Apr112017

Press Statement

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PRIME MINISTER:

Thank you, Prime Minister for your welcome. Your hospitality is as warm as it is magnificent. We are very honoured to be here at your invitation.

As you said, our two nations have so much in common. Cricket, of course, but we have a commitment to democracy and the rule of law, and you lead, sir, the largest democracy in the world. Indian historians have often described that India was an improbable democracy but it is the world’s largest. The success you have achieved is the wonder of the world. The largest democracy in the world, shortly to be the largest nation in the world, built out of so much diversity and you’ve achieved this remarkable unity of purpose and defying again skeptics, you’ve delivered a growth rate that is equally the wonder of the world, recognising that opening markets, deregulation, enabling businesses and individuals to pursue their own dreams, their own freedom,  is the way to deliver the prosperity upon which all depends.

Now, Australia has, Prime Minister, the resources and the expertise as we’ve just seen to make a very substantial contribution to India’s growth and development. Spanning education, training, science and innovation, our dynamic and growing knowledge partnership can be truly transformative.

We are already working together to harness the creativity and the drive of our best and brightest minds. Our flagship joint research fund, the Australia India Strategic Research Fund is Australia’s largest with any country.

It has helped our universities, research institutions and companies to solve the practical challenges in critical areas to both countries, including health, food security, and energy, as you’ve noted.

The Deakin-TERI Nanobiotechnology Research Centre, which we just inaugurated, and I might say Prime Minister, having been involved in the technology business in the past, I always approach any live demonstration with great anxiety. In the technology business they talk about the demo-God, which is a malevolent deity which generally makes sure that live online demonstrations don’t quite work, but that was brilliant and I want to say thank you to the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of Deakin University for allaying my concerns. So well done.

But this research centre will bring up to 100 researchers together to solve some of the world’s biggest problems in developing biofuels to early detection of crop diseases to improve productivity. And these are practical solutions with commercial prospects for both of our countries.

Likewise there is the potential to work with your government, Prime Minister, as you pursue your ambition to train 400 million Indians over the next few years.

Our world-class skills training system including train-the-trainer courses which are already piloted in five Indian cities can help India build scale quickly and open up opportunities for Australian training providers.

As you noted, more than 60,000 Indian students studied in our institutions in 2016, and I am committed, and we had a very fruitful discussion about this and Prime Minister you gave me a lot of great advice, you have made education and higher education such a passion from your time in Gujarat to now as Prime Minister of India, it was very, very helpful. We will continue to ensure that we provide outstanding opportunities for Indian students and also that Australian students learn more about India by visiting and studying here including through the scholarships and grants supported by my Government’s New Colombo Plan.

Our deepening collaboration on water management is supporting your National Water Policy by improving river basin planning and management, hydrological modelling and sustainable water use.

And I might say the management of water resources in India has been a passion of several prime ministers of Australia including one of our earliest, Alfred Deakin who made a study of the irrigation system in India a particular focus of his as he took learnings from that and set up the irrigation models for Australia.

Our know-how and resources are already partnering with India’s 24×7 Power For All, Smart Cities and Make in India programs, but there is room for further growth.

We’ve worked closely with India to meet our respective requirements for the provision of fuel for India’s civil nuclear program, and we look forward to the first export of Australian uranium to India as soon as possible.

Now, Prime Minister, you recognise that all Indians need access to reliable and affordable energy, and like us, you share a technology agnostic all of the above approach. Pragmatic. That’s exactly how we focus on the issue. So we are pleased to be providing increasing quantities of high quality coal for steel making and increasingly for power generation with advanced super critical technology. Like Australia, India is planning to increase its pumped hydro storage capacity and we look forward to sharing expertise in that vitally important part of the 21st century energy system.

And India, like Australia and many other countries is also advancing solar energy. Indeed, we believe that by next year, about 60 per cent of the world’s solar cells will use technology developed by Australian researchers. Solar energy offers lower cost distributed energy which is of particular importance in the developing world.

So I want to congratulate you, Prime Minister, for your global leadership in establishing the International Solar Alliance and I am very happy to announce that we will join that alliance.

