PHILLIP THOMPSON: Well, thank you all for coming here today. My name's Phil Thompson. I want to thank the Prime Minister for coming back to the seat of Herbert. Three years ago today, we held a press conference just like this. And I found out right before we came out that my friend died by suicide. And I was reflecting on that this morning, because the PM before he came out and said you don't have to go out, you don't have to speak to the media and don't have to do it. We can catch up after. I decided I wanted to do it. I didn't tell any of you, and Eliza you were there, and Lanai you were there. I didn't tell, I didn't tell the press what was happening. And all I could think about was this poor family of Brad Carr, born on Remembrance Day, died on Anzac Day night. And then we found out the day after. I did the press conference because, I wanted to be a part of some sort of change. To be able to stand up and go, you know, bad things happen and we got to do better. And on a day like Anzac Day, it's a mixed day of emotions where I want to hug my two daughters, and I want to kiss my wife, and I wanna see my mates, and I want to reflect on our service, but then also remember (inaudible) on the battlefield. (inaudible) and my many friends that have died from their war wounds back here in Australia. And it's just a whirlwind of emotion, so I wanted to thank you for coming here again today. Today's a pretty special and emotional day for me. I got into politics to try and do good always. I've made plenty of mistakes, I'm not perfect. But I got into politics to try (inaudible) and create a future for my community, for the children of Townsville and around the country. That's what I think today's announcement is about. It's creating a future. And what I wanted to do is to have our young people today grow up here. Go to school here. Go to uni. Get a trade. Have a future, a life. Get married here. Stay here. Not go to the South East corner. Not go to a capital city. But we have to create those opportunities. It's about creating those opportunities. Backing in new technology. New technology that will drive our economy. That will make us world leading, and that's why I'm very excited to, for that $70 million for a hydrogen hub in Townsville. This is world leading and Townsville Enterprise, who is here today as well, Claudia and I work closely together to set up a consortium. And not many politicians on it, which is a good thing, it takes out all the political jousting back and forth, but lets the people, the experts come up with exactly what we need in Townsville to ensure that. Our children who stay here and have a new technology and new future. And I think this hydrogen hub, this announcement, will create those jobs, this new technology. Will put us on the map. We're also announcing $2 million for Ark Energy, as a subsidiary company of Sun Metals. They are a Korean-based company and have some linkage already set up for hydrogen, for our exports. They're also the first companies in the world to have heavy vehicle hydrogen, hydrogen heavy vehicles that are going to be hydrogen-powered. And they were the first company to be funded through the Clean Energy Regulator. But there's a lot happening in Townsville. All really important. We've also done an announcement on cheaper electricity. So five businesses and one that we were all at before. I saw everyone eating croissants. So $25,000, and that $25,000 is for new technology, new way to ensure that they are (inaudible) get their electricity prices down. Helped by government. Working side by side with me. There's a lot happening in Townsville and it's really good to get the Prime Minister here and I might take him to places like (inaudible) who runs the place. To look around, talk to apprentices, see what all these big circle things actually do. You know, now they're supporting all the mining operations. But also how a business based in Townsville is working with defence industry. We're going to be working in defence industry in Melbourne, but we don't normally hear about it, we normally hear about the big tier ones coming in into areas like Townsville and wanting to set up shop and wanting to take defence industry jobs here. Well, guess what? Today Townsville's going to take defence industry jobs down there. I'm sure that my colleagues in Melbourne will get upset with that. This is a good thing for Townsville. The more apprentices they employ, the more support staff they've got, the more jobs they create. The more it will drive our economy. When you drive our economy in Townsville, it powers the rest of the nation. So without further ado, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much. I know that was a difficult day for you yesterday, but also a day of great pride for you, here in Townsville being with your mates. Can I also extend, on behalf of the Government, sincere condolences to Angus Taylor and his family following the passing of his father yesterday. Angus was scheduled to be here with us today. And let me know when he was en route, of his father's passing. And so to all of Angus' family, and to his brother Charlie and all of those in the family, just thinking of you today mate. And I want to thank you particularly Angus, for the tremendous job you've done in the announcements that we're making today, and I know your father would have been extremely proud of you. Well, Phil has set out very clearly what this is all about today. We have a clear economic plan and this election, as I've said, each and every day is a choice between a government that has an economic plan for the future. Has an economic plan that has enabled Australia to come through one of the biggest crises we've seen in generations and emerge at the leading edge of advanced economies all around the world. We've managed our finances. A turnaround in the Budget of over $100 billion in the last 12 months, enabling us to provide cost of living relief right now. Retaining our AAA credit rating. Putting downward pressure on rising prices, downward pressure on rising interest rates, downward pressure on rising cost of living because that's how you do it. A strong economy and knowing how to manage your finances. But for businesses in particular, it's important as part of our economic plan, not just we cut taxes, cut red tape, ensuring we're investing in the infrastructure and skills. So great to see so many apprentices here today. They're part of the 