CAMPAIGN RALLY SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK

PRIME MINISTER: G’day! To my New South Welshmen and women, it's so great to be here in my home state. It's great to be in a Liberal state. It's great to be in a Liberal state led by Gladys Berejiklian.

[Applause] 

The first female elected Premier of New South Wales. Thank you so much Gladys for your incredibly warm welcome, but thank you so much more for ensuring that New South Wales was kept in your safe hands.

We're gathered here today – as you see up the back there – in the Hall of Legends. There's only one Liberal, one Liberal who could live up to that title as a former prime minister and he's is right here, John Howard. We’ve had great prime ministers but none greater. None greater than John Howard and to you and Janette thank you so much for being here with Jenny and I today and Abby and Lilly and all the great work you're doing around at this election campaign. It’s great to be here with my colleagues, it's great to be here with all of you. Fiona Martin thank you for welcoming us here today and Sarah Richards and Melissa McIntosh, we are here at the gateway to the third biggest economy in Australia; Western Sydney. That’s where we are.

[Applause]

Over the last five and a half years 1.3 million jobs have been created under the economic management of our Government. 180,000 of those right here in western Sydney, right here in western Sydney. One in seven jobs being created under our Government and being created here in western Sydney. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of businesses, out here working hard, doing what they do every day, creating opportunities, creating the life for people in western Sydney and all over the country indeed, want to enjoy for themselves. 

They’re working hard. They’re building it, building it together, they're working together. As the former Prime Minister Mr. Howard said, that's when Australia is at it’s strongest. When we recognise we are all together, making this country stronger, not setting one against another. That's the sort of Liberal Party we run. That's the sort of Liberal tradition that we follow, as we set up Australia for success.  

Australia is the greatest country in the world, there's no doubt about that. We all know that.

[Applause]

We all know that, but our future depends on the strength of our economy. Why? Because people matter. What do I mean by that? Without a strong economy, we would not have been able to increase funding for hospitals around the country by more than 60 per cent. That's what we've done. 

We couldn't have increased funding for state public schools by more than 60 per cent over the last five and a half years, if it weren't for the strong economy.

We couldn't have increased funding for Medicare by 27 per cent and achieved the highest level of bulk billing in Australia's history, had we not be running a strong economy.

We wouldn't have been able to increase funding for aged care by 50 per cent, $1 billion extra every year, if we weren't running a strong economy.

We wouldn't be able to invest 45 per cent more in the mental health care of Australians and now in this latest Budget, commit to over $500 million dollars to take on one of the biggest challenges I think our country faces today; that is the scourge and curse of youth suicide in this country. 

But you can't take that stuff on, unless you've got a strong economy and you know how to manage money. That's why at this election it’s a choice. It’s not a coronation, Bill.

[Laughter]

It’s a choice, but more importantly, it's your choice. It’s a choice that Australians are going to make. They’re going to make up their minds and they're going to look closely. They're going to test and it's my job as prime minister and leader of our great Party, to set out our plan. To set out what that choice is. To answer the questions, to be upfront with people.

I've got to tell you Jenny and I have greatly enjoyed getting out and about, right across this wonderful country. I mean half the time I've got to drag Jenny out of the hall because she's still talking to someone down at the back end of the hall there. I mean I love her, but the whole country’s falling in love with her.

[Applause]

That’s our job to be out there, to be accountable, to listen, as John has said.

The choice is about three fundamental things. First of all, do you want a stronger economy or a weaker economy? A stronger economy that means you can do the things we need to do, to guarantee the essentials services, funding of hospitals and schools and local roads. Or do you want a Labor Party that would once again weaken our economy, as they have previously?

Whether here in New South Wales or right across the country, it’s a choice between whether you think you should keep more of what you earn, or should it should be given over in higher taxes to a Labor Party that doesn’t know how to control their spending.

It’s a choice between a Government that has demonstrated that it knows how to manage money and a Labor Party under Bill Shorten who has demonstrated they can’t control what they spend, so it means they can’t control what they tax.

You know, that's the key. Why do they want to put up taxes by $387 billion dollars? I'll tell you why; because they can't control how much they'll spend. Chris Bowen said - I remember when we came into government - he said that the test of the government and Mathias will remember this very, very well, he said the test of the government is if it keeps taxes as share of the economy below 23.7 per cent. He beat his chest, put on his best pose and he put this out there. Now we’ve met that mark, consistently and guess what, we’ve made it a speed limit at 23.9 share of the economy, to guarantee the taxes don’t rise above that in the future. But he has abolished it. He’s walked away from it. I'll tell you why; because he has no idea how to reign in the big spending habits of his fellow Labor Party members. If they found themselves around a Cabinet table, I tell you what, he won't be able to control them.

