Transcript: Julia Gillard, Community Forum, Rooty Hill
Julia Gillard
posted Thursday, 12 August 2010
E & O E – PROOF ONLY
Subjects: Election campaign; Australian Labor Party; Education funding and reforms; Higher education funding; Constitutional reform; Pensioners; Health reform; Election commitments: Same-sex marriage; MRRT; Parramatta to Epping Rail Link; Climate change; Campaign advertising; Cost of living pressures; Child-care; Self-funded retirees.
DAVID SPEERS: Let’s get things underway. Please welcome Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Now, Prime Minister, thank you so much for coming along tonight.
PM: Thank you.
SPEERS: Before we get to our first question, I might invite you to spend a few minutes just explaining why these undecided voters should vote for you.
PM: Ok, thank you very much David, I’ll just settle in that stool. I feel very high up here. Thank you very much to David and thank you to The Daily Telegraph for putting this forum on.
I’ll just spend a few moments raising a few issues with you and then I’ll be very happy to take your questions.
Now, I’m assuming that from the election campaign you know a little bit about me but I just wanted to get to know something about you. So I wanted to start with one question and that question is, who in the audience has a job? Who’s employed?
Ok, and if you can keep your hand up if you have a job and you also pay a mortgage or pay rent. Ok, and if you keep your hand up and, sorry, it’s a bit like an exercise class isn’t it? If you keep your hand up, keep your hand up if you could keep paying your mortgage or keep paying your rent if you didn’t have a job.
Right. A couple of people could, obviously they’ve got other sources of income but overwhelmingly, people couldn’t pay their mortgage or their rent if they didn’t have a job and that really, the exercise we’ve just been through, that really is the issue at the heart of this election campaign.
It’s about the economy and keeping it strong. It’s about having people in jobs. And so if we look back two years, there was a major economic problem in our world, for our globe, and when that economic problem hit this country we had to make a decision. And the decision we made was to support jobs and we did that because we knew that if people lost their jobs then they’d lose their homes and it could be shattering for families literally for decades to come.
So we stepped up and supported jobs. It wasn’t without controversy, I know that. The other side of politics, Mr Abbott’s side, made a different decision. They would not have supported jobs. But we thought it was the right thing to do and, as a result, we’ve come out of that economic problem stronger than any other major advanced economy in the world and what this election campaign is now about is how we build on that platform to keep the economy strong – to keep it growing so people can have jobs.
And of the plans in this election campaign that I stand for, I stand for bringing the budget back to surplus in 2013 because we want the Government to have a strong balance sheet. I stand for cutting company tax because that’s going to help our businesses grow and help them offer people jobs. I stand for providing that tax break early to small business and also helping them have tax write-offs for the things that they buy - the capital equipment. And I also stand for increasing superannuation. That’s good as an economic measure because it increases our national savings. It’s also good for individuals when they retire so they’ve got a more decent retirement income. And I also stand for building the National Broadband Network because that’s so important to the jobs of the future.
Now on each of those big measures there’s a difference between me and Mr Abbott. He doesn’t say when the budget’s coming back to surplus. He wants to put company tax up. He doesn’t have the same scheme for small measures, small business tax breaks and he doesn’t want to build the National Broadband Network. But I think my plan is the plan to keep the economy strong.
And with a strong economy we can provide people with better services, with better schools and decent health care. So what I want to ensure is that we’ve got Trades Training Centres in schools, that kids are getting the skills that they need for real jobs, for the real world, for real work. I want to make sure we keep investing in better teaching. I want to make sure we keep giving computers to kids. I also want to make sure we’ve got more doctors and nurses, GP Super Clinics and after hours hotline. We’re cutting waiting times in emergency departments and for elective surgery. And on all of these matters too, there’s a difference between me and Mr Abbott. He wants to cut some of these investments: Trade Training Centres in schools, Computers in Schools, a GP after hours hotline and GP clinics. So there is a clear choice there.
And the election is also about sustainability. It’s about protecting our Australian way of life. I want to make sure that we take the things that are precious about this country with us into the future and that requires us to think about sustainability in big cities like Sydney, in the west of Sydney. About public transport, and I’ve made a major announcement about that today, about constructing the rail link from Parramatta to Epping. But it’s about so much more than that. It’s about the planning we need for the future to make sure that those very precious things about being Australian will still be there in the years to come. And it’s about tackling the challenge of climate change. That’s why I believe we should keep investing in renewable energy. We should invest $1 billion in the transmission lines to bring that energy into our homes. We should be making sure we don’t have any more new dirty coal-fired power stations. We should be greening up the buildings we work in and the cars that we drive. It’s another very significant issue in the election campaign.
But finally, many of you would be saying well, that’s all very well, but what about me today as I pay my bills and I shake my head and I wonder if it’s all going to add up. What I would like to say is we’re a government, I’m a Prime Minister, that’s tried to understand and provide that little bit of help with cost of living pressures, particularly by providing tax cuts for three years in a row, by creating the Education Tax Rebate to help with the costs of getting the kids to school and I now want to extend that to school uniforms, by increasing the Child Care Tax Rebate to 50 per cent so the government is meeting half of the out of pocket costs of child care. And if we’re re-elected I want to help with the costs of teenagers by improving the Family Tax Benefit that people get for teenagers. We also want to make sure that when you do your tax return, you don’t necessarily have to fill in all the forms to get a tax deduction. We’ll have an automatic deduction – $500 in the first year and $1000 in the years after that. Some measures to just help take that bit of cost of living pressure off. And I’m really concerned that Mr Abbott’s plan to increase company tax will flow through to the prices you pay for goods and services in Coles and Woolworths and all the other places that we shop and do business.
