Doorstop, Canberra

E&OE

JOURNALIST:

Is Joe Hockey the right man to be Treasurer?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Of course he is.

JOURNALIST:

Why is that?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Because he is the one working together with the whole team to address the singularly biggest fiscal mess the country has been left. Let’s not forget that Joe Hockey inherited a mess. What Wayne Swan inherited was success and we need to explain to people that we can’t fix Labor’s fiscal chaos in 18 months. It’s not that simple. It’s very, very hard and it requires the teamwork, it requires the discipline, it requires the strength, it requires the compassion as you frame these measures to try and address Labor’s mess. That’s what Joe’s doing, that’s what Tony’s doing, that’s what the whole team is doing and that’s what we are focused on doing right now and there will be a budget obviously in May and there will be other measures we’re working on at the moment which you can anticipate would be in advance of the budget so we can take the Australian people with us on the things we need to continue to do.

JOURNALIST:

On that, Minister, will your families package be in advance of the budget or do you anticipate it will be part of the release of the budget proper?

MINISTER MORRISON:

The families package will be out there when the families package will be out there and that’s an obvious statement. My point is this, we are working through the families package, we are working particularly on the child care element of that, with the sector, with families, with our backbench, consulting on what is the best way to go forward and I mean this quite genuinely, I’ve said this several times – I would like to see us get to a place on child care that we’re able to achieve on the NDIS. It’s too important and I think it’s very important that if we could come together on how we can address this challenge then I would be very grateful for that and I think the Australian people would. So that’s really an open offer to the Opposition on that front, but more specifically the families package has got to deliver to families so they can get back to work when they’ve had children because if they can continue to be on those two incomes then they’re able to provide more opportunities and choices for their families and they don’t get caught in a welfare trap for life, which I want to avoid.

JOURNALIST:

Should the Prime Minister’s chief of staff resign?

MINISTER MORRISON:

That’s a matter for Tony Abbott. I don’t give him lectures on his staff and he doesn’t give me lectures on mine. I think the whole staff issue, frankly, is a distraction.

JOURNALIST:

Does his chief of staff give you lectures on your staff?

MINISTER MORRISON:

No.

JOURNALIST:

Why haven’t we seen the intergenerational report? Wouldn’t that help to inform the conversation?

MINISTER MORRISON:

I think the intergenerational report will be a pivotal document in the budget debate we’re having this year. When Peter Costello introduced the intergenerational report, I think this was a landmark shift in how the national debate on these issues go and I’ll give you a good example why. An ageing population is not a death sentence for a country. It’s not the presentation of some terminal illness for the country. I think the ageing of our population, the fact that people can work and be healthy longer is good for the country and what that means is, is that we could have an ageing boom in this country and what does that mean for us? What does it mean as a country? It means that where we can encourage people to work longer, that’s great.

JOURNALIST:

So why haven’t we seen it?

MINISTER MORRISON:

The inter-generational report has its own schedule and the Treasurer will be outlining when that happens.

JOURNALIST:

It is due.

MINISTER MORRISON:

Of course it is due and it’s an important part of the debate we’re having this year in informing the budget process and that will come out at the appropriate time and that’s a matter for the Treasurer.

JOURNALIST:

Sorry if this has already been touched on. You just talked about earlier that all the Government – the Ministers and the leader have all been put on notice by the backbench yesterday. Did they expect you to do a much better job in selling the message? If that’s the case, what’s your probation period now? How long have you got to lift your game?

MINISTER MORRISON:

Well that’s a matter for the backbench, but every day, every day is one where I think we have to achieve on that goal, but I will tell you this – yesterday was a really, really tough day and I think the Australian people had every right to feel very anxious and disappointed about the nature of politics with these things. It was a tough day for everybody in the Coalition. But I know this is true. The worst day in our Government, in an Abbott Government, is still better than the best day in a Shorten Labor Government and the reason for that is people know that a Shorten Labor Government means that they won’t be able to create the jobs like this Government is, that they won’t deal with the deficit and debt disaster the way we are and making progress on that. They know the boats will come back, they know the carbon tax will come back and I think that’s why people have been disappointed with us. They don’t want to see Labor return, they want to see us get on the front foot and that’s exactly what we’re now doing.

Thanks for your time.

END