Sky News PM Agenda
E&OE
DAVID SPEERS:
Where the government has been struggling on higher education, the GP co-payment as well, something it is hoping to have more success on is a re-jigged families package that is due sometime before the budget. It is now the responsibility of the Social Services Minister Scott Morrison who joins me now. Thank you for your time.
MINISTER MORRISON:
G’day David.
SPEERS:
Let me get to childcare in a moment but start with the pension because the government from last year’s budget has proposed a change in pension indexation. Now apparently in today’s party room meeting more concern was expressed about this. Is there growing concern in Coalition ranks?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well it is important to have the engagement with government members and they are talking to their constituents and I am talking to the crossbench. The issue is here, how do we make sure we have a sustainable pension and an adequate pension and you have got to get both of those things right. Now we are engaged in a discussion with the crossbench about that. The opposition doesn’t have any plan in this area. They just think you can just keep going and they won’t explain how they plan to fund that down the track. Now we have got a measure out there and I appreciate there is some concerns about that measure and those concerns have been raised with me and I have been seeking to work through some of those issues with the crossbench as well as with my own government members and so look I just describe it as an ongoing conversation, that the measures themselves wouldn’t take effective if legislated till several years from now so I think there’s plenty of time…
SPEERS:
2017.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Exactly. There is plenty of time to have this discussion but you can’t sit down and read the intergenerational report, which I assume the opposition has done and just sit there and go, well the status quo is an option. It is not an option.
MINISTER MORRISON:
…It is not an option. Bill Shorten thinks the status quo is an option for everything. That is why in the festival of ideas he is running this year he hasn’t come up with one.
SPEERS:
So in these conversations with your own backbench colleagues and the crossbenchers, if I can just tease out what you are actually talking about? Are you still committed to changing the indexation rate?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well it is important that the pension us sustainable over the long period of time. The actual savings in the measure as you would know are quite modest in the broad scheme of things over the budget and forward estimates. But over the long term it is quite different. You would also know that in MYEFO and the Intergenerational Report what is basically proposed is that you would use the CPI to track across to average weekly earnings as the long term indexation measure. Now it is true…
SPEERS:
And I think that is in 2021.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well that will depend on how the economy is performing and a range of things and the budget. But that is the plan. Now that is far preferable I would argue to have a measured incremental transition from one measure to another measure without the short, sharp shock which would have to come from Labor’s approach which is put your head in the sand, do nothing and then get smacked in the face with it down the track.
SPEERS:
Let me ask you about one idea that you have floated and this is the reviewing it every three years, tell me about why you think that is a good idea?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well this goes together with that measure so you would continue to have the CPI increases every six months. The pension is going up on Friday. The pension on Friday from the time at the time of the last election will have gone up by over six per cent. Now that is higher than wages have gone up since the last election. As the Treasurer and the Prime Minister has said that includes the compensation that was provided for the carbon tax. We got rid of the carbon tax and the pensioners kept that compensation. So they have had more than a six per cent increase in the pension. That is good news. In addition to the CPI increases that go up every six months the idea that has been floated is we would have a full adequacy review or a fairness review, whichever you would like to call it, of the pension. Not unlike how Professor Harmer used to do that in relation to minimum wages under the Howard government. So that is there to provide a safety net and allow governments to make informed decisions about the adequacy. Labor just wants it to go up now who knows if that is going to meet the adequacy issues.
SPEERS:
Just to play devil’s advocate on that wouldn’t there be the risk that if you are doing that every three years that the political pressure given that it ties in with the electoral cycle the pressure would be there to help out the pensioners, it’s always a vote winner; you are not going to achieve the savings.
MINISTER MORRISON:
All I am doing is reflecting a concern that has been put to me by the Crossbenchers about the need to ensure there is adequacy. I think when people look at this idea there is an assumption that what is happening won’t be adequate and therefore a recommendation would mean they would have to go higher. The previous government did an adequacy review some years ago; I don’t know why they would now be opposed to this being a way to manage these issues going forward. Now nothing has been settled and certainly anything like that would have to go through Cabinet and would have to go through the partyroom as well. Our point is we are engaging on the issue, there is an issue to be addressed here which we can’t just run away from and if there are other ways to address the sustainability and adequacy of the pension, other ideas have been put forward about….
SPEERS:
How about this idea.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Sure.