So in this forum, they’re the things that I wanted to touch on first but this is a forum for you and we’re going to turn now to the question section and I wanted to say as we move to that section, feel free to get stuck in. If there’s an issue on your mind, feel free to ask about it. I’d rather that people were upfront and said what was worrying them than worried about being polite or any of things. So if it’s on your mind, please say it. Thanks David.
SPEERS: There’s an open invitation. Don’t hold back.
SPEERS: Thank you, Prime Minister. We’ll get straight into the questions. If I can ask you just to give us your first name and perhaps what you do and then fire off your question.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name’s Louise and I attend to home duties at the moment. Good evening Prime Minister.
PM: Hi Louise.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Prime Minister, just regarding what happened a few weeks ago with Kevin Rudd. What’s really been playing on my mind and really been worrying me for weeks now is the people that organised this outing of Kevin Rudd, Mark Arbib and Bill Shorten. Are they going to be rewarded for what they did to Kevin Rudd?
PM: Well, Louise, I can offer you a complete reassurance about all of that because what happened within the Labor Party and the decision I made – and I take the responsibility for making it and people will form their own views about that decision – but I made the decision and the decision I made was we had been a good government but we were not in a shape to deal with some big issues which were important for the nation and important for our future. Issues like the Minerals Resource Rent Tax. And I, and overwhelmingly my colleagues, came to the decision that to be in the shape to deal with those big questions, then the leadership of the Party did need to change. And I understand for Australians like yourself you would have looked on that day and you would have said, you know, what is this about, how come we’ve got a new prime minister, but that’s the explanation. We all make judgements in our life. So I made a judgement. I stand by it. There’s no-one, you know, you’ve used a couple of names, there’s no-one who organised this. There’s no-one who’s going to be rewarded for it. I made my decision and Labor Party members, Caucus members, the people who are elected in the Federal Parliament made their decision too.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Will Mark Arbib and Bill Shorten, are they going to be part of your team?
PM: Well, they are part of my team, of course. And my team will be selected on the ability to do the job and on the basis of merit. Mark Arbib is serving as our Minister for Employment Participation. He’s done that for a period of a few years now and in that capacity he’s done some terrific things, like organise job expos around the country where people can come and look to see if there are jobs in their local community. Bill Shorten’s a Parliamentary Secretary working on disability services and issues for people with disabilities. He attended with me a fantastic launch of our policy for people with disabilities in Melbourne and he’s work has been very received in the community and he’s very concerned about better services, better access, better respect for people with disabilities. So everybody will be judged on their merits and, of course, they’re part of the team. I’ve got a great team.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you, Prime Minister.
PM: Thank you.
SPEERS: Thank you. Let’s move on to our next question if we can.
PM: Hello.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Prime Minister, my name is Michelle. I’m a retired grandmother. Knowing your special interest in education. My question is about university funding. Given that most we’re relying on full fee paying overseas students, what hope will my seven grandchildren have of getting into university in the future?
PM: Well, that’s a great question and thank you for asking me about it and I’ve actually got some good news for you which is when I was Minister for Education, before becoming Prime Minister, we had a major review of universities and we did that because I was concerned like you that too many of our universities were very reliant on overseas education, that the number of university places were capped and we weren’t offering the benefits of university education to enough young Australians. So we had a major review led by a woman called by Denise Bradley who’s a former vice chancellor of a university, she started life as a teacher, and we implemented the recommendations of the Bradley Review in the Budget in 2009. And what’s that already done is it’s increased the number of university places by 44,000; already universities are on a path for growth and importantly, the most, the biggest growth has been from people from lower income backgrounds so a problem for fairness has been if you come from a poorer family you are far less likely to go to university. We’ve put some special rewards so universities step up, offer those poorer kids a go. Universities are growing, the number of places are growing and more kids from a poorer background are getting a go under our new university reform.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Very good to hear, thank you so much Prime Minister.
SPEERS: Thanks for that Michelle. Is there any commitment in the campaign for higher university funding?
PM: No, we’re sitting with the reforms that we made out of the Bradley Review which were more than $5 billion extra for universities and for innovation so it was a very major funding package.
SPEERS: OK, let’s get to our next question.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening, Ms Gillard, and I actually have just a question, while you were Deputy PM the media brought to the public’s attention certain policy failures such as the emissions trading scheme, the home insulation. What responsibility do you bear?
PM: Look, I am happy to take my fair share of the responsibility for all of the decisions of the Government, you’ve mentioned some of them. I talked when I spoke at the opening about the global financial crisis and stepping up to support jobs, that required us to provide economic stimulus to keep people working and we did that around the country. Now I’m absolutely going to agree with you not everything went according to plan. The home insulation scheme became a mess, you know a lot of shonks involved in it and it became a mess. It’s been closed down. For other parts of economic stimulus there are things that have gone tremendously well, there are many schools for example around the country very delighted by their new school buildings and I believe in investing in schools but I also became concerned about value for money under our Building the Education Revolution program which is why I created a taskforce led by a leading Australian businessperson to drive value for money. But there was a choice here and we’ve got to not lose sight of the fact that the choice was: do you step up, do you stimulate the economy, do you keep people working or do you sit back and the nation goes into recession? What a recession would have meant is 200,000 extra people out of work and if we look at countries overseas, look at America, look at the United Kingdom, look at Europe we see people out of work losing their homes with all the devastation that means for their families so we stepped up to support jobs. I’ve learnt some lessons along the way and of course I’m happy to take responsibility, my fair share for all of the things that the Government’s done.
