E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………
CHRIS SMITH:
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Chris, it’s good to talk to you.
CHRIS SMITH:
Good to have you on. How angry and frustrated are you at what happened yesterday?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m disappointed obviously but it is really not about me. It is about the public who have got to live with this insidious carbon tax for a little bit longer than would otherwise have been the case and look, let’s not forget that this is ultimately about a better deal for consumers. It is about taking a nine per cent hit off power prices, it is about taking a $9 billion handbrake off our economy, and it is about lowering household costs by $550 a year on average. That’s what getting rid of the carbon tax is all about and I am disappointed that it didn’t happen yesterday, given the commitment that had been made to us.
We will work patiently and carefully and methodically over the weekend and we’re confident that we can make suitable changes in the House on Monday which avoid the constitutional issue which came up yesterday and let’s try to ensure that the Parliament deals with this next week and the carbon tax is gone once and for all.
CHRIS SMITH:
Well I wonder whether getting rid of the carbon dioxide tax is actually worth it now and I frown when I say that sentence because you know personally how much I hate the carbon dioxide tax and how it was brought in. But if you’re going to lose $50 billion in the trade off to make that happen, is it worth it?
PRIME MINISTER:
All of the budget savings which various Senators are saying they won’t support are really a separate issue from the repeal of the carbon tax. Now getting rid of the carbon tax is unambiguously a good thing and that is why we are determined to get rid of the carbon tax - as we promised at the election.
As for the savings, well they’re also important and necessary, but it’s possible to first get rid of a carbon tax and then pursue all these other issues to ensure that we aren’t continuing to borrow $1 billion a month, every single month. That’s $1 billion in dead money because thanks to the Labor Party’s extravagance -government spending is out of control.
CHRIS SMITH:
But Prime Minister they’re not separate issues; they are inextricably linked now to agreeing to repeal the carbon tax.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, some of them are but most of them aren’t, Chris. I mean there’s a whole lot of issues that are linked to the mining tax. I think there’s about $12 billion that are linked to the mining tax. Then there’s $30 billion worth of budget savings which are separate from the carbon tax and the mining tax. So I think it is possible for us to get rid of the carbon tax next week. That is absolutely critical that we get rid of the carbon tax next week and then once we’ve got rid of the carbon tax we can start to address all these other issues.
CHRIS SMITH:
Joe Hockey must be having conniptions now – there’s hardly anything left of his Budget.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well let’s face it, Chris, very little of the budget legislation has got to the Senate yet. In fact, I think the only stuff that has got to the Senate is the deficit levy on high income earners. That’s the only stuff that’s got to the Senate yet. I would be very surprised if Senators first word turns out to be their last word and it’s not unusual for budget measures to take quite some time to pass the Senate – not unusual at all. In fact, there were various measures that the former government announced in different budgets which took a couple of years ultimately to get through and certainly the Howard government sometimes took six months or more to get various budget measures through the Senate.
CHRIS SMITH:
Yeah, but none of those situations involved a loose cannon and a clown like Clive Palmer.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Chris, look, every government has to face the parliament that it finds and let’s never forget that Mr Palmer and his Senators were elected on a clear platform of abolishing the carbon tax, abolishing the mining tax. Essentially they have the same centre-right platform that the Government took to the election.
I’m confident that for all of the sound and fury, for all the colour and movement in the Senate, we will get the bulk of our budget savings through and I’m certainly confident that once everyone has huffed and puffed we’ll get the carbon tax repeal and the mining tax repealed.
CHRIS SMITH:
Well I like to hear that sort of confidence, but I wonder whether this time next week Clive Palmer doesn’t find another excuse to through a spanner in the works. And look, Australians - and I’ve copped a few calls after six o’clock this morning about this – Australians are now looking down the barrel of being taken for a ride by a crazy miner who’s obsessed by revenge and wants to have a dig at the Liberal Party at every opportunity. You said prior to the last election that you would be happy to call a double dissolution election if need be. If he stands in the way next week, is that not the time to have the guts to stop the circus before we become an even greater basket case?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think it’s far too soon to start talking about that kind of thing, Chris, because let’s face it, the new Senate’s only been in place for a week and look, if we had had six months or 12 months of difficulty like you suggest well then maybe it would be time to start thinking along those lines.
CHRIS SMITH:
So if the circus continues for 12 months you’d seriously consider it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don’t believe that it will because I’ve met most of the crossbenchers now. I think by and large they’re decent people who want to do the right thing by our country. So I’m confident that once things settle down that it will be more than possible for the Government to get the vast majority of its measures through in some reasonable shape or form. So, look, one or two days of argy-bargy certainly doesn’t make a political stalemate and I think it is a mistake to see the whole of the life of this new Senate being like the last couple of days.
CHRIS SMITH:
Extraordinary diplomacy. What is your relationship with Clive Palmer at the moment? Are you on speaking terms? Can you pick up the telephone or can he pick up the telephone and chat with you? And when was the last time you chatted with him one to one?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well as you probably remember, Chris, I did have a sit down meeting with him about a week ago. It was a very genial meeting, quite a warm meeting in fact. In the end the nuts and bolts of negotiations on the floor of the Parliament will be handled by the individual Senators and Members and by the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Government in the Senate. But look, I’m open to talking to any of the crossbench Senators. I’m open to talking to Bill Shorten for that matter because in the end Mr Palmer has got three Senators, Mr Shorten has got 25 Senators. It was the Labor Party and the Greens who have been in denial since the election who have insisted on the carbon tax staying up till now.
CHRIS SMITH:
Well I wish you all the best and we want to see this carbon tax gone, but the more Clive Palmer and his Senators find reasons to stand in the way the more I think the electorate tends to think they’re being held to ransom by one person and we had enough of that in the previous government.
PRIME MINISTER:
And Chris look, I can understand your frustration and the frustration that many of your listeners would have, but let’s be fair dinkum about who is really to blame for all of this and as I said, Clive Palmer’s got three Senators, Bill Shorten and the Labor Party have got 25 Senators, the Greens have got 10 Senators. The reason why we still have the carbon tax is not Clive Palmer – it is Bill Shorten and the Labor Party.
CHRIS SMITH:
Ok, I appreciate your time this morning. Have a good weekend.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much, Chris.
[ends]