Source: Prime Minister of Australia
hank you very much for that warm introduction.
And I do want to thank Robyn as well for the wonderful Welcome to Country that we just received. It uplifted all of us, didn’t hurt anyone. It’s about bringing people together. And I thank Robyn and her son for that very warm welcome to her country.
It is always a pleasure to be here in Perth and I’m grateful for the invitation to join you this morning.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve addressed you here, but it is indeed my first in the lead up to a Budget. And this is the largest speech I will give in the lead up to the Budget, due on May 12.
At a time of global uncertainty, this room represents jobs, industries and investment that are crucial to Australia’s economic security – and our future prosperity.
It has been just under nine weeks since the war in the Middle East began.
And it seems like every other day brings a different report as to what comes next.
What we know for sure is that even if peace is secured tomorrow, there is no quick or easy road back to normal for the global economy.
The damage that has been done to energy infrastructure across the region and the risk of mines in the Strait of Hormuz means it will take some time before shipping in that region returns to anything like its usual pattern.
And the economic disruption and cost of living pressures caused by the biggest spike in petrol and diesel prices in history, will be with us even longer than that.
Those factors – and the timing – are outside of our control.
None of us here can determine when this war will end.
But all of us can choose how we respond to the economic challenges it is creating.
We can choose what we learn from this global crisis, even before it ends.
And we can choose what we are going to do differently, as a country.
What we will build and change and reform, so that Australia does more than weather this storm, we emerge from it as a stronger, fairer and more resilient country.
Building and strengthening this national resilience will be a key focus of the Budget we deliver in 13 days’ time.
It will be our Government’s most important Budget to date – and our most ambitious.
The challenges confronting our nation right now demand that ambition – and so too do the opportunities ahead of us.
I want to emphasise that point about opportunities.
A straightforward lesson of the past decade is that distance no longer isolates us from global uncertainty.
But that’s only half the story.
Western Australia stands as proof that distance is also no longer a barrier to prosperity.
Yes, the world is changing, profoundly and rapidly.
But here in Australia we have the resources, the people and the capacity to make that change work for us.
It is true that we can no longer accept with complacency that we are the last link in the global supply chain.
But a country like ours, with our skills and smarts and innovation and resources, should never have settled for that in any case.
For decades, we were told that it was somehow efficient and rational to cut apprenticeships and TAFE, offshore manufacturing and close refineries, because in the end Australia would be able to rely on someone else, somewhere else to make things cheaper than we could ourselves.
That equation has changed. Fundamentally.
And we should embrace the chance this gives us to move up the international value chain.
To make more things here, to see our world-class mining industry draw on a new generation of science and research and technology, and catalyse a new generation of manufacturing in clean energy and critical minerals and rare earths.
That optimism and determination is at the centre of our resilience agenda.
Because building resilience is about much more than shielding our country from the worst.
A resilient economy is one that enables Australia to be our best.
That means building on our national strengths – and broadening them out.
Making the most of our resources and our relationships, deepening and diversifying our trade with the region and beyond.
Making the most of our energy advantages: with cleaner, cheaper renewables and storage backed by gas – sovereign energy that we generate and control.
And empowering more people with a stake in our economy, a place in our national project, a share in Australia’s success.
Opening the doors of opportunity through education.
Backing Australians to start or grow a business.
Helping more young people realise the dream of home ownership.
Resilience is absolutely an economic imperative – for skills and energy and jobs and growth and productivity.
But there is a bigger national purpose to this as well.
Building our resilience is about protecting ourselves from the economic division and social dislocation we have seen take hold in other parts of the world, where people feel like the system is broken beyond all repair.
Guarding against that requires more than talking about Australian values, it’s about giving those values meaning in people’s daily lives.
That’s what strengthening Medicare, cutting taxes and Free TAFE are all about.
Making sure that fairness, aspiration and opportunity are visible, are real and are within reach.
Put simply: to preserve everything that makes this the best country on earth, we have to make the economy work better for people.
That means rebuilding – and strengthening – the connection between hard work and fair reward.
Helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn, so they have the security to save for the future.
