CHRIS UHLMANN:
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, Chris.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
What comfort can you offer those employed in the car manufacturing industry this morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
I can’t offer them false hope. What I can say is that our job as a government is to build a stronger economy; a stronger economy that enables people over time to go from good jobs to better jobs. Now, I know that’s of little comfort to people who were hit with the devastating news from Toyota last night. Some consolation ought to be there in the fact that Toyota aren’t going tomorrow, they’re not closing down next week or next month or even next year. They are going through until 2017. So that means that 2,500 good jobs doing good work will be available with the company for at least another two or three years.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
As we’ve seen with Ford, they might go sooner rather than later.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we have seen another three hundred jobs go at Ford sooner rather than later, as you say. The important thing, Chris, at a very difficult time, is not just to focus on the problem, but to focus on the quality of these workers. The fact that they are highly skilled people, adaptable people, people who have done well over many years and who can continue to do well in other roles and these are adaptable people in a country with a proven record of flexibility and creativity.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
But what will those jobs be? What will the jobs of the future be for those people? Because we know from manufacturing jobs back in the 1980s, the transition wasn’t always handled well. Some of those people never worked again
PRIME MINISTER:
I accept that the transition is not always easy, but if you look at places that have had significant change like Newcastle, which lost its steel works back in the 1990s, but is a different and many would say somewhat better city today. These things can be done and we can seek answers now for the distant future or we can focus on what we can do in the near term, and in the near term, our job as a government is to ensure that the economy is as strong as it possibly can be, that far more jobs are being created than are being lost and that’s the best hope over time, Chris, of ensuring that people who are now working at Toyota can move from good jobs to better jobs in the months and years ahead.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
That’s in general, but can you be specific? What can you do for those who are involved in car manufacturing now to ensure that they have good jobs in the future, those same people and those, of course, those tens of thousands who are employed in the component manufacturing sector which hangs off it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, last night, Chris, I was talking to the senior management of Toyota and they assured me and Industry Minister Macfarlane, and I’m sure they’ve given similar assurances to Premier Napthine, they assured me that they intended to look after their workers until 2017. Now, again, the news that your workplace is going to close in three years’ time is bad news – it’s difficult news, it’s devastating news – but it’s not going to happen tomorrow, it’s not going to happen next week, it’s not going to happen next month, it’s not going to happen next year. So there will be time to manage this transition and obviously, Toyota, as a very responsible honourable business will do its best to ensure that its workers are not left in the lurch.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
And to you as a government, what is your responsibility? We know what this Government won’t do and that’s offer any more assistance for car manufacturing, but what will you do by way of industry policy? What are the jobs of the future? What are your plans?
PRIME MINISTER:
Interestingly, Chris, Toyota didn’t come seeking additional assistance. They said…
CHRIS UHLMANN:
The Premier of Victoria will today, won’t he?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the Premier is coming to meet me, but last night Toyota said look, we’ve looked at this long and hard. This is a very considered decision and it is a final decision and it’s not as if the Government could have leapt in at the eleventh hour and said here’s another $100 million or $200 million, please, please, please stay. We’ve tried that with the motor industry. It hasn’t worked, and the best thing now is to focus on things that we can do and which are profitable and the best thing that the Government can do is get the fundamentals right and the sorts of things I’ll be talking to Premier Napthine about today is what infrastructure projects, for instance, does the Victorian Government have in addition to other projects that we are already as a Commonwealth committed to, which might be funded in the medium term so that the people of Victoria are confident that they can face the future and that their state is going to be in better shape in five years’ time than it is now.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
This decision is not a shock. Surely the Government was planning for it and it will ricochet through those economies. We’re not just talking about component manufacturers; everyone from the people who empty the bins all the way through to those who supply the computers. It will have a huge effect on specific areas and I guess it’s a fair enough question for people to ask now as to whether or not the Government is tooled up to respond to this. Have you got a plan?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you might remember that last year in December, Holden announced that they were going to cease manufacturing in 2016 and we swiftly moved forward with a package of up to $100 million to help the adjustment and that’s something that we are continuing to look at with some of the most significant people in the business sectors of both Victoria and South Australia. If you ask me, Chris, can I say what individual Toyota workers will be doing in four years’ time – I can’t give you that answer. But Chris, none of us know the answers to those questions. What we’ve got to do is remember that we are creative people in a capable country who have always faced the future with confidence and have always made the most of it.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Well the Federal Opposition’s having a punt at the future. Its Shadow Industry Minister is saying this could trigger a prolonged economic crisis for blue-collar workers, the like of which hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression.