220,000 Australian apprentices who are in trade training right now, the highest level we've seen since 1963, when records began. Also, we're investing in these companies being upgraded, their data and digital capability. We're investing in manufacturing and defence industry manufacturing, mining services manufacturing and as Phil was saying, with sites where we are today is linking up with a very similar shop - I've seen at Elinkson's down in Burney. Teaming up with a new plant that has been built in Avalon to build the houses, which I was at and sod turning just a few weeks ago. That's how Australia's advanced manufacturing capability is being built, but central to our economic plan also is reliable, affordable energy that is also leading our emissions reductions targets and commitments. Now under Labor, electricity prices increased by 101 per cent, 101 per cent. Under our government, it was just, it was just a bit over 3 per cent. And in fact, since I became Prime Minister, electricity prices have fallen by 9.8 per cent. They've fallen by 8 per cent in just the last two years. And we want to continue to support small and medium sized businesses, make the changes, make the investments they want to make, to ensure they're even more energy efficient in the future to keep their electricity prices down. And that's why today we've announced the $60 million program, which is providing grants of up to $25,000 for small businesses, up to $50 million, sorry, $25,000 and $50.000 for medium-sized enterprises, which they have to match, - which is investing in better energy technology in their businesses, which keeps their electricity prices down, their gas prices down, which is incredibly important. And we met a number of these, Jean-Pierre Patisserie, the Outback Fire Company, the North Queensland Game Meats, Jaimes and (inaudible) frozen fruits. Just every day small and medium sized businesses, which are benefiting from the program that we're announcing today to support small and medium sized businesses all around the country. The other program, in addition to the Hydrogen Hub, which is being established in Gladstone and $70 million invested there, we are establishing a hydrogen hub also here in Townsville. And businesses like the one we're in right here stand to benefit from that because the pipelines, the infrastructure, the supporting, processing, manufacturing that will occur and the plants and so on, which will be needed to drive that industry in the future. That's what they do here. That's what the big round things do. And they'll make more big round things for different purposes, and they'll know how to do it and they'll know where they go. But that's how you invest in building Australia's industrial capability for the future. Our economic plan is about ensuring that not only are we getting their energy costs down now, but we're part of the energy changes going into the future. And as I move around the world and talk to other leaders, they know that Australia is the place they are going to look to get hydrogen from. In my recent discussion, I think a couple of months ago now, with the German Chancellor and we were discussing, of course, the terrible issues in Ukraine. But after we discussed those, the first thing he wanted to talk to me about was our clean energy partnership with Germany and what we're doing in hydrogen. So this is how you achieve your net zero by 2050 commitments. You don't do it by taxing as Labor is doing under their new Carbon Credit Scheme. You don't do it by forcing choices. You make the investments in technology. You put the incentives in place, which enables hydrogen hubs to be established. Carbon capture use and storage technology we've developed. That's good for Australia, and then we take those products and that technology and we sell it to the world. We have always been a significant energy exporter in this country and we will be in the future. We will continue with our traditional exports and will be also upgrading our capability to fully lead the new energy export, which will drive the energy economy of the future. So that's what our economic plan is doing. That's the specifics. We have a detailed specific economic plan to drive the economic opportunities of the future. It's a choice between a government that you do know has a plan that you do know. We know we're not perfect. You don't get every decision right, but we do have a strong plan that we know is working versus a Labor Opposition who you don't know. A leader you don't know, a leader you don't know and they don't have a plan either.
JOURNALIST: If you're re-elected, (inaudible) navigation exercise (inaudible) of 12-nautical miles in the South China Sea, like the US does and has already requested of others?.
PRIME MINISTER: Well we will continue to work closely with our allies and partners in ensuring that the South China Sea is free and open, and we work as part of a partnership. We work with Japan. We work with India, we work with European nations, UK. Germany has undertaken sails through the South China Sea, as indeed, we have. Twelve nautical miles is a separate issue, and these are options that Australia always has. And we will work closely with our allies and partners about the best way to ensure we work together to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific. Now one of the key things there is the South China Sea Code of Conduct. Now that is a topic of I would say, every single bilateral leaders meeting I've had with every ASEAN nation. Remember, Australia was the first country to achieve a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with ASEAN. They're the southeast Asian nations, and that was before, in fact, the Chinese Government were able to achieve that. And a core issue in our engagement with those southeast Asian partners is about a free and open Indo-Pacific. And in particular, the QUAD relationship, that's with Australia, India, Japan and the United States, a free and open Indo-Pacific is a key part of that discussion, which we have led the development of, in particular in Japan. We have the Reciprocal Access Agreement? What's that? It's basically a status of forces agreement with Japan. We are the only country in the world to have such an agreement with the Japanese Government. And that was a landmark agreement that frankly took us, and under my Prime Ministership, three years to land. And we worked through three Prime Ministers.
