Sky News AM Agenda with Kieran Gilbert and the Hon. Dr Andrew Leigh MP
GILBERT:
I’m here with Andrew Leigh and the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Senator Mitch Fifield. Senator Fifield it’s all a bit gloomy, the Government’s really got to take accountability for all of this now more than a year in office.
FIFIELD:
Well I think that MYEFO today, Kieran, will really be a bit of a wakeup call for the Australian Labor Party about the damage that they caused to the budget, and their responsibility to play a role in budget repair. We’ve seen Labor voting against something in in the order of $20 billion in savings measures in the Senate. Including about $5 billion of savings measures that they themselves proposed when they were in government. So, I hope today’s MYEFO causes Labor to take stock, to recognise that they share in the responsibility to help fix this problem that they created.
GILBERT:
But Minister do you accept that 15 months now into office, that voters don’t really cop that sort of explanation, that they want the Government to come up with the answers instead of the finger pointing.
FIFIELD:
Well Kieran, I think we have come up with the answers. Joe Hockey’s first budget was a good document. The problem is that the Labor Party failed to take any responsibility for the damage that they cause. Let me speak for a moment as the Manager of Government Business in the Senate, in a Senate chamber where the Government of the day does not command the majority in its own right, management of the Senate and the legislation that goes through it, including budget legislation, is a shared responsibility of all political parties and the Australian Labor Party have abrogated that responsibility.
GILBERT:
And that’s something that Chris Richardson has pointed to time and time again from Deloitte Access Economics. Andrew Leigh, is there a point when Labor is going to cop some of the blowback here, its fine to be obstructionist and to say no as we saw the Coalition do in opposition. We you’re trying to rebuild your own economic credibility surely there’s got to be some concession that these structural improvements in the budget need to happen?
LEIGH:
Well Kieran I was frankly a bit surprised to hear Mitch speaking in that way, he’s a smart guy and I would have thought he would want to step up to the plate and take responsibility. I’d assumed he would want to be owning promises that the Coalition made last year, such as saying that a Coalition Government would have the budget in surplus in its first year and in every subsequent year. That there’d be no surprises, no excuses and the adults would be in charge. But instead he seems to be taking a leaf from this Joe Hockey playbook of go around and smoke a cigar while blaming poor people and blaming everyone else but yourself. If this budgets problems are marketing then I got a bridge you might like to buy. This is a product that the Australian people don’t want, at a price our society can’t afford.
GILBERT:
Chris Richardson as you heard him earlier says it is the right prescription, that this sort of thing that looks to medium to longer term expenditure needs to be done without hurting the economy in the short term. When does Labor come up with its alternative because you must concede that there are some structural issues in the budget that need to be dealt with?
LEIGH:
Kieran we’ve supported a range of savings in the budget, we supported the high income earner levy for example and a range of changes to family…
GILBERT:
It’s hardly reform though is it, the high income levy?
LEIGH:
These are changes we wouldn’t have made but they add to the bottom line and we were willing to support the Government on them. We’ve also suggested the Government could find more revenue around fair taxation of multinationals, but they’ve given $1 billion back. Scrapping their unfair parental leave scheme that gives $50,000 to millionaire families and not going ahead, sorry going ahead with targeted savings around people with more than $2 million in their superannuation accounts. That’s a range of areas in which savings could be found.
GILBERT:
Is the iron ore price in your view now at a more realistic level? Or do you expect that it maybe will climb again because at $60 per tonne that leaves a huge hole in the budget revenue.
LEIGH:
Kieran forecasting commodity prices is mugs game. They’re what economists call a random walk. Like the exchange rate, today’s price is the best guess of tomorrow’s price. Certainly that’s played a part but let’s face it. Peter Costello saw off the Asian Financial Crisis, Wayne Swan saw off the Global Financial Crisis and Joe Hockey is now telling us he can’t see off a fall in the iron ore price. When does he stop being the shadow treasurer in drag and actually step up to the main job?
GILBERT:
Senator Fifield your reaction to some of these criticisms from Andrew Leigh? That the falling iron ore price pales in comparison to what other treasurers have faced in recent years? Recent decades as you know as a former adviser to Peter Costello yourself.
FIFIELD:
Well Labor always had incredibly heroic assumptions in their budget including in relation to commodity prices. We’ve taken a far more conservative approach and Joe Hockey himself has said we probably should’ve taken a slightly more conservative approach again. But I’m glad that Andrew drew a comparison, between Wayne Swan and the GFC and Peter Costello and the Asian Financial Crisis. Peter Costello addressed the Asian Financial Crisis, he kept the budget in surplus and continued to pay down debt. Wayne Swan in the face of the Global Financial Crisis plunged the budget into deficit, plunged the nation into debt, and that is why we are in the situation we are in today. And I know it bores Labor, but it bears repeating that when they won office in 2007, Australia had no net debt, no net debt at all and the budget was in surplus. And the majority of Peter Costello’s budgets were in surplus, I think 10 of the 11. So I’ve got to say the more that Labor like to draw comparisons between Wayne Swan and Peter Costello the better. The reason we’re in this situation, which Labor forget, is because they inherited a budget in surplus, they inherited no net debt, they trashed the joint and now they’re not willing to play any part in the budget repair.
GILBERT:
We’ve got to go to a quick break, back in just a moment with Andrew Leigh and Senator Mitch Fifield. We’re also going to hear from Martin O’Shanessy from Newspoll.
