BRIDGET MCKENZIE:
… to be in Melbourne the heart of AFLW today, to make a fabulous announcement from the Federal Government to back Carlton Football Club’s vision for women’s sport. Not just for their elite athletes, but for a whole pathway of development, which is just so exciting. Our Government invested over $230 million in grassroots initiatives out in club heartland. What we’ve seen is this tsunami of interest from young woman and girls built on the back of the elite performances of the AFLW players who you see here today. You can’t be, what you can’t see, so we are very, very proud to be backing in AFLW players to be the very best they can be, to inspire and motivate the next generation of AFLW players.
KELLY O’DWYER:
Well, thanks very much Bridget, and Josh and to Mark. It’s great to be here, the $15 million commitment here to Ikon Park for the redevelopment, will help women athletes to be even better than they are. It will give them the facilities that they deserve, the same facilities that men enjoy. We as a Government believe very strongly that women and men deserve an equal stake in our society and we are taking practical action to make sure that happens. So, I am delighted to be here, I am delighted to see such wonderful and fantastic role models here. Not only in sport, not only those who are playing on the ground, but all of the coaches, the CEO Nicole Livingstone, who is down here today, and all of the other fantastic supporters that have made this happen.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Thanks, Kel, thanks Bridget and I can thank you both for championing women’s sport and to Mark LoGiudice the President of Carlton, thank you for the invitation to be down here today. The $15 million contribution from the Commonwealth Government will join with the Victorian State Government in revitalising this iconic sporting venue in Victoria. Women’s football is going from strength to strength, to think that less than a decade ago there were just over 50 female AFL teams playing AFL around the state, and now there are more than 1000 teams and across the country more than 2000 teams. This facility will enable cutting edge research, medical research to be done into women related injuries, first class coaching facilities for more women coaches in football and in sport more generally, and of course a first-class training facility. And it was here at Ikon Park that Carlton and Collingwood played that great game to kick off the season a couple of years ago, and there was a lock out, over 24,000 people came into the ground and many more wanted to, but there just wasn’t the facilities. So, turning Ikon Park into the preeminent footballing venue for women’s football here in Victoria is a great thing for the state of Victoria and it is a great thing for women’s football.
MARK LOGIUDICE:
Well, thanks for being here and coming along today. It is a very, very exciting day for the Carlton Football Club. I want to thank our Ministers, the Treasurer and the Federal Government for the $15 million grant that they’ve provided for the redevelopment of Ikon Park, together with the Daniel Andrew’s State Government, $20 million, as Josh has mentioned, gives us the funds required to commence the redevelopment of Ikon Park. So, it is a great day not only for Carlton, but also a great day for AFL and AFLW and it will provide lots of opportunities as Josh has stipulated, that our current female athletes don’t have at the moment. Including education to the redevelopment - will include an education hub, which is very important in the development of our female athletes to become an enhanced coaching, coaching players, administration, and we are looking forward to hopefully commencing construction in 2020. That is when we hope the development will start. And we look forward to a great iconic development to be part of Melbourne.
QUESTION:
Minister Pyne said earlier today, that the Government won’t rush with the law changes to address the Banking Royal Commission. Why not? Why won’t you take action quickly?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, this is another political stunt from the Labor Party, not a practical solution to the real issues that matter to the people of Australia. Namely, how do we ensure that our banking system and our financial system more generally puts the interests of customers first and not profits. We had the report for just a few days, before we provided a formal comprehensive response. The Labor Party has had the report now for double the amount of time that we had it and they have failed to provide a formal response. That’s because they can’t answer the questions about what they are going to do on mortgage broking and what are they going to do about putting the interests of superannuants and their members interests first.
QUESTION:
Treasurer, why is the Government announcing a funding boost for aged care on the eve of the Aged Care Royal Commission?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well, we’ve consistently announced funding boosts for aged care, in fact in MYEFO we had a significant boost as well. If you look at what the Government is producing - funding the aged care sector 2018-19 compared to what Labor was doing when they were in office, it is substantially higher under us. In fact six and half billion dollars higher under us. So, we are actually providing the necessary resources to the aged care sector and today’s announcement, another 10,000 home care places and a range of other initiates is a really positive thing. And I know Bridget from a perspective of regional Australia and the National Party, and a number of their seats, this will make a real difference to them.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE:
Absolutely.
QUESTION:
Do you have advice that every refugee or asylum seeker on Manus and Nauru sufficiently ill to warrant medical evacuation to Australia?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Look, what we know is one thing, and again Labor Party will again fail in protecting our borders. That was the record when they were last in government, when more than 50,000 unauthorised boat arrivals came, 8,000 children ended up in detention, 2,000 of them were still there when we came to Government and tragically more than a 1,000 people lost their lives at sea. And the Labor Party under real pressure from the extreme left of their Party, is caving in. Caving in from what should be a bi-partisan approach to having robust border protection policies. So, it is up to the Labor Party. Will they wave the white flag to the people smugglers and pass this Bill through the Parliament and if they do, it will be on their watch and it will be because of their actions that the boats restart. Because the boats have stopped under us, lives have been saved, billions of dollars has been saved, [inaudible] because we have closed 17 detention centres and of course we’ve got all children out of detention, that’s our record.