Now, our trading relationship is delivering significant benefits to our respective nations. Last year two-way trade in goods and services was nearly $20 billion, more than double what it was a decade ago. But given the complementarities of our two economies, this is a fraction of the level it could and should be.

Now we are working with India to secure timely conclusion of a quality Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the RCEP, which would provide a significant boost to regional confidence.

We had a very good discussion about the CECA, the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between India and Australia and I think it is fair to say that we feel that progress has not been as fast as either of us would like it to be.

And so, as you said, we have asked our, we will ask our chief negotiators to schedule an early meeting to get the process moving. We will ask them to tabulate the areas of ambition where each side is seeking access so that we can see where and to what extent the parties, the negotiators are apart and they will report back to us as soon as possible so that we can keep the focus on delivering the CECA and identifying the areas where more work needs to be done.

But in the meantime, the wheels of industry go on and we are working to identify tangible, commercial opportunities to strengthen two-way trade and investment and this will be a particular focus of my visit to Mumbai later this week.

Finally, as you noted sir, our work together in the strategic and security spheres continues to gain momentum, through regular engagement across all three armed services and high-level talks with our defence ministers and officials.

As Indo-Pacific democracies committed to the rules based international order, we share interests on a broad range of regional and global security issues.

Building on the 2014 Framework for Security Cooperation, I hope that our new MoU on Combatting Transnational Organised Crime including International Terrorism will continue to strengthen this strategic partnership.

It will facilitate closer collaboration on counter-terrorism, cyber-security, people smuggling and human trafficking, money laundering and a tax on critical infrastructure.

And in addition, as you noted, we are working more closely together with our friends and partners in the region, including through the East Asia Summit and the Indian Ocean Rim Association.

In conclusion, thank you Prime Minister Modi for your personal commitment to helping us realise the full potential of the Australia India partnership. With our shared commitment and the passion, the ingenuity, the determination of our two nations, I have no doubt that our partnership will go from strength to strength.

[ends]

Apr112017

Press release: Families to benefit from £55 million boost to childcare schemes

HM Government
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Thousands of new childcare places for working parents around the country are being created thanks to a multi-million grant scheme, the Early Years Minister Caroline Dinenage has announced today.

The £50 million capital grants double the government’s investment to help nurseries, pre-schools and playgroups invest in new buildings and upgrade facilities. This will deliver more than 9,000 additional childcare places – helping to meet the government’s commitment to give working families 30 hours free childcare from September.

The money builds on the £50 million funding announced in January, doubling the total spend to £100 million and altogether providing nearly 18,000 extra childcare places.

Alongside this, nearly £5 million will go to organisations that are helping children from disadvantaged backgrounds or with additional needs to access high-quality early education, so that every child can reach their full potential, regardless of their background.

The 12 opportunity areas announced by the Education Secretary will also benefit from £5 million as part of the government’s latest capital investment. These areas, identified as social mobility ‘coldspots’, are already benefitting from a share of £72 million – today’s funding will be a further boost for families living there.

As part of its Plan for Britain, the government is working to create a society where success is defined by work and talent, not birth or circumstance. Supporting parents with the cost and availability of quality childcare to enable them to work if they choose to is an important part of this ambition.

Minister for the Early Years Caroline Dinenage said:

In my visits around the country I have heard from families whose lives have been improved by access to 30 hours. As part of our Plan for Britain we want to make this a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few, so that means removing the barriers facing parents struggling to balance their jobs with the cost of childcare.

This investment will deliver more childcare places to working parents, giving them the benefits of 30 hours’ free childcare while giving their children high-quality early education that sets them up for life. This is backed by our record £6 billion investment in childcare per year by 2020.

Up to £5 million of voluntary and community sector (VCS) grants will be shared among 13 projects working to improve the quality of early education and supporting professionals to deliver the 30 hours offer. This includes:

  • more than £1.5 million for 5 organisations working with parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), delivering workshops and training that will raise awareness of the support available for these families
  • nearly £1.7 million to directly support disadvantaged children by boosting outreach programmes in areas such as early literacy and home learning
  • more than £1 million to groups working directly with providers, developing tools and resources to support the delivery of 30 hours

The government has also relaunched its Childcare Business Grant Scheme, aimed at supporting new childminders or childminder agencies who are looking to start their own businesses. Eligible professionals could receive grants of £500 or £1,000 to help with the costs of setting up, making it easier for those who want to offer 30 hours free childcare to prepare.