And making it easier for businesses to build and invest and employ and innovate.
We want our resources and manufacturing sectors to be able to seize the opportunities of our Future Made in Australia plan.
For Australian firms and tech workers to secure the benefits of a new wave of investment in data centres and artificial intelligence.
And for businesses across our country to be able to rely on a skilled workforce that drives growth and productivity.
At the beginning of our second term, Jim Chalmers and I both identified boosting productivity as a key reform priority for the Government.
Global uncertainty has not put that on hold – it has only underlined precisely how important it is.
This year’s Budget will contain a substantial set of new measures to boost productivity, across our economy.
Clearing away barriers to investment and cutting through regulations that are holding back new housing, energy and jobs.
And – every bit as importantly – creating more headroom in our economy, enabling economic growth to lift wages and living standards, without adding to pressure on inflation.
Australia’s productivity challenge has been decades in the making.
And it won’t be resolved by a tired old argument about government being bigger or smaller – this is about government working better.
We have made important progress on this front already, including reforming Australia’s broken environmental laws.
Twenty years ago, the median approval time for a project under the EPBC Act was 48 weeks.
When we brought our reforms into parliament, the median timeframe had blown out to 118 weeks.
Too often, that means investors simply walk away, communities miss out on jobs and people miss out on new energy or housing.
We took action to fix this – and we are building on it today.
Today I announce our Government is committing $45 million in our Budget to speed-up and simplify approvals into a single-touch process.
This will fast-track new energy, housing and resources projects by combining federal and state approvals – effectively removing an entire layer of bureaucracy from the process.
If a state government signs one of our new bilateral approval agreements, they will be empowered to conduct assessments and approvals on the Commonwealth’s behalf.
So instead of a two-stage, two-track process, with that all the cost of delays and doubling up that occurs, this will be a one-step process, with one, clearer, faster, yes or no.
After too many wasted years, this can be a circuit breaker – if the states step up and sign up.
And I am pleased that Premier Roger Cook has been the first to sign a MOU to begin formal negotiations for a bilateral assessment agreement.
The intention is to then negotiate a bilateral approval agreement – and our Budget funding will facilitate this.
Every Budget we have delivered has invested in WA infrastructure – and you will see that again on the 12th of May.
Back in 2024, we partnered with the Cook Government to support the initial planning works for Westport.
A new container port at Kwinana is a vital piece of economic infrastructure for the state – and the nation.
It sits alongside the generational $12 billion investment our Government is making in the Henderson Defence Precinct.
Funding that will support continuous naval ship-building and sustainment.
Creating 10,000 direct jobs in the West – and a whole new ecosystem of opportunities for local manufacturing.
This will be the industrial heart of Western Australia.
And we want to make sure that road and freight rail connections are there from day one.
We’ve backed the blueprint – and now we will partner with the WA Labor Government to lift it off the page.
Today, I announce that we will co-fund the $1.1 billion upgrade of Anketell Road.
These upgrades will help reduce traffic and improve safety on Rockingham Road and surrounds.
Get more trucks off residential streets.
And ensure that the freight corridor to Westport is ready to go.
Next month’s Budget will build Australia’s resilience by investing in our fuel security, for the long term.
It is the nature of the global fuel market that we only have a clear picture of the next four to six weeks.
And from this, we know supplies to Australia remain steady and at the volumes expected.
Indeed, the new powers we have given to Export Finance Australia to underwrite the purchase of shiploads of diesel and fertiliser, as well as the direct engagement we have undertaken with our partners in the region, means we are currently securing fuel above and beyond our normal levels.
In just the last week our government has secured 400 million additional litres of diesel on top of our regular supply: bound for WA, far north Queensland and our east coast.
But there is absolutely no room for complacency.
Because we know the global outlook is inherently unpredictable – and we have to be prepared for the situation to remain unstable.
That’s why our priority remains fuel supply.
Making more fuel here and keeping it onshore.
Co-operating with the states and territories to co-ordinate our response.
We continue to engage with our partners in the region, so Australia remains at the front of the queue, even if conditions deteriorate.
And we are working closely with industry on all of this.
