THE HON. ALEX HAWKE MP, MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP, MIGRANT SERVICES AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS: Hello, everybody, and welcome. My name's Alex Hawke, I'm the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Thank you for joining us. I just heard from the Prime Minister. We're just waiting for him to join us. He's just finishing something right now with his office. So I thought might just get underway and obviously start by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the lands as president emerging that we're all meeting on today and welcome you all from the various elements of the Chinese and multicultural media here in Australia. And thank you again for the work you're doing in communicating through the pandemic. Important and vital information in language through to communities about the needs of people and their health in this difficult time. 

It's been a tough two years, so thank you for persevering and working with the government and our agencies and the health departments around the country to get that information out. And, and we really do appreciate it from the Australian Government. We've had a good vaccination rollout here and a well-received health programme, and I think that's a large, a large amount of the credit goes to the multicultural media in Australia in the work that you've done with communities and communicating so effectively. So thank you. 

But also in the meantime, Happy Chinese New Year and Kung Hai Fat Choi, we had a great night yesterday with the Prime Minister at Strathfield and my colleague Fiona Martin. You know, while there are, I think there's probably about a third of the Lunar New Year events normally on, and most of them are cancelled due to Omicron. We're trying to get to those that are on and they are a little bit less, well, well attended than usual. But people, I think, are celebrating in other ways at home and working ways to celebrate with family and in communities. But it's a little bit more muted than usual, unfortunately, like everything during the pandemic, but we're still celebrating. And I know in the Year of the Tiger will draw great confidence and inspiration, and I wish all of you personally and your outlets all the very best success and prosperity for the year ahead. 

And from my role as Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Minister, I do want to again highlight what a difficult time we've had for many communities in Australia. I think we all remember when the pandemic started, we had a conversation internationally about where the virus started in China and how it started, which impacted upon the Australian Chinese community here. And I know the Prime Minister went out of his way to communicate through to the Australian Chinese community, in particular our trust and understanding of them and their decisions, and ask for their advice and help in dealing with that conversation. And we did a good job there together as a community, as a country, people and government, the Chinese community here and offshore in, I think moving that conversation on and getting on with the very difficult times that we've had since then. But it was hard. And since then, I think, you know, we've also seen other things impact upon family based communities, the Chinese communities, the same as many other multicultural communities in Australia, reliant on family, reliant on community. So there are limits and restrictions and requirements to not see family, to not get together as a community have certainly impacted hard. And we're certainly starting to see people enjoying coming together again and slowly through on the Omicron get back together. So I know you are trusted outlets and sources of news. I just say to you, we've still got a lot of communicating to do about health messaging, and there's a lot in the booster programme with kids between five and 11 and a lot more health information. There's an appetite for health information for parents, for people who have custody of children and, of course, general appetite about what will happen next on travel, the return of family. And I know you've got some questions around that today, but you know, we together, I think we've done a lot. I know there's always more we can do. There is more in-language we need to be doing. And I appreciate your advice and your questions today. So I know the Prime Minister is going to join us very shortly and will welcome that. I just think if we will take a few minutes. 

I don't know if people wanted to start with a question to me, I don't want us to waste time here while we're just waiting for the Prime Minister to join us. So our emcee isn't with us either. So I wouldn't mind. I don't know. I know some people wanted to ask some questions, but I'm happy to go straight to people who have questions of me just to answer a question while we wait for the Prime Minister. And I think there was, it was it who was first in relation to that. I don't really know if there's an order. I could be a SBS Cantonese. Was it Winmas, are you there Winmas? 

Winmas from SBS Cantonese: Yes, Mr Hawke. Good afternoon. Thank you for time today. My question is in regards to  PR. visa pathway for Hong Kong [inaudible]. Our audience, especially those from the Hong Kong community, has been very interested in the new policy, and some of them has actually expressed their gratitude to the Government for taking such steps. But with the pathway for those who has just started to consider moving to Australia or is going to apply for us, for example, a student visa that would take sort of, at least I would say at least five years, six years until they can actually apply for the PR pathway or the Hong Kong stream, streams with the 189 and 190. I'm just wondering if, if the Government can provide a sort of timeline on whether, whether you can guarantee, for example, how long this policy can be can remain there or if not whether the government would provide some sort of three years in advance notice for those who are actually planning to follow the pathway. Thank you. 

