MTR 1377, Mornings with Steve Vizard
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Subjects: Car manufacturing industry; European debt crisis; Julia Gillard; gambling reform; Shonan Maru No. 2, visit to China
E&OE…
STEVE VIZARD Deputy Leader of the Opposition Julie Bishop joins me on the line now. Hi Julie, how are you?JULIE BISHOP Good morning Steve. Happy New Year to you!
STEVE VIZARD Happy New Year to you. Back into it again?
JULIE BISHOP Indeed. The year of the dragon, let’s hope it’s an auspicious one for all of us.
STEVE VIZARD Let’s hope so, and for Australia particularly. Let’s start with the issue of subsidies for the automotive industry. Where does the Coalition stand on continued subsidisation of the automotive industry?
JULIE BISHOP Well Steve we will have a discussion over the car industry policy, as we will with other policy areas. The car industry has received subsidies from both sides of politics over a number of years. The key has to be to achieve sustainability for the industry in the long term. If we are to have a car manufacturing sector it should have long term sustainability and not have to rely on the vagaries, for example, of this Labor government and stagger from crisis to crisis.
You see the trouble is this government has stripped away almost a billion dollars from the car industry and is now trying to do a patch up job. So it takes away from the industry one week and then tries to give it back the next week. And it is that lack of consistency, that lack of a coherent policy that is concerning industry.
The car industry is a major employer. The loss of car manufacturing in Australia would have a ripple effect throughout the economy – suppliers, contractors – it would have a major impact. So we just have to focus on ensuring it can be sustainable in the long term.
STEVE VIZARD What is so special about cars? Why do we need to build cars particularly in Australia as opposed to other industries that we have foregone, we didn’t subsidies, we stopped the subsidies and they went offshore. I am thinking of, for example, footwear or clothing. Why not other industries like computer manufacturers or plastic injection? What is special and particular about automobiles?
JULIE BISHOP Well that is part of the debate Steve. When you compare the car industry with other industries some have received subsides, some have not. And things have changed over time as Australia has opened up its economy, opened up its markets to the globalisation effect that is occurring around the world.
But as I said, the car industry is a major employer and there is a flow on effect when anything happens to the car industry. The loss of car manufacturing jobs, it would affect suppliers, contractors, small businesses - you name it - many other sections of the economy are reliant on a car industry. And so that is why any change in the car industry policy has to be thought through, it has to be consistent, has to be coherent and that is what we call on the government to do. In the Coalition we’ll certainly have a discussion over it and we’ll…
STEVE VIZARD Where are you inclined to stand at the moment, Julie, on this?
JULIE BISHOP Well I am keen to see the evidence of how we can make it sustainable in the long term. It is not sustainable for the industry to lurch from crisis to crisis waiting for a handout from the government. And this government, as I said, has give a billion dollars, taken it away, now trying to patch up the damage that that has caused. So we need to look at something that is evidence based, long term, puts it on a sustainable footing and that is what I want to see.
STEVE VIZARD I guess one of the issues is we are paying around $17 per car worker per year compared to the US $90 per car worker per year, Germany 96, Canada 147 and so it goes. I guess the issue is that every time we stop or talk about stopping subsidies the car manufacturers, overseas car manufacturers, say ‘well that is fine, we’ll just close the plants down in Australia’. You used the word sustainability, there is no sense of sustainability or accountability or that we are building anything that will survive beyond the very day on which the last subsidy stops.
JULIE BISHOP Well that is a concern and that is why I have emphasised long term sustainability. And the point you make about other countries and the level of subsidies they pay to their car industries indicates how important car manufacturing is for various nations around the world, how important they obviously see it as an integral part of their economies, in the United States and European nations and the like. And it has been part of our industrial economy for many, many years. Any change in policies that would see the end of car manufacturing in Australia would have a massive impact and it must be considered very, very carefully, and I am not surprised there is a discussion going on in the Coalition. There should be a discussion across the Australian public about how we can make the car industry sustainable in the long term.
STEVE VIZARD Let’s talk about a couple of other topics. I want to talk about Euros. Nine countries, including Austria and France, were downgraded last Friday in their international credit ratings. Julia Gillard, our Prime Minister, almost immediately said France and Austria, and in fact all of those countries, ‘were paying the price for national governments who have put off such reforms', were her exact words. It seems to me very simplistic and almost antagonistic, very public characterisation of Europe’s financial woes. Is that in any way helpful to Australia’s international interests?
JULIE BISHOP Of course it is not. If Julia Gillard has the answers to the problems faced by these European economies then she should spell it out, provide them with the benefit of her wisdom on the economy and financial challenges faced by these European countries. All she does is take cheap shots at the expense of European leaders and demand that they do something. Well if it were that easy I am sure they would have done something by now.
And all Julia Gillard has done is put Australia on the same path of countries who are now in a debt crisis with the reckless and wasteful spending that we’ve seen over her time in government. I mean this government has run up a public debt of about $130 billion. On its own figures Commonwealth debt in gross terms has grown by 250 percent. As my colleague Andrew Robb pointed out today, that puts Australia in the league of Iceland and Ireland in terms of gross government debt. And when you consider that Labor inherited no government debt and successive budget surpluses then this government’s financial performance is a disgrace and Julia Gillard is in no position to be lecturing other people on how they should manage their economy.