PRIME MINISTER:
Oppositions have a tendency to talk our country down and I’m not sure that that’s really what we need on a day like this. Yes, this is a very sad day for everyone connected with Toyota. There was deep sorrow from the top of the company down yesterday – as you’d expect; fifty years of manufacturing in this country drawing to a close. But, there will be better days ahead – there always are – and that’s what we should focus on as well as grieve with people who are lamenting the passing of what has been a fine business.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
So what will you offer the Premier of Victoria when you meet him today?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ll be offering him a good hearing and I’ll be offering him a willingness…
CHRIS UHLMANN:
He’ll want a little more than that, won’t he?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, the Premier and I know each other well. He’s a good man and he understands that the job of government is not to offer false hope or miracle cures; the job of government is to sit down and carefully and methodically and purposefully sort out what is best done in difficult situations and the best thing that we can do – given these jobs aren’t being lost tomorrow, next week, next month or even next year – is to ensure that the fundamentals are right and that’s where the Commonwealth and the state can engage in a stronger partnership to look at things like shovel-ready infrastructure which can kick off soon and which will leave Victoria a stronger place.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Prime Minister, on your Royal Commission into union corruption, the Australian Workers’ Union is being investigated by the police, officials of the Health Services Union are before the courts and there have been at least three Royal Commissions into the building industry since the 1980s. Why do we need another?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well this isn’t a Royal Commission just into the building industry or just into any particular union, but Chris, your very own radio broadcaster – your very own ABC – has been regaling people quite properly with very serious claims of kickbacks, of bribes, of standover tactics, of organised crime penetration, of unions and worksites and we need a great big spotlight shined into the dark corners of our community when there are these sorts of credible allegations and that’s what this Royal Commission is going to do. This Royal Commission can quite coexist with existing police investigations and with existing criminal cases. There’s no reason that this Royal Commission should interfere with any of those.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
And there’s another Royal Commission that you’ve got going into the Rudd Government’s Home Insulation Programme. Shouldn’t anyone fear an executive that wields a judicial hammer against its opponents?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Chris, it’s important to learn the lessons of past mistakes. Royal Commissions – and we’ve seen quite a few Royal Commissions over the years, we’ve got quite a few very high profile Royal Commissions and inquiries operating at the moment, in all sorts of subjects – and where you’ve got a culture of cover-up, where you’ve got systematic wrongdoing, a Royal Commission is the best way to expose it and to change the culture.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Well, haven’t you opened the door on the possibility that we’ll end up like the United States where governments are endlessly now the subject of legal action?
PRIME MINISTER:
I want to give honest workers and honest businesses a fair go and plainly, we’ve seen honest unionists’ money ripped off by dishonest officials. We’ve seen honest workers intimidated and prevented from going about their business by rogue elements of unions and it’s important that we get to the bottom of this and we ensure that everyone in this country is able to get on with his or her life.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Now the Treasurer says a lot recently that the age of entitlement is over. Do you mean that as much for individuals as you mean it for companies?
PRIME MINISTER:
We’ve got to ensure that governments live within their means. Everyone has to live within their means, Chris, whether it’s a company, whether it’s a family, whether it’s an individual, whether it’s a government and that’s what this Government is on about and that’s what our Budget preparations are aiming for.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Well, income support for seniors for example is $39 billion a year and growing to $48 billion by 2016/17, family tax benefits, $20 billion across the forward estimates, disability support pension $15 billion and growing to $17 billion by 2016/17. Aren’t those the big areas of government spending that you have to attack?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we’ll do it in ways that are consistent with our pre-election commitments and our job is to make our economy more productive by getting taxes down, by getting regulation down. But in order to get taxes down responsibly, we do have to bring spending under control. Now, we’ll do this in ways which are consistent with our pre-election commitments.
If you look across the Tasman, Chris, to New Zealand, the New Zealand Government is on track to get government spending as a percentage of GDP down from 35 to 30 per cent and they didn’t do that through savage cuts, they did that through careful management and basically through saying no to unwarranted new spending proposals, and that’s the approach that you’ll find from this Government: new spending will be funded by sensible savings to existing spending.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
And there has to be savings in the areas where you spend most money?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that’s your assertion, Chris. We will do it. We will find savings and we identified many billions of savings pre-election. There are currently $20 billion worth of savings before the Senate, all of which were flagged before the election, $15 billion worth of Coalition savings and $5 billion worth of Labor savings which we adopted and, you know, the Labor Party is blocking all of them. They’re not only blocking our proposals. They’re blocking their own pre-election proposals.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
All right, finally Prime Minister, the Budget this year obviously will be very important for you. It will set the tone for the kind of government that you’re going to be. What do you envisage for Australia? What kind of Australia will emerge under an Abbott Government?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, my themes for the year, if you like, Chris, are stopping the boats, fixing the Budget and building for the future – they’re my themes for the year. I want every Australian to feel that he or she is going to get a fair go and I want every Australian to feel that they are being encouraged to have a go and the Budget’s part of that process.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you, Chris.
[ends]