Thanks everyone. I’m Julian Hill, the Member for Bruce. And we’re here in the heart of the Bruce electorate, but really in the heart of the city of Casey. This is my colleague, Cassandra Fernando, the Member for Holt, who covers most of the rest of the city of Casey. And we’re both absolutely delighted to welcome the Prime Minister here yet again. I don’t want to make him sound like a stalker, but he’s a frequent visitor here to southeast Melbourne. But very briefly, the city of Casey is one of Australia’s fastest growing councils, we’ve got a population of over 400,000, heading towards half a million. It’s changing rapidly. And the event which we’ve just celebrated is Sikh Vaisakhi, a Sikh new year, also of great religious significance to Sikh Australians. But in there, we were celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Sikh volunteers Australia who’ve become beloved to Australians, not just here in Victoria, but in New South Wales and across the country for living their values and helping out time after time in natural disasters, the weekly food vans and so on, here in, you know, one of the most multicultural parts of Australia. So I’d really welcome the Prime Minister, but I’ll just let you all know, we’re running really, really short of time because you’d be shocked to know we’re half an hour late and we’ve got another event, a giant outdoor event, where people are waiting for us to be there. So we’ll need to keep it pretty tight. Thanks, everyone.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Julian. Look, it’s been fantastic to be here in Southeast Melbourne to celebrate the Vaisakhi celebrations and particularly to honour Sikh Volunteers Australia. They do extraordinary work. During the pandemic they provided food for students who were in desperate need for that support. During the bushfires, during floods. wherever there are issues confronting Australians, we see the best of the Australian character and there’s no community organisation that has done more than Sikh Volunteers Australia. We see them whether it be here in Victoria, or up in Lismore, wherever there are floods or natural weather events, we see people putting their values into practice by providing that support to their fellow Australians who are in need. And today tragically again, there are Australians in need. In New South Wales, the flooding events have had a severe impact in the Blue Mountains area and the Hawkesbury, around Wingecarribee, around the Illawarra as well. And we know that in Queensland as well, there could be some difficult days ahead. Today we’re announcing that disaster assistance has been made available in thirteen local government areas around the Illawarra, Shellharbour Wollongong area, but also around the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury area and in other areas that have been severely impacted by these flooding events. We again remind people to follow the advice of authorities. If it’s flooding, don’t risk it. We’ve seen too much footage in the last couple of days of motor vehicles stranded in floodwaters. And it can be, of course, a very dangerous thing to do, and Australians know that that is the case. This support will assist local councils in cleaning up from these disasters. But also we’ll be providing support for residents in these local government areas who’ve been directly impacted. So things like emergency cash support in order to get people through, small cash payments support for emergency accommodation, as well. The coming days could be difficult, and we’ll continue to monitor, and as always, continuing to work with state and local authorities to provide assistance when it is required. Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram’s quote a couple of days ago about having the need for new technology such as artificial intelligence to combat a new and possibly sophisticated people smuggling business model. Does the appearance of a boat load of illegal arrivals in Western Australia yesterday demonstrate that challenge?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we will deal with any unauthorised arrivals consistent with Operation Sovereign Borders, and that’s what we’ve done. And I do note, Rear Admiral Sonter’s very clear message that there’s been no change in policy since 2013. We’ll use all avenues at our disposal to make sure that the borders are protected and make sure we respond in accordance with the principles of Operation Sovereign Borders. And that’s what we have, again, done on this occasion.
JOURNALIST: This is the third boat to arrive since November. Are you concerned about the increase in arrivals?
PRIME MINISTER: Well people smugglers will always try to change their methods in order to ply what is the dangerous trade. But there is no change to Operation Sovereign Borders. It’s important that that message be sent. And once again, through the response of the Australian Government, that message will be sent very clearly again to the region.
JOURNALIST: Isn’t it a concern that these people are can arrive and they’re completely undetected until they actually come on, wander into an airbase in this case?
PRIME MINISTER: We have a very large coastline. What is clear though is that people who are unauthorised arrivals won’t be settled in Australia. Operation Sovereign Border principles will apply as they have been in this case.
JOURNALIST: Australian man Robert Pether is detained in Iraq. He says his worried he’s been abandoned by the Australian Government. Tell us what efforts you’re making to secure his relief.
PRIME MINISTER: We have made enormous efforts, including direct contact by myself as Prime Minister, with leaders there, with continued representations, more than one hundred, by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. My Government will always act in the interests of Australian citizens. And with Mr Pether, we are certainly doing whatever we can to secure his safe return.
JOURNALIST: Peter Dutton’s announced over the weekend that if the Coalition were elected, he’d build a nuclear reactor by the mid-2030s. What’s your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Peter Dutton of course, has had this policy now for a while, but he continues to change it. I’m not quite sure whether it’s large nuclear reactors because the small modular reactors that he’s spoken about of course don’t exist. So he’s speaking about large scale nuclear reactors which can’t be built, some would say for decades. But even he himself is more than a decade off. In recent times we’ve seen a closure of coal fired power stations. Australia can’t afford, as the NSW Premier said this morning very clearly, we can’t afford for nothing to happen while these power stations are reaching the end of their life. We saw that happen for a decade. It was a wasted decade. And what we will do is make sure through renewables, with firming capacity, through batteries, through use of gas, that people can continue to have access to energy. The cheapest form of new energy is renewables, which is why there isn’t a single private sector organisation putting their hand up saying that they want to fund a nuclear reactor here in Australia. Peter Dutton’s policy is for nothing to happen, meanwhile for there to be in the future a real shortage of energy because nothing has happened. That’s what his recipe is for. We will continue to put forward a practical plan rolling out renewable capacity, making sure that in former coal fired power stations like Liddell, where we will be producing manufacturing solar panels, employing more people than were employed under the former Liddell power station. We used to hear from the former Coalition government that Liddell would be kept open. We heard about it day after day from, from Mr Frydenberg when he was the Minister. And of course it closed on the coalition’s watch, as has happened with multiple coal fired power stations around the country. They left Australia unprepared. We want to seize the opportunities that are there from the shift to renewable energy, with storage, with ensuring that there is capacity kept in the system through use of gas, and making sure that we have that secure energy supplies at the cheapest possible price. Thanks very much.
JOURNALIST: Just before you go, can you provide an update on who the special adviser will be to Israel and when they will [INAUDIBLE].
PRIME MINISTER: It will be announced imminently and I’m sure that you, you will be able to within the next twenty-four hours, read about that appointment. It is important that today, which is six months since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that occurred, that I once again reiterate our complete and unequivocal opposition to the events that happened on October 7. What we need to do, as well as to make sure that the victims of that should not be, of course, as well as the Israeli people, the Palestinian population as well, we need to make sure that humanitarian assistance is gotten to those people who need it. And in addition to that, we need to make sure that humanitarian law, international law is upheld. That provides for the right of aid workers to be able to go about their humanitarian work in safety. And the events which led to Zomi Frankcom losing her life are unacceptable and Australia will continue to seek a resolution and clear information and transparency around this, which is why we will be appointing an appropriate person to examine the details of what has occurred here. Thanks very much.
