BRETT WHITELEY: Welcome to Braddon, it’s great to have Minister Macfarlane, it’s great to be here with Bruce Monson, the owner of Monson Logistics, to be announcing some of the Innovation and Investment Fund which I’ll obviously leave for the Minister to explain. It’s tremendous to have you Minister in Braddon, it’s always great to have you, you’re a great friend of Tasmania, and I might hand over to the Minister to talk more generally about the Fund if you like.

JOURNALIST: If I could just ask you briefly, you were talking about the number of jobs that could be created in this region from this Fund. How many projects and how many jobs will come out of this?

BRETT WHITELEY: Well Braddon has received more than its fair share. If you say that there’s five electorates, twenty per cent, we’re getting about twenty-eight per cent of the funding, which is going to be meaning 120 plus jobs in this electorate coming from the co-investment of the Innovation and Investment Fund, which has been obviously managed by the Minister for Industry and Science.

So it’s a great day for Braddon and its and exciting day because co-investment is the way to go where we find business like Bruce’s business here at Monson Logistics which are successful businesses but they are willing to invest more if they could just get a little bit of a helping hand and we’re going to see 19 jobs just on this site alone which is a result of this investment. Bruce’s company are investing $900,000 of their own money and this Fund is providing $600,000, for 1.5 million. That’s a great deal for taxpayers, it’s a great deal for job seekers, it’s a great deal for the region.

JOURNALIST: Minister, why did the Federal Government see this as such a worthy project here at Monson?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well what we’re trying to do with the Innovation and Investment Fund is making sure that jobs are created in Tasmania. So, along with the capital investment that Monsons are putting in, we’re also seeing jobs created in this region and if you look across the Innovation and Investment Fund announcements that I’ve been making over the last two days, there’s about $13 million contributed by the Commonwealth and $27 million contributed by businesses here in Tasmania and 400 jobs across 41 businesses, so a real boost for the economy and getting jobs into Tasmania, getting confidence going, getting investment going, is what the Fund is all about.

JOURNALIST: The Commonwealth also has an extra $16 million up its sleeve now that Cadbury isn’t receiving its grant. Which industries do you think should be the beneficiaries of that?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well look I’m in a discussion with the Prime Minister about that. Tomorrow morning the Prime Minister and the Premier of Tasmania, along with respective Treasurers and myself will sit down with the Joint Commonwealth and Tasmanian Economic Council. We have, over the course of that Council’s history since we’ve come to Government, looked at major issues and impediments in terms of how we deal with getting the economy going in Tasmania.

You’ve seen the $60 million investment that the Commonwealth announced as a result of the collaboration with Tasmania and the discussions we’ve had in that Council. You’ve seen today, as I say, $13 million invested. There are discussions that will take place in the morning about the Freight Equalisation Scheme here in Tasmania as it applies to exports.

We’ll consider other issues including what happens to the Cadbury money, but at the moment what we’re doing is rolling out capital investments in Tasmania, making a difference to the economy, giving the opportunity for the economy down here to be more robust, produce more goods, and of course provide more jobs.

JOURNALIST: How likely do you think it is that that $16 million will be allocated before the next election?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well as I say, I’ve got to have that discussion with the Prime Minister. I know the three amigos as we call them in Canberra, are working very hard on the issue. We obviously want to see money spent well, but of course every dollar we spend at the moment, because of the Budget deficit left to us by the previous Government, is money we have to borrow so we have to do it responsibly. Can I just say that in terms of the Innovation and Investment Fund, we’ve got a $13 million investment, we’ve got a $27 million dollar co-payment from business totalling a $40 million overall investment and 400 jobs. That’s a great way for the Commonwealth to supply money. So we’ll be looking at all the options.

JOURNALIST: Labor’s raised concerns that the allocation of $16 million Cadbury money might be politically driven. What sort of checks and balances would the recipient of that have to go through?

IAN MACFARLANE: We’re not that far down the track but let’s look at the Innovation and Investment Fund. That has been allocated across five seats in Tasmania. Along with the three seats that we hold in Northern Tasmania it’s been allocated to projects in independent seats and Labor seats. It hasn’t been done on a political basis. There’s been an independent committee assessing the programmes, they’ve made some incredible choices and we’ve agreed to them because those projects in a lot of cases are already on the go. We’ve seen mark outs on the wall where plants are going to be extended, we’ve seen plans that are being developed; we’ve seen ads in the newspaper for jobs that have come from this programme. So it’s not a political programme, it’s about getting the economy going.

BRETT WHITELEY: I want to make a comment on this if I can from a localised point of view. It’s a bit rich for the Labor Party to be preaching to us about using funds for politically expedient purposes. I mean this is the Government, the Federal Government that was there for six years, that had a scathing report by the Auditor General released just a few months ago, particularly including the former Minister Catherine King, in relation to the absolute disproportionate way in which funding was distributed through their period of Government.

In other words an independent panel recommended certain projects that were taken off the table to be put into Labor marginal seats. That’s an Auditor General’s report. Scathing, not my report, on Regional Development Australia funds. So I think they should get back in the box. It’s a bit rich for them to be talking about us even contemplating what we would do with the money. Now can I just say, from one of the three amigos, the Member for Braddon, we’ll continue to do what we do well. We hunt in packs in Canberra; we will continue to knock down the doors of Ministers and Cabinet Ministers …

IAN MACFARLANE: We’re getting bigger locks… [laughter]

BRETT WHITELEY: They’re getting better locks on the doors … [laughter] because we see that this is money that could benefit Tasmania and the Minister is absolutely spot-on. Look what we’ve got today. For $13 million of taxpayer’s money, brilliantly invested, a co-investment of $27 million from people like Bruce Monson and his wife Toni, and the results are 400 plus jobs. I mean how much better does it get then that? We need economic enablers in this State, and the best economic enablers in this State are the people that are already here, been here for a generation, working their guts out, and we want to stand alongside them and employ local people. I think it’s a great day.