THE HON. ALEX HAWKE MP: Yeah, thank you Winmas, and I know you've had a long interest in this issue and you've certainly kept our Department of Home Affairs accountable at various periods in identifying our pathways in Government announcements and some gaps in them and things that we needed to think about. So thank you for your work in journalism and keeping us to account. We don't have any plans to change the pathway in the near future. From the Morrison Government's perspective, we were happy to offer a pathway to permanency here for people onshore. We've made, I have made on behalf of the Government some announcements about BNO holders, passport holders offshore, adding a few categories to that. And this will be a stable situation. People will qualify under these permanent residency pathways, but they'll have access to them, but we won't shorten them other than the announcements that we've already made, and I think I brought one forward by about one year. In relation to the length of time taken from application to completion and that is, it is a lawful permanent residency pathway. It's a non-controversial measure. We've been able to do that and provide that option for people from Hong Kong if they wish to take it up. And those people offshore who might be BNO holders and others who might want to come to Australia without, I think, creating controversy. So it's been a well-received announcement. It's a stable announcement, and I don't see any Australian government in the future, regardless of who it is changing that. However, the Morrison Government has made a commitment for the long term that we will have that offer for people from Hong Kong in place. 

Raymond Chow from Sameway Magazine： I think I'm in previous meetings with us about the AMEP, the AMEP undergoing reform to change from a linguistic approach to replaced by a settlement approach. I want to know would the government support or consider mobilising co-organisations to receive funding to pilot new approaches to deliver AMEP, which can integrate support from the local community groups to help the new migrants learn to acquire English to settle in Australia. Is this some put? Will you consider this to be some kind of plan in future to involve the or decisions? 

THE HON. ALEX HAWKE MP: Yeah, thank you, Raymond, this is an important question, and this issue is very important to the Government. We know that the more, all migrants can get get on top of their English, the better they do and the better access they have to work and social activities and other performance in Australia in relation to their prosperity and their success, education and otherwise. So we did invest in the AMEP, as you know, we unlocked for the first time the number of hours, that's working very well, although it does take time for us to get results meet, given the number of years to see how strongly people take up the opportunity of unlimited English language tuition and what that means for people. Your suggestion is a reasonable one. We need to think of how to enhance English language take-up, especially the people who don't have any English  from communities, especially with older migration populations that can often be the case, although you know it's not age limited the AMEP and sometimes formal tuition, as you point out, is not the only answer in relation to improving language skills, so we're not close minded about options to for communities to assist. Obviously, the first part is the, is the tuition. And uncapping it, I mean, we put aside up to a billion dollars for this, we've really invested in this. This is something that that investment in that English language tuition for all adult migrants to Australia will be a huge investment in their success. But we do want to look at how we work with communities to make sure where some people might not find formal tuition, the best pathway that will probably be the next piece of the puzzle Raymond, so it's a it's an important  issue you raise. I would say, you know, under the AMEP, we've got service providers that are connected to deliver these models as well, there are some complex arrangements. I won't go into those today, but I'll certainly provide some details to you. There are community organisations that offer language in different settings. We have migrant centres, often inside different migrant resource centres and other opportunities. I've seen some in Western Sydney, for example, but you're also suggesting community organisations and small organisations, even in migrant resource centres, as I understand your proposal. So I think it could work. We're open to looking at it. We're certainly investing in it. So, you know, it's a conversation we’d consider Raymond. 

Fred from Sydney Today: I’ve got a question in regard of WeChat's. We know there are some controversy between Prime Minister Office and Tencent, and WeChat recently, and many federal MPs are calling the Government to ban WeChat. We'd love to know where the federal government stands on this issue. Are you considering banning WeChat in Australia?

