ABC 7.30
HOST: Prime Minister, thank you for joining us.
PM: My pleasure.
HOST: After recent events, aren't Australians well within their rights to conclude that the Gillard Government is a dysfunctional mess that deserves to be consigned to opposition as soon as possible?
PM: I can understand people being appalled when they watch the events of last week. As I said today, I was appalled too.
But ultimately I believe people should judge the Government on what is achieved for our nation and for them in the lives of their families, and the plans that we've got for the future.
So even during last week when there was an unseemly display, even during that week, we passed into law Disability Care, the new system to make sure people with disabilities get a decent chance at life.
We made sure that 3.5 million pensioners got more money. We made sure that there was more money in child care for child care workers and the week before that we saw record job creation numbers, the biggest monthly result in job creation in 13 years.
So we have had a governing sense of purpose. What we've lacked is a sense of unity and now that is resolved.
HOST: I'll come to some of the achievements, or the lack of achievements in a moment. But you say people should look to your plans for the future. Why should we trust Labor's plans for the future when you've had so many problems and so much dysfunction in your past?
PM: People are entitled to look at what we've achieved, what we've said we would do, and what we have done.
We said we'd create jobs and keep strengthening our economy and we've done that. More than 900,000 jobs created, even during the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression.
We said we'd make a difference for school kids, for skills, for apprenticeships, for university places. And we are improving schools. We're seeing record numbers of apprenticeships and traineeships, more university places and more kids from poorer homes getting the chance to be the first in their family to ever go to university.
We said we'd help families with cost of living pressures, paid parental leave, more money in child care, less money paid in taxation.
And we said we would set our nation up for the future for this Asian Century of growth and change. And we're doing that through things like rolling out the National Broadband Network.
Now, people can look at that, what we've said we would do and what we have done. We've also done some big hard controversial things, like putting a price on carbon, but they've been the right thing to do for the nation.
We've got more to do, Leigh.
HOST: Prime Minister, you've given me a laundry list there, so let me give you one back.
When people look at what you've done, they also see a promise not to introduce a carbon tax broken. They see a promise to deliver a budget surplus this year broken. An East Timor solution for asylum seekers proposed then withdrawn. A Malaysia solution proposed and then abandoned even as today we see a ship sink and people killed in another incident.
A ban on live cattle imports imposed and then withdrawn. The disastrous appointment of Peter Slipper. The redesign of a mining tax so it now returns a fraction of what was banked on.
I return to my earlier question: how do you expect the public to have any faith in what you're planning to do going forwards?
PM: Well Leigh, I'm happy to go through those one by one if you would like. We said we would introduce a price on carbon. I always wanted to see an emissions trading scheme.
And by the time people vote in September, we will be less than two years from that emissions trading scheme, and the end of the carbon tax.
HOST: But Prime Minister, you're not addressing my central problem there, which is there was a broken promise-
PM: I'm not agreeing with your list Leigh.
HOST: There was a broken promise there, and there is a long list of initiatives the Government has introduced that have been failures or have not come to fruition, the most recent of course last week, the media reforms. Let me put it to you-
PM: If you're going to go through a list, I think you've got to give me the opportunity to answer it.
And certainly on carbon I've addressed that before. I meant every word of that during the 2010 campaign. I didn't foresee a minority Parliament; we'll get to that emissions trading scheme we spoke of.
On the Malaysia arrangement, I would implement that tomorrow if Tony Abbott got out of the way.
On the live cattle ban, I think it was the appropriate thing to do, and it has secured the future for the live cattle industry because they were not going to get the social license they needed unless we addressed animal welfare standards.
HOST: It was very messy in the way it was done.
PM: Well, I think that industry has got a more secure long-term future now than it would have had we not acted.
Now, on the rest of the list, you can keep going through it. But when we worked through some very difficult things like carbon pricing, our eyes have always been on what is best for the nation. What's in the national interest, what's in the interest of a strong, prosperous, fair, smart future, and I am very happy to be judged on that.
HOST: Some of your own colleagues, when they decided to step down from Cabinet - Martin Ferguson and Simon Crean - have raised concerns about the process of government, and in particular the media reforms last week saying that it was mishandled and that it was a debacle.
Doesn't that go to the very heart of the way you run government when senior ministers in your own team have stepped down and made that criticism?
PM: I think it's very important that Cabinet plays a central role in government. As I said today, being a Cabinet member comes with rights and it comes with responsibilities and I will certainly be looking to the Cabinet team that now exists to exercise both those rights and those responsibilities.
On media law reform, we got through two important pieces of legislation during the week, including of course broadening the ambit of what the ABC does, and that's a good thing.
