28-June-2010
Portfolio Media Releases, The Economy
Topics: Newspoll, Labor’s great big new tax on mining, impact on the budget if there is a mining tax back down.
E&OE
ALISON CARABINE:
Andrew Robb, good morning.
ANDREW ROBB:
Good morning, Alison.
ALISON CARABINE:
We’ll get to the mining tax in just a moment, but first to the Newspoll. It shows Labor’s position has rebounded strongly under the Gillard leadership. Doesn’t this poll confirm that Julia Gillard will be harder to beat at the election than Kevin Rudd?
ANDREW ROBB:
Well look, they’ve changed the jockey but they haven’t changed the horse and I think once we have an opportunity with the new Prime Minister to expose once again the problems with the raft of policies, the reckless spending, the massive debt that they’ve built up and the lack of any real solution to any of that
Once we’ve had a chance to have that debate with the new Prime Minister I think we will remain very competitive. Interestingly, the latest poll is showing that our primary vote is holding steady and the Labor Party have got a lot of votes back from the Greens and the new Prime Minister has had saturation and sympathetic coverage as you’d expect. There is a bounce but I think things will settle down in a political sense over the next few weeks.
ALISON CARABINE:
But the Newspoll doesn’t stand alone. There’s been a raft of polls since the Gillard ascendency, they all show Labor on track to be re-elected. Is Tony Abbott’s famous victory which was within reach just a week ago now just little more than a forlorn hope?
ANDREW ROBB:
Well the comments I just made relate to all of those polls that we’ve seen over the last few days but the reason the most extraordinary event happened, with the unions and the faction heavies coming in and executing the Prime Minister was because Tony Abbott had exposed the great weaknesses and the danger that Kevin Rudd and his colleagues had put the Australian economy and the Australian people in with the way in which they’ve mismanaged the economy.
Now, we will need to prosecute that case again. Julia Gillard was Deputy Prime Minister, was part of the Gang of Four, was instrumental in many of those, in fact, all of those decisions, but certainly led some of them like the biggest case of waste and mismanagement namely the school halls is a programme that Julia Gillard has embarked on.
Julia Gillard has said nothing since she became Prime Minister about the reckless spending that has led to the highest interest rates in the OECD, the six increased interest rate rises in a row are very much a function of many of the programmes that Julia Gillard has mismanaged and has overseen the reckless spending. They’re doing nothing to curb any of that.
ALISON CARABINE:
Well considering her position as a member of the Gang of Four and the problems with the BER school halls programme, do you think it’s therefore incumbent of Julia Gillard to announce an election sooner rather than later?
ANDREW ROBB:
No, it’s incumbent on Julia Gillard to explain what she will do to stop the $5,000 increase in mortgage repayments that’s occurred over the last 12 months because of much of her reckless spending, to stop the prospect of a great big new mining tax which will cause enormous problems with our competitive position and threaten billions and billions of dollars of projects and hundreds of thousands of jobs in the years ahead.
She needs to put forward a plan as to how to solve the problems, not just to rush to an election on the back of a honeymoon and hope that her personality will get the government over the line. We need to see hard policies. There are really grave issues out there. People are really struggling on their costs of living and there’s been no mention of those sorts of issues in the last few days.
ALISON CARABINE:
Well, Julia Gillard does appear to be moving at speed to try and find a resolution to the mining tax dispute. It is a running sore for the government. Now, there is an expectation a deal will be announced by the end of this week. Now, the Opposition also talks to the industry. What are you hearing, when might a compromise be reached?
ANDREW ROBB:
Well, what we’re hearing is that the government’s asking the miners to open their mind but there’s been no talk about the government opening its mind. We’re hearing that the concessions that Kevin Rudd was on the cusp of announcing are the same concessions that Julia Gillard will present and claiming that she has consulted. We’re hearing that there’ll be some concessions to say the coal seam gas people, that they’ll get rid of the quarries and whatever that should never have been anywhere near a new tax, that they’ll make some other sort of minor concessions, but they’ll seek to push the final decision beyond the election which means, what it means, it’s code for if they get back into government there will be a great big new tax across the mining sector.
They will not stop. They are a tax and spending government. They’ve got a hundred billion dollars, the debt they’ve created in under two years. They cannot have any other approach but taxing and spending to sort of deal with this issue. They don’t understand about prudent economic management and that’s what’s going to occur over the next few weeks. I think they will seek to mislead the population, to push this thing beyond the election, the substantive decisions on the mining tax, and then put this tax in when they get back in to government, if they do so.
ALISON CARABINE:
But before the election it’s almost inevitable that some sort of an agreement will be reached even if it’s just with some sections of the industry. Will the Opposition accept the deal that could be sealed as early as this week? If it’s good enough for the miners, why therefore won’t it be good enough for the Opposition?
ANDREW ROBB:
Well, one, that’s totally hypothetical and two, there’s no expectation that they will back down on the retrospectivity. No expectation that they will back down substantially, if at all, on the 40 per cent tax rate. No expectation that they won’t seek to secure more or less the $12 billion that’s already on the bottom line, a whole lot of changes at the margins perhaps but any new tax in our view is going to seriously jeopardise some hundreds of new projects over the next few years and that is tens of billions of dollars and hundreds and thousands of jobs.
They do not understand how business works, they do not understand risk, they are putting at great risk our economy and now we’ve got Wayne Swan overseas making extraordinary statements to businessmen in the US, the man’s a light weight when it comes to running this country, he is dangerous in the way in which he is going about this and now Julia Gillard has got as much knowledge or as little as he has about running the economy.
We need to see a plan from this Government about how they will extract Australia from $100 billion debt, how they will turn around interest rates which are the highest in the Western world and how they’ll tackle the cost of living pressures that so many Australians are facing.
ALISON CARABINE:
Just to pick you up on that Andrew Robb, you say Wayne Swan is dangerous. In what regard, he’s a danger to what or to whom?
ANDREW ROBB:
He’s a danger to the economy. He’s a danger to the economy, here he is in the US, here’s the Treasurer of Australia saying that this tax that we’re putting forward has got nothing to do with the Budget at all. You heard that, you just played that piece. Now, this is absurd. I mean, there’s a $12 billion tax that they’re brining in which is fundamental to their achieving their surpluses in year three and four. Their whole Budget collapses if this tax has got nothing to do with the Budget at all. I mean, the mixed messages being sent around the world is just going to add to the confusion and the sovereign risk that’s now occurring, the uncertainty amongst investors around the world who we depend absolutely and always have for our growth, the uncertainty that’s being generated by Wayne Swan, this tax and this Government is palpable and it is very dangerous to the future prospects of the country. If what’s happening in Europe escalates and we see another second dip recession around the world, Australia will be far more vulnerable than it was two and a half years ago because of the debt and the deficit and the incompetence of Wayne Swan and Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and the other members of that Government.
ALISON CARABINE:
Ok, Andrew Robb, thanks very much for joining us on Radio National Breakfast.
ANDREW ROBB:
Thanks Alison.