JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE WITH THE HON. PETER DUTTON, BRISBANE

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR

JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE WITH THE HON. PETER DUTTON MHR,

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING

BRISBANE

Subjects: Kevin Rudd’s broken promises on health; the Australian flag; My School website; immigration; republic.

E&OE……………………….………………………………………………………………………………..

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m very pleased to be here with Peter Dutton. The Prime Minister has said that 2010 should be the year of health reform. Well, hang on a minute, I thought 2009 was going to be the year of health reform. Before the election Mr Rudd said that if public hospitals hadn’t improved by the middle of last year he would organise a federal government takeover. Well, the middle of last year has come and gone. I think people in Queensland and New South Wales in particular would know that public hospitals are getting worse not better and where is Mr Rudd? All we get from Mr Rudd is more talk and no action and this is his problem. He is all talk and no action. He’s always talking about 2050, well we want to know precisely what he intends to do this year. It’s not enough to have inquires, reviews and committees. He’s got to tell us exactly what he is going to do. The Australian people deserve to know exactly what his plan is to fix our public hospital system.

PETER DUTTON:

This speech that Mr Rudd made in relation to health reform is exactly the same speech Mr Rudd made in 2007. Three years ago the Prime Minister said that he had a plan to fix public hospitals by mid-2009 or that he would take them over. Well, that time has come and gone and clearly the Prime Minister hasn’t even yet laid out a plan, let alone undertaken his commitment.

If this was a New Year’s resolution, that 2010 would be a year of health reform, it’s the same New Year’s resolution Kevin Rudd made in 2007, 2008 and 2009. So the Prime Minister on health is all talk and all spin and New Year’s resolutions which are made year after year don’t add up to anything. When it comes to health we know for Kevin Rudd he is just sounding like a state Labor premier that is that at every election he promises to fix health and for the period in between he does nothing about it.

QUESTION:

What’s your reaction to Ray Martin’s push to get the flag changed?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look I think that the Australian flag is more popular than ever. I think that young people appreciate our flag. I think that the evidence is that our flag has never been more in use. Every second car seems to be decorated with the Australian flag in the run-up to Australia Day. I think people like our flag; I think they’re proud of our flag. I think our flag of stars and crosses, it represents our history and our hopes and I think people want to keep it.

QUESTION:

Is it un-Australian to challenge the flag?

TONY ABBOTT:

One of the things about Australia is that nothing is off limits. You can question anything; that’s as it should be. I’m happy to debate anything that anyone wants to debate. I wish Mr Rudd would engage in more debates to be honest, but I think that anyone who wants to debate changing the flag is going to lose that debate.

QUESTION:

Do you worry that the flag is sort of cheapened by the way it’s marketed, on bikinis, on tea towels, on sunhats, on whatever?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I don’t have a problem with people flying the flag.

QUESTION:

What do you think of the My School website?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think that it’s good that parents are getting more information about schools but I think that what schools have got to have is the power to change and improve and at the moment school principals and school communities are in a bureaucratic straitjacket thank to the attitudes of the Labor state governments. Now I think by all means give parents the information, but let’s also give parents and principals the power to make their schools as good as they possibly can be.

QUESTION:

In relation to immigration, do you think Australian citizenship is given too lightly?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think that the greatest prize in the world is to be an Australian and I think everyone should appreciate it and I think when people come to Australia it’s great that they join the team.

QUESTION:

Should it be capped?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think that obviously we can only take in a certain number of people and I think that as long as that programme is run firmly in Australia’s national interest, well then we can continue to be a great country of immigrants.

QUESTION:

In a speech on Friday you asked for courageous decisions to be made in regard to Australian immigration. What decisions are they that you’re calling for?

TONY ABBOTT:

What I actually said was that we have a Prime Minister who talks about the need for courageous decisions but never makes them, and what I said was that it would be good to have not talk about the tough decision needed by 2050 but direction about the tough decisions that he’s going to take in 2010.

QUESTION:

What decisions are they? What decisions do you want to see? 

TONY ABBOTT:

Well he talks a lot about productivity and yet he’s making it harder to get productivity gains because of his labour market changes, because of the great big tax he wants to whack on everyone. He talks about fiscal restraint and yet he’s actually delivering the greatest spending spree in Australia’s history, so I think that this is a Prime Minister who needs to be fair dinkum and if he’s fair dinkum about productivity don’t give in to the unions, and if you’re fair dinkum about spending restraint, well, stop the debt splurge.

QUESTION:

Sorry, we’re talking about immigration here. What decisions do you want to see in regard to immigration?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think it’s really important, particularly on Australia Day, that everyone appreciate the value of Australian citizenship.

QUESTION:

In relation to the republican debate, is it time for another plebiscite and would you allow a free vote within your party room to determine Liberal policy? 

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, Liberal policy on this matter hasn’t changed and I think we’ve just had a tremendously successful visit to this country by Prince William and I think Australians wish him well as they wish his grandmother well.

QUESTION:

On the eve of Australia Day, is it terrible to take a sickie on today?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I think that people should shoulder their responsibilities and if your responsibility is to be at work that’s where you should be. Thanks so much.