SPEERS:
The assets test, you can already have your family home regardless of what that is worth but then on top of that you can have significant assets and still draw a part-pension. Would you look at tightening that up?
MINISTER MORRISON:
These issues have been put to us as well and as you work through all of this you have got to look at the package which is going to be fair, which is going to ensure a measured change over time and doesn’t have the sort of short sharp shock response which I think people would be right to be concerned about.
SPEERS:
So you would be open to that if it is timed over some period?
MINISTER MORRISON:
I am open to incremental change that gives us an adequate and sustainable pension and respects the fact that there are many on the pension, the vast majority, who have worked all of their lives and they had a deal with the government when they left school, you and I had a different deal. We had a deal with Paul Keating who said we would provide for our own superannuation and that is what we will work to over our lifetime. There is a generational shift here and that has to be played out over time. The government is looking at trying to get a solution to address a very real problem.
SPEERS:
What is your timeframe on this? When do you want to nail down this pension change?
MINISTER MORRISON:
As I said these measures wouldn’t come into effect until 2017 so I think there is ample time for us to work through this patiently, respectfully and in a considered way, taking on everyone’s views. We will end up where we end up but where we can’t end up is the head in the sand, let the pension run off a cliff approach that the Labor party was putting forward with no funding attached to it.
SPEERS:
Given it is not kicking in until 2017 at the earliest, would you be willing to take all of this to an election?
MINISTER MORRISON:
I think you are getting well ahead of yourself there, David. Where we are at at the moment is a discussion with the crossbench. I will keep doing that, I will keep engaging with the back bench over this and I would like others to keep engaging in the conversation with us.
SPEERS:
Why not give voters a say?
MINISTER MORRISON:
I would hope that we might be able to come to some position well before then and if we can then well and good. But right now I think what we need to acknowledge is that there is an issue that has to be dealt with. Just walking away from it I don’t think is the responsible thing to do when you read the Intergenerational Report. It demands a response and if the response that the government has put up doesn’t meet the Parliament’s test well let’s work on another outcome. Labor have no part and seek to have no part in addressing this challenge.
SPEERS:
Now let me go to your families package because your timeframe on this is I understand is much sooner, when can we expect you to produce this one?
MINISTER MORRISON:
We will be releasing that before the Budget but we are still working through some consultation issues here. I am still working through matters with the Opposition as well, they have taken a more proactive approach on this at our invitation and I welcome that…
SPEERS:
You are meeting with Kate Ellis regularly?
MINISTER MORRISON:
We have had two meetings now. We are in a particular phase where I need to come back to the Opposition on a couple of things there but I had meetings with my advisory council on this issue this week and we will continue those consultations. The success of policy whether it is Immigration or in this policy portfolio is the implementation. You have got to get that right and we have no intention to rush to failure in this area. You get it right, you do your homework, you do your consultation and then you put it on the table. What we are trying to achieve here is that families particularly middle-to-low income families we can improve the equation for them to stay in work or get back to work because for so many families, David, as you know they don’t have a choice, they need to do that to maintain the quality of life they want for them and their kids.
SPEERS:
And finally, I just want to clear up because I think you might have said it or at least signalled the other day that levy that was meant to pay the paid parental leave scheme on big business, is that gone now?
MINISTER MORRISON:
It is not transportable. Any case for a new levy would have to be made. It is certainly not my preference to have a levy to fund this. It is one of the things we are discussing with the Opposition. Currently as you know we have measures that I have inherited from Minister Andrews that are in the Senate at the moment that produce savings that could really be used to improve this families package. That has been rejected by the Opposition which is strange because when they were in government they changed Family Tax Benefit indexation to CPI not MTAWE. So it is ok for Family Tax Benefits but apparently it’s not ok for other forms of payments and they had $15 billion worth of savings ripped out of Family Tax Benefits. We supported those sort of reforms because we thought they were constructive reforms but when the government does exactly the same thing now they walk the other way. It is not a constructive opposition, it’s a wrecker opposition.
SPEERS:
Well at least businesses will be happy to hear that levy in your view at least isn’t going to happen.
MINISTE MORRISON:
If the Opposition wants to fund it via a levy then they may put that to us but that is really a question for them.
SPEERS:
Scott Morrison, thank you very much.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Thanks David, good to be with you.