News story: CMA accepts Mastercard/VocaLink undertakings

The CMA has today accepted undertakings offered by Mastercard to address competition concerns arising from its purchase of VocaLink.

On 18 January 2017, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it would look in detail at whether the undertakings offered by Mastercard UK Holdco Limited, an affiliate of MasterCard International Incorporated (Mastercard), and VocaLink Holdings Ltd (VocaLink) removed the need to carry out an in-depth merger investigation.

The package of measures offered by Mastercard and VocaLink consisted of:

VocaLink making its existing network connectivity available to a new supplier of infrastructure services to LINK. This could allow a competitor to use VocaLink’s connectivity to members of the LINK ATM network, rather than having to build their own;
VocaLink transferring to LINK the intellectual property rights relating to the LINK LIS5 messaging standard, which members of the network use to communicate when customers use cash machines; and
Mastercard contributing to the cost to LINK members of changing to a new supplier of infrastructure services to LINK.

After considering responses to a formal consultation, the CMA has concluded the proposals are sufficient to address its competition concerns.

The undertakings and all other information relating to this merger investigation will shortly be available on the case page.

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

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.

Doorstop at the Taj Palace

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]

Doorstop at the Taj Palace

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]

Speech: Shared commitment will be needed from the Colombian Government, the FARC and the UN Mission in Colombia as we write a new chapter in the country’s history.

Thank you Madam President and thank you Jean for your briefing today and for your recent report and for all the hard work that you do on our collective behalf.

At the outset, I’d like to express my condolences to you Maria Emma following the tragic loss of life in the Mocoa landslides at the weekend. It was such an awful tragedy, and the people of Mocoa, and of Colombia as a whole, are in our thoughts.

The disaster has cast a shadow over what has been a very positive few months for Colombia. And yet despite the terrible loss of life, I have been struck by the resilience and resolve shown in response. And I’m pleased that it’s a shared resolve, with the FARC offering to work side by side with the government to help rebuild the town.

And it’s this same shared commitment that will be needed from the Colombian Government, the FARC and the UN Mission in Colombia as we write a new chapter in the country’s history.

And I’m very pleased to see the progress already being made; the government has committed to making peace a reality for all Colombians, the FARC have moved over 6,800 of their members into the transition zones to begin the process of laying down arms, as Jean has just updated us.

And I’m reassured by your commitment Jean, and that of your personnel, as you move as swiftly as possible to meet the tough timeframes ahead. We recognise that the scale of the Mission’s work is ambitious and challenging and you have our full support in those efforts.

As with all post-conflict situations, sustained implementation is vital. We learned from our own experiences in Northern Ireland that building peace requires a comprehensive, sustained and joined-up effort. There is no ‘quick fix’. Establishing and maintaining momentum in the early stages though is critical.

And there has been steady progress including on the legislative track, with the Amnesty Law and Special Jurisprudence for Peace passed by Congress. I also welcome the report that a thousand FARC weapons have already been taken off the battlefield. This has been made possible by continued commitment of both the Government and the FARC to meeting the D+180 day deadline.

I recognise that this has been an ambitious timeline and encourage both sides to continue to work towards the final goal of complete disarmament. In the mean time it’s important that visible steps are taken to deliver implementation in the transition zones, including the provision of health facilities.

Amid the progress, we are concerned by the activity of non-State armed groups, including ELN and criminal attacks against community leaders and human rights defenders, as verified by the OHCHR report in March. These attacks are a threat to public confidence in the peace agreement, especially in isolated and vulnerable communities.

A robust, coordinated response from the Government is needed to ensure security in all areas vacated by the FARC and I welcome efforts taken so far, including the establishment of the Commission on Security Guarantees, which I very much hope will co-operate effectively with civil society.

In the coming months, politics in Colombia will increasingly focus on next year’s Presidential and Legislative elections. No one doubts the commitment of both parties to achieve peace, but during the election period it will be crucial that work continues on the structures and mechanisms needed for long term reintegration of the FARC and the development of areas affected by the conflict.

The Colombian Government should feel assured that the International Community is ready to assist in any way it can with these efforts. As the penholder in the Security Council, and as a witness to the handing over of the Peace Agreement to the Secretary-General two weeks ago, the United Kingdom stands ready to play our part.

And we also look forward to the Council’s visit in May, which will give us a clear sense of progress, and demonstrate our continued support for peace in Colombia.

Finally Madam President, before giving up the floor, I’d like to say that as we meet today, we should reflect not just on the positive developments that Colombia has seen in recent months, but also on the positive role that this Council has played in bringing that progress about. And that’s a role that we don’t play on every single issue on our agenda. But I hope that Colombia gives us all in this chamber increased hope and belief in the power of the Security Council to deliver peace and security. And I hope that we can channel this spirit into the other difficult issues that we face.

Thank you.