THE HON. ALEX HAWKE MP: Look, this is a question for the Prime Minister. He might want to say something about it more formally, and I might let him do that. We, I have WeChat. I certainly used it prior to the last election. From the last election, we had some difficulty in relation to using WeChat. A lot of people have experienced this, accessing their accounts and using it. And you know, that's a shame because, you know, it is a very well utilised communications platform. A lot of people in Australia are on it. We would like to access it. And I think there's work to do. The Prime Minister will obviously have something to say about his account and what happened there. I've decided not to use my account until we can resolve some of these issues. I mean, I think the Australian government would absolutely love to be involved in WeChat  and to be utilising it to communicate with Australians it’s very frustrating that we can't and it's very frustrating that there's interference. So we want to reach out and resolve that and have cooperation about that because communication is vital and you've got to be communicating where people are and you've got to be talking to people where they'll want to want to be communicated at. And it's no different to any other of the social media or other communications platforms. But I know a lot of MPs in the parliament are quite frustrated that they're, at the terms of service and the way the accounts operated. And, you know, as a government and as a country, we're trying to resolve those issues. But you might want to ask the Prime Minister that question about his account as well. 

Keith from Australian Chinese Daily: Hi Minister Hawke, this is Keith from Australian Chinese Daily might have a question that you could answer in regards to this, with, just just received not long ago the good news about international students and the press release with regards to visa workers and all that. I guess it's great news. Our readers would be receiving that well. The concerns that that might come from that is, I guess it goes back to COVID and Omicron them coming in might cause some angst within the communities, whereby would they be bringing the strand in. What are the current steps in preventing that as well what might be the next steps to ensure that that is being contained? 

THE HON. ALEX HAWKE MP: Yeah, thank you Keith this is an important question. I think you're referring to my release that I've just put out actually today on the latest numbers on students and backpackers. Many of you will have seen it. If not, I recommend it to you. We are seeing student numbers return in good numbers, even 7000 more in the last week, and we're over 50000 heading towards 60 and further since our announcement late last year. We welcome them back. A lot of them are coming from China, obviously, but also India and other places. We required up front and you know, we obviously had the same requirements double vaccination. We've got the long recognised lists of vaccinations. That was an important decision. But another important decision was we decided to open the borders gradually. So we've put working holiday makers, students, but not visitor visas, not hundreds of thousands of tourists at the same time. And that was in recognition of the, you know, the economic benefit of migrants like students and working holiday makers and the exchange that education provides internationally and the importance of it to people. So by graduating the border opening, we've addressed some of that upfront. What you're concerned there with the community because it's not all open and it's not all shut, it's just phased in. And as the health advice evolves about Omicron, we're getting more advice about the plateauing of the wave in Australia and various states that have had it for a while and the hospital systems response to it. So we're looking forward to more advice in coming weeks about when we can unlock more cohorts, but it has worked very well so far. The numbers are increasing week on week of each cohorts, especially students, which I still think we have about 130,000 or 40,000 off shore student visas. And we would like them to come, you know, the Prime Minister recently announced incentives. We waived the visa fees. We've got a tourism campaign from our Trade Minister internationally saying, you know, we're open, students, we'd like you to come and working holiday makers, that's working very well. And we've spoken to the education providers, universities, the private providers about how they can take intakes throughout the year, given we've had two difficult years where they've been unable to take them. So we're, we're trying to work with the sector to be flexible and adaptable. And I've asked the Immigration Department, the Home Affairs Department to priority process students to do it in a timely fashion to make sure that we're meeting the demand as it comes through. So we believe we've prepared well. The balance has been struck well at the moment. We've got an eye on it that from the medical advice of how the health systems are performing. But the requirement for double vaccination means less risk. The graduated border opening means less risk. And you know, at the moment, we're just happy to receive more students and more working holiday makers as demand requires. And there is the reception you mentioned. I mean, if I talk to anybody in any business in the country at the moment, the only thing they want to ask me about is, you know, can you bring in some foreign students to come and help us working in our in our business? It doesn't matter what industry it is, it doesn't matter what sector it is. It doesn't matter what part of the country it is. So the reception is very warm at the moment. They want them to be here studying, they want them to be working. I think we have missed our foreign students as a country and I think business knows that and people are very receptive to, I mean, people in jobs as students are consuming. I mean, obviously, they bring offshore money. It's a virtuous cycle. The education is high quality. The diplomatic relations between Australia and the country of origin is high. You know, we have missed this exchange and that's why we put it first in the opening, the student opening, and it's the right decision. And at the moment, the balance is struck right, but we've got an eye on the on the volume versus the health system.

