Doorstop - Wurrumiyanga, Tiwi Island

MARION SCRYMGOUR, MEMBER FOR LINGIARI: It's great to be here, back home, at Wurrumiyanga. It's always fantastic for me to come back home to my mob on the Tiwi Islands. And it is with great pleasure to be here, both with the Prime Minister and also Minister for Indigenous Australian Malarndirri McCarthy. Also, the Member for Solomon, who has come over to see this great part of my electorate. But I'll now hand over to the Prime Minister.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Marion, and it's so great to be here at the Wurrumiyanga Child and Family Centre. This will bring all of the services together in one place to deliver for this local community. It's fantastic to be able to visit the Tiwi Islands. This is my 19th visit to the Northern Territory as Prime Minister, but my first to the Tiwis. My second visit to the Tiwi Islands, I visited here some years ago, but my first as Prime Minister. And to be able to meet with the traditional owners today to hear their concerns directly and their asks. This is a fantastic community here, and I really look forward to further discussions today. This has been a great celebration and great welcome that I have here as well.

MALARNDIRRI MCCARTHY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Thank you. It's lovely to have the Prime Minister here to join the Member for Lingiari and the Member for Solomon. We are enormously proud for the work that we're doing in our remote regions right across Australia. Here on the Tiwis alone, with our Remote Jobs Program, we have rolled out 140 jobs as part of the first 3,000 jobs that we're rolling out in the remote regions of Australia. And you will see as you travel around, many people will tell you the jobs they're doing, whether it's with the Bima Wear design, whether it's with the art and craft landscaping, the Tiwi Motel, the vehicles here. It's just wonderful to see. And the other cost of living initiative is around the food policy. We have food insecurity here in the Tiwis, we have less than 30 items in the local store. And I've been in the store and they've said it's making a real difference. We've still got a lot of work to do. We've got the Urgent Care Clinic here, one of the first in terms of remote regions. And it's doing very well. How many, Prime Minister that we have right across the country now?

PRIME MINISTER: 137.

MINISTER MCCARTHY: So there you go. So yep, terrific to be here with the Prime Minister.

JOURNALIST: PM, you've been criticised this week for not attending the Garma Festival this year -

PRIME MINISTER: Only by the ABC, which also isn't attending by the way. The Insiders program isn't going to Garma this year either. So I'm here at this really important place. It's a historic visit. I've been to the Northern Territory 19 times, more than the previous three prime ministers combined. Many more times.

JOURNALIST: Does it worry you that you miss out then on that important forum for Indigenous people?

PRIME MINISTER: No, I can't be everywhere, and I've been to the Garma Festival five times as Labor leader, more than any leader of any political party in Australian history since federation. I've been to the Garma Festival no less than eight times. I'll continue to engage, but this has been a question from the ABC. But I answered it very clearly, and honestly. I can't do everything, but here I am, here on the Tiwi Islands. It's important as well, one of the things that Indigenous people have said to me is they want me to visit different centres. And I was in Alice Springs recently. I've been in different parts of the Northern Territory, including Katherine, including to Arnhem Land, including of course to Darwin. I'll continue to engage with the Northern Territory, and the Foreign Minister will be attending the Garma Festival along with other members of my government.

JOURNALIST: When you come to a place like this, the Tiwi Islands, you're either the first, or one of the first Prime Ministers to have come here. What are you hearing from people on the ground? What are they saying to you about what needs to be done from your government?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, they're very pleased to see the leader of the government here, and it's a matter of respect and making sure that I'm as many places as I can be and to engage personally. So today we've heard about the success of this centre here, of the success of the 140 remote jobs that have been created here on the Tiwis as part of the 1350 jobs that have been created in the Northern Territory as part of our Remote Jobs Program. What we did was replace the old CDP, that simply wasn't working, with real jobs, with real training and real skills and real wages. 3,000 of them we're rolling out around remote areas. The $2 billion we've committed to remote housing as well, that's making a difference, particularly here in the Northern Territory. Of course, there's much more to be done. They want economic development, and it's an opportunity to hear firsthand from them about economic development.

JOURNALIST: You said yourself, this is your 19th visit since being Labor leader. Are you seeing change? Is it in the positive direction that you want to be seeing it in the Northern Territory?

PRIME MINISTER: I am seeing positive change, and I'm engaging directly with communities. There's more to be done, and when you're dealing with some intergenerational issues, then a centre like this that can bring all the services together in one place. This is a significant investment - $12 million from the Federal Government to build this centre, the services being provided here, and it's exactly the sort of investment in infrastructure that the Territory needs and remote communities need.

JOURNALIST: You've worn your Hawks Tasmanian shirt today. Will your government support the 20th licence, an AFL licence, going to the Northern Territory. Would you support an AFL team here in Tiwi?

PRIME MINISTER: I'd love to see a team here in the territory, as I'm sure all Territorians would.

JOURNALIST: Would you fund it?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's a while off. We'll continue to talk and engage with the AFL as well. But of course, this area, you know, surnames like Rioli. On my last visit here, I met actually Cyril Rioli Senior at the time when I visited here -

JOURNALIST: Is the 20th licence a viable idea for the Territory?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, I don't run the AFL, so I'll wait, and certainly any submissions from the AFL would be welcome. We'll engage constructively as well.

JOURNALIST: So you back the idea of it, at least?

PRIME MINISTER: We'll engage constructively with the AFL on all of these issues. But the Northern Territory has a great history of producing great footballers.

JOURNALIST: Who are you going for today in the game?

PRIME MINISTER: I'm hoping that it's a great game, and Tigers versus Eagles - I'll stay neutral on this one. I'm advised by Marion to be strictly neutral, and I just hope it's a great game.

JOURNALIST: What is your response to Pauline Hanson's latest statements at the CPAC conference that Australia has gone woke and is stupid for granting transgender people rights?

PRIME MINISTER: When I have the opportunity to represent Australia overseas, I talk Australia up. I don't talk Australia down. I go as someone who's proud to represent our nation and proud to talk about what we are as a nation. There's nowhere you'd rather be than Australia, and I think that it is up to our representatives, no matter where they stand in the parliament, when they're overseas, to talk Australia up, not talk Australia down. We have we have created in this country an extraordinary nation, and it is something that the world is envious of because of what we've created here, and that is why, in my view, it is the responsibility of people when they travel overseas to talk Australia up and to be proud of who we are and what we have created as a nation.

JOURNALIST: Do you believe it would dent her support domestically?

PRIME MINISTER: I talk Australia up, I'll continue to engage in what my job is, but I'll also encourage people from across the political spectrum. When you're an Australian representative who has been elected by the Australian people, and you're travelling overseas, you have a responsibility to talk Australia up, to be proud of who we are and what we have achieved as a nation. That is what I do, and that is what I think is appropriate for public representatives.