Doorstop interview, Canberra

E&OE

QUESTION:

When you previously were the Immigration Minister and you started the border protection force they are stopping thousands of people and interviewing them but how does Jake Bilardi get out of the country?

MINISTER MORRISON:

What I am pleased about is that the Counter Terrorism Unit that was set up by the government within Customs and Border Protection continues to do outstanding work but what is always necessary when you do this work is that you are working with the community and you are able to act on the intelligence that you get that ensures you can prevent people leaving and you pick those up on the way in. That’s what I believe is happening very strongly and I commend Minister Dutton for continuing that really strong work with the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. With the Australian Border Force setting up in just a few months from now I think that will further strengthen those arrangements and again I commend Minister Dutton for the outstanding work he is doing in bringing the Australian Border Force into being.

QUESTION:

Is it racial profiling?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Those are matters I have to refer to the current Minister for. What I know is the Australian Border Force will take up the job in July and the very quick work done by Customs and Border Protection to get the Counter Terrorism Unit in place means that you would have had a lot of very successful interceptions that have prevented young men from going overseas. When we came into government we inherited a situation where the Customs and Border Protection Service had had over $700 million ripped out of it. Those arrangements unchanged led to Khaled Sharrouf leaving the country. It was the same set of arrangements in place when he left the country when the former government was in place. We worked very quickly to remedy that and that work is being continued excellently by Minister Dutton.

QUESTION:

In leaked text messages from Philip Higginson he refers to Peta Credlin as a horseman of the apocalypse. What do you make of that assessment?

MINISTER MORRISON:

I don’t make anything of it. I don’t go around reading everybody’s text messages and emails.

QUESTION:

Is it disappointing that there have been further leaks?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Look I don’t know anything about them so I can’t really comment on them.

QUESTION:

How are negotiations with changes to pension indexation progressing?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well the pension will go up this Friday and the pension goes up every March and every September. It will continue to do so. In the discussions we are having with the crossbench it is about providing a further level of comfort and safety net around those increases linked to CPI. You should note that the last two increases have been on the CPI, not on Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWI). Had it been on that index then the increases would have actually been much less. So there will be a CPI increase this week and that will provide further support to pensioners across Australia. We want to see a pension that is there for those who really need it and at a level that helps with their cost of living. We also want to ensure it is sustainable. The budget doesn’t have some sort of super metabolism where it can just accommodate all the excessive spending of the previous government and that there is never any need to do anything about it. We need a reality check here about the state of the budget and what we inherited from the previous government and the decisions that need to be taken to ensure that this gets under control over the next five, ten, twenty and thirty years. I hear all the time in my time in public life about the need for politicians to take a long term view. That is what this government is doing. We are trying to set the budget up for the long term future, to make payments sustainable, to ensure the safety net that is there for today’s Australians is there for tomorrow’s Australians and these are the sort of sensible and reasonable discussions we are having with the crossbenchers and I look forward to continuing to progress these very important matters. It is disappointing that Labor wants to be a conversation stopper when it comes to having a sustainable pension and an adequate pension for the future. The Coalition is a conversation starter and engager when it comes to these important issues for the country.

QUESTION:

Minister, a lot of this was started when you were the Immigration Minister what is it that Customs and Border Protection officials are looking for? How is it that they profile somebody to pull them out of the line at the airport?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Again, those are no longer matters that fall within my portfolio so I will leave those to the current Minister to comment on.

QUESTION:

It was started when you were Immigration Minister.

MINISTER MORRISON:

And I appreciate that and I am very pleased that the work that we commenced is being pursued so well by the current Minister.

QUESTION:

What is the mood like within the party room over these pension changes, we have heard from a number of Liberal backbenchers who say that these are another barnacle that they want removed?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well I appreciate the positive feedback that I have had in seeking to engage the crossbench from our own government members. The feedback they are picking up in their community is being relayed to me and I want to address that and work constructively with government members and with the crossbenchers in the Senate. My preference also would be to work constructively with the Opposition but the Opposition think they can just shovel more money out the door forever and there are never any consequences for that. If they are not prepared to engage in a rational and reasonable discussion about the policy options for how we make the pension sustainable and adequate for the future then they need to demonstrate where they are going to get the savings from. Where are they going to achieve this and what sort of cuts are they going to make or what taxes are they going to put up to support those sorts of unending increases in payments as seems to be clearly part of their plan.

QUESTION:

Have you spoken to Andrew Laming about his concerns about the changes?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Yes, I have spoken to Andrew. I have spoken to many members about these issues and I engage with them very regularly not just on this issue but the many other issues we are dealing with at present, particularly the childcare package which we continue to work on as the weeks press on and we are keen to have that in place and out there before the budget. There is a bit more work to do on that and we are continuing to consult on those issues and of course we are working on other changes to help young people get into work. That is a big challenge facing this country and it has been happening now for quite a period of time. We have seen the participation of young men in particular falling in this country and we need to turn that around. We need to do what we can to get young people into work and sticking to a job to set themselves up for the future so they don’t live a life on welfare. Eight out of ten income taxpayers go to work every single day to pay for this country’s welfare budget and we need to make sure it helps those who most need the help and for those who we can get on an employers pay role rather than on a taxpayers welfare pay role well that is a good outcome for the country.

Thanks very much.