JOURNALIST from Cecil: Thanks Mr Hawke. Just on foreign workers, what about skilled workers? What's the plan to get them back to fulfil all this nationwide skills shortage?

THE HON. ALEX HAWKE MP: Thank you. Yeah. So skilled workers are opening a lot of skill categories as well. At the same time, I didn't cover them in that previous answer. The numbers are OK. A lot of skilled workers during the pandemic who had visas, who were unable to enter Australia, what we're finding is because of their skills, they will have sought employment elsewhere or got another job, a lot of them. So we're now doing fresh applications. Demand is strong for skills to come to Australia now that we're open. But that might be a bit slower to continue the influx of skills because skilled people have a lot of options. If you've got a skill in demand in several countries and we were shut for a while, they were able to, you know, obviously go for another, another, another option. Although I will say this to you in terms of incoming applications demand is very strong at the moment now that we've been open. So again, the department's working to process those, our regional skills visas very strong and very in demand, and we're seeing that now that people [inaudible] offshore. And as I said, when we get the health advice which we take regularly, week in and week out, we'll be able to open up four more categories as well. But skills is a top priority meeting those skill shortages, especially in regions where they're a little bit more pronounced because you've been unable to move across state borders or unable to move across international borders for quite a long time. And at the same time, we've got unemployment at a record low and more Australians getting jobs at 4.2 per cent. But we've had huge demand for people in jobs and skills.  We're very alive to that and we're working through the challenge of getting those skilled visas processed and through just recognising a lot of the ones that applied sometimes went to another country. Does that answer your question Cecil? 

Raymond Chow from Sameway Magazine: Minister, I want to, i don’t know if it’s better to ask you or the Prime Minister, but I think this year the COVID pandemic enters a new stage. In an interview last month with the Victorian deputy CHO Ben Cowie, and he agreed that the present COVID pandemic story was a very complicated story, and more life education to the CALD committees must be done instead of just making public policy announcements to help Australia to fight this long term battle. So do you agree with this and view the federal government plan to give funding to support education through the CALD media to educate their audience and readers? 

THE HON. ALEX HAWKE MP: Yes, this is a great question. I mean, I agree. We have done a lot during the pandemic and a lot more than sometimes people understand. We don't advertise this necessarily, but we have given millions and millions of dollars to small organisations to communicate in language directly about the pandemic and what was required. We had SBS translating to over 50 to 60 languages, all kinds of health information, I think, because of the pandemic and the nature of it. The Australian Government and all of our agencies have been more attuned to the importance of good quality translated materials. Good quality communications through outlets like yours, and we've been spending some money even to smaller organisations. We went through FECCA as well, giving money to community groups and other things to communicate. It has taught us, though some communities are very organised. Some people have very strong  internal structures, community structures, family structures and they work very well and others have, have needed more support. So certainly it's not an even experience across the board. But yes, we I think we've learnt a lot during the pandemic about cultural communication, about working together, government and communities and also communities with different elements of the health department. And I would always agree with you that we need to prioritise that, especially where we're dealing with a health message. So Rosa I’ve just seen you come back on now, does that mean? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, Xin Nian Kuai Le and Kung Hai Fat Choi. We were out in Burwood last night with Alex, but also with Fiona and our team, David Coleman and others. And it's simply, that precinct has developed up to those from Sydney up there in Burwood. It was so good to see so many families out together again. It's been very tough during the pandemic and and on how many occasions now have we said I'm sorry, people can't come together at this time of year, and this year they've been able to do so far more. And I think that's that's just great. There was young kids, there was families, there was food, there was everything. So that was really exciting to see. It was very, very pleasing. And I'm looking forward to engaging in a bit more of that over the next few days. 

