Julie Bishop - Member for Curtin

ABC News 24 with Chris Uhlmann

Sunday, 25 July 2010

Subjects: Leader’s debate

E&OE…

CHRIS UHLMANN    You were in the audience this evening and there are no prizes for guess who you think won tonight?

JULIE BISHOP    I think we saw a real contrast tonight Chris. Tony Abbott appeared Prime Ministerial. He was direct, he wasn’t evasive and he gave honest answers and I think he won on all the major policy issues.

CHRIS UHLMANN    But you would say that won’t you?

JULIE BISHOP    Well Julia Gillard gave a good opening statement but then she was very evasive on policy issues and particularly when the issue of Kevin Rudd’s execution came onto the agenda. She was very evasive about that. And for somebody who promised to be so open and transparent with the Australian people I think they’d be very disappointed with her failure to give direct answers.

CHRIS UHLMANN    Yeah but let’s go to some – we’ll come to Julia Gillard in a moment – let’s go to some of the things that Tony Abbott said. He says he is a man who believes in things, he is a conviction politician. Yet we’ve seen through the course of the last week, we know that he thinks certain things of the Fair Work Australia Act are evil and we saw him basically signing up to the fact that he’ll keep it for the next three years. Why would he do that if he is a conviction politician?

JULIE BISHOP    Chris what he said is that the Australian people passed judgement on WorkChoices in 2007 and he respects the vote of the Australian people. Now he’s been around the country talking to small business. They say they can work within the Fair Work Australia framework, we’ll work within the Fair Work Australia framework. End of story. And Tony was direct about that and honest and I think he’ll win votes over that. He’s been really, really direct.

CHRIS UHLMANN    But you’ve always thought that it was bad for Western Australia haven’t you? That’s been your view for a long time.

JULIE BISHOP    But we’ve spoken to business and business says they’ll live with it, they’ll work worth it. So you don’t fight against what people say they are happy to work with it and live with. And the Australian voters said they didn’t like WorkChoices so we have said “absolutely, we will not reintroduce WorkChoices. Full stop.”

CHRIS UHLMANN    What about the policy that you introduced yesterday, the population policy, that you’d cut the numbers to 170,000. Well we’re on trajectory for that already. In fact it was under the, as it was pointed out during out during the course of the debate, the population is coming down now and 170,000 will still see us pass 36 million people by about 2050.

JULIE BISHOP    Chris don’t you think this was one of the interesting aspects of Julia Gillard’s evasive answers tonight on policy? She said that population policy has nothing to do with the immigration numbers yet tonight she was quoting immigration numbers in support of her population policy. It is just not believable.

We recognise that there are parts of Australia, in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, where increased population has been causing pressures and yet there has been no corresponding strategy or policy to support infrastructure and services. We also recognise in states like mine, in Western Australia, and in Queensland there is a need for skilled workers to maintain our economic prosperity.

So what we have announced today is a balance. We’ve got to take control of our immigration flows, take control of border protection, take control of our population and that is something that the Labor Party have refused to talk about. 

CHRIS UHLMANN    Alright in states like yours thought, were would you get the workers from? You already have a hard time getting them.

JULIE BISHOP    Well 457 visas. We have announced that we’d continue to support 457 visas, making them more flexible, easier for business to utilise that kind of visa. We’ll encourage skilled migration and so we will be able to get the workers that support our economic development particularly in the big mining projects where we are short of workers.  But we are very mindful of the population pressures.

I was in Brisbane today and people were talking about the lack of services, the lack of infrastructure and the unsustainable population growth. We have put figures on it, we’ve built a policy around it. Labor is just talking, we’re still just listening to Labor’s clichés and slogans. 

CHRIS UHLMANN    This is the first election in our history where people are talking about a smaller Australia. Is that what you are trying to say, we should have a small Australia?

JULIE BISHOP    No we are talking about an Australia that is sustainable. We are going to put a band, a population band much like the Reserve Bank has on inflation, with the Productivity and Sustainability Commission. A population band that we can adjust it as pressures or population growth ebb and flow just like immigration. It is a sensible practical policy and that resonates with the Australian people.

CHRIS UHLMANN    Do you still have a problem with paid parental leave because the Government paints it as a tax?

JULIE BISHOP    No not at all. This is about getting more women back into the workforce. It is about participation rates, it is about productivity. And if we can encourage women to have a family and still maintain a connection with the workforce then we will have achieved a great thing for economic reform in this country as well as a good social reform. And women that I speak to really welcome Tony Abbott’s commitment to it.

CHRIS UHLMANN    Tony Abbott when he started this of course said he was a family man, was that a shot at the Prime Minister?

JULIE BISHOP    No his family were all there tonight. Two of his three sisters were in the audience, two of his three daughters, his mum and his wife Margie they were all there. And I think he was paying tribute to Margie and his family.

CHRIS UHLMANN    Now you genuinely think, don’t you, that the way that Kevin Rudd was dispose of is a big issue for Julia Gillard? This evening she wouldn’t even say how many times she might have warned him.

JULIE BISHOP    I thought that was the worst moment for Julia Gillard in the debate when she looked her most evasive and most uncomfortable when you asked her how many times she’d warned him. You weren’t asking her for a breach of confidence or asking her to breach a secret that she is “going to take to her grave” and all of that. You were just asking her a simple question. Well you were the Deputy Prime Minister, you were the co-author of all the policy and decisions, how many times did you tell Kevin Rudd that he’d lost his way and the Government had lost its way? And the fact that she refused to answer, she fudged that one, shows that she didn’t ever tell Kevin Rudd. This came like a bolt out of the blue for Kevin Rudd. He was executed by the faceless men. And this is why Julia Gillard is in policy paralysis because she knows she is only one step away from those faceless men going after her.

CHRIS UHLMANN    Well Julie Bishop, thanks for waiting back with us this evening and back to you Ali.

JULIE BISHOP    My pleasure.