see Sydney grow sustainably without me adding billions and billions and billions of dollars to the debt. Or going to families in NSW and saying, I know you’re skint at the moment and I know it’s difficult to pay your mortgage and rent, but we’re going to jack up your taxes. I just can’t do it. And they may be expecting me to do it, but we won’t. It’s just not, it’s not fair on businesses and families in NSW.
PRIME MINISTER: Last one to bring it home, gonna be a good one.
JOURNALIST: Are you gonna be up for four debates against Peter Dutton?
PRIME MINISTER: Peter Dutton can’t find the National Press Club. I’ve been there 10 times. I hold press conferences almost every day. I’m here, holding a full scale press conference as I did on Sunday. As I did on Saturday. As I do every day – I’m accountable. I don’t do Ray Hadley or 2GB every Thursday morning and call that accountability. And you know I’m up for engaging. I look forward, I’ve been asked about the National Press Club when I was there and said that I’m happy to do so. Last time round when Scott Morrison was the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and a whole range of other things as well, you might recall in that chaotic, shambolic government that we replaced. What happened then was that a lot of the debates were determined by Scott Morrison. I make this point. The ABC exists and the ABC haven’t had a debate for a long period of time. I look forward to Peter Dutton agreeing to a debate on the ABC. As for others, that’s all negotiated by national secretaries. Frankly, that’s why they give us a party organisation to deal with those matters. Thanks very much.
https://www.pm.gov.au/media/doorstop-interview-sydney-26