It has been a difficult time right around the country, but in Australia, our economy continues to perform incredibly well in the face of the pandemic, and our management of the pandemic has seen us have one of the lowest fatality rates from COVID anywhere in the world. One of the strongest economy, with our unemployment rate falling to 4.2 per cent and heading to low four per cent. And we've got youth unemployment now [inaudible] now at 10, we've got record numbers of trade of printing and we're seeing confidence start to lift again. As we've come through this, Omicron latest wave. Our biggest states are coming through their peak and the pressure's coming off our hospitals. Other parts of the country can, but lessons learnt in in the east coast in December and early January will play out well in those other states that will now go through it. So while we can never be overconfident when it comes to this virus, it has a habit of rewriting the rules on us constantly, which makes things very challenging. And we keep this moving ahead and a couple of areas where we would move ahead. Most importantly, in the last couple of months has been the reopening to students and to and to working holiday makers. And that's tremendous. I mean, that's important to us, both from the economic side for Australia in terms of having those students and visitors. But it's also very important in terms of the labour force challenges. One of the discussions I was having with some of the business owners last night was, you know, the challenges of the workforce and backpackers and our students are important parts of our labour force, particularly in the hospitality sector and especially, I've got to say, in a multicultural community. So those are those elements only opening up again has been positive. And as you know, we've reopened the borders completely to Singapore with New Zealand and more recently with Korea and with Japan. Now we're looking to opening the borders to balance of visitors, I hope, in the not too distant future, but we just want to be, we're getting some medical health advice on what we expect the impact of that might be on the hospital system and we just want to be a bit more confident about that before we take that next step, but that we will welcome that when that occurs. And that will, I think, set us up strongly as we we deal with the the other side of the peak of the Omicron variant and we do all we can through the booster programme and so on to get it back to as much normality as we can this year. And I know for so many families who have families back in China and Hong Kong that they have missed them terribly and have those connections, particularly at times of the year like this and to be able to, I think, move into a place where we'll be able to see each other again. Families can be reconnected and reunited, then that's what we're all looking forward to.

