CHRIS UHLMANN:
Tony Abbott called it his pledge in blood to abolish the carbon tax but despite that the Labor government scheme turns two today. The Prime Minister expects he will be able to fulfil his promise when new Senators are sworn in next week but that hope rests on the contrary figure of Clive Palmer. Even that new Senate looks likely to reject billions of dollars of the Prime Minister’s first Budget and delicate negotiations will be needed to rescue those savings but with increasing signs the public hasn’t accepted the Budget – will the Upper House do the deals he needs?
Prime Minister Tony Abbott joins me now.
Tony Abbott, every poll since the Budget shows whatever message it is that you are trying to sell – people aren’t buying it. Does the fault lie with the product or the sales team?
PRIME MINISTER:
It was never going to be easy to tackle Labor’s debt and deficit disaster. It was never going to be easy to say to people that things that they have had or that they thought they might get under the Labor government were not going to be delivered because we were simply living beyond our means. We were simply spending money we didn’t have and we couldn’t sustainably borrow.
It was never going to be easy to do this but it was absolutely necessary to get it done. Let’s never forget Chris, I said til I was blue in the face before the election that there was a Budget emergency, we would tackle it, we would get the Budget back under control and that is what we are doing.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Well, people don’t seem to believe there is an emergency and they don’t seem to think that your Budget is fair.
PRIME MINISTER:
As I said, it is never easy to do the sorts of things that we have done in this Budget but this is a Budget for building as well as for saving. It is the biggest infrastructure build in the Commonwealth’s history, it is a Budget for playing to our strengths as well as living within our means. There really is a world class medical research future fund in there. So, I am confident that over time what we will see is that this Budget repair will feed into a stronger economy because that is what people want; they want a stronger economy for a safe and secure Australia.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Well, large parts of your Budget are yet to pass the Senate and probably won’t pass the next one. On the weekend you were spruiking the loans plan for tradies saying it starts today – it won’t start today, will it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it will start as soon as the relevant legislation is in place and it is a very important innovation because it will give to trades trainees effectively the same kind of support that we have long given to university students and that is a good thing.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
But it won’t if it doesn’t pass the Senate?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, Chris I appreciate that the Senate has a mind of its own but I am determined to work as constructively as I can with the new Senate. Let’s not forget that we have had nothing but mindless obstruction from the Labor Party and the Greens over the last nine months.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
But did you do the right kind of spade work? Why didn’t you talk to the AMA before going ahead with the Medicare co-payment?
PRIME MINISTER:
There were conversations with people in the medical profession and as you know the AMA does support a co-payment in principle. Those conversations will continue because the fundamental point I make Chris is that if it is fair and reasonable for people to face a modest co-payment when they go and get their prescription drugs for the pharmacy there is no reason why it is not also fair and reasonable to face a modest co-payment when you visit the doctor.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
And fair and reasonable to have a long conversation with the Australian people before you make these kinds of changes?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we have been having a conversation with the Australian people for quite a few years now and the essence of our conversation before the last election was that Labor was running up this debt and deficit disaster…
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Even though they didn’t have the detail of your prescription though, did they?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, they had a lot of detail. For instance they knew well in advance that the cash splash that was the schools kids’ bonus wasn’t going to continue, that a whole lot of things like the low income superannuation payment that was funded by the mining tax weren’t going to continue.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
But they didn’t know that the pension age was going to go up?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, what we have simply done with that, Chris, is continue the trajectory that the former Labor government put in place. The former Labor government, as you know, didn’t say anything before an election but it did raise the pension age to 67, it did so with support of the Coalition. We are simply continuing the trajectory for some further years so that by 2035 - which is 20 years off - the pension age will be 70. Now, I don’t think that is unreasonable given the change to people’s healthy life expectancy. I should also point out that today what is starting is the Restart Bonus which is there as an incentive for employers to take on people over 50 who have been unemployed and to keep them employed.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
One thing that we do know is the carbon tax is going up today. Do you trust Clive Palmer to keep his word and cut the carbon tax?
PRIME MINISTER:
Chris, I expect all of the crossbench Senators to be true to their pre-election commitments. Obviously, the Palmer Senators did make that commitment loud and clear before the election that they were against the carbon tax and they would repeal it. Mr Palmer, spectacularly, declared last week that he was going to vote to repeal the carbon tax.
I don’t take anything for granted and I don’t count my chickens prematurely but nevertheless I think the public are entitled to expect the carbon tax to go in the next week or so. Certainly the last thing we want is the world’s biggest carbon tax just going up and up and up and obviously it did go up today pending repeal in a fortnight’s time.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Does Clive Palmer have questions to answer over whether Chinese money was used to fund his campaign?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, that is a matter between Mr Palmer and the people who are claiming that there is an issue. Obviously, there is a dispute on and let’s see how that gets resolved.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
But do you believe that he should answer these questions? They seem to be quite serious ones.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, they are obviously questions that have been posed, and that is a matter for Mr Palmer and the people who are raising these questions. My fight, Chris, is not with Mr Palmer or the Palmer Party. My fight is with the Labor Party; my fight is to get the carbon tax repealed, the mining tax repealed, to get the Building and Construction cop back on the beat. That’s what I want to do to get the Budget bills through the Senate. That is the fight I am ready, willing and able to have.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Twenty-five of your backbenchers have written to you asking for aluminium smelting to be exempt from the Renewable Energy Target. Will you do that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Chris, look, we have got a review under way of the Renewable Energy Target. We have a good team that’s doing it. I am going to wait for the review and then we will respond. Obviously, the point I have been making pre-election and post-election is that the Renewable Energy Target is very significantly driving up power prices. Increasing power prices obviously pose a serious threat not just to domestic budgets but also to the competitiveness of industries, particularly energy intensive industries. I think we should be the affordable energy capital of the world - not the unaffordable energy capital of the world - and that’s why the carbon tax must go and that’s why we’re reviewing the Renewable Energy Target.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
And to cut it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I don’t want to lose perfectly good industries that employ thousands people and which value add for our country.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
So you think it should be lower?
PRIME MINISTER:
The review is taking place now, Chris, and let’s wait and see what the review comes up with. But, all of us should want to see lower power prices and plainly, at the moment, the Renewable Energy Target is a very significant impact on higher power prices.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Prime Minister, is the Government intending to try and get Sri Lanka to take a boat load of asylum seekers?
PRIME MINISTER:
We are stopping the boats. That’s what we’re doing, Chris, we are stopping the boats. I’m not going to comment on the operational details of what happens on the water, but obviously we have been successful up until now. It’s more than six months since a successful people smuggling venture made it to Australia and that’s a record that the Government is determined to maintain if we possibly can.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
To your knowledge, are people in Australia actively organising and recruiting young men to fight with militants in Iraq?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well certainly there are a disappointingly large number of Australians who have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with the militants and the determination of this Government is to ensure that, just as we have stopped illegal boats coming to Australia - that as far as we humanly can - we stop Jihadists coming to Australia because these people do seem to have been radicalised and militarised and we don’t want people who are a menace to our community walking around on our streets.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Finally, Prime Minister, we grew up with Rolf Harris. How do you feel today about the news that he’s been found guilty of sexual abuse?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look, it is a terrible, terrible business. Sexual abuse is an utterly abhorrent crime – it is an absolutely utterly abhorrent crime – and it’s just sad and tragic that this person who was widely admired seems to have been a perpetrator. So look, I feel gutted and dismayed, but it’s very important that we do everything we humanly can to protect vulnerable young people.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Prime Minister, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much.
[ends]