07-August-2010
Portfolio Media Releases, The Economy, Community, Funding
Helen Dalley:
And so the campaign is neck and neck, which is why Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott wound up in Queensland today. With the polls tightening, the Prime Minister is repeating her mantra that she’s in the fight of her life. The Liberal Party, which had been celebrating a surge in the polls earlier in the week, is now preparing for its launch tomorrow in Brisbane, knowing that it too has a fight on its hands. We’re joined now by the Shadow Minister for Finance, Andrew Robb, from Melbourne. Andrew Robb, thanks for joining us.
Andrew Robb:
That’s my pleasure, Helen.
Helen Dalley:
Now both parties are going after the grey vote. The Prime Minister has announced an extra $100 million today to be spent on senior Australians to allow them to earn more without it hurting their pensions. Now that’s a change that’s expected to benefit 25,000 part time pensioners. You would support those positive moves for seniors, wouldn’t you?
Andrew Robb:
We’re keen to help seniors wherever we can. Of course, it was the coalition who introduced the private members bill a couple of years ago, which saw an unprecedented $30 a week paid to pensioners. If it wasn’t for that bill that we introduced, pensioners would be today a lot worse off than they are. So it’s, as we announced the other day, an initiative to encourage and assist those over 50 right through to any pensioner age to get work. We provided a $3,250 incentive for employers, as well as changing dramatically some of the super arrangements so that older seniors could certainly still be entitled to any superannuation accruement right up until whenever they choose to stop working.
Helen Dalley:
I presume with the Prime Minister adding her bit to the seniors’ policy today, really seniors would be very happy about what’s happening for them. But let’s switch tack to Tony Abbott had his meeting with the Nauru President today. Seeing as he admitted only a government can negotiate with another government, was it an election campaign stunt to pressure Labor on the asylum seeker issue?
Andrew Robb:
No, it wasn’t. Julia Gillard, instead of pursuing the continuing soap opera that we’ve seen in Brisbane today with Julia Gillard meeting the former Prime Minister and being confronted by the former leader of the opposition, Mark Latham, she could have met the President of Nauru to see whether there is a possibility to do something immediately about boats. Tony Abbott is showing that some action can start, and it can start immediately once an election is concluded.
Helen Dalley:
But is it a front and centre issue, do you think, in voters’ minds right across the country?
Andrew Robb:
It’s a very important issue. After the cost of living issue, the pressure that’s been put on by Labor’s reckless spending, which has increased interest rates by some six times in a row now, apart from that cost of living pressure I think the boat people and the whole issue of immigration, the population size and what is a sustainable situation in that area, that is front of mind for many people in Australia.
Helen Dalley:
Just the boat people issue is front and centre of your campaign slogan. I just want to change tack to the polls today. They still have things pretty neck and neck, but the coalition is ahead on a two party preferred basis, 51 to 49, and on a primary vote as well, that’s in the Nielsen poll. How confident are you feeling?
Andrew Robb:
At the moment, it’s always difficult. We’ll be breaking 80 years of history to defeat a first term government. It hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.
Helen Dalley:
But those polls seem to be suggesting you’re going to do it.
Andrew Robb:
It’s still very tight. Two weeks is a long time, especially in this campaign. Most campaigns, I think, where you start is where you finish, but this is a fundamentally different campaign - the developments within the government over the last six weeks, the continuing soap opera. I thought today Julia Gillard is looking more and more a diminished figure. As these former leaders of the party appear, it’s making her look diminished by the day. It is also, I think, reminding people that if Labor is re-elected, you’re going to see the almighty power struggle. There’ll be retribution, vendettas, and you will see a most unstable government, I think for two or three years. If we had another double dip recession, it will put Australia in even a worse position than we are economically under this Labor government.
Helen Dalley:
Are you predicting a double-dip recession?
Andrew Robb:
Many of the business people that I deal with who’ve got global connections, and I don’t think I’ve met an analyst yet who doesn’t think that sometime in the next 18 months to two years that the sovereign debt that now is beleaguering so many countries, across Europe, the United States with trillions of dollars of debt, Japan, that that will coalesce . . .
Helen Dalley:
. . . But sorry Andrew Robb, are you suggesting that Australia will have a double dip recession, which is what you seem to be indicating?
Andrew Robb:
The last one was really a northern hemisphere problem in essence.