Bill Shorten doesn’t know the cost of anything and I'll tell you why; because he doesn’t pay for it, you do. You pay for it.

[Applause] 

That's what happens. Bill Shorten does not know the cost of anything because he never has to pay the price of it. Because when his wallet is empty, he’s coming after yours. Whether you’re a retiree in this country, he will tax you. Whether you’re one in five police officers who actually negative gear - that doesn't sound like the top end of town to me Bill - people just investing for their future, small business people doing that. You know, this election is a choice. It's also a choice about who should be the Prime Minister of this country after the 18th of May. 

[Interjection] 

Thank you! 

[Applause] 

It is. He can run and he can hide, he can dodge and he can weave. He can do all that sort of stuff, but I'll tell you what Bill; it’s ultimately the choice of the Australian people. Their choice. They will be deciding whether I should continue in the role of Prime Minister leading a Government that has a strong track record for a stronger economy, guaranteeing essentials that they rely on –

[Applause] 

Or Bill Shorten. So, if you vote for our Liberal candidates here, whether it’s Melissa or Fiona or Sarah or whoever else right around Australia, yes you'll get me as your Prime Minister and you'll get me as a Prime Minister for the next three years. 

I guarantee you; if you vote for a Labor candidate, even if you can't find Bill Shorten's picture on the how-to-vote card –

[Laughter] 

You will get Bill Shorten every single time.

So let's talk about those choices a bit more. Today, I want to talk about one in particular as to why you would choose the Liberal Party and the Nationals; it's because we have a plan to keep our economy strong.

It’s true that over the last five and a half years unemployment has gone down. Yes, the number of people out of work has gone done. Yes we've got more people who are of working age in jobs today than any other time in our history. That is all true, unemployment is down to 5 per cent. But we have a plan to make sure it keeps doing that and we sat that out in this year's Budget. 700 separate measures in that Budget, Mathias ticked off on every single one of them as we did as a Cabinet, as we did as a team. A detailed plan, I commend it to you, and as we've further measures over course of this election campaign a detailed plan to keep our economy strong. But a key element of what we're talking about in that plan - and this relevant here as we look out from here into the broad reaches of Western Sydney, where Marise Payne has been our senator for a long time and has seen, as has Stuart, the radical change and prosperity and growth and the confidence that we've seen across Western Sydney in that time.

What we're seeing as we go forward, is we need to ensure that we manage population growth for the future. That's important for our economy, incredibly important. Congestion slows down our economy. But it's also important to guarantee and to continue to support the quality of life that Australians have living in our fast-growing cities all around the country. Whether it is here in Sydney, or where David Coleman lives down there with his family in the seat of Banks, or whether it’s Lucy Wicks up on the Central Coast or wherever you happen to be; managing our population growth is very important to the quality-of-life that we have in our cities.

So we outlined a plan together with Alan Tudge and together with David a little while ago. That plan has the following components. The first one is - and I want to particularly pay credit to Gladys here, because we were together doing it last December at COAG -  that is, states and the Commonwealth have to plan together. You know, so many times when you’re talking about issues when it comes to population they say; ‘Well that's a state issue, that’s a federal issue and that's a terribly interesting conversation for those who have a keen fascination with the Federation, there's are probably about five of those around the country’. One of them is here, John.

[Laughter] 

But State and Federal governments have to work together to plan for population growth. Where do the schools go? Where do the hospitals go? These things have to be aligned and we started that job, I started that job with Gladys and the other state Premiers and Chief Ministers to ensure we had a national population planning framework. That’s there and we’ve got to work together to manage population growth. The second of those is, you’ve got to plan your infrastructure. That's why today we are announcing additional funds for projects that will be busting congestion. I first put the congestion-busting fund in last year's Budget, and we’ve expanded that congestion busting fund this year. Now this is the congestion-busting fund which works a bit like a surgeon on a city; it finds those key choke points. We're not talking about the big projects, there's plenty of those. These things that you need to do, whether it’s a widening of a road here, or it’s a car parking station at a particular location in the city so more people can be on a train than clogging up the roads. Or even if it’s the right hand turn lane in Kirrawee, which Craig will know all about, we know all about that one. These are the things you have to do if you are really serious about unclogging congestion in our cities. This fund does that and here in Western Sydney today, we’re announcing a whole range of projects but in particular we've got the project at Dunheved Road, the upgrade there which Melissa will be happy about, where we are committing $63.5 million to ensure we upgrade that road. But not just that, not just that. There is funding for the St Marys Station commuter car park, the Emu Plains car park, the Campbelltown Station commuter car park. The MacArthur Station commuter carpark. The Kingswood Station commuter car park and the Riverwood station commuter car park. Now this adds to car parks in Woy Woy, up in Gosford, Revesby, Panania, Hurstville.