Childminders will also benefit from grants to Action for Children and PACEY, worth £370,000 and £381,000, which will help upskill and empower them to deliver 30 hours and make sure their businesses are sustainable.

The announcement is on top of the government’s record £6 billion each year investment for childcare by 2020 and follows the recent publication of a new fairer funding system for early years education. This formula will see the minimum hourly rate for councils increased to £4.30 per hour, ensuring the 30 hours free offer is sustainable for providers.

The government has recently launched its Childcare Choices website. This sets out details of all of the childcare support available for parents from across the government and allows them to register for email alerts that will notify them when applications for 30 hours open nationally.

Opportunity areas will see local partnerships formed with early years providers, schools, colleges, universities, businesses, charities and local authorities to ensure all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Opportunity areas include:

  • Blackpool
  • Bradford
  • Derby
  • Doncaster
  • Fenland & East Cambridgeshire
  • Hastings
  • Ipswich
  • Norwich
  • Oldham
  • Scarborough
  • West Somerset

The priority of the council bid round, which closed in August, was to target grants to areas where there was a demonstrable need for additional places to support the delivery of the 30 hours offer. Each bidder was required to contribute at least 25% of the total funding they requested, in order to share the budget around the maximum possible projects around the country.

The capital grants are being matched by around £40 million in additional funding from various local sources across the country, resulting in a total investment of approximately £140 million.

We are providing tools to support childcare providers, including a package of 30 hours delivery resources and an updated business sustainability toolkit.

Successful bids for VCS grants were required to demonstrate they met specific priorities: their positive impact on disadvantaged communities – including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or ethnic minorities – distinct ways of enhancing the quality of the early years workforce, or helping to boost the number of 30 hours places available. The grants run over 15 months to March 2018.

Apr112017

Security Council condemns ‘barbaric and cowardly’ terrorist attack in Stockholm

United Nations
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10 April 2017 – The United Nations Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the “barbaric and cowardly” terrorist attack which took place in Stockholm on 7 April, and during which at least four people, including a child, were killed and over a dozen injured.

In a press statement, the members of the Council expressed their deep sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the Government of Sweden.

Reaffirming that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, the Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.

Through its statement, the Council also reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the UN Charter and other obligations under international law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.

The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring the perpetrators of these terrorist acts to justice.

Apr112017

EU funding boost an Epic start to Easter

Welsh Government
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The additional funding will be used for marketing and partnership work in support of the themed years  – as well as boosting the funding available to the private sector under the Tourism Investment Support Scheme (TISS).  Funding will also be made available to the public sector under TISS to improve visitor facilities and amenities.

Economy Secretary, Ken Skates, said: 

“This package of investment by the Rural Development Programme will make a major contribution to how we develop the products that we have here in Wales as well as how we market Wales to the world. It will enable us to make sure that the correct amenities are in place at the local level; to encourage innovative and top quality product development; and it will help us take these products to the world through Visit Wales marketing.  With the existing EU tourism funded projects currently in development with partners in Wales, we are looking at more than a £100 million investment in the sector up until 2020 which will have a big impact on Wales’ competiveness in the global marketplace. 

 “I’m delighted to be making this announcement at the beginning of what will hopefully be a busy season for the tourism industry in Wales. We’ve experienced two record breaking years for tourism, with figures for the first 9 months of 2016 showing a substantial increase of 12% in the number of overseas visitors coming to Wales and a 9% increase in the amount they spend during their visit. We’ve also seen a significant increase in the number of day visitors coming to Wales – there was 31% increase in day visit expenditure last year. Our aim for 2017 is to sustain these record breaking figures with continued investment and innovation in marketing and product development. 

“The recently launched Year of Legends campaign, which includes an advert starring Luke Evans has been hailed as a game changer by industry leaders, there was a sharp spike in visitors to the visitwales.com website on 1 March as the advert launched and Facebook posts published on St David’s day were seen by more than 1 million people. Campaign work now continues to convert early interest into bookings for the summer.