JOURNALIST: Those things said, Minister it’s now eighteen months since the election. Should these sorts of projects under this Fund have been rolled out months earlier?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well perhaps under the previous Government they may have been and that’s why most of those projects failed. What we wanted to do was have a very clear process and as I say, a bipartisan non-political process, so that we could be sure that the money went where it was going to make the most difference. I don’t think any business would have any complaint about us making sure that the money that they paid in taxes is given to business that are actually going to invest and create jobs. So we are meticulous in our examination. AusIndustry is one of the best if not the best department in Australia for managing these sorts of schemes. They’ve got a fantastic record and they’ve done a great job in assessing projects along with the panel, that we have absolute confidence in.

JOURNALIST: And what do you expect will come out of the meeting tomorrow in terms of freight?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well, look, we will be discussing the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme particularly as it relates to export freight. We realise that there is an anomaly there. It was identified by the Productivity Commission. The Prime Minister will be involved in that meeting. He and I have had some discussions about that and let’s see what comes out of that.

JOURNALIST: What sort of lobbying have you been getting from Tasmanian businesses and the three amigos? [Laughter]

IAN MACFARLANE: Look I can only say that lobbying from Tasmania is fierce and it’s lucky I played in the front row in football because it’s helped me just hold back a little of their enthusiasm, but look the three amigos as they’re affectionately known have been extraordinarily effective in Canberra. They’ve got this money allocated; they’ve been successful in getting the $60 million from the Irrigation Scheme allocated and let’s see what tomorrow brings.

JOURNALIST: What are the options to fix this anomaly?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well let’s see. They’ll be in the table. They have to be World Trade Organisation (WTO) compliant but it will probably require a cash injection from the Commonwealth if we aren’t to take money away from recipients of the domestic freight equalisation scheme.

JOURNALIST: Is there any thought of that?

IAN MACFARLANE: All options are under consideration.

BRETT WHITELEY: Can I just say if I can, from the local perspective, we’re not talking about small beer here. I mean this scheme which was introduced by the Fraser Coalition Government back in the Seventies, and let’s not forget it was the Howard Government that introduced the Bass Strait Passenger Vehicle Equalisation Scheme, and I can guarantee you it will be this Coalition Government under Tony Abbott, that will further enhance this scheme.

There is no question about that. But it is a complicated matter, the Productivity Commission report was more than a good night’s read and it showed how complicated the system is. That’s why it has taken us a little more time then probably all of us would have liked, but we want to get it right, it’s a big bucket of money that is needed to actually fix the problem, and obviously in consideration of the fiscal restraints we’ve got at the moment, we’ve had to be doing a lot of lobbying and I look forward tomorrow to the Joint Commonwealth and Tasmanian Economic Council and the way in which no doubt they will take into consideration some of the options that are before us.

But as I said before we’ve got a great friend here in the Minister for Industry, for Tasmania, and he says he’s a bit hard line on the front row, but he’s got a soft spot for Tassie. I know that we’ve had his support all through this, but it’s a matter of getting it right. As the Minister said, we’re not going to rush into this, we want to get it right, it’s got to be affordable, we’ve got to make sure that it’s not open to rorting and we don’t want to necessarily see an immediate increase in freight rates across Tasmania as well, as a result of it. So, I’m looking forward as much as everybody else here today, to that announcement.

JOURNALIST: And can I just ask about the Food and Agribusiness Industry Growth Centre. Do you think the North West of Tasmania would be a good site for that to take place?

IAN MACFARLANE: Well, look there is already a precinct that was set up, a food industry precinct that was set up Victoria, but the thing about the Growth Centres is we’ll have nodes right around Australia. Can I say in terms of Northern Tasmania – its ability to participate and the exceptional quality of the produce that comes out of Northern Tasmania - makes it an ideal situation for collaboration and so as we go forward with the five Growth Centres, the two that particularly apply to Northern Tasmania are Food and Agribusiness and also Advanced Manufacturing.

We’ve got some very sophisticated industries down here producing world class products. So there will be opportunities and we will make some final announcements in terms of those Growth Centres next week. The Chairs have all agreed to take up their positions and we’ll be announcing those positions next week and we’ll be rolling the Growth Centres out in the six weeks after that.

JOURNALIST: So that will announce the locations of the Centres?

IAN MACFARLANE: It won’t announce the locations, it will announce who the Chairs are, the overall board, which I have to say, is made up of the absolute crème-de-la-crème of the executive men and women across Australia. Some people who are really, very, very good business people who know what we need to do to get Australian business competitive again. We’ll then populate the board so they will have responsibility. Again not politically appointed boards but boards appointed by them that will then establish the Growth Centres and the back-office functions that go with it, and then we’ll decide on where they will go.

JOURNALIST: So how far out is that time frame then to decide?

IAN MACFARLANE: Again, we would hope that that was all done in the next two and a half months. We want these Growth Centres operating at full steam by the first of July.

[Ends]