JOURNALIST: Your candidate for Flynn, not too far from here, said that there's wriggle room on your commitment to net zero. Matt Canavan, your former Resources Minister backed that in this morning on Sky News. Can you be trusted on climate change?
PRIME MINISTER: What our candidate for Flynn was talking about is totally different. He wasn't talking about the commitment himself and he's clarified that today. Our commitment to net zero by 2050 is a commitment of the Australian Government that I made in Glasgow. It is the Government's absolute policy. What he was referring to is our pathway to it and as technologies change and and improve, then of course, we're going to get there and we're going to get there by the best method possible. But I tell you how we're not going to do. We are not going to get there by taxing Australians. We're not going to get there by shutting down businesses like this and industries like this. The Carbon Credits Scheme that Labor has put in place, just to be clear, just be clear, it not only affects the coal industry, it affects the mining and oil and gas production. It affects rail freight, it affects cement production, it affects fuel refining and many other sectors are caught up in those arrangements, which would see them penalised and taxed. See, our approach is to incentivise the change. Our approach with the hydrogen hubs, carbon capture use and storage, $22 billion of investment, under the plan that Angus Taylor has put together to get us to net zero by 2050 - through technology, not burdensome taxes on the Australian people, which has always been Labor's way. And as you'll see, Labor would govern with the Greens, and it'll be Greens that will be pulling Labor's strings. They certainly will never be pulling my strings. Ever.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Labor's announcing their plan today for deeper and broader engagement in the Pacific in its words. Isn't that the lesson from China's pact with the Solomons that we need to increase the level of engagement with Pacific Islands?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I can understand Labor's criticism, if we hadn't established six additional embassies, missions as they're called in the Pacific. I could understand if Australia hadn't moved to be the only country in the world that has embassies, missions, in every single one of the 20 Pacific Island Forum nations. I could understand if Australia, under our government, hadn't moved to provide Guardian Class Patrol Boats to all of those Pacific Island nations, to protect their fisheries and to preserve their security. I could understand if I hadn't been the first Prime Minister to go back in the Solomon Islands since Kevin Rudd, or more so the first one for a direct bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Vanuatu since Bob Hawke, and the same when it comes to Prime Minister Bainimarama for a direct bilateral meeting in Fiji. I've had over 100 engagements with Pacific leaders over the course of the last four years. If we hadn't stepped up and ensured that our ODA, our overseas development assistance and support in the Pacific, hadn't got to $1.8 billion a year. If we hadn't established the Pacific Financing Facility that is investing in projects like the Tina River Electrification Project or providing the additional financial support for loans and support to the Papua New Guinean Government, with whom I have almost constant engagement. I could understand Labor's criticisms if none of those things had happened, but in August of last year, this is what Richard Marles said about our government's engagement in the Pacific. He said 'it would be wrong to suggest that Australia has not properly allocated resources to its relationship with the Pacific. On the contrary', he said, 'we are genuinely present in the region'. So I find it odd that having been so adamant and supportive of what Australia was doing, what our government was doing in the Pacific, that on the eve of an election, someone who runs their speeches past the Chinese Government before giving them, is now going to be critical of us. I note what they've said today. What they're effectively saying is they're going to keep doing what we've been doing. There's one difference though, I sent in the AFP. The Labor Party wants to send in the ABC, when it comes to their Pacific solution. They have a Q&A solution in the Pacific. What we have is real investment in our partnerships with the region. The Blackrock facility in Fiji, for example, that is a training centre for Fijian military to be able to participate in the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations. We built that facility. I mean, Frank Bainimarama, the Prime Minister of Fiji, was trained in Australia. And so for Labor to run around and pretend that somehow there hasn't been significant investment in training, whether it be in the defence forces, supporting with additional assets, particularly the Guardian Class Patrol Boats, investing heavily in their economic infrastructure and their economic opportunities, would be, is absolutely absurd. They are playing politics with the Pacific, and the only ones who are benefitting from Labor's attacks on the Government, is the Chinese Government. And it would seem the ABC.