Commercial break and interview with Martin O’Shanessy from Newspoll
GILBERT:
Back to Andrew Leigh and Senator Mitch Fifield. Senator Fifield your thoughts on where this is at, at the moment. You’ve heard Martin O’Shanessy’s take on it, obviously disunity is death and there’s been a fair bit of commentary about the Prime Ministers Chief of Staff, private and public.
FIFIELD:
Look Kieran. Staff are not combatants. There shouldn’t be public commentary about them and I don’t intend to make any. But just in relation to the polls more broadly, we haven’t been governing with an eye to the polls unlike our predecessors. We’ve been getting on with the job of doing what we said we would do which is abolishing the carbon tax, abolishing the Minerals Resource Rent Tax, reintroducing Temporary Protection Visas and legislating our Direct Action Plan. And we’re just going to keep on focusing on the job at hand, and today that’s the release of the MYEFO and what we hope is a wakeup call to the Australian Labor Party to get on board and join in the job of budget repair.
GILBERT:
Senator Fifield, while you’re showing admirable restraint this morning. Your colleagues aren’t, you’ve heard from a number of them over the weekend publically you’ve seen the coverage in the newspapers from Warren Entch to Ian McDonald. Julie Bishop said yesterday on Sky News that she wouldn’t have used the language that the Prime Minister used in suggesting that sexism was at play in the criticism of Peta Credlin. Would you urge your colleagues, Ministerial and others to rein it in?
FIFIELD:
Look Kierain as I said before, staff aren’t combatants, there shouldn’t be public commentary about them and I won’t be making any.
GILBERT:
On the issue of sexism. Before I let you go on that issue, is that something that you think is at play?
FIFIELD:
Kieran I don’t comment about staff.
GILBERT:
Alright lets go to Andrew Leigh, you have seen obviously the news reporting, the coverage. Do you think it’s unfair that the Chief of Staff, a staffer is being subject of this sort of critique?
LEIGH:
Kieran I just find it extraordinary that the Liberal Party has now discovered that there is sexism within their ranks. Maybe by the time the Prime Minister is ready to leave office he might be up for apologising for standing in front of signs describing our first female Prime Minister as a witch and a bitch.
GILBERT:
Well, your thoughts of the coverage of staff members as put by Senator Fifield, is that unfair? Is that something that shouldn’t happen?
LEIGH:
I think Mitch is right. That staff ought to be off limits. But I’m far more concerned about the jobs being lost in the Australian community than I am about particular Liberal Party jobs. We’ve seen unemployment now up now up half a per cent since the Coalition one office. Unemployment at a 13 year high, youth unemployment at a decade high, and underemployment, the share of people wanting more hours at an all time high. This after we were told that a Coalition Government would be a shot of adrenalin to the economy. Really confidence, business or consumer is in the doldrums and part of that is because Australians just aren’t confident that the Treasurer is competent.
GILBERT:
I want to move on now because I don’t think Senator Fifield you’ve got anymore to add to this issue. I want to ask you a very important matter beyond the beltway that’s for sure, and that is on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. You’re the Minister responsible, there’ve been various reports around that some of the States might be wavering, States and Territories wavering. A lot of people in this space are scared to put it frankly that this is going to hold up the NDIS. Can you reassure those carers and those with disability that that’s not going to be the case?
FIFIELD:
Sure, Kieran. On Friday I chaired the meeting of the COAG Disability Reform Council, which is Commonwealth, State and Territory Disabilities Ministers. And all Ministers recommitted themselves to the full rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Presently we have about 9,000 participants in the trial sites around the nation. About $400 million has been spent supporting them. There is a big job of work to do to ramp up to 460,000 people by 2018-19, but we have our eyes on the objective and we’re determined to see the NDIS rolled out in full.
GILBERT:
Can you explain to our viewers, what are the benefits of an insurance scheme over a welfare model. Because I guess there are those that think it’s way too expensive and we can’t afford it. But can you give us that fundamental explanation why insurance scheme is preferable to a welfare model in this space?
FIFIELD:
Well Kieran I think the NDIS really represents what should be the core business of government, and that is providing assistance to people who face extra challenges for reasons beyond their control. People who are born with significant disabilities, or have acquired significant disabilities later in life. This is essentially a voucher scheme. Someone is assessed, their need is determined and they’re given an entitlement appropriate to their need which they can then take to the service provider of their choice. It might be for a wheelchair, for a piece of assistive technology, for personal attended care. And if people get that sort of daily living support that they need, then a lot of people are going to be in a much better position to consider entering the workforce. So for me, this is the core business of government. But also one of the reasons why it’s important we cut our cloth accordingly in other portfolio areas. So that we make sure that we have the money to sustain the NDIS in the future, which we’re going to do.
GILBERT:
It’s a new Agency, new staff, set up from scratch. In Geelong how have they done? Have they been up to the task so far?
FIFIELD:
I think huge credit has to be paid to the staff of the NDIS Agency. They’ve been working in incredibly compressed timeframes. For them, when they go to work it’s more than a job, they know that they’re going to be helping improve the quality of life of fellow Australians. So great credit and tribute should be paid to the staff of the Agency in Geelong, but also around the nation.
GILBERT:
Indeed, absolutely and they do do a very important job and we’ll continue to monitor the progress into the new year with you Minister, appreciate your time.