“This week, the popular EPIC installation is back with a new legendary new look for Easter and its first appearance of the year will be at Margam Park. I’d like to wish the industry a successful start to the season.”

Further information on application process for the RDP funding will be available to the industry following the Easter holidays. 

Visit Wales’ innovative travelling art installation, a focal part of the summer campaign last year, has undergone a makeover over the winter to reflect the Year of Legends theme for 2017. The sign has been refreshed and recovered with illustrations of our most popular and well known legends. Visitors will be able to read all about the stories behind the legends as these are printed on the base of the sign which measures 4 meters high and 11 meters wide. This year’s campaign film with Luke Evans is also a feature of the sign; with a QR code to view the film printed on the sign. The sign will be at Margam Park from Tuesday 11 April until the May Bank Holiday before moving to another legendary location in Wales.

The letters will again act as a focal point for visitors’ selfies and is designed to encourage image and content sharing on social media using the campaign hashtag #FindYourEpic. The tour is supported by an integrated campaign consisting PR and other media activity including digital advertising, e-mail marketing and social media activity targeting families and visitors in our core regions in North West England, The Midlands, Yorkshire, London and the South East.

Apr102017

Doorstop at the Taj Palace

HM Government
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PRIME MINISTER:

I’ll be meeting again with Prime Minister Modi in a moment, as we take the Australia-India relationship to new and higher levels. It is growing all the time, strengthening cooperation across so many fields.

I talked at the Press Club about opportunity and security, and the opportunities here for Australian exporters including, of course, exporters of raw materials, coal, energy products, but also education.

This is an enormous education market for Australia and we have six of our vice-chancellors here. It represents nearly $2.5 billion a year for Australia in terms of exports. There are 60,000 Indians studying in Australia and Prime Minister Modi wants to train 400 million Indians over the next five years, so he has got a massive task, a massive objective, a huge ambition to upskill the people of India and there is a big role for Australia to play in that. We are the second most preferred destination for Indian students to study abroad after the United States, and that is a huge vote of confidence.

So our university leaders are here, the Education Minister Simon Birmingham is here and we are going to build on that very powerful relationship.

Also – security. We’ll see today a commitment to closer cooperation on counter-terrorism, on countering people smuggling and human trafficking.

Opportunity and security, going hand in hand.

Each of us have a vested interest in maintaining the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific, maintaining a strong united front against terrorists, against people smugglers, against those that seek to threaten our way of life.

So this is a vitally important relationship.

India is an extraordinary achievement. So diverse – had never existed as a single nation before 1947, 22 official languages, all the religions of the world, 11 different writing scripts and yet one nation here in India, created since 1947 – an extraordinary achievement and growing now at over 7 per cent per annum, the fastest growth rate of any comparable large country.

Prime Minister Modi is leading his country to new heights and we are very pleased to be here, to support that and to collaborate, to cooperate to the greater benefit of both Australia and India.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister, the trade relationship needs a push along, and one of the things that the Indian side has been raising is something they want is easier rules on 457 skilled foreign worker visas for their people. Is that on the table? Is that an option for that trade deal?

PRIME MINISTER:

We see our temporary migration program as being conducted in a very focused way in Australia’s national interest. And our commitment and our determination is to ensure that obviously where jobs can be done by Australians, they’re done by Australians. Plainly, every nation has that objective. But where there is a real, a genuine shortage of skills then we can bring in skilled persons from overseas and so a great many of those have come from India, it is a very, very talented population, but everything we do will be focused on our national interest.

JOURNALIST:

Mr Turnbull, do you see any obstacle in Australia knocking off the US as the number one provider of education services to India and especially as the boffins and university people here this week are saying one of the catalysts could be curbs on student visas by Theresa May and sort of general Trump-ism scaring off Indian students in the US, [inaudible]?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well look it is, the education market like every other one is competitive, there’s no doubt about that and it says a lot when you consider relative size of Australia and the United States.

The fact that we are second only to the United States in terms of being a destination for Indian students says a great deal about the way Indians view Australia and the way they view our educational institutions. 

So we are competing with other countries for international students. It is a competitive market and as you know we love competition, we like free trade, we like open markets, we’re committed to them.

