Sky News, Showdown with Peter van Onselen
Tuesday, 07 February 2012
Subjects: Syria; Peter Slipper; interest rates; carbon tax; budget; Tony Abbott’s National Press Club address; ALP leadership
E&OE…
KEVIN RUDD In addition to the sanctions we have already imposed on Syria, Australia will impose further autonomous financial sanctions and travel bans on 75 Syrian individuals and 27 entities not already listed by Australia.PETER VAN ONSELEN That is Kevin Rudd, the Foreign Minister. We are all talking about leadership speculation, whether it be him or Julia Gillard, but that is him getting on with the job as Foreign Minister and talking about what Australia’s response is to I guess the civil war in Syria at the moment. And to talk about that as well we are joined by Kevin Rudd’s opposite Julie Bishop, the Shadow Foreign Affairs spokeswoman and also the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Ms Bishop, thank you very much for your company on Showdown.
JULIE BISHOP Good evening Peter. Good to be with you.
PETER VAN ONSELEN Can I just ask you on this matter of Syria – I mean we have all seen the images, we have all seen the Government’s response – is the Opposition on the same page as the Government or is there more that you’d like to see happen?
JULIE BISHOP We are certainly supporting the Government’s actions to date, the sanctions that have already been imposed and the sanctions that the Foreign Minister announced today. We support the Arab League resolution to the Security Council which disturbingly and regrettably has been double vetoed by Russia and China, and the Australian Government also supported that resolution. We believe that there is more that other countries can do, we would like to see more countries imposing sanctions even outside the UN framework as Australia has done. But the violence must stop. There must be an end to the bloodshed. There has been virtually universal condemnation of the Assad regime and the best option would be for Assad to stand aside and allow a civilian government to take its place.
PETER VAN ONSELEN Back on domestic matters, not quite in the same league obviously as what is going on in Syria, but in terms of Peter Slipper he took the chair of the Speakership I suppose in the Lower House. I have been pretty critical of him and his decision to rat on your side of politics and become an independent Speaker, but he did a pretty good job today didn’t he?
JULIE BISHOP Peter Slipper has experience in the Speakers role and I certainly have no complaints about the way he handled Question Time today. But the bigger issue is that the Prime Minister closed down Question Time today after only four questions from the Opposition. Now there is no time limit to Question Time yet only after four question the Prime Minister ran away from any further scrutiny by the Opposition. So it was a pretty bad Question Time for Julia Gillard and the Government, and I think Peter Slipper performed the role as you would expect.
PETER VAN ONSELEN One of the pieces of information that happened right in the middle of Question Time at 2.30 was the revelation that the Reserve Bank, contrary to what a lot of economists expected, they did not drop interest rates. Now I realise that the Reserve Bank is independent of government but nonetheless you can express an opinion on this. Would you have liked to have seen interest rates come down?
JULIE BISHOP I think there are many Australians who are doing it tough, small businesses with the interest rates that they are wearing, mortgage holders. Of course lower interest rates are in people’s interests and that is what they would want to see, but the economy is slowing and there is real evidence of that by the fact that in 2011 it was the first year for 20 years, probably since the recession that Labor said we “had to have” back in 1992, that there was no net jobs growth in Australia. The first time in 20 years, and that gives us an indication of how difficult things can be for people. But Peter this also underscores the fact that it is the worst time for the Australian Government to be imposing an economy wide carbon tax which will drive up the cost of living, drive up electricity costs and cause job losses across the economy.
PETER VAN ONSELEN Just on that issue of the carbon tax - I mean the Government aren’t going to look to do this under Julia Gillard’s leadership but you never know if there was a change in leader to Kevin Rudd - is a carbon tax that bad if they were to reduce the starting price? In other words have a significantly less impact on the economy on the lines that you are talking about.
JULIE BISHOP But Peter given that no comparable economy is imposing an economy wide carbon tax it puts Australia at a competitive disadvantage. And we have now seen the Treasury modelling which shows that there will be a hit to our GDP by 2020, there will be a loss in real wages and job losses. Now this is Treasury modelling…
PETER VAN ONSELEN But that is kind of my point though, if they reduce the size of the initial fixed price assumedly then when it becomes and ETS the price will plummet anyway. Wouldn’t that be a way of getting around the concerns of the Opposition and some sections of business have about the carbon tax?
JULIE BISHOP We don’t believe there is any need at all to introduce a carbon tax. We believe that there are other ways of reducing emissions and we know that this carbon tax will not reduce emissions, in fact they will increase under the imposition of a carbon tax. So there is no environmental gain from this carbon tax, it is just a wealth redistribution. This Government is not interested in wealth creation, all it is interested in is wealth redistribution.
So you made the point, could there be a change to the carbon tax? Obviously not under Julia Gillard but whether they change leaders and the new leader changes policies well we will have to wait and see, but I am sure you will be asking me about the leadership speculation in the Labor Party!
PETER VAN ONSELEN We will definitely get to that before we get to the end.
JULIE BISHOP I am sure you will.
PETER VAN ONSELEN But first I want to talk about some of the concerns that the Government are at least trying to ramp up about Coalition costings. Now I’ve just got a clip I want to quickly show of Joe Hockey answering to this idea of whether or not the Coalition will get to a surplus. If we could just play it.
JOE HOCKEY As we said at the last election, based on the information and numbers provided at the last election, we absolutely stand by the commitment to have a surplus next year.