But from an economic point of view, we've got a very strong plan. It has five key elements to it. First of all, lower taxes and cutting regulation. Secondly, it's about investing in infrastructure and skills development. Our workforce needs in Australia are very important and so our migration programme has always been made a positive contribution to that challenge and skills migration to Australia has been one of the important pillars of economic success in this country since the Second World War. So this is important to our economic plan. It's not just as it is investing heavily in the skills development of Australians, as I said, we've got those record numbers of trade apprentices and trade training at the moment, 220,000. But it is about the education of our own population. But that being supplemented by our highly successful skilled migration programme, which Alex runs. The third area, is to ensure that we have affordable, reliable energy that, as you know, we have committed to net zero by 2050. But with a plan that's about technology, not taxes. And we've built important technology partnerships with many countries around the world and invested $21 billion in developing hydrogen technologies, carbon capture storage technologies. We're building new energy generation capabilities up in the Hunter with gas plants, Snowy Hydro Affordable Energy in Australia is critical to our economic growth, particularly in our regional areas. Electricity prices under our policies have actually fallen by eight per cent over the last two years. The next part of the plan is making sure Australia is a top 10 digital and data economy by 2030, and we're well on the way to that. And that's in all areas of activity of, whether it's in the finance sector, whether it's the way small and medium sized enterprises harness digital technology. Over the course of COVID, we have seen an explosion of capability in our SME sector, which has taken on new data and digital technology. And that is particularly been the case, I believe, with multicultural, small and medium sized enterprises. One of the great dimensions of contribution of multicultural communities, particularly the Chinese community, is their entrepreneurialism, and you’re into business, you're in tech and that is really helped fuel that ambition. And I think there is a big [inaudible] data and digital connections with businesses from the multicultural communities of Australia. And finally, it's about the fifth point is about building up our sovereign manufacturing capability and having secure supply chains. And a big part of that is the linkage which we just announced when I announced it at the Press Club two days ago of our accelerator programme and our Trailblazer Universities programme. Now what this is about is we want research entrepreneurs in this country. China has them, the United States has them. They are in Singapore, they're in Japan. There are many places and we want more of them here in Australia, and we want to see a stronger connection between our researchers in our universities and the incentives in place for those universities to see those researchers become entrepreneurs and connect up with business. And so there are many opportunities there, I think, for foreign students who are participating in Australian universities. So, you know, it's more of the Harvard model where people want to go and study, not just because they're going to get a great education, but they may well start a business and develop technology or other innovations that set them up for the future. And they'll, they'll find those here in Australia who can they can work with to that end. So there are five things that are driving unemployment down to less than four per cent, and we've got a lot more to do. And, and as we look to the future, keeping Australia's economy strong is the key to a stronger future for all Australians. And that's where we're very focussed. So I might leave it there, Alex, and happy to take questions. 

HOST: Thank you, Prime Minister. The first question is from Michelle Zheng from a AUWE News. Go ahead, Michelle. 

Michelle Zheng from a AUWE News: Hi Prime Minister, my question is, do think all the visitors from all countries, including China mainland, could come to Australia before Easter holiday? 

PRIME MINISTER: I do. That's what I hope for, subject to the health advice we're currently waiting on, that is certainly my ambition to see that happen, of course. So what quarantine requirements by the states and territories would be a matter for them, but they would, of course, be the requirement for full vaccination to enter Australia. And that's, that's the requirement now. But I believe we're moving towards that and we're living with the virus here in Australia and quite successfully. And so, yes, I can see that occurring, but we're not quite there yet, but I don't think it's too far away. 

Wendy Huang from Daily Chinese Herald: Thank you, Prime Minister, for your time today. I was actually going to ask a question about the economy, but you've given us such a good overview, so I hope you don't mind me asking another question about China's new Ambassador, Xiao Qian. He's expressed a willingness to repair the strained relationship between China and Australia. I was wondering whether you've spoken to him yet and what your plans are to rebuild this relationship?

PRIME MINISTER : No, we haven't spoken yet, and look we’ve always wanted a positive relationship with China, where we can trade with each other, but that must come without any strings. The Chinese Government has set out 14 points that is causing them concern and and they're not points that, that we could ever, that we could ever appease, so and nor would we plan to. But that said, that position of Australia and that of China, I don't think means that we still can't work together, particularly on humanitarian issues and many other issues and economic issues. And we had done that previously very successfully. And frankly, we continue to, the trading relationship continues. We are currently subject to a range of what we believe are a very unfair and targeted actions against Australia. And there hasn't been any dialogue between ministers at a political level in, with Chinese government for some time now. But that is not, there is no barrier to that occurring for Australia, and we are happy to meet and discuss matters and resume those discussions at any time. But the only condition on that is that we're not about to go and accede to any of those 14 points, which I suspect you're all very familiar with. And we think that's entirely reasonable from our point of view. And so, but we remain very interested in that engagement, as many countries do with China. And we would and our economic relationship to that end continues. But we would like to see that occurring at the at the political level and whether it does or not is, is really, I think, in the hands of the Chinese Government because the offer for us to talk has never been removed. 