JOURNALIST:

PM, are you going to meet Mr Adani and what will you say about the rail link to the port that Adani wants supported?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I’m looking forward to seeing Mr Adani again. I’ve met him before, of course.  As far as the rail link is concerned, if you’re asking about the Adani’s interest in securing funding from the Northern Australian Infrastructure Fund, that’s an independent process – it has to go through that process, through that independent assessment by the board.

JOURNALIST:

John Clarke aimed fun and his wit at prime ministers – how does the Prime Minister today reflect on the passing of John Clarke?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it is a huge loss. You know, he had, he had one of the keenest eyes. He understood us, all of us, not just prime ministers but all of us better than anyone. He was much more than a satirist. He had an insight into the Australian soul and he could cut right to the heart of the issue, he could demolish the pomposity, the absurdity of politics and of the, you know, the great and the good if you like, and do so in a way that left everybody laughing, including the victims of his genius. 

JOURNALIST: 

Prime Minister you talked about security between, security issues being discussed today – will you be discussing energy security?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes.

JOURNALIST:

With that I mean obviously Australia is a supplier of natural gas, uranium and coal –

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes.

JOURNALIST:

Will that come up?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes, we will be, we’ll be discussing all of those issues. Prime Minister Modi and I have a similar view on energy which is all of the above. Obviously India is in a very different position to Australia in terms of its development and its enormous need for more electrification but India is pursuing every technology. As indeed is Mr Adani by the way – his company owns the second largest solar farm in the world which is here in India.

We are committed to all of the above, all of those technologies, we support them and we play a big role in it, obviously as a big coal exporter to India, as we’re now in a position to supply uranium of course, but in addition to that just remember this that most of the world’s solar cells contain Australian technology. 

Australia has been one of the leaders of photovoltaic technology. So, this extraordinary technology and you know, we saw how important it was in PNG in a different context, how important solar is. So it’s a very big agenda of Prime Minister Modi’s and of course we’re very pleased to be able to support that.

JOURNALIST:

Open markets, what is the best case scenario in terms of a free trade agreement, a time frame and would you like to see it happen and when do you think it is [inaudible]?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, it is a process that will take some time. You know, India has a long tradition of protection particularly for agriculture. From our point of view of course we are a huge agricultural exporter so we want to have open markets, open markets for everything but in particular for agriculture. So it will take time but the important thing is to persevere and I think that you can see the trade between our two countries is growing all the time. There are more opportunities arising. We’ve talked about energy, we’ve talked about education and of course other services. Indian tourism is growing in Australia as well. So I am confident that as we build on those people to people links, remember there is half a million Australians of Indian background and it’s the largest single part of our migration program nowadays, so the Australia-India connection is very, very strong. And it will get stronger and it’s built not just on meetings between prime ministers but on thousands if not millions of connections between Australians and Indians.

JOURNALIST:

Do you think it’s actually possible to overcome those sticking points? On the one hand the agriculture and on the other the labour mobility given that we have had two years now where we’ve been told the agreement would be finished by the end of the year.

PRIME MINISTER:

We will pursue it, we will pursue continued growth in trade between Australia and India. There is no point setting a target for an agreement without having regard to the quality of the agreement. You can sign an agreement anytime it’s a question of whether it’s got the provisions that make it valuable and worthwhile from Australia’s point of view. The big agenda in terms of trade in the region now is RCEP and that’s I think the priority that the ASEAN countries, India, Australia and China and others are giving today.

JOURNALIST:

Are we still trying for a free trade agreement?

PRIME MINISTER: 

The CECA as it’s called is yes, it is certainly on the agenda and Prime Minister Modi and I are committed to continuing work on that but again I wouldn’t, I think we’ve got to be realistic about timing and it is important to make sure that you have an agreement that meets your requirements – you’re not just reaching an agreement for the sake of being able to say we’ve reached an agreement – it’s important to be able to reach an agreement that provides real additional avenues for Australians. But I’ve got to say, the trade is growing very well, we are seeing real progress. This is a country as you can see around you in a state of rapid transition. The positions and the attitudes on trade of 20 years ago are not those taken in India today and they will change in the future as the nation develops as its economy transforms.

Now on that note I must leave you.

Thank you all very much.

[ENDS]