SPEERS: Thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: August would appear to be a good time for an election, what else would we be doing in winter time? We should put it to a referendum. And it’s just on that, I’m a joint national Australian American and I’ve been voting every election in the US and here since I turned majority. When are we and we get a choice on the 21st and I’m going to give you a choice now and put this to Mr Abbott as well, you can choose one or the other or both. When are Australians going to get citizen initiated referenda like the western states do in the United States so we don’t have for politicians to give us referendum issues to vote on? And also a national dental plan?
PM: Well I think the reality is I’m going to disappoint you on the first and hopefully say something you might find more acceptable on the second. I don’t have any proposals or plans to initiate citizens-initiated referendum, I know that they are a part of how some of the states in the US work. We see examples in our news from time to time reports of referendum in California and other places but it’s not part of our system of doing things and I don’t think it would be a desirable development for our system of doing things. Now that doesn’t mean that government shouldn’t be consulting with the community, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be out there talking to people. It’s good to be here tonight and we’ve created a system of Community Cabinet where we go out and listen people and I’ve certainly talked about trying to involve the community as we work on climate change together. As for a dental plan, one of the things we were very critical of the former government about, of course Mr Abbott was a senior minister he was Health Minister. We were critical of a number of things, the cutbacks to public hospitals, we were also critical of the fact that the Howard Government shut down the Commonwealth Dental Program and there are a lot of Australians now who bear that burden because public dental dentistry is short and people can often be on very big waiting lists. We tried to make some differences with some dental proposals that have gone to the Senate and been knocked back so that’s the circumstance we’ve been in for the last few years. Obviously, for me and for the Minister for Health, we want to see a pursuit of the kinds of ideas that we’ve raised during this period of government but have been unable to get through the Senate because Mr Abbott and the Liberal Party haven’t supported the bill.
SPEERS: Thank you for that question, and can we just remind you, just give us your name and what you do.
PM: Hi Rose.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Pleased to meet you Prime Minister. I’m a pensioner so I should really ask questions about pensions but I think I’ll ask a question that I really wanted to know. It’s good that you’re cutting out our taxes and things. Where’s all this money coming from for you to be able to give us more schools, more hospitals, cut taxes, where’s that money coming from?
PM: Well, Rose, the Government doesn’t have its own money. What we have is taxpayers’ money. We have it from individual taxpayers, we have it from company tax and those kind of sources and so we’ve got to make the government budget add up. Now when you face a big economic shock like the global financial crisis it’s inevitable that that will put pressure on what government does, it’s going to knock revenues around and it did do that for the Government. And that led to us having a deficit and a debt, we also chose to stimulate the economy and there’s very good evidence that not only would we be in recession, government finances would be worse if we went into recession, more people unemployed, more people needing benefits, less people paying tax, more companies going out of business. But we now have a very clear plan to return the budget to surplus. We will do that in 2013. All of the promises I make in this campaign will be properly costed and funded and we are announcing matching savings so we are not adding a cent to the budget bottom line. The budget will come back to surplus in 2013. Now I believe that’s really important, I believe that policies need to be properly costed by our experts in Treasury. One thing that is of concern, I think, as we close out to election day, is there is a process, the Charter of Budget Honesty. Political parties are supposed to put their promises in for costing. Mr Abbott is on his way to race up to around $30 billion of promises and only one and a half per cent of his new spending proposals have gone in for proper costing. And you may have seen earlier this week, the concern that he and Mr Hockey, were $7 billion apart on how much they were going to spend and their national broadband saving from cancelling the National Broadband Network has an $800 million hole in it so my message is, and you might want the question to Mr Abbott, is he going to get all of his policies in for proper costing because I will as part of my guarantee that the budget will come back to surplus in 2013.
SPEERS: Thanks Rose.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening, Prime Minister. My name is Mary Rose and I work in the health sector. My particular interest is health services and education. I’m really concerned that we’re not addressing a lot of areas such as mental health, aged care, and all those sorts of areas. What guarantees can you give me that any promises that you made there are not going to be back flips later on and the services won’t be provided?
PM: Thank you for that question. Sorry a little bit of a cough. Look, what I can say to you is, firstly, I’m happy to point to our track record of delivery and proposals for big reform in health. When we came into government, the health system had been suffering. Mr Abbott’s one of the longest serving health ministers in the country’s history and the legacy he left when we came into government: a billion dollars had been taken out of public hospitals and he’d cut back the number of GP training places. It takes a long time to make a GP, so if you cut back the number of training places, that shows a decade later when we haven’t got enough GPs in the community. We moved, we’ve increased the amount of funding the health care agreements by 50 per cent. That’s translated into tens of thousands of extra elective surgery procedures for people, we’re training more doctors; we’re training more nurses. At the same time, we said, well, look, we’re an aging society, expensive drugs coming on-stream, our expectations about our own health and the services that we should get are rising. How’s all this all going to add up for the future? And so we’ve got a major health reform plan to now deliver where the Federal Government will step up to being the major funder in health and we will have hospitals locally controlled. Now, there’s still more to do and you point to two areas where there is more to do. Mental health – I announced during the campaign a focus on suicide. More Australians lose their lives through suicide than on our roads, which is a pretty, you know, startling statistic – 75 per cent of them men. And so we’ve got to focus on suicide, in putting more resources into organisations like lifeline. I’m not matching Mr Abbott’s plan on mental health because that plan is funded by cutting back other areas of healthcare like GP Super Clinics and the GP After Hours Hotline. On aged care, we have made some investments there and there’s more to do. We are certainly working with the representatives of the aged care workforce on having a major enquiry to look at how the aged care system should run as our society ages and there are more older Australians and also our expectations for our old age change. Thanks. Thanks Mary.