Leigh, it was always going to be a controversial debate. There are some loud, loud voices and some big vested interests in media policy debate.
And I really think at the end of the day those voices were going to come to the table loud and strong, irrespective of any of these process questions.
HOST: But those factors you've outlined there were a given, that there was always going to be opposition to the content. But let's actually go through the process and how you and your team handled that.
How is it good government that your minister, presumably with your approval, produced legislation with a minimal consultation of Cabinet and the Caucus and then demanded it be passed in just a week's time, without amendments, and without negotiation?
PM: Well Leigh, I think you've forgotten that this ran out of two long-standing reviews conducted by the Government in the full glare of the public-
HOST: I haven't forgotten that. I'm just asking why you put legislation up with one week's notice and said no negotiation no, amendments?
PM: Well, let's go through it. The Convergence Review, we started that in late 2010, very public process, everybody got to make their submissions. Then the report was made public, everybody got to speak about that.
We did the same with the review led by Ray Finkelstein. Everybody got to make their submissions, the report was public. Everybody got to make a commentary on that.
The nature of the reforms ultimately brought to the Parliament had been the subject of public discussion on more than one occasion. I'd read them in the newspapers several times myself.
So it's simply not correct to say that this content was somehow unknown or undiscussed or unconsulted upon.
HOST: The content of the reports and the reviews weren't unknown but the content of the legislation was unknown until Stephen Conroy produced it.
PM: I had read in the newspapers on more than one occasion the kind of reforms that the Government had in mind in this area.
HOST: So can I ask-
PM: So there was a long process leading up to it.
HOST: If we judge - sorry Prime Minister to interrupt - if we judge the process on the end result, you put up six pieces of legislation and only two of them got through. So therefore on any assessment you'd have to agree it was a mishandled and a botched process?
PM: We have a minority parliament; you come to this minority parliament. We've got an amazing track record in these circumstances of a minority parliament of getting things through. But we haven't been able to get everything through.
And I wasn't prepared to cross-trade and do any deal to get these bills through.
HOST: You were quite happy with how that process was handled last week from woe to go, the media reforms?
PM: The last fortnight has been the last fortnight, but the point I'm putting to you is that there was a long period of review and reflection that led up to the last fortnight.
What I've said very clearly today is after the week that was, with the internal issues of the Labor Party, with what I believe was some self-indulgence by my much-loved political party on display, certainly what we've got to do is make sure that every day we're getting up and saying to ourselves how can we do better today for the Australian people than we did the day before?
And our focus has to be relentless on what it is we need to do to strengthen our nation for the future and what we need to do to support families today.
HOST: You said today that last week's events make it clear now that you have the confidence of your colleagues. Isn't the reality though that many of your colleagues are in despair about your leadership and about the ALP's prospects in the election, but that they just don't see a viable alternative?
PM: Well Leigh, it's done, it's dusted. Anybody who wanted to had the opportunity to nominate for consideration in Labor Caucus last Thursday. No-one did. This comes on top of the emphatic endorsement of my colleagues in February last year.
It comes on top of the fact I was ultimately uncontested for the leadership in 2010 and then following the 2010 election.
Leigh, it's over. I don't think that any of this is worth speaking about any more.
HOST: But you can understand, can't you, how Australians would be looking at your side of politics and feeling very nervous about taking a gamble on you again.
Given that a number of senior members of your own Cabinet have stepped down in recent days, criticised the process by which you govern, and basically indicated they don't have any confidence or faith in your leadership?
PM: Well, we had the week that was and I've described it as appalling. I've described the week that was as self-indulgent.
Colleagues who found themselves in a position where they thought they couldn't, in all good conscience, offer their ongoing service, did the honourable thing and went to the back bench. I think that is appropriate.
What is then appropriate for me as Prime Minister is to renew the team with quality and talent, and that's what I've done today.
HOST: But Prime Minister I don't think that Australians can quite so neatly as you have done draw a line under everything they've seen for past few years and then just ignore it and do what you want them to do which is to concentrate on what you're promising going forwards?
PM: When you vote in an election, and we'll get there in September, you are making a decision about the next three years and who's got the best personal capacity and the best plans for that future.
Who has got the ability to lead the nation, who has the right policies and plans to make sure in a difficult world where our future is not assured, that our nation comes up with a stronger economy, more jobs, more opportunity and that those things are fairly shared.
Australians will make their judgment in September, and I will certainly be there saying we are the only political party with those positive plans for the future and I am the only leader with the capacity to guide our nation through in what can be a very rough and tumble world.
HOST: Prime Minister, thank you very much for making time to come on the program tonight. Hopefully we'll see you again as the election draws closer.
PM: Thanks Leigh.