Yuye Lu from SBS Mandarin program: Thank you. Hello, Prime Minister. So my question for you is regarding your WeChat account. So your office has set up the WeChat account to better engage with Chinese Australian communities during last election but with the two thousand and twenty two year election coming up, the account was reportedly hijacked and renamed. So I know your office is working to get that account restored, are there any updates if the account does get restored are you going to use that as a channel to connect with Chinese Australian voters in the next election? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we'd love to, but we don't control WeChat, effectively that is ultimately goes all the way back to the Chinese Government. So we were using that as a, as a vehicle to speak with the Chinese community here in Australia. And I understand it is a common platform used for that purpose. And so you know where, where Australians are, I'm very happy to engage with them in those places and on those platforms and particularly Chinese Australians. So that was a good opportunity for us to speak through that channel. And I hope there might be an opportunity for that. But given the way that effectively that account was, was we were denied access to that's very, would be very difficult for us to, I think, move forward on that. But if there is an opportunity, then perhaps we will do that. But at the moment, all I can say is that I'm very disappointed that, that I have been censored in that way, In wanting to speak to Australians here. I mean, Chinese Australians love Australia, passionate patriots who love our democracy, who love the opportunities and have built families and businesses over generations and generations and generations, but also have a very strong ethnic linkage back to their, to their country of ancestry. And I respect and understand it, and we celebrate it, we’re celebrating it at the moment. And I think that's a wonderful part of Australia. But where democracy, where there's freedom of speech and and the ability to speak to each other in an uncensored way. And that's what Australia is about. But that opportunity is not being afforded to me as the Prime Minister of the country, but I notice it's being afforded to my political opponents, but people can read into that what they like. 

Fred Zhang from Melbourne's today: So my question, I was planning to ask about a China Australia relationship, and you have an that properly, so I want to ask with the federal election approaching, many Chinese Australians feel they are not properly represented in the federal level, especially in the parliament. They are looking forward to see more Chinese Australians in the parliament, do you welcome more Chinese Australians, regardless of which party, to support in the federal political level. 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I welcome more Liberal National parliamentarians in the parliament, and and what their ethnicity and origin is is is also important. But I don't welcome having more Labor members in the parliament because I don't want I don't think a Labor government would be good for the country. I wouldn't be good for the economy. It wouldn't be good for Australia's national security. It wouldn't be good for our taxes and stronger support for small and medium sized enterprises and all of the things that I know are so important to the Chinese Australian community. But that said, Gladys Liu is a wonderful part of our team, and where there's the opportunity for more people of Chinese background and ancestry to join our team and be part of our team well I welcome that with open arms. But you asked me the question, would I welcome that if it were from members of the other side of politics, well, my my objective is to ensure that we can continue to serve this country, as its government. And while I welcome the diversity that we're increasingly seeing in our parliament, that's tremendous and and in particularly in terms of the contribution of Chinese ancestry Australians. But first and foremost, my request to the Chinese Australian community is vote Liberal vote National.

Hannah Zhang at ACB News: Good afternoon, Prime Minister, and thank you for the greeting and the praises that you have provided to the Australian community over your Chinese New Year messaging for the year of the Tiger. You've answered quite a lot of good questions, especially with regards to the relationship and also about the five pillars of approach that you have for businesses and researchers and, of course, the improvement in the labour force. One comment, I guess in this as well, a question from the community are the Chinese business owners in itself have and would like to receive more confidence from the government, whereby we in Australia being Australians should be protected in that sense and will be also looked after and that the relationship, no matter how it is currently or in future, we are still being affected by the Australian Government. So the question might be is how could you provide more confidence to them? 