SPEERS: Can I just pick up on Mary Rose’s question, because I think she was asking about what guarantees can we have that you’re not going to back flip, and we did see Labor promise things like Grocery Watch and Fuel Watch and childcare centres that weren’t delivered. So what guarantee, does a minister get the sack if the promise is broke?
PM: Look, I think, you know, what I say in this campaign is what I will do. And we’ve made promises in this campaign about healthcare, but I think people are also entitled to say, what have they done in the period they’ve been there? There have been some big changes coming off what was not a good legacy from the previous government when we came in. Now, that’s obviously not getting agreement in all parts of the audience, but the facts are the facts. Short of GPs, a billion dollars out of public hospitals, so I’m saying to you directly, one of the reasons in this campaign we’ve been so prudent about the expenditure on our promises – not an additional cent on the budget bottom line – is I want to make sure everything we do is fully funded, fully costed and fully deliverable.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think I’ve been a bit confused because there’s been so much promised, that I have to wonder how it is going to be costed and how it’s going to be delivered and that’s where I’m sort of positioned.
PM: Okay. Let me, let me just try and be hopefully as helpful about this as I can be. At the start of the election campaign, we announced a statement. It’s not put together by politicians, it’s put together by the officials in Treasury. It’s called the Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook and it gives you the budget bottom line as the election basically starts. And then through the charter of budget honesty, there’s a group of treasury officials, not politicians, public servants, that cost policies. They say, you know, what a policy is going to cost. There’s a deadline by which political parties have to put in their policies for costing, that deadline in 5:30 this coming Friday. So we know what the budget is going in, and that’s got the budget coming back to surplus on 2013. We’ve got the Treasury officials costing everything. Everything I promise in this campaign, will go to those Treasury officials, they’ll do all the adding up and I’m going to make sure that everything I’ve done, spending and saving, doesn’t add a cent to that budget bottom line. So you’ll be able to see from those experts in Treasury, not a cent on the budget bottom line, budget coming to surplus in 2013 for me. Mr Abbott’s got around, he’s racing toward $30 billion of expenditure commitments in this campaign, of costs and commitments, 1.5 per cent of new spending on his side that’s gone into Treasury. So all I’m asking him to do is go through the same process, so the same Treasury officials can do the numbers and see if his plans add up as well.
SPEERS: Alright.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you.
SPEERS: Let’s move on, we’ve got a lot of questions to get through. So let’s get the next one.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening, Prime Minister, pleasure to meet you. Prime Minister, my name is Robert and I’m a high school teacher. Recently you announced $100,000 bonus or incentive to schools that add value to students and as a high school teacher of 15 years I can assure that all schools and teachers do add value to students lives, whether academically, socially or sport. My question to you is what criteria, or your proposed criteria would you be, would dictate which schools attract this funding given that all schools do make a difference to students’ lives?
PM: Thanks for that question, Robert and thank you very much for the work that you do to. I’m a big respecter of the efforts of teachers and one of the great delights of being Minister for Education then being Prime Minister is I get to visit a lot of schools and I meet just fantastic teachers around the country. And what I want to do is I want to recognise the efforts of those fantastic teachers, better than they’ve been recognised to date. So, in this campaign, and against a backdrop where I’ve implemented some major reforms in education, I’m sure you would have followed the MySchool website, national curriculum, investing in Trades Training Centres to, you know, Computers in Schools to try and make sure we’re lifting school education. I’ve announced some additional measures. I want to have this reward pool for the most improved schools. So not for the raw scores at the top, but the schools that have made the biggest difference to the education of their children. And to judge it, in a secondary school, where you work, we’d be looking at where the kids go after school, so how you prepare them for the next stage of life, into work, into further training, into university, we’d be looking at things like attendance rates. We’d be looking at things like literacy and numeracy. But we’d be judging the whole school performance. The principal would get a say, we’d have some independent experts who would get a say, the school itself would put its application and pitch together, what it says about itself, so that it could be assessed. But it’s my way of recognising, saying to the schools that are doing the most work and the most to lift kids up, that’s fantastic, here’s recognition of your achievement. And at the same time, we want to be providing rewards to great teachers, teachers that keep upgrading their
qualifications that make a real difference in the lives of kids. Once again there would be expert evaluation involved in that, as well as the principal and those teachers would be eligible for a salary bonus of around about 10 per cent of what they earn.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you. Without asking you to answer what I’m about to say, I can assure you there’ll be a lot of disharmony amongst teachers that don’t get recognised for the hard work they do also. I’ll leave it on that point. Thank you.
PM: Maybe if I can just address that. I’ve sort of talked to a lot of, a lot of teachers, and an aim here, and one of the things that would be valued, is the teamwork that goes on in schools, the teachers that mentor and guide the other teachers. I want teachers to earn good salaries, but I also want that extra reward on top, to recognise truly great teaching. I think that’s our way, as a nation, of saying we really value the best of what is happening in our schools. Thanks, Robert.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello, my name is Janet. I would just like to point out that the Crimes Act of 1900 had been amended in 1984 to make it legal for two men to have sexual intercourse together at the age of 18 and for lesbians to have sex at the age of 16. In 2003 the law was amended again, making it legal for men to have sex at the age of 16. I would like to know when the Government is going to step up and let the gay community to have same-sex marriages.
