SENATOR THE HON PENNY WONG
MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND DEREGULATION
TRANSCRIPT
16 May 2013
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW – CANBERRA
TOPIC: BUDGET
WONG: Today is Budget Reply Day. And Budgets are about choices. The Government has laid out our choices. We’ve laid out our choices – our prioritisation of DisabilityCare, of our school reforms, and of a strong economy and continued job growth. Jobs and growth, DisabilityCare and school reform – they’re the Government’s choices out there for all Australians to see.
Today is Tony Abbott’s opportunity in his Budget Reply to be upfront with Australians about his choices. About the choices he would make were he to become Prime Minister. And today is the day that Tony Abbott’s deliberate deception of the Australian people needs to end. Because Mr Abbott is doing nothing other than covering up what his real plans are.
All the rhetoric and all the gimmicks and all the slogans are designed to distract attention from what his real plans are. And we know what Liberals do. What’s in their DNA. They always cut too hard and they always cut in the wrong places.
And we’ve seen a bit of a taste of that already in just some of the things Tony Abbott has said he would do. Things like making sure every working Australian earning up to $80,000 would get a tax hike. Things like making sure low income Australians will have to pay more on their superannuation.
So, today is the day when Tony Abbott’s deliberate deception of the Australian people needs to end.
Now, I want to give you some indication of the sorts of cuts that the Liberals have on their agenda. The sorts of cuts the Liberals have on their agenda. Because we know the Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey, has made very clear what his game plan is. His game plan is a Commission of Audit, a secret inquiry, after which, were they elected, they would then engage in the sort of slashing and burning we’ve seen in Queensland and that we always see, we always see, from Liberal Governments.
What I’ve released today is a document which shows the sort of scale of the cuts that a Liberal Government would have to engage in.
If Tony Abbott doesn’t accept the Government’s Budget – our spends and our saves – then he’s going to be in about $50 billion deficit across the forward estimates – accumulative deficit across the forward estimates of $50 billion.
Well, let’s understand what sort of cuts you’d have to engage in to find $50 billion. You’d have to dismantle the PBS; you’d have to dismantle the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
That’s the scale of the cuts that the Liberal Party would have to look at if they were to meet their commitments – the promises that they haven’t funded – and if they don’t accept the Government’s Budget.
Budgets are about choices. Australians should have the choices that Tony Abbott wants to impose on them made clear before the next election.
Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Ms Wong, how can the Government claim with certainty on the one hand that Tony Abbott is going to make all these cuts and on the other hand say that the Coalition hasn’t released any detail of its policy?
WONG: Come on …
JOURNALIST: It’s one or the other isn’t it?
WONG: No. Look, you’ve got an opportunity today to actually start to hold Tony Abbott to account. You’ve got that opportunity today. The reality is this: Tony Abbott has refused to ever come clean with the Australian people about his position. But on the other hand he’s out there making spending promises – promising tax cuts and refusing to detail any savings measures. Well, there’s only two things you can do. Either you cut spending or you run bigger deficits. And I think it’s time Tony Abbott told Australians which one he was for.
JOURNALIST: If the Coalition accepts the Budget cuts that you’ve made in the Budget, will you welcome them?
WONG: I’d make a couple of points about that. I see that Joe Hockey’s out there backgrounding again that they’re going to accept the Government’s decisions. We’ve seen that before from Joe Hockey – I recall him backgrounding that they were going to accept the previous savings decisions in relation to the Baby Bonus, only for him to be rolled by Kevin Andrews.
But if the Coalition do accept the Government’s Budget, we’d welcome their recognition that this is an economically sensible Budget; a Budget that is an economically sensible, responsible Budget for Australia’s future. We’d welcome that.
But let’s remember, he’d have to do more. Because even if he accepts the Government’s Budget, he’s still got a range of commitments on both the spending and savings side which he’d have to meet.
JOURNALIST: Last time Labor delivered a Budget Reply speech it was in 2007 and at the time it made one substantial promise about trade training centres and a small number of minor announcements. Is this the benchmark for detail that you’re setting for Tony Abbott tonight?
WONG: We didn’t go to the election with a secret plan to make massive cuts across the Budget. And that’s the reality. We’ve got an Opposition now that has very clearly got a range of plans to cut services that Australians rely on, but they’re not being up front with Australians about what they would be….