Drawing on the connections and expertise you have built over decades – both as Australia’s largest users of diesel and as companies embedded in our region.
The great Labor Governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating had the vision and the courage to recognise that Australia’s economic future lay in our region, the Indo-Pacific.
And the businesses and workers of Western Australia were crucial to bringing that vision into being.
WA resources helped build and power the fastest growing region of the world in human history.
You showed that buying Australian meant getting the best.
And not just our resources, or our food and fibre.
But our expertise and ideas, our technology and our services.
Your presence and contribution to the region helped forge a new and deeper level of trust in our nation.
And over the last four years, as our Government has worked to rebuild and deepen Australia’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific:
Strengthening our ties with ASEAN nations.
Stabilising the relationship with China.
Signing an historic defence treaty with Indonesia.
Broadening our economic and security partnerships with Japan and the Republic of Korea.
And creating new areas of co-operation, from our clean energy partnership with India to the historic Critical Minerals Agreement I signed at the White House last year.
Time and time again, your industries have been vital to the success of these efforts.
This ongoing, consistent and constructive engagement both in regional forums such as ASEAN, APEC and the Pacific Islands Forum, and in bilateral discussions, means that our neighbours and partners understand that under our Government, Australia is not one of those friends that only rings up when they want something.
They know that when Australia makes a promise, we honour it.
We back our words, with actions.
And maintaining and strengthening our standing as a reliable trading partner, doesn’t make us old-fashioned or naïve about the change going on around us.
We all understand that the global environment is volatile.
That the safeguards of shared norms and rules are proving less reliable.
But that only makes the trust that our region places in Australia, more valuable and more powerful.
Our reliability is an economic and strategic asset in itself.
And it is delivering for us in this global crisis.
In Singapore and Brunei and Malaysia.
In our ongoing discussions with the Republic of Korea.
And in next week’s visit from the Prime Minister of Japan.
The quality and reliability of Australian agriculture, Australian resources and Australian gas, has been critically important to the assurances we have received for future supplies of petrol, diesel and fertiliser.
In other words, our gas exports are directly linked to our national fuel security.
And the middle of a global fuel crisis is the worst possible time to jeopardise these partnerships, or the investment that underpins them.
This is why I can confirm that the Budget will not undermine existing contracts on gas exports.
The people of Australia have every right to expect Australian gas to be affordable for our economy – for industry and households alike.
This is why we are creating a Domestic Gas Reservation for the east coast, building on the success of the WA model, to ensure that future gas projects contribute to our national prosperity.
Australians also have every right to expect a fair return for our country’s resources.
That is why we have reformed the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax.
It’s why we continue to support fair wages and secure work, in every sector.
And it is why we capped gas and coal prices in 2022, to shield businesses and households from those global energy price spikes.
That’s how our government operates: we adapt and respond to the challenges the world throws at us.
We deal with the global reality – and we act in the national interest.
On Saturday, Australians came together to pay our respects to all who had served, suffered and sacrificed for our nation.
I attended the Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial.
That iconic building was designed to remember what that generation called ‘The Great War’.
Yet even before construction was completed, Australia was already in the grip of a Second World War.
On the day he opened the War Memorial, the proud member for Fremantle and Australia’s finest wartime leader John Curtin, spoke of Gallipoli and everything that followed as:
‘the first great crisis in Australian history’.
Think about that.
A bold new social democracy, leading the world on the minimum wage and the eight hour day, the first country where women could vote in elections and run for parliament.
A Federation only 14 years old, plunged into a conflict that proved longer and infinitely more devastating than anyone could have imagined.
The loss and the trauma could have stopped that young nation in its tracks.
Instead, 111 years on, we still find inspiration in Anzac Day.
In what that first great crisis revealed about Australia’s character: their courage and resolve, the humanity and the humour they held onto, even in the toughest of times.
And the sacrifices they made, to look after each other.
Those same qualities have steered our nation through conflict and hardship and disaster, down the generations.
And no matter what the world throws at us in the months ahead, as long as we hold true to our values, trust in our people and back ourselves, we will come through this stronger, more resilient and ready to seize the opportunities that the future holds.