PM: Thank you for that question. An I understand that the question of gay marriage is going to get different reactions and different views in the community and I know that what I’m going to say now is not going to make you happy, it’s going to disappoint you, but I’m just going to say it to you because I want to tell you the truth. And, you know, I and the Labor Party have a clear policy, and our clear policy is that we won’t be amending the Marriage Act. The Marriage Act will stay the way it is now so that marriage is defined as between a man and a woman and I know saying that’s not going to please you because you’d like to see something different happen, but what we have done as a government is we have moved across the area of federal legislation to equalise treatment for same sex couples and so it’s things like really practical things, like the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, how you get a safety net payment out of that scheme for a couple, their medical costs, their pharmaceutical costs count together, a married couple or a heterosexual de facto couple, we’ve made that the same for a same sex couple. Superannuation - there used to be lack of clarity that in a same sex relationship whether or not the partner was entitled to the death benefit, if the other person in the relationship died. That was clear for a married couple, it was clear for a heterosexual de facto couple. We’ve amended the law so it’s now clear for same sex couples, so we have moved across what the Federal Government does, to deal with those practical measures and to equalise the treatment of the federal law.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I understand that, but the homosexual discrimination Act was brought out to protect the gay community from being discriminated against and I’m a tax payer, I’m a law abiding citizen and I want to be able to say to that woman that I love, will you marry me, not will you civil union me.
PM: And I can understand, I can understand that perspective, but what I’m saying to you is what I’ve decided and the Labor Party has decided and there will be a variety of views in our community about it, but that’s what the Government stands for.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: So we just continue to go against the religious beliefs where in the bible it states no sex before marriage, but yet it is legal for us to have sex, but it is not legal for us to get married.
PM: Well, I can’t sort of, you know, take it further for you than what I said, that’s my position, it’s the position of the Labor Party, but we have moved to equalise treatment across the federal laws we have.
SPEERS: Can I just follow up on that, because the argument from both sides seems to be, we’re not going to allow it because we’ve decided we’re not going to allow it. We don’t actually get an explanation on why.
PM: I think for us, this is obviously an issue with different views in the community, but for the Labor Party, you know, reflecting community opinion, our members of Parliament reflecting views in their community, I think in our culture, there’s been a special status around marriage, there is genesis of the Marriage Act, and we’re intending to keep that special status –
SPEERS: That’s your public opinion.
PM: Well, opinion publically and within the Labor Party about that special status for marriage.
SPEERS: We’re going to move on. Let’s here the next question.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I’d just like to start by saying that I agree with the previous question one hundred per cent, consenting adults regardless of gender should be allowed to get married, it’s a democracy anything that hinders that is really hindering the program. It’s not really an opinion issue. My question comes with a bit of a forward. In the light of the global economic crisis, Australia has (inaudible) enormous debt. We are lucky that we have enormous mineral resources that other countries, that Kevin Rudd help foster a very friendly relationship with have been buying. The income from those national mineral resources seems like the perfect starting point, for reducing our national debt, by having a tax that’s effective, the forty per cent tax. And the cabal managed to get rid of the Prime Minister that we voted for, by popular vote, and then dismantled the tax that could have protected us from being in debt for many many more generations. Do you think that you are in some way undermining democracy in Australia?
PM: Well, thank you for that question and let me just deal with each aspect of it. Firstly on the question of debt, the, our peak net debt, so the peak net debt that we have, coming out of the global financial crisis is six per cent of our gross domestic product, now what does that mean? Well the easiest way of thinking about it, is it’s like someone who earns $100,000 a year having a $6,000 loan. So –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (inaudible) re-phrase it in a way that actually undercuts the problem itself.
PM: No, no, I’m just trying to be, they’re the facts, I mean maths is maths and so the absolute facts, the absolute maths of it, are that the highest the net debt of this country will be six per cent of gross domestic product, which is basically the wealth we generate each year.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: The question I’m actually asking, the heart of the question is, why would you try and dismantle the tax that seems to make perfectly good sense to benefit all of Australia?
PM: I’m going to come to that question, if you, I’m going to answer each aspect of your question, you asked me three and I’m going to answer each aspect of it. But you started your question, talking about enormous debt for generations, they were your words and I just can’t agree with those words, because they’re not factually correct. The net debt, six per cent of gross domestic product, the same as someone on an income of $100,000 having a $6,000 loan, the budget will return the surplus in 2013. For –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (inaudible)
PM: Well, ok, I assumed when you were talking about the minerals tax you were talking about debt, debt associated with the Government’s balance sheet and what I’ve just talked to you about is the Government’s balance sheet, six per cent, budget coming back to surplus in 2013. The Minerals Resource Rent Tax, that the Government is going to enact, it did start as a proposal for a Resources Super Profits Tax, that tax was not about our global financial crisis or the debt issue that we just discussed. It wasn’t about that. It was about getting a fairer share of the mineral wealth in our ground and using that to fund an economic plan which will help generate economic activity in other parts of the economy. So we worked our way through the best way of doing this tax, I personally worked through with our biggest mining companies and we’ve structured the tax now as a Mineral Resources Rent Tax, our biggest mining companies have agreed to pay it and that tax will go to fund reducing company tax, tax breaks for small businesses, superannuation and infrastructure. So things that will make a long term economic difference. I think that’s important. On why I’m here and who should be the Prime Minister of the country, well, I understand that you know, and I said in answer to the very first question I think it was this evening. I understand that people would have looked in late June and thought to themselves, you know, why do we have a new Prime Minister? What has happened here? And I’ve given my best way of explaining to you, which is I made a judgment that the Government was not in a shape to deal with some of the pressing problems and the Minerals Resource Rent Tax was one of them, but I also said on the day I became Prime Minister, that I would very quickly move to an election because the Australian people should have the choice and the 21 August is about you having that choice.