PRIME MINISTER: One of Australia's great strengths is that we're a stable democracy,  governed by the rule of law and people's property rights, none of these things are arbitrary. They're secure because that's the nature of our constitution, and that's the nature of our, of our government and and how Australia  runs. And so certainly, I mean citizens are citizens. Their ethnicity and race is irrelevant in terms of their rights and obligations and and all of those things. Our constitution is blind to that and it should be. And and so the investments and commitments that Australians of Chinese ancestry have made are no different to any other Australian and are as secure as those as their neighbours as it should be. Because Australia is the most successful multicultural nation in the world and we are, I'm very confident of that. I don't think it's arguably I think it is. And I think, you know, daylight is second and when it comes to that. And one of the reasons for that is I think we see every Australian as an Australian first, what their ethnic background is or racial background or first language is or ancestry or any of that, what their gender is for that matter, that is secondary tertiary to them being an Australian first. And so I would give you that absolute confidence. And I think Australia is in a position to do that when it comes to the investment in Australia by Chinese investments from overseas, where we have a very thorough process to regulate foreign investments. It's a it's blind and non-discriminatory in nature. And as a result, when decisions are made to allow investments and those investments can be made and we manage those issues of sovereign risk very, very carefully. And so any decisions we make on foreign investment are very carefully made because we want people to have that certainty and where the rules are, we set them out. And Australia has one of the most liberal foreign investment regimes in South East Asia. I mean, we [inaudible] most of the countries in East Asia, particularly China, like you can in Australia, and the certainty that you're afforded through your investment in Australia is many times over that what you could I'm sure, see in in China. So I mean, I think Australia is is an absolute refuge for certainty, refuge for certainty when it comes to people's economic investments in this country [inaudible] firmly and deeply and strongly, because that's what makes our country strong. 

Hannah from ACB News: Good afternoon, Prime Minister. This is Hannah from ACB News. Thank you so much for hosting this event and having us today. ACB an investment and finance news provider, so we have more focus on the economy. And today we have a question regarding to regarding the economic recovery plan. So the economic recovery plan in 2020 to 2021 provided tax incentives for eligible businesses, such as tax refunds for losses against prior year’s profits. Temporary full expensing extension. Those tax incentives will be extended to 2023. And apart from the tax incentives, we also see a patent box for encouraging investment in Australian medical and biotech technologies company. Would you please introduce more about the patent box as many Australian Chinese are working in this industry, and many of them are interested in investing in medical and biotech technology companies? Thank you very much. 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you. Further details on tax issues and many of the programs which you rightly referred to, which have played a very significant role in Australia's economic comeback. One of the reasons that Australia's economy is strong, has had a stronger recovery. It has performed stronger than any other country in the G7, both in employment terms GDP. We really are, I think, taking things forward and that the tax incentives which we put in place have contributed significantly to that. There are many others that the research and development tax incentives you mentioned the, of course, the loss carry back investment allowance measures for full expensing. All of this has seen a very strong surge in investment. And what's great about that is even through a pandemic, when we've seen such impacts on consumer demand here, businesses are investing and they're investing because they're confident about the future of the Australian economy and where it's heading. And that's, that's a great vote of support, I think, from business and investors in Australia. And it's not just from those in Australia. I mean, we're hearing that from investment houses all around the world. They're looking at our performance and saying that's a safe place to be, and there's some very good opportunities. But you rightly say that we need to further develop other new opportunities in these new sectors, and that was the fifth point of the plan I set out on manufacturing. Now the patent box, which we announced in last year's budget that is there to encourage investment in medical and biotech technologies, and it will reduce income tax from innovative research to encourage businesses to undertake R&D here in Australia, which I suspect, you know, and this programme is very early in its in its development and implementation. But we see that combining with the measures that I announced just this week some $1.6 billion and to drive research efforts in our universities together with our entrepreneurial sector. So I'd be, I would be encouraging the partnering up on research programmes with university partners and ensuring that's part of a commercial model here in Australia, which sees an ecosystem develop, which we're very keen to establish. So there'll be more to be said about all that, particularly once we get to the budget. But we take investment, particularly in these new tech sectors, to support the development of our manufacturing sector in Australia. Under our opponents one in eight manufacturing jobs were lost under Labor when they were last in office. One in eight went. We've turned all that around and we know that to drive those manufacturing jobs and opportunities and income earning opportunities, then we need to invest more in our R&D, in our technology, in our infrastructure and our skilled labour force to ensure that they are able to support a growing manufacturing sector with new products and new innovations.