Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Prime Minister's suite at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday. Credit:Andrew Meares "We have to work together with the crossbench, Labor and the Greens as best we can to achieve the budget repair the nation needs." Beginning his second year in office, an unbowed Mr Turnbull told Fairfax Media he will take his economic leadership message to New York and Washington next week, where he will warn against the rising tide of protectionism. The Prime Minister also intends to deliver a strong message on the importance of border protection when he attends President Barack Obama's high-level summit on refugees and migrants, which has been billed by the UN as "an historic opportunity to come up with a blueprint for a better international response". He will argue that only through strong border protection policies will countries be able to increase their humanitarian intakes.

"If you want to have a generous humanitarian program … you have got to be able to secure your borders . . . You've got to do that and maintain public confidence in your program." The exclusive interview came on the one-year anniversary of becoming the Prime Minister, and as he prepares for the nine days of summits, bilateral meetings with world leaders and an address to the UN General Assembly. In a blunt message to critics who have said he has not absorbed the lessons of the 2016 election or achieved much in his first year, Mr Turnbull said: "We are delivering and we obviously will deliver. "Since I became Prime Minister, you've seen stronger economic growth, higher business confidence, higher investment, I got a report earlier today – very substantial increase in money coming in to venture capital funds. "Is that unrelated to our national investment in the science agenda? I don't think so, I think it's directly related. Is that unrelated to the way I keep on talking about innovation and investment and jobs, no, I think it's directly related. It's not the only of factor of course, there are dozens of things.

"The truth is, a year ago, GDP growth was 2 per cent, it's now 3.3 per cent and yet in many respects in the last year, the international environment has become murkier." Mr Turnbull said he was not complacent, was mindful of global economic conditions, and conceded he was "always anxious about adverse events, particularly in the global environment, the things you can't control". However, a reflective Prime Minister said: "I know that jobs and growth is a slogan, is said to be a slogan, but it is true, we are maintaining stronger economic growth." Mr Turnbull cited a speech by Reserve Bank assistant government Christopher Kent in which Dr Kent acknowledged that Australian economic growth had been stronger than expected. "That surely is on the checklist of 'How is the economic leadership going?'; that should be a tick."

Mr Turnbull said one of his key messages in New York and Washington would be to warn against the trend towards countries increasing trading barriers. "For us, a rising tide of protectionism actually poses real threats. It poses threats for everybody," he said. "When a PM travels abroad, you're there as the salesman, the spokesman for the nation, so it's very important to talk up what our achievements are, the strong economic growth we have here, the way we have made the transition from the mining construction boom." Mr Turnbull will hold a series of bilateral meetings, including with Mr Obama and other regional and world leaders, which will focus on topics including the civil war in Syria, counter-terrorism more broadly, North Korea, Russia and the dispute in the South China Sea. Loading

Immigration, refugees and border security will be a particular focus, with Mr Obama convening a high-level leaders meeting on September 20 and urging nations to increase refugee intake and humanitarian funding. Mr Turnbull would not be drawn on whether he intended to announce an increase in Australia's humanitarian intake and increase funding to the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.