SPEERS: Thanks Prime Minister, we’re got to move on to the next question, we’ve got a long queue of questions.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Welcome to New South Wales.
PM: Thank you very much.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We here in New South Wales have a had a long Labor government, in state government, how can we honestly trust you and your Labor Government to keep your promises when you have broken so many promises in your first term, including dumping the ETS with which you had a mandate at the last election and today you sneakily announce the Parramatta to Epping rail link after the next term of government.
PM: Well I can answer both of those questions. I’ll start with Parramatta to Epping first, what we’ve announced today is that we will partner with the New South Wales Government in the construction of this rail link. It’s a $2.6 billion project, they’re going to put in $500 million, we’re going to put in $2.1 billion. Work is going to start in 2011 and that will be drawing down on the New South Wales $500 million and then we will make the balance of the funds available out of what we call Nation Building Two, which is the second section of our infrastructure spend. Obviously we’ve been spending on infrastructure. That was Nation Building One, we’re going to move to a program Nation Building Two, so the expenditure will start by the New South Wales Government in 2011. The work will start. The project is going to take through to 2017. It’s a big thing, six years to build and our money will come on stream so that it can be built, it will come on stream –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (inaudible) that you won’t break anymore of these promises?
PM: Well I’m very happy to answer your question and that is the answer. That’s exactly how it’s going to play out so you’ll see work starting on Parramatta to Epping in 2011. Now on the question –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I thought it was 2014 Julia (inaudible) –
PM: No that’s when Federal funds will become available. There is the NSW funds that will start the work –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (inaudible)
PM: Well, can I assure you of this and can I guarantee you of this. We will, we will make sure, we will make sure that the work starts and the Federal money will flow as milestones happen in the construction. We’re not going to hand a cheque over. Things will get done and when they are done, then they will be paid for. On the question of, you know, politicians and their word, you know, I can understand community cynicism about that. I can understand it. I‘m happy to, you know, provide answers on any areas where the Government’s disappointed you. You’ve raised one, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. We’ll I’m disappointed too. I was standing –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You were the one, you were the one that said ‘can it Kev’.
PM: No, well can we actually just the history a little bit right here. I was in Parliament House the day the consensus to get the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme through shattered. We had a deal. We had an arrangement. Mr Malcolm Turnbull, Leader of the Opposition, we’d shaken his hand, we had an agreed form of the legislation. It was going through the Parliament. And then there was a change in the Liberal Party and Mr Abbott became Leader of the Opposition and he took his hand away and we couldn’t get the legislation through. I was there the day that happened. And so if you’re frustrated, if you’re frustrated that there’s no Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, I hope when Tony Abbott’s asked about here, you ask him why he didn’t honour the deal that Mr Turnbull made with us because if he had the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme would be the law of this country.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: But you had a deal with the Australian people.
PM: Well, and yes, absolutely. Are you asking me am I still determined despite Mr Abbott knocking the consensus away. Am I still determined that we have a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and a limit on carbon pollution. Yes I am. I believe in climate change. I believe in the science of it. I believe we need to act and I’ll lead that debate to get that done. In the meantime we will be acting on climate change. I spoke a bit earlier about the $1 billion in transmission lines to bring clean energy, record investments in solar and renewable, that clean energy into your home and mine. You know, no more dirty coal fired power stations - new ones being built; cleaner car fleet and the like. But I will be working for that consensus on climate change. When Mr Abbott’s out here ask him today whether he believes in climate change because he’s known to say the science of it is absolute crap.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you.
PM: (inaudible).
SPEERS: Prime Minister, just on that. If you do believe in climate change and you think an ETS is the best way to deal with it, why didn’t you go with a double dissolution? Why aren’t you promising to do something before the next three years?
PM: Well, and I’m very happy to answer that question because when we have, and ultimately I believe in this country we will have a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and I’ll be working for that, but when we have that scheme and it puts a price on carbon, it will change a lot of things for how we work and how we live. It will transform a lot of ways that businesses work in this country and the one thing our economy could not stand, could not stand, is that you put all of that in place, and business does all of the adaptation to work with it, and then the political cycle changes and the other side of politics comes in and knocks it all away. Our business community couldn’t take that. They need certainty and so the best way of getting the certainty is to make sure we have a community consensus for action that then drives a political consensus and it becomes just bipartisan, part of how we live, that there is this scheme.
SPEERS: Ok, let’s hear our next question.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening Prime Minister, thanks for taking my question. My name’s Phillip.
PM: Hi Phillip.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi. I’m a scheduling clerk. My question is, I’ve been a staunch Labor voter and seeing what’s happened to Kevin Rudd, I was just wondering what guarantee you could give if you were elected, to remain Prime Minister for the full term?
