5AA Leon Byner
E&OE
LEON BYNER:
Let’s talk with Scott Morrison. Now Scott, first of all we should wish you Happy Birthday for Wednesday.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Thanks very much Leon. Still on this side of 50 but looking forward to celebrating a good Budget this week, should be a very strong Budget from the Treasurer, and being out and continuing to tell everybody about why that will be good for them.
BYNER:
Why is it not disingenuous that you’re putting on one hand a concept out there that anybody who works, who wants child support, is entitled to it and yet it’s dependant very much on taking the Family Tax Benefit off another class of people, which as you know has become very controversial in the Senate?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well we want to spend $3.5 billion on getting greater support through child care to disadvantaged families, vulnerable families, families on incomes – on low incomes under $60,000 and on middle incomes. That’s what we want to do but you can’t go and invest more in one area without making savings elsewhere. Otherwise you just run up the deficit and increase the debt. That’s not what we want to do. So this is a responsible way of paying for the important things we want to do, it’s about re-setting priorities.
BYNER:
From your point of view then how will the removal of this Family Tax Benefit affect those who would at the moment still be receiving it?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well let’s just go back over the history. When Labor were in power they had $15 billion worth of savings to Family Tax Benefits. They paused the indexation, they removed the indexation from higher measures down to the CPI, they didn’t proceed with other increased payments, they saved $15 billion out of family tax benefits. Now the changes we’re proposing are no different to those and so I think we are seeing a lot of hypocrisy from Labor here, it’s just politics. They want to stand in the way of savings that can put more money to support families to have the choice to be in work and stay in work and in most cases, I’d argue, really need to be. I think it’s pretty appalling politics, but we’re getting pretty used to it. Ed Miliband found out the consequences of that last week in the UK Election of just being a complete reactionary and drifting off to the left and I think Bill Shorten will go the same way.
BYNER:
Where are the jobs going to come from for mums who want to work because let me tell you the feedback – I’m going to open the lines and in fact ask people “are you finding it difficult if you’ve already looked,” and many people already have, to get the few hours that you will need as a working parent so that you get the child care benefit of course and you’ll need it because you’re working? You’re assuming that everybody is going to get work, I’m not so sure that’s going to be as simple as we hope.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well hundreds of thousands of jobs have already been created since we came to Government but it’s not just about people getting…
BYNER:
Many have been lost though you see.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well actually more have been created.
BYNER:
How many?
MINISTER MORRISON:
We’ve had around 200,000 created over the last 18 months or so.
BYNER:
Are these full time or just part time?
MINISTER MORRISON:
All jobs and that’s what we’re talking about because in these cases Leon we are not just talking about someone getting into a full time job. We are talking about someone today who might be working one day a week or two days week and wants to work three or four. They are already in a job and they would like to work more hours.
BYNER:
Let me understand this, so you are assuming in this policy that most people who will appreciate the child care if they can work will find it reasonably easy to get the few hours they want?
MINISTER MORRISON:
I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that there is a mixture of responses and what we have been able to estimate is some 240,000 families are saying that this type of a package will encourage them to be able – to want to be in more paid employment. So I mean the jobs we will work to create through the Budget and the other economic policies that we are doing, we don’t want higher taxes we want lesser taxes for small business, we want more incentives to help people be able to get in jobs whether they’re older Australians or young Australians and we’ll be working on that in the Budget as well. So these measures don’t stand in isolation, but one of the things that prevents a family currently from even deciding to actually try and be in paid employment more is child care is just too expensive. So in this package we’re reducing that impediment so people where they can take on more work, and need to take on more work, can and will.
BYNER:
Now, I’ve just had quite a reaction to this comment about the jobs so for example Chris who is a job psychologist says “some people are applying for over 150 jobs with no luck.”
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well there is no doubt Leon we’ve got to do all we can, the economy, businesses, Government and others to create as many jobs as we can and that’s why we want to see the tax and compliance burden on business lesser not greater which is what we’ve been doing since we’ve come into Government. But that’s no reason to walk away from trying to make sure that there’s a better deal for families who are in work and want to stay in work and those who want to be in work and working more – which is what our package is designed to do.