PETER VAN ONSELEN Julie Bishop, that is no commitment, as per the numbers of the last election. We all know that those numbers have already changed from the MYEFO from last year much less thrown in what is going to happen in the next budget in May. This is an example isn’t it of the Coalition trying to appear like it is sticking to its pledge to get to a surplus but preparing to be able to break it based on the numbers changing?
JULIE BISHOP Well Peter can I assure you we will get to a surplus before Wayne Swan gets to a surplus.
PETER VAN ONSELEN But you don’t think he is ever going to get to a surplus.
JULIE BISHOP Before we call the Coalition to account on a budget surplus, have a look at what has happened to Labor’s estimates of the budget surplus. They started off with a deficit this year of $12 billion then they revised it to a $27 billion deficit, now it is a $37 billion deficit. So there are two budgets to go before the next election, let’s see what Wayne Swan comes up with in 2012 and 2013.
But I can assure you, we have a track record of delivering surpluses. In fact I was a member of a government that delivered seven consecutive budget surpluses. And having listened to Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan say that they are committed to budget surpluses yet in their four budgets the total cumulative deficits are $167 billion, no one will believe anything they say about delivering a budget surplus. It is just not in their capacity to do it.
PETER VAN ONSELEN What about the working order of the finance side of the Coalition though? All the rumours are that Andrew Robb and Joe Hockey don’t get on particularly well. I have heard a lot of criticism from both the business community and even some of your colleagues that I have spoke to about Joe Hockey’s performance of late including his performance on Q&A last night. In your view – I mean this is a portfolio that you held, and might I say you relinquished it based on some pretty minor sort of missteps along the way in comparison to some of the criticisms now coming to Joe Hockey – as Deputy Leader you’ve got the right to take it back, why wouldn’t you do that?
JULIE BISHOP I am exceedingly happy in my portfolio as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, of course I would like to be the Minister for Foreign Affairs, that is most certainly my aim. But I am working with both Joe and Andrew in relation to our policy development and our Expenditure Review Committee…
PETER VAN ONSELEN As a go between, between them?
JULIE BISHOP No I am one of a member of – I am a member of two committees now, the Expenditure Review Committee and the Policy Review Committee and Joe and Andrew are on both and we are working very hard to come up with polices that will be fully costed and deliverable and appealing to the Australian people for the next election. And our Expenditure Review Committee is going through the budget line by line to find savings because this Government has plunged us into a debt that will probably head north to $200 billion by the time they are finished, and it is awash with wasteful spending. So we are identifying areas of savings where we can make prudent decisions to cut back the wasteful spending and find savings, and Joe and Andrew are both committed to that. I work with them, I observe what they are doing, and they have got a very professional and cohesive relationship.
PETER VAN ONSELEN What about some of the thoughts of Jamie Briggs, who is a pretty high profile backbencher on the Liberal side, he is involved in trying to find waste and mismanagement on the Government side? He wrote and opinion piece today in a section that the Australian Financial Review are now going to make a regular section called the Modest Member section which Jamie Briggs will be one of three rotating authors. Now he is pretty provocative here. He was highlighting that government should do only what people can’t do for themselves and no more, and he was suggesting that was the push of Tony Abbott’s speech at the National Press Club. Would you agree with that characterisation of what Tony Abbott was saying?
JULIE BISHOP Well that is a quote from Abraham Lincoln and I believe that Tony Abbott used that quote in his Press Club speech.
PETER VAN ONSELEN But is that the way he intends to govern do you think? This idea that governments should only do what people can’t do for themselves?
JULIE BISHOP Most certainly one of our principles is that we should move away from the nanny-state, we should move away from over-interference in people’s lives. Government should not interfere excessively in people’s lives, the way they run their lives, people’s businesses. And that will be one of the guiding principles of the Coalition, that government should get out of people’s lives and let them get on with what they do best, whether it is running their family or running their business. Government is there as a support and we want to ensure that the role of government coexists much more appropriately with the private sector, with civil society than is currently the case.
PETER VAN ONSELEN It would be remiss of me not to get one more question in about Kevin Rudd, give you a chance to offer some free advice, whether they take it or not is with the Labor Party. Is the Liberal Party concerned about a change of leader, do you have a preference here? Because all the polls suggest that a Kevin Rudd come back, it might be short lived, but certainly in that short term his polling numbers would skyrocket and your leader isn’t exactly popular when you look at his personal rating.
JULIE BISHOP In fact it doesn’t matter who leads the Labor Party, it is their policies that are so damaging to the Australian economy. So unless there is a radical change of policies and the incoming leader, Kevin Rudd, dumps all Julia Gillard’s policies – and that is going to be difficult because most of Julia Gillard’s policies are in fact Kevin Rudd’s policies – then Labor’s woes will remain the same.
The Kevin Rudd campaign to be leader is underway, there is absolutely no question. He has a window of opportunity to move against Julia Gillard before the Queensland election by the 22nd of March which is the last date that we sit until the budget week in May. And from all the chatter that I am getting around Parliament House, and that includes from Labor Members of Parliament, it is on. Kevin Rudd will be showing the same level of loyalty that she showed him back on the 23rd of June 2010, and I expect to see a challenge in the next few weeks.
PETER VAN ONSELEN Alright, well I am looking at you down the camera, but I am sure you are smirking in hope that this happens because it is not exactly bad for the Opposition to have that kind of internal instability on the Government’s side. I appreciate you joining us Julie Bishop on this episode of Showdown. Thanks for your company.
JULIE BISHOP My pleasure.