PM: OK, thank you. That’s a good question and I thank you for it. And of course you become Prime Minister in this country, you become Prime Minister because the Australian people express some faith in you and your program and I’m obviously asking for people to express that faith on 21 August, and you’re Prime Minister because you lead a team and the team has got confidence in you. And so the answer I’m going to give you is the same answer that Mr Howard would have given you any day he was Prime Minister and I heard him give this answer on many occasions. To be Prime Minister of this country you’ve got to have the confidence of the Australian people and the confidence of your team. I do have the confidence of my team. I’m here, as Prime Minister, seeking re-election with your confidence, with the program that I’ve outlined for the future.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you very much. Thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening, my name’s Eileen Clark and the question I’d like to put to you is: Labor are currently running campaign ads depicting Peter Costello talking about Tony Abbott’s financial credibility. Now we know that this isn’t true because Peter Costello has come out and said it was two separate interviews that were fudged together. So if that’s blatantly dishonest and he has basically asked you as Leader on the Labor Party to show a bit of integrity and some backbone, I think is what he said, and to pull those ads. So my question is, if you don’t have integrity about that, something as small as a political campaign ad, how can I give you my vote?
PM: Well, I’m very happy to answer that. I’m very happy to answer that. I stand by that ad because it represents Peter Costello’s words and Peter Costello, Peter Costello may be trying to re-write a little bit of history now. We’re in an election campaign. I understand that but I had this question raised with me at a press conference in the last few days and I don’t have all the sheets of paper with me now, but if I did –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: But Tony Abbott didn’t have sheets, or he didn’t have the facts and that about something else. He was (inaudible) and apparently he is not a (inaudible). He doesn’t know (inaudible).
PM: No, no, no, well, I’m really happy to answer your question. When I referred to sheets of paper, what, if I had those sheets of paper, I would read you out, word by word, page by page, Mr Costello’s quotes about Mr Abbott. They are longer and more extensive than the ones you’ve seen on your TV screen in the advertising.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (inaudible) interview (inaudible).
PM: He’s written about it in the book that he wrote, his own memoirs. It was on more than one occasion that he reflected in an adverse way on Mr Abbott’s interests and economic capacities. The quotes are many and numerous and detailed.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (inaudible) because he was on Sky News this last week –
PM: Well, can I say to you, your faith in Mr Costello’s words on Sky News is, it’s nice and it’s charitable and I’m glad you have that faith, but there are pages and pages of quotes from Peter Costello that I’d be happy to supply to you. They are more than in the advertisement that are on the TV screen and they go to Mr Costello reflecting on Mr Abbott’s economic competence. On the question of Mr Abbott not knowing some technical details about the National Broadband Network – I haven’t criticised him for that. I don’t intend to criticise him for that. I was asked to criticise him for that in the media today and I did not do so. My criticism of Mr Abbott on the National Broadband Network is not that he doesn’t know technical details. My criticism of him is that he’s making the wrong bit picture judgement call. We need to build the National Broadband Network for the future. I will build it. He will not. That’s the problem. Not whether he knows some technical details about it.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (inaudible) on current infrastructure. Thank you.
SPEERS: Oh well just on the original question there about campaign advertisements. Can I just get people to put your hand in the air if you are sick of sort of negative attack ads that we see from both sides? Right, so we’ve got one week left in this campaign, perhaps the parties will take a message from that.
SPEERS: We’re running out of time but we’ll get another question in.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good evening Prime Minister. My name is Laurence Faulkner and what I want to know is the unemployed and the pensioners – you haven’t mentioned them, any in this campaign. Not even just a reference or anything. Now I know Tony Abbott has mentioned them once. He plans to take some money from them but you haven’t mentioned them either. What the hell’s happened?
PM: OK, I didn’t catch your name at the start, sorry.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Lawrence Faulkner.
PM: Hi Lawrence. I have, you may not have seen eve
rything I’ve said during the campaign and can understand that because obviously we spend a lot of time talking during election campaigns but I have talked about the, about circumstances for pensioners. As a government we delivered a big increase in the pension – around $100 a week for a single pensioner but I understand people are still doing it tough. So quite recently in the campaign I launched a new policy for pensioners and it’s particularly a new policy for some of our senior citizens who are on the pension but still like to do the occasional bit of work.
So, you know, they might for example when it’s school exam time, they go and supervise exams or might be a retired accountant who still does a few tax returns. At the moment that cuts into their pension fortnightly. I want to have a system where people can earn $6,500 a year before it impacts on their pension. We also announced this, it’s a good measure. I mean, it will help people. We also announced during this election campaign some other measures to assist pensioners with a bit, with a bit of the pressure on them and I’ve certainly been campaigning against Mr Abbott’s plans to increase the company tax which would put grocery prices up.
On the other question you asked me about unemployed Australians. I believe the best thing we can do for Australians who are unemployed is keep the economy strong and invest in their jobs. That’s why we did what we did to invest in jobs when the global financial crisis threatened. I didn’t want to see an extra 200,000 Australians out of work. At the start, when we were talking, I outlined the economic plan I had for the future. That economic plan is there because I want to keep the economy growing and supporting jobs. That’s the very best thing we can do for people who are unemployed.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: And the unemployed, tell me, when was their last rise?
PM: Well the Newstart benefit is indexed, like other government benefits but if you are pointing to the fact they did not get the same increase as pensioners that’s true. That’s true. Obviously we have, you know, for people on the pension it’s a long term dependency. For people on Newstart I think the very best thing we can do is help people to get a job.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: And meanwhile, when they haven’t got a job – woof. That’s what you’ve done, you’ve condemned them. Thank you very much.
