Don’t take Australian values for granted, says Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull has declared Australian values must be defended, cherished and not taken for granted.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaking in Toowoomba. Picture: AAP

Malcolm Turnbull has declared Australian values must be defended, cherished and not taken for granted, in what was billed as an agenda-setting speech in regional Queensland.

Speaking to a Liberal National Party fundraiser in Toowoomba, in the safe LNP seat of Groom, west of Brisbane, the Prime Minister spruiked Australia as “the most successful multicultural society of the world”.

He said his leadership was based on delivering economic prosperity but driven by the preservation of Australian values that he described as “freedom, democracy, mateship, a fair go, mutual respect, the equality of men and women, the rule of law”.

Apart from announcing foreshadowed personal income tax relief for workers — as reported in The Australian today — and recommitting to unpopular company tax rates when parliament resumes next week, Mr Turnbull’s speech was light on new policies.

He focused mainly on promoting the government’s past achievements, the creation of 120,000 regional jobs last year, and repeating already committed promises, such as putting downward pressure on energy prices.

Mr Turnbull said 49,000 new jobs were created in regional Queensland alone last year, nearly as many as in greater Brisbane.

And he said the Coalition government was responsible for significant infrastructure projects on the Darling Downs, such as the building of the second range crossing and the planned inland rail.

“Our business tax cuts in 2017 helped create a record 403,100 jobs — 75 per cent of them full time,” Mr Turnbull said.

“A quarter of those were in Queensland — 102,000 new jobs in this state alone.

“Our free-trade deals are boosting the economy, especially in regional Australia. By opening the doors to markets around the world, we are creating more export opportunities and more jobs.

“We are seeing growth, investment and employment right across our country — not just in the big cities.’’

Mr Turnbull said his government’s school funding reforms were “important” and would ensure local schools, such as Toowoomba State High School, would receive increased funding in coming years, and that David Gonski’s next review would ensure school results also improved.

“Despite Canberra being a hothouse which thrives on pessimism and political distractions, we delivered on many of our plans last year and we have more to do now. And, Standard & Poor’s ensured we had a AAA Australia Day,’’ he said.

“We cannot afford to put at risk everything we’ve worked so hard for together. If we keep following our economic plan, there is no limit to what we can achieve as a country.”

Though he did not take questions from the media during his visit to Toowoomba, which began with a picture opportunity at a centre used to store digital data at Wellcamp, outside Toowoomba, he fielded some questions from the paying guests at the LNP lunch.

Mr Turnbull used a question about energy security to criticise the South Australian Labor government’s “left-wing ideology and complete idiocy” in its commitment to renewable energy sources.

And the Prime Minister slammed previous federal Labor governments, accusing them of leaving him with a National Broadband Network that was a “colossal mess”, which he described as the worst he’d encountered in his career, after making a living cleaning up messes.

Mr Turnbull often deferred to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to answer specific questions about the difficulty of getting chilled beef into China — despite a free-trade agreement — and funding for water infrastructure.

Mr Joyce received the warmest response from the somewhat muted crowd with a quip about water.

“I’m generally swimming below it, and Malcolm has a tendency to walk on it,” Mr Joyce said.