E&OE…
TOM ELLIOT:
The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Turnbull good evening.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good evening Tom, great to be with you.
TOM ELLIOT:
This morning you go through the Australia Building Construction Commission legislation which of course was the reason for going to a double dissolution election back in July. Is this a major victory?
PRIME MINISTER:
It certainly is. It’s a great victory for all Australians to restore the rule of law to the construction sector, after so much defiance by the CFMEU. So much, as you know, particularly in Victoria – there is so much industrial disputation. You know there are over a quarter of a million Victorians Tom, who work in the construction industry. There are currently 22 CFMEU officials from the Victorian branch before the courts, and they’ve issued over the last decade - your courts – the CFMEU with over $4 million in fines, the highest of any state.
So, what you’ve experienced in Victoria is projects – Government projects, commercial projects, big apartment towers, office blocks, schools, roads, hospitals, the Simpson Army Barracks, the Melbourne Institute of Technology – all of these projects and so many others, have been disrupted by lawless industrial action, which adds up to 30 per cent, indeed more, to the cost of construction.
So, restoring the rule of law is a critical economic reform. It goes together with the other big industrial reform that the Senate approved last week, which is the Registered Organisations Bill, which was the other trigger for the double dissolution election. What it does is ensure that union officials have the same accountability and transparency with respect to their members, as company directors have to their shareholders. So these are very very big reforms. They’ve been opposed by Labor for many years and now they are law.
TOM ELLIOT:
Do you think that long term this will make construction, especially in Victoria, cheaper? Cheaper for building companies, cheaper for the shareholders of companies, cheaper for every day Victorians?
PRIME MINISTER:
Tom, yes I believe it will begin an important change of culture. Firstly the law will be complied with. The penalties are being tripled. You have to remember, this is not theory. The Building and Construction Commission existed under the Howard Government - it was abolished under the Gillard Government. Fines for breaches of industrial law were literally cut by two thirds by the Labor government. In fact Bill Shorten was the Employment Minister under Prime Minister Gillard. So essentially, what Labor did because they are now wholly owned subsidiaries of these militant unions, you’ve seen this with Dan Andrews and the United Firefighters Union of course in Victoria, but they step back and of course industrial disputes increased, lawlessness increased, costs increased and taxpayers and home-owners had to pick up the tab.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Can I ask you about the backpacker tax? Now there was a deal done, or I thought a deal had been done earlier on in the week to agree on a 15 per cent tax rate for backpackers – that hasn’t made it through the Senate. Are you going to try again with that one?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we will certainly resubmit the Bill to the Senate when it’s clear that there will be a majority in the Senate to support the tax at 15 per cent.
TOM ELLIOTT:
So who has to change their mind?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, any number of Senators can change their mind but you know, the real onus here, the real responsibility should be on Bill Shorten and the Labor Party. Obviously, we’d like Derryn Hinch to change his mind. We’d like Senator Culleton to change his mind. We’d like any of the crossbenchers to change their mind and vote for it but the real responsibility here is with Bill Shorten. He has decided for nothing other than political advantage, I mean they are so bitterly angry about the passage of the Registered Organisations Bill and the ABCC Bill. You should have seen them in Question Time today. They are spitting chips – they are so angry and so they’ve decided out of spite to block this very sensible reform to backpacker’s tax so because they are so distressed and angry, they would rather backpackers were paying 32.5 cents tax, instead of 15 per cent and what we’ve offered is a very sensible reform.
TOM ELLIOT:
I agree, but is it wrong that we have attract backpackers to do jobs when Australians are on the dole and not doing those same agricultural jobs?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I don’t think you can blame for farmers for seeking…
TOM ELLIOT:
Oh no I’m not, I’m blaming the people who live here, who won’t take these jobs.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we do everything we can to encourage – it’s a very fair point by the way Tom and it gets made to me all the time. We do everything we can to encourage people that are on Newstart to work for the dole, go into employment programmes, the internship programme. We’re just launching a new one call PaTH, is a good example. But ultimately, if people refuse to work or they are not prepared to work and do work of this kind, then the farmer has to look somewhere else and that’s how this working holiday-maker or backpacker phenomenon has developed.
TOM ELLIOT:
The protestors, we’re told that up to 30 people today had to be removed from the House of Representatives during Question Time. How did they get in?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it’s being investigated, the public can come into the House of Representatives and sit in the public gallery and of course, thousands of people do every year. But they came in and then undertook that protest which – some of them apparently super-glued their hands to the railing too so it was a very rowdy protest, and the sitting of the House was suspended for half an hour or so. And then after they had been removed the House resumed.
TOM ELLIOTT:
I’d happily leave them superglued to the railing and see how much they like that overnight. There are rumours of a Cabinet reshuffle early in the New Year, are you contemplating that?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ve a great Cabinet – Tom and I have – Prime Ministers are always asked this question at this time of year and I think it’s probably true they always give the same answer too. But as it happens, I have a fantastic Cabinet, a great Ministry and we’re delivering. We went to the election with an economic plan. Key elements of it are already through the Parliament. Our middle income tax cuts that are saving half a million Australians from moving in to the second highest tax bracket – passed. We’ve got $20 billion now gross budget savings through the Parliament, we’ve got all our superannuation changes through, we succeeded in defending the CFA volunteers in Victoria as we promised we would, by amending the Fair Work Act, and of course now we have the Registered Organisations and the ABCCC Legislation through the Parliament. A lot of people, particularly some of the political commentators were sceptical about our ability to do that, but the Parliament is working and we’re delivering.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Well it seems to me the next big task is budget repair, now just two days ago SNP, Standard Employers the International Ratings Agency, puts Australia on notice saying that if you don’t do something about continuing Federal Budget Deficits then I think the country’s credit rating will be cut. Is that the big task for 2017?
PRIME MINISTER:
It is a very big task and it is probably the biggest task, single biggest task facing government, because we have to live within our means and otherwise we will be leaving our children and grandchildren with a burden of debt that will mean for them either less services or higher taxes or more likely both.
And Tom on that note, the bells are ringing and the Green light is flashing and I have to go and vote in the House. It’s great to be with you and Happy Christmas.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Malcolm Turnbull thank you for joining us.
[ENDS]