SPEERS: Thank you for that. We’re really running out of time. We’ll take one really quick one.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Prime Minister, lovely meeting you.
PM: Thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: My name is Kimberley. I’m a sole parent who volunteers, works and studies in the community welfare. I struggle with time to get the best out of my child’s education. My question is about before and after school care and utilising that to the maximum potential. Do you believe more funding to be allocated to before and after school care centres for educational purposes such as structured homework programs to assist working families who struggle with time?
PM: Yeah. Look, that’s a really good question and a really big pressure on families and you’re obviously feeling it. So thank you for asking me about it. We have made available through some of the education reforms that I delivered as Education Minister and I’m really passionate about building on as Prime Minister some additional resources to schools which enable them to offer what are called extended school hours or extended care. It’s a good thing for kid’s education that they’re there in structured learning activities for longer, not traditional school but, you know, activities they can learn from. It’s a good thing for working parents too – parents with obligations. So I think you’ve raised a really important issue. It is something that we’ve invested in and I hear a lot of community, you know, concern about what more we can do. So it’s good to hear that message again tonight but we have made some differences to the ability to offer that extended care.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you, Prime Minister.
PM: Thank you. Thanks very much.
SPEERS: And there are a lot of people that couldn’t be here tonight. The Daily Telegraph did receive hundreds of questions on email and through the mail from its readers. There’s one that came up a few times that I want to ask you.
PM: Sure.
SPEERS: Self-funded retirees – they’ve been hit hard by the global financial crisis. They haven’t had a lot offered to them in this campaign from either side. So what are you going to do to help them?
PM: Well, for self-funded retirees, some of the measures that we announced the other day to assist, you know, many people on some part of a pension as well as superannuation, some are wholly self-funded. When we did the pension increase as a government, we did make some differences too for self-funded retirees, particularly making sure that the annual bonuses that they were then getting, you know, it was always would it happen this year, would they get it this year, wouldn’t they get it this year. We’ve structured that in so it’s available every year as part of the system and in Brisbane the other day when I talked about some measures to assist, and they are modest measures, but measures to assist there are some benefits for self-funded retirees in those measures. I do understand that there’s been some pressure on because of the global financial crisis and reduced earnings and for many that has meant that they’ve also become, in part, reliant on the pension too and so the arrangements we’ve made for pensioners have flown through to them.
SPEERS: Great, Prime Minister, look thank you for taking all of these questions.
PM: Sure.
SPEERS: Before we let you go, I’d invite you just to reflect on what you’ve heard tonight and give a final pitch to these undecided voters.
PM: Well, look, that’s been a good discussion and I thank people for asking their questions and I know people are closing out on a big decision on the 21st of August and I think when people make that decision, they’ll make it about themselves, their families, where they live and what they want to see for the future and in terms of the things that really matter to a person’s life, having a job, having the opportunity that a job gives, keeping the economy strong, I think that’s at the centre of everything. It’s at the centre of being able to have that all important pay packet, the benefit of work, the dignity of work, the opportunity that work brings and so my focus as Prime Minister is on having an economic plan for the future. I believe that that’s a contrast between the political parties. I do not believe Mr Abbott has an economic plan to keep our economy strong.
I also believe when we’ve got a strong economy, people want to hear about well is my child, is my grandchild going to a good school. Is it a good school? Is it a school that’s going to get better? How can I look forward to see whether or not they’re going to get a better and better education?
I’m absolutely passionate about making sure every child in every school gets a great education. We’ve made a start – national curriculum, Trades Training Centres, MySchool.
There’s more to do – investments in great teaching, rewards for schools, a cadetship program for kids that want to go into the trades, an academic certificate of prestige for kids that want to get that academic result. We’ll call that the Australian Baccalaureate. There are important things to do.
There are important measures to help families keep kids in school and to support them with their costs – the Education Tax Rebate and the Family Tax Benefit changes I’ve talked about to help with the cost of teenage kids.
Families also want to know, what about health care. What if something happened in the middle of the night? What would I do? Where would I go? Who would I call? I want to see people have the benefit of the After Hours Hotline. I want to see them have the benefit of the GP Super Clinics. I want to see them have the benefit of hospitals that are better staffed with emergency departments that can respond more quickly – that’s what our health reforms are about and I also want to see us work together and actually move together with confidence and optimism about the future.
I’m optimistic about our ability to work together to tackle climate change, to develop solar and renewable technologies, to use that energy in our own homes. I believe there are great things we can get done together. I believe that there are great things for the future like the National Broadband Network that people want to see that will transform a lot of how we live and work.
These are important things. I understand that there’s a lot of cost of living pressure around. We’ve made some announcements in this campaign about that cost of living pressure. One of the reasons, I think, Mr Abbott’s got it so wrong with his tax which would end up on groceries but this all about your choice - who you want to lead the country. You’ll be doing the contrasting and comparing. You’ll be thinking about the past. You’ll be thinking about the future and when you do that I’m sure you’ll be weighing up things that I’ve spoken about – jobs, great schools, decent health care, cost of living, being treated decently at work with fair work laws, not returning to WorkChoices. These are the things that I’m standing for and fighting for in this campaign. I really genuinely thank you for the opportunity to talk to you tonight.
SPEERS: Prime Minister. Thank you. We will be back in, well about 20 minutes from now to hear from Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. He’ll be facing the same audience and taking questions from the floor but please would you welcome, would you thank Prime Minister Julia Gillard for her time tonight. Thank you very much.
Tags: campaign, election, Gillard, Julia