Helen Dalley:
And the sovereign debt is still the northern hemisphere problem, isn’t it?
Andrew Robb:
It is still, but it really fell apart. Of course, it affected the southern hemisphere, including Australia. But I suppose my point is that when so many people fear, and even the Reserve Bank’s message on Friday was that there are storm clouds in other parts of the world, the priority must be to restore the resilience that the Rudd/Gillard government inherited when they took over, where we had no debt, when we had billions of dollars in reserves, when we had 4% unemployment. Now we’ve got this debt, this reckless spending. You haven’t heard the word debt mentioned by this government through the whole campaign. There’s no sense.
Helen Dalley:
Well, I think they have mentioned it.
Andrew Robb:
It’s all as though the next three or four years are going to be Nirvana. We must prepare as a country to confront any sorts of problems that may appear in the next two or three years, and it’s not happening with the other side. They’re preoccupied with themselves.
Helen Dalley:
So Andrew Robb, if I could go back to my original question, therefore if you believe all that is happening and the electorate accepts that, you must be feeling very confident that you’re going to be voted in?
Andrew Robb:
The electorate are being told by the government of the day that the next four years and beyond is Nirvana. Hopefully nothing happens around the world, but most experienced commentators are saying we have to prepare ourselves just in case, because there is a real prospect of some sort of downturn. You can’t keep the reckless spending programs and the debt going up at $100 million a day, that’s what it’s going to for the next two years under the Gillard government. So we really have a government that’s in fairyland, and they’re running a soap opera. The whole campaign has been overwhelmed by the antics on the other side of politics, nothing to do with policy.
Helen Dalley:
If I could move it on, you’ve made that point. One poll result, though, that must be worrying you is that Julia Gillard is quite far ahead of Tony Abbott on the preferred prime minister stakes. Does that mean that Tony Abbott is not successfully convincing the electorate to vote him in as prime minister?
Andrew Robb:
No, I don’t think at all. In fact, usually on that indicator, the prime minister of the day, whoever it is, even if they’re well behind in the polls, invariably people get asked that question, and invariably you see the incumbent getting a better score. I think the main thing is to see how we are faring on who’s best for running the economy, who’s best for stopping the boats, who’s best for getting the debt down, who’s best for stopping taxes, who’s best for helping families. On all of those fronts, we’re in a very strong position. As well, the voting intention is very close across the country. So the bottom line is, it’s a real contest, and the next two weeks will be fundamentally important. People have to see who really is in a position to start to do some serious things, get them done, not all talk and no action as we’ve had for three years. That’s the judgment that people will be making, and that’s really out of the launch tomorrow. We want to start to put the meat on those bones.
Helen Dalley:
I wanted to ask you about the Liberal Party official launch tomorrow. Are you expecting that will give you a huge boost?
Andrew Robb:
We would hope that it’ll bring some attention on the program.
Helen Dalley:
What can voters expect?
Andrew Robb:
There’ll be no grab bag of promises. I think the important thing out of our launch tomorrow is to lay out a really strong program of what must be done and when it can be done, so that people can see that we have not only a plan to end the waste and to repay the debt and to stop the taxes and stop the boats and to help families, but we’ve actually got a series of quite doable things that must be done to achieve that. The last three years has been a total frustration for many in the electorate, because they were told so much. It’s really been like a home handyman, Kevin Rudd and now Julia Gillard, who start 100 jobs and don’t finish any of them.
Helen Dalley:
Andrew Robb, I presume that Malcolm Fraser, former prime minister, will not be attending, but will former prime minister John Howard be very much centre of attention, alongside Tony Abbott?
Andrew Robb:
John Howard will certainly be a celebrated figure. He is, wherever he goes. He’s someone who delivers so much for the country, and in the end that’s what we’re all here for and that’s why the party elected him prime minister to lead our party and to be prime minister. So he’s a celebrated figure and we’re looking forward to seeing him, but the focus will be on the future and what Tony and his team can deliver. We really are champing at the bit to start to do some things of real consequence to help families and to really protect Australia from any things that might be coming over the horizon in an economic sense, and to get on and grow this economy.
Helen Dalley:
Andrew Robb, we will leave it there. Thanks very much for joining us.
Andrew Robb:
Thanks, Helen. Thank you very much.