JOURNALIST: Good morning Minister.

IAN MACFARLANE: Good Morning David.

JOURNALIST: Minister, you’re here in Adelaide today to announce, we hope, good news for South Australian jobs. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet will be here later on this week, and I think you’re spending three days here. Is all of this about saving SA jobs or about saving Coalition seats?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well it’s about creating jobs in South Australia and as you know I’ve been working very hard for the last two years to do what I can and for the Government to provide assistance to South Australia to transition from the automotive assembly industry to future advanced manufacturing industries. We’ve had quite some success in that already and today’s announcement under the Next Generation Manufacturing Investment Programme will see $30 million allocated to companies in South Australia who want to get on and be part of the next generation of manufacturing.

JOURNALIST: Right, but you don’t bring a whole Cabinet to South Australia, unless you’re in serious trouble?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well look, I’m down here because Cabinet’s been called in Adelaide. We have Cabinet meetings right around Australia at different times. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to get to South Australia to announce these grants and also to talk to local businesses and industry. So it fits in with my itinerary and these days, as you know David, we’ve got to make sure we get the maximum value from every dollar we spend on travel.

JOURNALIST: OK. I’m a manufacturer, what, anywhere in Adelaide or anywhere in South Australia. How do I get hold of that $30 million?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well you would have put an application in; it was a very competitive process, but you needed to show that you were going to embark on a new manufacturing process, perhaps producing new product. Definitely a product that would be in demand not only here in Australia but also overseas, because the future of manufacturing is not only sophisticated high value manufacturing but also goods that can be sold into the global supply chain, so we don’t have the problems we’ve seen in Australia where one domestic manufacturer closes down and the opportunity to sell your product is fierce. So, we have had a very, very strong response to this programme, it’s part of an overall $60 million programme shared between Victoria and South Australia, and I’m delighted with the applications and with those people who have been successful in those applications.

JOURNALIST: So can you give our listeners an example of who is going to get a share of this money? Have they invented a better wheel hub or a better widget? Can you explain … give an example of who’s got the money?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well what they will be doing is, they are companies that have developed a new manufacturing process that allows them to develop a highly sophisticated component or piece of equipment that can be used in an existing product or replace a component in an existing product or as I say, a completed process that can be exported out of Australia and because it is so novel and sophisticated, not only do they get a high price for it, but actually in some cases there is no competitor, so they have a market advantage internationally.

JOURNALIST: There’s speculation in the press that by the end of the week there will also be announcements regarding frigates, so naval defence contracts. Look I don’t expect you to go into detail now, because you’ve got your own media strategy and that’s fair enough, this is the game we all play, but can you just give our listeners this assurance. That by the time you pack up your caravan and leave - what would that be, on Thursday – there will be more jobs in South Australia in the pipeline then when you started the week, and by what quantum, by what factor?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well I can give that absolute guarantee and just from what I’ve announced and what I’ve already heard Malcolm Turnbull announce this morning with regard to the NBN and building confidence in the future of industry in South Australia including ship building. So, I can’t detail what those decisions will be, but I see an opportunity in South Australia in the defence area, not just in the ship building area but right across defence, there’s some very large acquisitions both in terms of land transport and also right across the whole spectrum of defence. South Australia has a wonderful record on that and whether we announce it today, tomorrow or next week or next year, I’d expect South Australia to get a very good share of jobs that come from defence industry in the future.

JOURNALIST: You’re announcing this announcement today, you’re announcing with Kyam Maher, the State Labor Minister for Industry. Are relationships between the SA and Federal Governments at last back onto something sensible, because they were pretty awful in the last twelve months, and I’ve got to say, frankly, South Australians who are desperate to find a job, were sick of it, I think that’s pretty clear. They want people to just get on and make jobs. Is it fair to say things are better now?

IAN MACFARLANE: Oh things have improved, there’s no doubt it. The politics has been taken out of it. Quite frankly my relationships with people like Kyam and the Premier haven’t really faulted. We had some terse words around the time of the negotiations in relation to some of these programmes being rolled out, but they were only negotiations. I have to say that I have deliberately not brought politics into any of my statements in any of my negotiations in South Australia, and likewise, both the Premier and the Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis and I have a very good relationship. Kyam and I talk regularly on the phone; he rings me any time he’s got an issue. So, we’ve kept that relationship. In other areas, the relationship has improved, and that’s all to everyone’s good because in the end, what we want to do, with the South Australian Government, is create jobs and as you know David, I’m one of the people who get on a little bit more than others in terms of dealing with my opposite numbers, whether it’s a federal level or state level and that’s important, because as you say, in the end people are just sick of it. They just want to see a result, and I’ve worked well with the Premier, with Tom Koutsantonis and with Kyam.

JOURNALIST: Sky is reporting this morning that Tony Abbott is expected to announce a $20 billion plan to build nine naval frigates in South Australia. Is that right? Is that going to happen?

IAN MACFARLANE: I don’t speculate on speculative news stories to be quite honest. As I say, there is a process; there is a competitive evaluation process...

JOURNALIST: Well let’s put it this way. Should people not get their hopes up? That’s out in the media right now. Should people not get their hopes up, because the last thing they need to be is on this emotional rollercoaster, there’s jobs here, they’ve gone there (inaudible), what should people do with news like that?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well they should treat it like they treat all news in the media these days, as media speculation. The Government will do what we need to do to ensure not only that we defend our borders, but also have a substantial defence industry based in Australia. On that, I have no further comment other than to say Sky can run whatever stories they want to and we’ll see at the end of the day how accurate they are. We’ve seen in the past stories that are very accurate and some stories that are complete rubbish.

JOURNALIST: Well hopefully by the end of the week, we will have more details. Thanks for your time this morning Ian Macfarlane.

IAN MACFARLANE: Always a pleasure, David.

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