7:30, ABC
E&OE
LEIGH SALES:
With me now to go through the details is the Social Services Minister Scott Morrison. Thank you for coming.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Hi, Leigh. Good to be here.
SALES:
Minister, firstly, what is the criteria by which a family or community will qualify as disadvantaged?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well, it’ll vary and it’ll be different right across the country. For example, disadvantaged can relate to people being in rural and remote areas where it’s difficult to have viable services. In other places it’ll be children with disabilities. In other occasions it’ll be families suffering temporary financial disadvantage, so there’s programmes to deal with them. So it is a very broad sweep across a whole range of circumstances. The Productivity Commission found that this current area of service was quite disjointed and we’ll be tightening it up and putting it into this new Child Care Safety Net.
SALES:
Will communities and families have to apply to government to access this funding or will the Government determine who it considers to be eligible?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well in some cases the service support is provided directly to the service provider themselves. In other cases it’s through other subsidy payments in the same way that child care subsidies are paid now and in other cases it’ll be working with case workers.
SALES:
But I guess the point I’m getting to is if you are in a community or a family where you consider yourself disadvantaged, will you be able to make an approach and go “I think I should get some of this funding”?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Yes, those opportunities will be there, but they’ll present in different ways. As I said, in the child care fund, which is being set up, community fund, to support the viability of services in remote areas or in some very high-cost areas in inner-city areas where there are disadvantaged families, we’ll be dealing directly with the service providers themselves.
SALES:
This is budgeted at about $850 million. Where will that money be coming from?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well $850 million includes some money which is already being spent in these areas and that’s been carried forward. But with all of the Jobs for Families Package that we’ll be launching within the Budget next week, that is tied to Family Tax Benefit savings that were put forward in last year’s Budget. So, what we’re doing with child care more broadly and particularly in this area where the increases in expenditure are going to occur, well, that has to be paid for with other savings.
SALES:
You’ve announced a pension reform package today. At the wealthy end of the spectrum, about 90,000 people will lose access to the pension and another 200,000 will have their part pension reduced. At the other end, about 200,000-odd people will get an extra $30 a fortnight. The Council on the Ageing has asked for an independent review. Will you agree to that?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well they’re discussions we’ve had with them for some time and I think they stand separate to the package which has been announced today. I mean, that’s a stand-alone package which I think gives fair access for a sustainable pension.
SALES:
But what they said though is…
MINISTER MORRISON:
170,000 pensioners will be $30 a week – a fortnight better off and we think that’s a good plan.
SALES:
But what they said though ‘Can we have an independent review of all of that in the interests of trying to get some bipartisan support around it so it can get through?’
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well we’ve been having those discussions with COTA about those issues…
SALES:
But they clearly want a little bit more.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well I understand they’re interested in that and we already have a range of reviews that are on the table now and particularly the tax white paper, where many of those issues are canvassed. But what we’re saying is that here’s a package of measures which gives fair access to a sustainable pension. It has received ACOSS’ support today. It was called on Bill Shorten to support it as well as the Greens. The Greens have supported similar measures in the past along these lines, so we would be hopeful that we can proceed with this and continue the discussion on broader issues.
SALES:
The family home’s exempt from these pension calculations, but why should it be because somebody who owns a three million dollar home has much bigger safety net and options available to them than somebody who doesn’t?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well, the family home sits at the centre, I think, of our society and for people to have that asset, and sometimes that’s the only asset they really have and if you immediately throw that into the assets test, then basically, many pensioners wouldn’t qualify for any pension at all…
SALES:
But regardless, it is an asset.
MINISTER MORRISON:
…and we don’t want propose that. What we want to do is look at the assets which they can convert into cash and meaningfully support themselves in their retirement, whether it’s their superannuation or other things. So, I think there’s a consensus on the fact that the family home is not something that can be considered. We want to encourage people to downsize for more age-appropriate accommodation later in life, but that’s a decision for Australians to make. And the extremes of this argument are always used to justify trying to apply it more broadly, and frankly, most pensioners don’t have those sorts of homes and to burden them with that anxiety, which many pensioners have an anxiety about the very proposition you have put to me. I’m not going to make them anxious. We’re not going to do it.
SALES:
You dumped a plan to index the pension to inflation, which was a very controversial measure in last year’s Budget. Let me ask you about another one, the plan to make under-30s wait six months to qualify for the dole. Will that still be Coalition policy after Tuesday’s Budget?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Those matters will be dealt with in the Budget.
SALES:
I’m sure you know the answer though, don’t you?
MINSITER MORRISON:
Well, those are matters for the Budget. Today I’ve announced what we’re doing with the pension and the changes there and we are reversing that measure that was introduced last year and wasn’t successful…
SALES:
How about reversing the dole one?
MINISTER MORRISON:
… on the CPI measure and the CPI measure for the pension won’t be there, so that was 4.1 million pensioners who would have been affected by that.
SALES:
The dole question – the dole question, if that was still going to be policy next week, wouldn’t you say, ‘That’s our policy and it’ll be our policy next week’?
MINISTER MORRISON:
No, I’d be saying our policy in that area will be announced in the Budget.
SALES:
The Prime Minister said today that Joe Hockey would remain as Treasurer until the next election regardless of whether or not the Budget is a failure. That’s a level of job security not many people in the community enjoy, isn’t it?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well I believe the Budget will be a success and a key reason it’ll be a success is because the way Joe has led this and the Prime Minister is the one who puts the Treasurer in his job, so that’s a decision of the Prime Minister I support.
SALES:
But last year’s wasn’t a success, so what’s the source of your confidence?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Last year’s Budget reduced the trajectory of Labor’s debt that we inherited by 50 per cent. I think that was a great start in last year’s Budget, but there’s far more work to do and that work will continue next week in the Budget.
SALES:
Do you think that the backbench will be content to see Joe Hockey remain in the job if the Budget fares the same as last year’s?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Well you’re making a presumption about the Budget which I don’t share and I don’t think the backbench share in either.
SALES:
I’m not making a presumption.
MINISTER MORRISON:
The presumption is, on our part, is this Budget will be a fair budget, it’ll be a responsible Budget, it’ll be a Budget that continues the task of Budget repair and deal with the fiscal arsony that we were left by the Labor Party.
SALES:
Your parliamentary colleague, Ewen Jones, the LNP Member for Herbert in Far North Queensland, tweeted today in response to reports that if the Budget fails, Mr Hockey would be out of a job that, ‘If this budget fails, we’re all out of a job. You don’t need too many degrees to get to that.’ Is he right?
MINISTER MORRISON:
Ewan makes a good point. Ewan makes a good point and that’s why this Budget is important, last Budget was important, our next Budget will be important after this one as well. All Budgets are important because we have such a big task ahead of us to fix the Budget mess that we were left by the Labor Party and we’ll continue to do that, Leigh, but we’ll do it as you’ll see in the Budget next week and as demonstrated by the measures for a fairer access to a sustainable pension today, that that’s exactly what we’re doing.
SALES:
Minister, thank you for coming in.
MINISTER MORRISON:
Thanks a lot, Leigh.