JOURNALIST: Can you really say that the Government is doing enough - can you really say the Government is doing enough though, when we have seen this deal being signed between China and the Solomon Islands. You also haven't outlined what steps it would take to prevent the Chinese military being built in the Solomon Islands. What will you do differently? Surely, the Government needs to do more.
PRIME MINISTER: We do and our forward estimates show that we will keep doing more in all of the areas and lines of effort that we have in the Pacific because it is our government that turned that around. It is our government that started to seriously engage with the Pacific like few others, if any, before. I note Alexander Downer's comments today, and he's absolutely right about the amazing work that was done through the RAMSI Project in the Solomon Islands. And I've sent the AFP back in to the Solomon Islands, I sent the Australian Defence Forces back into the Solomon Islands, and they stand ready to provide further support. It was the Solomon Islands Prime Minister who rang me and said, can you please, can you please send us support to deal with the security situation in the Pacific? They did not ring the Chinese Government. They rang our government and we responded and our AFP are still there, so we will continue in the strong path we are. But I remind you, there are 20 additional countries to Australia in the Pacific Island Forum. One of those, of course, is New Zealand. So that makes 19 other Pacific Island Forum countries that are vulnerable to this type of pressure, and we are working with all of them. And as Alexander Downer, Australia's longest serving Foreign Minister, made very clear today, sovereign governments in our region can make decisions that are not in their own interests. And my concern is obviously first and foremost, Australia's national interest, but I am concerned for the Solomon Islands. I'm concerned that they can become compromised. I'm concerned about the security of the Solomon Islanders, and I'm also concerned about the broader regional security of all of our Pacific family, which those leaders are also concerned about, because that's why I have been speaking to them and they have conveyed their concerns directly to Prime Minister Sogavare as well. And I look forward to the opportunity, should we be elected, to joining them again at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting when we can talk about these issues as a family and be able to talk about the serious risks to the broader regional security that we're aware of and have been seeking to address over many years.
JOURNALIST: Have you called Emmanuel Macron to congratulate him on his election win? How will you mend the relationship with this incredibly important world and Pacific Power? Just a double barrel. Are you comfortable with one of your candidates, Simon Kennedy, addressing a conspiracy theory group in Bennelong and labelling vaccines chemicals?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm not aware of those reports, and so I can't comment on them on the latter matter. But in relation to Emmanuel Macron, President Macron, I have sent him a message of congratulations directly and I have also ensured I've sent a formal letter to him congratulating him as well. One of the areas where we have a lot in common with France is obviously in working together in the Pacific, and we continue to do that. Since we made the decision, the right decision for Australia, to not go ahead with the attack class submarines. They were not the right decision any longer for Australia. Technology in the strategic environment in which we were seeking to operate radically changed. We made this very clear and so it's unfortunate that we couldn't go ahead with that contract, but it would have been the wrong thing to do and I can - and I've always understood, while that would have been disappointing to the French Government - but sometimes you've just got to do the right thing. Well, frankly, all the time, you've always got to do what the right thing for Australia is. And it was disappointing that the Labor Party sought to attack Australia for that decision, rather than supporting a decision in the national interest. But when they say they don't want to politicise national security, they tend to do it on every occasion, just like they are doing now on the Pacific and the Solomons issue.
JOURNALIST: Just want to follow-up on Eliza's question there. How would you actually go about rebuilding trust with Emmanuel Macron, if you're re-elected? Have you spoken on the phone recently? And a second question. What happens if the red line you've drawn in Solomon Islands is breached? Are we talking military action? What sort of response would you have?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it would not be responsible for me to be speculating in public about what Australia, the United States and others, would be doing in circumstances such as that. That would not be a responsible thing to do, and I'm sure you understand that. I understand you have to ask the question, but I'm sure you appreciate that no responsible Prime Minister would go into the sort of detail that you are asking for. That would not be in Australia's national interest to do so any more than it would be in the United States national interest to do that either, or the interests of regional security. But let me stress what Prime Minister Sogavare has already communicated directly to me. They don't support a Chinese Government military base in the Solomon Islands, either. They don't want one there. Just like other Pacific nations don't want those bases in their country, either. See our relationship with the Solomon Islands is about them and wanting to empower them and for them to have their national security. We don't want to see that compromised by countries coming in from outside the region, which have other agendas other than the advancement of the national security and the peace and the prosperity of those countries. That's what we do for our family members in the Pacific. We don't believe those motives or ambitions are held by others seeking to come into our region, and that is a view widely shared amongst Pacific leaders. And so it's not just Australia that has expressed concern about this. It is also other leaders in the Pacific. I engage with Prime Minister Ardern about these issues regularly, and she has expressed very similar sentiments. So on those two issues, I think that sets out where we're at on those issues. I'm sorry, did I miss one?