JOURNALIST: …if it’s a secret plan then how can the Labor Government possibly know –
WONG: Guys, let’s understand this is logic. He either says to you: ‘guess what, we’re taking all these savings, and all these commitments about tax cuts and infrastructure which would hit the budget, are not going ahead’ – so he’s got to get out there and tell Australians the promises he’s made won’t happen. Or he’s going to have to say ‘we’ve got bigger deficits’. Now at some point Tony Abbott is going to actually have to end this deception and it is a deception of the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) on the first year, hasn’t it?
WONG: No, it’s $50 billion deficit.
JOURNALIST: Doesn’t your document have him ahead in the first year –
WONG: Well, you know if you think $50 billion worth of deficits –
JOURNALIST: But we’re talking about the first year…
WONG: If you think $50 billion deficits across the forward estimates is a sensible thing to do and doesn’t indicate the sorts of cuts the Liberal Party would make if in Government then you go ahead and sit with that position.
JOURNALIST: So, Senator Wong are you saying the reason Labor can get away with giving less detail before the election in 2007 versus the Coalition doing the same now is because you guys were keeping secret your wonderful plans for the country, whereas the Coalition are keeping secret their Machiavellian, awful plans for the country?
WONG: Let’s deal with this Budget Reply. We’ve laid out our Budget which has many choices in it and it has choices in it that enable the funding of DisabilityCare and enable the funding of schools reforms and sets a very clear pathway back to surplus.
Tony Abbott should be held to the commitments he’s made. He says he wants bigger surpluses. He’s also said he wants to put in place tax cuts. And he’s made a great number of spending commitments, some of which I provided you with. Now, it doesn’t add up.
I, for one, think Australians deserve far more clarity on the choices at the next election than they’re getting now. What they are getting is a lot of distraction, a lot of gimmicks and a lot of rhetoric. That isn’t a set of choices being presented to the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: Do you regret Labor doing that then previously?
WONG: Look, we’re dealing with this Budget –
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
WONG: No, hang on, we’re dealing with this Budget and this Budget Reply and what we’ve made clear as the Labor Party and the Labor Government is our choices in the Budget.
JOURNALIST: When does the Government expect that it will need to increase the $300 billion debt limit?
WONG: The Treasurer dealt with this in the House yesterday, and I’d refer you to his answer.
JOURNALIST: Do you have a forecast for when it would need to rise?
WONG: The Treasurer dealt with this in the House yesterday and he made very clear that the Government would do it if necessary and will review it in the usual way next year.
JOURNALIST: If a future Coalition Government increased it, would Labor vote in favour or against?
WONG: Well, I’m working for the re-election of a Labor Government.
JOURNALIST: The Sex Discrimination Commissioner this morning criticised the Government’s abolition of the Baby Bonus, saying it’s targeting the wrong group of women. Do you accept that this is basically affecting the stay-at-home mums more so than others?
WONG: I accept that there are people who would like us not to have to make that savings measure. As the Finance Minister, across the budget, I have to make savings to fund really important reforms like DisabilityCare and like the investment in Australia’s schools to ensure we don’t have Australian students left behind as we currently do. And, obviously that was one of the savings measures – not the only one – but one of the savings measures we chose to take … and can I say we are upfront about that, unlike Mr Abbott.
JOURNALIST: Senator Wong, on the Michelle Rowland pairing issue … from the cynic’s point of view it looks a lot like a confected fight by your side of politics to frame Tony Abbott as a woman hater. What would you say to that?
WONG: Well, you know, I think it’s disappointing that you suggest to me that it’s confected. It really is.
It’s a very simple issue: we’ve got a parent; a mother who has got a sick child. She asked to get a pair in order to be home with her child, and I think all of us would understand the importance of that.
The Opposition chose to refuse it. And then they lied about it. They chose to refuse it and then they lied about it. And then we even saw some Opposition members making some comment about the fact that perhaps Ms Rowland should have gone home earlier.
I think this shows a lack of respect, a lack of empathy and a lack of understanding for the very difficult balancing of work and family that parents across the country, including in this place, have to make.
JOURNALIST: A Northern Territory Liberal politician Willem Westra van Holthe has said that Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy is pathetic and not heroic. Any response to that?
WONG: I don’t think that’s worthy of a response.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask, in the Federal Budget, an Adelaide church was allocated $5 million for airport noise cancellation. Given that economic times are tough why was this seen as a priority in the Budget?
WONG: I don’t have all the detail on that, I think it’s Minister Albanese’s portfolio but we’ll come back to you on that.
ENDS
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