STEVE VIZARD Let’s talk about Julia Gillard for a second. She will be increasing pressure and scrutiny as the Labor MPs, particularly Labor backbenchers, marginal backbenches, dribble back to Canberra for a fresh year. They’re starting to think about their own personal and party futures, whether Gillard who is the leader who is going to best serve their future at the next election. With every decision being looked at by those MPs in the context of a next election, will they get elected, can Julia Gillard survive in your view?
JULIE BISHOP No I don’t believe she can. I mean Julia Gillard has lost any credibility as a leader. She is presiding over a dreadful dysfunctional and divided rabble of a government, she has Kevin Rudd stalking her at every turn, showing her the same level of loyalty that she showed him, and I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if the Labor backbenchers, fearing the worst in an election, turned to somebody like Kevin Rudd to at least save the furniture. I mean they are concerned that they won’t be able to maintain their seats in the face of all of these policy back flips and broken promises and appalling leadership, so they will be looking to somebody, anybody, to give them a better chance of holding their seat.
STEVE VIZARD And against that potential instability, that manoeuvring that is likely to occur in the first half of this year, how is that stability or potential instability good for our nation?
JULIE BISHOP Well it is not. You see that is the point. The instability, the vulnerability of this government, their inconsistency on policy positions – we can talk about the pokie reforms. There is another example of Julia Gillard double crossing someone. I mean if Andrew Wilkie is worried about being double crossed by Julia Gillard over pokie reforms then he is rather naïve, that is the standard operating procedure of Julia Gillard, just ask Kevin Rudd or indeed the Australian people whom she double crossed over the carbon tax. If she double crosses Andrew Wilkie over pokie reform then he can just join the back of a very long line.
STEVE VIZARD Let’s talk about pokie reforms. You mentioned politically what that means. A deal that was done unequivocally, it was expressed to be unequivocal both by Julia Gillard and by Andrew Wilkie. It was expressed to be a personal deal not done with the government, done between Andrew Wilkie and Julia Gillard personally. You have expressed what you think that means at a political level, what does it mean substantively for pokie reforms for this particular issue if the government changes its view or flip flops on its view as expressed today?
JULIE BISHOP Well that is right Steve. Julia Gillard is only considering pokie reform because it was part of a political deal for her to cling to power. It wasn’t part of the Labor Party policy platform at the last election. So this reform is steeped in political power plays, it is not considered, evidence based public policy. Now a policy that could have a major impact on an industry and on local communities through their clubs should have been taken to an election.
Our problem with it is there is no evidence that mandatory pre-commitment, that is the proposed reform being considered, will help problem gamblers. There has been no analysis of the consequences particularly on sporting clubs and service clubs. The Productivity Commission report into problem gambling recommended that there be a trial of mandatory pre-commitment technology to see if an evidence base for the reforms could be made. And that is why we are so concerned about the government’s flip flopping on this issue.
Andrew Wilkie’s condition for his ongoing support for the government is that pokie machine reforms must be in place by May of this year. It is just a crude form of blackmail but Julia Gillard entered into such an arrangement with Andrew Wilkie so she has left the government vulnerable and she is responsible for the consequences.
STEVE VIZARD How do you think the government handled this issue of the entry of the Shonan Maru No. 2, the Japanese whaling vessel, into what we call Australian whale sanctuary off the West Australian coast? How do you think the Australian government handled the three protesters who boarded that vessel? Was it handled well? Was it handled in a consistent way? What is your response?
JULIE BISHOP I certainly agree with the Prime Minister that the three men were extremely foolish for doing what they did. My concern is that the government has sent mixed messages about what the actual facts were. Was the ship in Australian waters or was it not? I would like to hear more of the detail of the competing claims about where they were taken on board. So the government in its usual ham-fisted way has been so inconsistent on this whaling issue. It talks tough but does very little. While Julia Gillard was right to condemn the actions of the activists who essentially put themselves at risk and have also cost the Australian taxpayer a considerable amount of money in rescuing them we are still very much up in the air about what actually happened. And if the government has the facts as to where they boarded the ship - was it in Australian waters, was it in international waters, where was it - then that would certainly clear up the confusion.
STEVE VIZARD Julie thanks for talking to us. Did you get anything resembling a break?
JULIE BISHOP Not yet, I have been pretty busy. I went overseas to China and spent some time in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong talking with business leaders, Australian and Chinese business leaders, and government officials about the Australia-China relationship. So that proved very productive for me, very fruitful meetings but it is not exactly a break…
STEVE VIZARD It’s not a holiday.
JULIE BISHOP …working overseas…
STEVE VIZARD …and I guess when you are on an official trip you can’t exactly sneak off and get fake watches and fake handbags either I guess.
JULIE BISHOP No, I didn’t do any of that. I gave my credit card a rest and I spent most of the time at meetings. And I can tell you, in Beijing where it was -10 degrees that was the best place to be!
STEVE VIZARD Julie great to talk to you. Have a good year.
JULIE BISHOP Likewise Steve.
STEVE VIZARD Julie Bishop, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.
