Sky News Agenda with Kieran Gilbert
E&OE
KIERAN GILBERT:
I just want to get your reaction to this on the security front and well first of all this 18-year-old from Melbourne. The profile of this young individual will really shock many I think. He comes from a non-Muslim family, a non-Middle Eastern family and very much mainstream suburban Melbourne.
MINISTER MORRISON:
It’s very hard to make assumptions about who’s going to fall prey to the death cult and their indoctrination and their recruiting tactics. We have seen it within communities within Australia in more obvious places but we are also seeing in other places others might not expect. That is why it is very important the government has every tool at its disposal to ensure we are able to do whatever we can to ensure that people don’t go and join this fight, support this fight, be part of this fight and we have to do everything to ensure we support our allies and others in the region to put this death cult on the run.
GILBERT:
And as far as you are aware, you are no longer the Minister, but was it that legal framework, the enhanced powers that enabled the interception of the two teenagers at Sydney Airport at the weekend?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well I was very pleased to see that. I want to commend the Customs and Border Protection personnel and Minister Dutton. The systems that had been put in place after the Sharrouf incident not long after the election – we were running on the previous systems – have proved to be very effective. So the establishment of the Counter Terrorism Unit out of that $630 million package the government put in place, the new legislation as well, it is a combination of all of these and the strong leadership from Minister Dutton that is getting this job done. To Roman Quaedvlieg and everyone at Customs and Border Protection, job well done.
GILBERT:
Let’s move on to your area and there’s a lot to talk about. First of all the $1 billion upgrade of the welfare system, the IT system this is, this is the front of The Australian today. Is this something you are going to put to your Cabinet colleagues, that it does need to be upgraded? It does sound quite antiquated.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Minister Payne and I have been working on this, particularly Minister Payne since she came to the portfolio. It is a system that has been around since the late 80s at a time when there was around 2.5 million people receiving payments and now there are up to 10 million [correction: 7.3 million] payments being made so we have had a massive increase in the number of people interfacing with the system and it is time for it to get some serious attention. We have some $400 million worth of transactions every day – $50 million individual transactions. So this is a system that still has manual processing attached to it Kieran and it has been left to basically wither for many years. Now the system is stable I should stress but it could run far more efficiently and effectively both for the users and the government and more cost effectively as well.
GILBERT:
So while it might cost a fair bit to upgrade – $1 billion is the estimate that The Australian reports, it would save money in the longer term in efficiency?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well no doubt it would save money in the short term even I would suggest with the sort of changes you could make immediately – the changes that can be made to assist people using the system. Minister Payne has been doing an incredible job on this in bringing together the various options and it will be for her to make further announcements on this in the weeks or months ahead as we continue to work through this issue. But it is important for people to first understand that there is a problem here. The system we are working off was developed in the 80s at a time when frankly the internet and things like what we are looking at today with smart phones and so on were dreams.
GILBERT:
Let’s look at the pension issue. Currently pensions are indexed to Average Male Weekly Earnings. The government as we know as part of their budget had wanted to change that indexation beyond the next election to index to inflation. Reports on the weekend that the government is now considering a sunset clause on that. Could you talk us through it?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Let’s start off with first principles – the pension goes up every March and every September and it goes up by either the CPI, the higher of the CPI, or the reference to Male Total Average Weekly Earnings. Now recently it has been the CPI increase that has been operating because that is what has been higher. That is what related to the most recent increases in the pension. So pensioners I think should be reassured that the pension goes up every March and every September. The Labor Party’s scare campaign on pensions is not a policy, it’s just a scare campaign. In terms of how the Intergenerational Report looks at the tracking of these payments out over time it assumes that once the budget is in a stronger position then the tracking of the indexation of those payments can change. That is a sensible reading of the situation and it shows that the government is very prepared to have a genuine conversation about how we can have a more sustainable pension into the future. I am disappointed that the opposition once again has just ruled out a conversation. They are conversation stoppers, not starters when it comes to dealing with the very real and serious issues about the sustainability of the pension.
GILBERT:
But if you do adopt the sunset clause idea does that then diminish the sustainability argument of this burgeoning cost area?
MINISTER MORRISON:
No because as the Intergenerational Report which the Treasurer has released demonstrates, it does provide for a more sustainable pension if you take that path. But there are other measures and other ways this can be addressed and I am open to that discussion with the crossbenchers given the opposition has ruled out yet another policy conversation in their year of the idea. So we are keen to have that conversation with them and obviously it has to be undertaken more broadly in the context of retirement incomes. We want people to continue to invest for their own retirement. Self-funded retirees are the great heroes of this country. They have not only paid taxes all their lives, they continue to pay them and they are supporting themselves in their retirement.
GILBERT:
It is a potent political issue. Are you up for the fight here to make a sustainable pension system given Labor is blocking, as you say, opposing all of that?
MINISTER MORRISON:
I don’t see why there has to be a fight over this. I think what Australians want to see is just some sensible common sense discussion about how we deal with some obvious issues. The ageing of the population is not a myth, it is reality and I think that presents great opportunities for Australia but comes with challenges as well and we have to talk those issues through. We have to manage them incrementally over time. If we don’t do that then what happens is that at some point in the future you have an off the edge of the cliff reform which I think would be very disadvantageous to future generations who would want to have a safety net that we have had that we are putting at risk by not addressing these issues and that is why we want to do that.
GILBERT:
The government won’t allow pensioners to…essentially some have been worried about arguing that might be the case that they might fall into poverty given the indexation changes.
MINISTER MORRISON:
I don’t want to see that and I am not considering any options that I believe would lead to that outcome. The Treasurer I think has made some very good points on the weekend that if you can get the size and subscription to the pension under control over time then you can create some room to move when it comes to the adequacy of the pension. But the adequacy of the pension, I should stress is foremost in my mind and the government’s mind because it is not a lavish payment, no one should suggest it is. The government certainly doesn’t pretend it is and that is why it is important wherever we can that Australians as they age take the opportunities they have to be able to supplement their income or increase their income either by working or by taking down on the various assets or other resources they have available to them. That is the mix, that is the package and we want to maximise how people use all of that for their benefit first and foremost. It is not about doing something for the country – certainly the country benefits – but at the end of the day I want people as they age to have a good retirement with a sustainable cost of living and sustainable incomes.
GILBERT:
Mr Morrison finally many of our viewers are in rural areas. I would like you to just talk us through an announcement you made very early this morning relating to some additional support for drought affected farmers. What does that entail?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well Minister Joyce and I are topping out the family relationship counselling support to families in drought affected areas in NSW and QLD. That comes on top of the over $10 million in funding we announced last year. There has been a need to further increase that to take us through to the end of June. These families are still doing it tough Kieran and as well all know when families do it tough that can create some tensions and we want to make sure we are there to help them work through those issues through the family relationships counselling services that are available and provided by great organisations all through those districts who really understand the pressures that those families are under and we are happy to support them.
GILBERT:
Ok Mr Morrison thanks for your time this morning. Appreciate it.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Thanks a lot Kieran, good to be with you.