Journalist: You’re listening to community radio, 89.3FM. We’re joined now by the Member for the Queensland Federal seat of McPherson, Karen Andrews. Hi, Karen.

Karen Andrews: Hello, how are you this morning?

Journalist: Very, very well. We’re about to get our regular update from what’s been happening in Canberra. There’s more funding available for dangerous Gold Coast roads?

Karen Andrews: Yes, there is. The government is running a blackspot program, where we’re able to invest a record $500m into this programme over the next five years. What I’m looking for is local residents to tell me where the blackspots are on our local roads. So we’d look particularly at intersections and stretches of road that have a higher crash history, or are problematic, and we can look at putting in things such as traffic lights or roundabouts to alleviate these problems. But I do know that our locals are the ones that are going to be in the best position to identify which of the roads we need to be focusing our minds on, so I’m asking the locals to let me know which sections of road they believe need to be upgraded

Journalist: How can people contact you?

Karen Andrews: They can either call me at the office on 5580 9111, and I can send them a form to fill out, or they can go to investment.infrastructure.gov.au and pick up a nomination form from the website.

Journalist: Now Karen, in your role as Parliamentary Secretary for Industry and Science, I know you’ve spoken to us previously about the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths studies. What do you make of the CEDA research report released last week which predicts 40 per cent of jobs will be affected by digital disruption in the next 10-15 years?

Karen Andrews: I read through that report, and I think that it’s unfortunate that a lot of the reports have focused on the negative, which is where we do have some declining industries, and that is particularly in manufacturing, so there are some jobs that have been lost over the years – and I’m not suggesting that that’s okay, that there are job losses; but the upside is that there have been many more jobs created in the emerging industries, and the health sector is certainly one that has had significant job growth over the last ten years.

What we need to be focusing on is the jobs of the future, and whilst it’s almost impossible to predict exactly what the jobs will be in the next 10 to 20 years, we certainly know that 75 per cent of jobs are going to need strong STEM skills, so science, technology, engineering and maths skills as well.

I think that for the future, we need to be looking at lifting out skills in the science and maths area, and preparing our young people to take on those jobs for the future, and also I would say to all the mums and dads and grandparents who may be listening that you could also upgrade your skills in these areas, and look at what you can take up for additional work into the future, but certainly take the leadership role in helping the young people identify where they need to lift their skills as well, which is in science and maths

Journalist: Now to an extremely important issue, especially for the listeners of 4CRB. The cost of medications can be expensive for some in the community. Legislation introduced this week is aimed providing some relief. Is that right?

Karen Andrews: Yes, that’s right. There was legislation that was introduced into the senate this week, and that could see more than 2000 brands of your common medicine slashed in price for millions of Australians; some of the prices could be slashed by as much as 50 per cent from October next year, which is very good news.

And I guess without going into the brands of medication that might be impacted, the range is quite broad. There’s about seven of Australia’s most common medicines for things such as cholesterol, heart conditions, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, depression, and they will have significant savings associated with them, perhaps of $10-20 per script, so that will be a significant saving to about three million patients.

Journalist: Karen, the Australian citizenship amendment bill was introduced to parliament yesterday by the Immigration Minister. What difference will this bill make?

Karen Andrews: Well, I think we need to put into perspective that the terrorism threat in Australia has never been higher, and people are concerned about the safety of themselves and of their family and their children in particular.

What we’re doing with the legislation is effectively creating two new circumstances under which dual nationals who are terrorists will forfeit their citizenship. So one is renunciation by conduct; so if you engage in terrorism against Australia, as is currently the case with section 35 in respect of a foreign army, so if you are fighting in a foreign army against Australia you automatically lose your citizenship, the same will now apply if you are engaged in terrorism. You will automatically forfeit your citizenship if you are a dual national.

The other one is revocation by conviction, so if you’re convicted of a terrorist offence, again there will be an assumption that your Australian citizenship is forfeited should you be a dual national. And Barry, that’s time up for me, because if you can hear that bell ringing in the background, it’s a division and I need to go.

Journalist: Appreciate you joining us, thank you very much Karen.

Karen Andrews: Okay, take care. Bye!

Journalist: We were just talking with the member for the Queensland Federal seat of McPherson, Karen Andrews, on 89.3FM.

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