All of this is about ensuring that Australians can get to work sooner and safer and get home sooner and safer. It’s not just these projects, whether it’s the $200 million that we are putting into the third crossing across the Hawkesbury River and a very important project in Western Sydney, which I know Sarah will agree with, absolutely and has been campaigning for - without increasing taxes, I should stress. All of these projects are so critical and you know, if you care about family, which we do - family is everything to me, it is to all of us -  you want to get home sooner and safer to be with your family.

Yes, it’s cement and it is bitumen and it’s all of these things, but what it is really about is how we are really committed to families, to ensure that people get home sooner and safer in this big city of ours, or in the big city of Melbourne or Brisbane or over in Perth or wherever it happens to be. We are dealing with rail crossings over in Perth or widening Racecourse Road out of Pakenham down there in Melbourne. All of these things are about an attention to detail.

As John Howard knows, if you can't manage the details you can't run the country. That’s what we’re finding out about Bill Shorten during this election campaign; you’ve got to be able to understand and comprehend the most specific needs of Australians.

This Fund, this congestion-busting fund builds on the enormous work which Gladys’s Government and our Government have been working on with the Western Sydney International Nancy Bird Walton Airport and the North South rail corridor that we’re putting in place there, the massive investments of big infrastructure projects in Western Sydney which now total some sum of $15 billion.

So if you want to deal with population growth, you’ve got to make the commitments to investing in infrastructure. You’ve got to make the big commitments to the big projects and you’ve got to make the commitments to know what the detailed projects are. 

The other thing we have to do is make sure in our cities, that we grow together and we don’t grow apart. Our migrant communities have built this country, they’ve built this country and as a success story that I think has no peer anywhere else in the world today. Australia is the most successful immigration nation in the world today.

[Applause] 

Phillip Ruddock knows all about that he was a great Immigration Minister who helped that happened.

The reason people came to this country was to get a fair go. To have a go and to get a fair go. They’ve come to enjoy a quality of life and in this plan that I announced, particularly with David, we announced tens of millions of dollars to further support the settlement of migrants in this country. To ensure they get jobs, get education, get English language support. To do all of these things, to ensure that they can follow those who went before them and make Australia the strong and great country that it is today because of the contribution of migrant and ethnic communities all around the country. Whether it’s the Chinese community, the Lebanese community, the Jewish community, the Korean community there are so many, and they’ve all made such an enormous contribution as Fiona knows particularly here in the seat of Reid. We back that in.         

But if your serious about backing that in, you’ve got to protect what people came for; that is that sense of opportunity. That is the sense of being able to get ahead, that the more you earn, the more you don’t take from you - I mean why would you bother working hard under a Labor government? Why would you bother? The harder you work, the more you get hit under their polices and their approach.

So we’re investing in the cohesion of our cities and our community groups, supporting our migrant communities. The other thing you have to do is you’ve got to get a cap on population growth, that means we’ve got to have a cap on migration. That’s why our Government is going to freeze migration at the current levels for the next 4 years.

[Applause]

That’s what we’re going to do, because those who have come to this country, from wherever they’re come, they deserve to ensure that they continue to have the quality of life that they came to this country for. That means you’ve got to have a sensible migration program, you’ve got to have a migration program that enables the country in its infrastructure and it’s services to keep pace with that growth. That’s why we’re also not going to increase, we’re to freeze at the current levels the refugee and humanitarian intake at what is the second highest per capita in the world today. It was our Government that increased it over the last five and a half years, it was a modest increase but it was one that we believed we could do, that we believed we could afford and would ensure that those who come under that program are in a position to be able to settle, to be able to work into their new way of life. To be able to adjust and go on and make a great contribution.

You know, there are many reasons, there are many, many reasons that it was important to stop the boats. The deaths at sea needed no further explanation, none whatsoever. But I tell you, as Phillip and I used to talk about a lot, we needed to ensure that Australians had confidence in our immigration program. The way you do that is you have confidence in securing and protecting your borders.