BYNER:
In your words from your perspective, what kind of hit will those currently getting the Family Tax Benefit, where if this was successful it gets taken off them, what will they endure?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well what we are talking about is a freezing of the current Family Tax Benefit payments for a period of two years, so they would stay where they are, they are not going down, they’d just be frozen for two years. There is a change to the end of year Family Tax Benefit Supplement there’d be a reduced payment on that and then there’d be a freezing of thresholds. Now there is another measure in there which was taking the Family Tax Benefit just to those who have children under six and all of these measures I will continue to discuss and negotiate with the Senators. The Labor Party is not interested in even talking because they are just playing politics with this but those who want to be serious about the discussion of getting this increased investment to families to support them through child care, they’ll engage in a proper professional discussion; Senator Xenophon and others will engage quite constructively if the Labor Party won’t.
BYNER:
So is this everything that has been released from your Social Services portfolio or is there still more to come in Budget tomorrow?
MINISTER MORRISON:
No, there will be more to come in the Budget. What we’ve done over the last few weeks is ensured that particularly on these big measures whether it’s on the Jobs for Families Package or on what we are doing with pensions, but they have been able to announced in isolation so people have the time to digest them fully. Budget night there is a lot of information, there’s a lot of messages, there’s a lot of initiatives, these ones are very important – they are all important, but these ones particularly we’ve given people the opportunity to look at in isolation and I think that helps people understand what we are trying to do.
BYNER:
So in terms of pensioners and the way in which their pensions have been calculated, that’s going to go back to the method that was previously used?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Yeah, that’s basically right. I mean it will go back to the $3 taper rather than the $1.50 taper as it’s known. What we’re doing is we’re increasing the pension payments for 170,000 pensioners that means they will either be on a higher part pension or 50,000 of them will actually go on to a full pension. So those with modest assets will get more support, those with much greater assets for example a couple who owns their own home, those over $820,000 and those sorts of assets then they will no longer be eligible for the part pension but they will all qualify for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, which I think is very important. But there was another measure which the Treasurer announced yesterday and that was on the double dipping on paid parental leave.
BYNER:
Yes.
MINISTER MORRISON:
And we just don’t think it’s fair that if you’re getting a paid parental leave payment from your employer which is more than what you’d get form the taxpayer then you’re able to turn up and say well I’ll take my $20,000 from my employer, which is usually the Government because its public service type arrangements or it’s big corporates, and turn around and say and I want $11,000 from the taxpayer as well. What we are going to do is make sure that if you get a paid parental leave payment from your employer, which is less than the general entitlement well it will be topped up to that general entitlement. Now that will effect some 45,000 odd people and then you’ve got around 34,000 people who are basically getting all and more of what they would get from the taxpayer from their employer and then turning around and asking for $11,000 more or there abouts from the taxpayer. We just don’t think that’s fair.
BYNER:
Scott what’s the target for getting down unemployment say in 12 months’ time? What’s your target for getting that down?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well they’re measures that are announced in the Budget and they are obviously very sensitive measures for the markets and so on so it would be – I mean they’re not things that I am brought into the loop on, rightly so that’s the province of the Treasurer and that’s what the Budget’s for, for those key financial measures.
BYNER:
So we will know for example on Budget night from your portfolio what will happen – there was discussion for example that if you are a young person you would have to wait six months in order to get some kind of Newstart Allowance.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well there are further measures to be announced in the Budget and I’ll leave it at that for now. It’s only – less than 48 hours away so all of these things will become crystal clear by then.
BYNER:
So again what do I say to people who are – I mean I’ve got a full board now from people saying “listen I’ve been looking for work and I can’t find it.” What do I say to them?
MINISTER MORRISON:
The Government will be bringing in measures in this Budget which help people get job ready, which do things to help employers be able to take on people, particularly for those who have been unemployed for a while, those who are older, and we’ll be doing things to match the two up. I mean that’s what we will be doing in this Budget and they’ll be measures to address all of that. But all of this requires a strong economy. Now our economy is strong by world standards and we need to ensure it remains strong. We need to be giving small business in particular the encouragement – unincorporated small business the encouragement to get out there, make decisions, make investments, now’s the time to get out there and do this and we want to encourage people to do that because you need a strong economy to employ people. The Government doesn’t create the jobs it’s the businesses that create the jobs.
BYNER:
Yes, Happy Birthday for Wednesday.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Thanks Leon.