JOURNALIST: How would you go about repairing -
PRIME MINISTER: Oh yes. Well, the last time I saw him was when we're at the G20. It hasn't been the focus of our engagement on issues we've been dealing with. We've been focussed on things a lot closer to home, particularly in the Pacific, for obvious reasons. We've just been talking about that at some length. Since I saw him there, there has been further government-to-government contact between officials with our mission in Paris and between our militaries as well. And so what we are seeing over time is things rebuilding. Of course, not going ahead with a contract, the submarines, was always going to disappoint the French Government. I totally understand that. And so we will continue to work each day in a professional way to ensure we restore, first of all, the government-to-government contacts. And I'm sure I look forward, and I do look forward, to having future discussions with President Macron, and I wish him every congratulations for what is an historic victory for President Macron. I think he's done, played a very strong role in seeking to have a united position across Europe in dealing with the terrible situation in Ukraine. And I commend him for that. And I do know, because we have discussed at length, the challenges in the Pacific and particularly the challenges posed by the Chinese Government in the Pacific. And he has a very detailed and very helpful knowledge of issues in the Pacific.
JOURNALIST: The Coalition's proposed Integrity Commission model allows for public hearings for its law enforcement division. However you describe public hearings in relation to ICAC's as leading to Kangaroo Courts. So could you confirm the Coalition's Integrity Commission model going forward would include public hearings for the law enforcement division? And if so, are you concerned about those hearings for law enforcement officials being a Kangaroo Court?
PRIME MINISTER: We've already put in place some $50 million of funding to support the Law Enforcement Integrity Commission that's already in place, and our proposals for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission are set out in 357 pages of legislation. And there are $60 million of support in the Budget, fully funded, to be there to support the work of that Commission and I've addressed those issues on numerous occasions over the last couple of weeks.
JOURNALIST: You made, you made comments that (inaudible) Australia's most likely to be started by bits and bytes, not bullets. What do you mean by that?
PRIME MINISTER: I meant cyber defences and offences are absolutely critical to Australia's defence. And in this year's Budget, we committed almost $10 billion to a program called Redspice. Now we've already invested billions in building up our cyber capabilities because in any conflict, as we saw indeed in Ukraine, the first things that happened was cyber attacks conducted by the Russian Government to undermine - whether it's power supplies or other critical infrastructure in Ukraine. Now in Australia, these are the things that we must continue to protect. We introduced the critical, and legislated the critical infrastructure protection bills, which provides greater security to those critical assets in energy and other infrastructure. We work closely with our banking financial system to support their protections. And working with the business community, but this almost $10 billion investment we're making in our cyber defence and offence is absolutely vital. And it's a now investment. It builds in greater redundancy, it builds in greater multiple points of operations across the country, which ensures that we're in a far more proactive position. And this is one of the key reasons I must stress why a strong economy is so, so, so important. Remember what happened last time Labor was in government? It wasn't just that electricity prices went up. It wasn't just that they lost control of our borders. It wasn't just that they lost control of the Budget, but by not being able to control their Budget, by not being able to control their borders. What happened is they cut funding in defence. They cut funding in defence when they should have been increasing it. They didn't commission one naval vessel the entire six years they were in office. And so it has been our task to rebuild, to restore our defence forces. And I've been asked this question a few times over the last few days. So forgive me for taking the opportunity to answer about what have been the improvements in those capabilities. That $55 billion that has been spent while we've been in government over and above by increasing the amount of investment we've made in our Defence Forces. 58 aircraft under the Joint Strike Fighter Program of Stage Two. 14 aircraft under the Poseidon PA, 211 boxer vehicles, the Peregrine aircraft - 4 of those, 12 Arafura offshore patrol vessels protected mobility vehicles, which Phil would know all about - 1,100 of those vehicles for our defence forces, 2 replenishment, a replacement replenishment vessels for our Navy, 22 Pacific Patrol boat replacements. These are the boats that we're providing to ensure that we're supporting our Pacific family. Eight new radar systems for our Anzac frigates, base upgrades to facilities all over the country, whether it's new training facilities up in the Northern Territory or the upgrading as I just said the other day for our airfields and other key bases. If we weren't running a strong economy, if we weren't managing our finances, we couldn't have done any of those things. That's why we say a strong economy means a stronger future, and that's why you can't risk Labor. You can't risk Labor because they can't manage an economy, which means there'd be a weak economy and with a weak economy, then the essential services that you rely on are put at risk. So my message is very clear: don't risk Labor. Choose the Liberal and National Candidates and the LNP candidates particularly here in Queensland, because that way you can get a strong economy, which means a stronger future. Thanks very much.