You’ve got to protect the immigration programme, if you believe in immigration being a key part of Australia’s future which I do and my Party does, then you ensure you have an immigration programme that is sustainable, that has integrity, that focuses on people coming and getting jobs, and being able to be part of the community. Which is the overwhelming story of Australians migration experience, but I tell you what; if you run it too hot, you put all of that at risk. If you lose control of the borders you put it all at risk. And if you elect the Labor Party, you’ll put it all at risk, I can assure you of that

[Applause]

I remember when we came to Government, it was just appalling the carnage at sea. It was just appalling. It brought many to tears and rightly. One of the other things that was occurring, was everyone that was coming and entering Australia illegally binding was taking the place of someone who was coming legitimately through that programme. Typically, in most cases it was of a women. A woman who didn’t have the money to get themselves out of camp in Africa and would spend their entire life with there their children. No money to pay people smugglers, no money to get out of a camp. I’m not going to go into today, particularly with children present, the sort of things they would endure in those places.

But one of my proudest moments was the day we changed that. When we stopped the boats and we changed the programme, it meant that not ever, never again would someone who came to Australia illegally, would they take the place of someone that we’d identified and welcomed into the country to ensure that they have a new start at life.

[Applause] 

That’s what Liberals do, that’s why stronger borders matter. That’s why integrity in  immigration matters. That’s why all of this matters and that’s why it’s important that as we get through the next 3 weeks, as we go to this campaign, that we remind Australians of what we’ve been able to achieve. That we remind Australians of our path ahead.

Now is not the time to turn back. Now is not the time to say to Bill Shorten that he should have more of your money, more of your hard-earned. Whether you’re a retiree - tens of thousands of them in Western Sydney - or anyone else that he’s going to take that money away from, you know, it’s a fundamental principal for us; we just think that your money is better off in your hands, than it is in the governments.

[Applause] 

That’s what Liberals believe, it’s why we joined. Its why we’re here today. 

Labor has a different view and Bill Shorten has this view; he thinks your money is better off in his pocket than it is in yours.

I’m going to back Australians every day, about how they want to spend on their family and community and their future. Every time. I don’t think that money should be taken from them, so Bill and his others can sit there and decide how your money should be spent. 

I think your better than Bill shorten is for you.

That’s why I think we should re-elect the Liberal and National Government  because that’s what we believe.

[Applause] 

So let me finish on this, because I promised Abbey and Lily I wouldn’t talk too long today.

[Laughter] 

They’re still smiling so I recon I’m ahead of the curve on that one. This election is really about, at the end of the day, who will continue to serve as Prime Minister and the Party that will be making those decisions in the years ahead. There is price for changing governments. We all remember the price of changing from our greatest government, led John Howard to the Rudd Labor government. You know that was the last time there was a surplus as a country, it’s taken 12 years to get back there. 12 years. 

You vote Labor once and you pay for it for a decade. That is the lesson of 2007.

If I’d gone and knocked on your door in 2007 and I said; ‘If you elect Kevin Rudd,’ – and that was my first election – if I said; ‘If you elect this mob they’re going to turn $20 billion surplus into a $20 billion deficit within a year, 1,200 people are going to die at sea and 50,000 people are going to turn up on 800 boats, they’re going to come up with polices that literally set fire to peoples roofs, they’re going to engage in  profligate spending the likes of which the country has never seen and set new world records for the price of a school hall,’ you would’ve locked me up. You would’ve rung the police. Who is this person at my door?

[Laughter] 

All of it happened. It all happened. The debt racked up. The price of change is big.

Bill Shorten is not telling you the price of changing government, he’s not telling you. He won’t respond, it’s been weeks now and he’s been in the job for five and a half years. If he hasn’t told you by now, I wouldn’t believe him even if he tried. 

I know Bill Shorten’s polices. Better than he does I think.

[Laughter] 

That’s why I don’t think you should vote for them. And if you don’t understand Bill Shorten’s polices, then I certainly don’t think you should vote for them. And if he doesn’t understand his policies, then you certainly shouldn’t vote for them.

[Applause]

So friends there’s a lot at stake. There’s a lot at stake and I want to thank you for being here on a Sunday and being her to support us today. You know what is at stake. This is the best country in the world to live, the road ahead depends on managing our economy and managing money, because as John Howard said if you can’t manage money - as Labor can’t - you can’t manage the country. Our future depends on building our economy to secure your future.

Thank you very much.