03-February-2009
Portfolio Media Releases, Infrastructure, The Economy
Topics: Infrastructure spending, insulation announcement, budget deficit.
FRAN KELLY: Andrew Robb joins us, he’s the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, he’s also in our Parliament House studio. Andrew, welcome to breakfast.
ANDREW ROBB: Thanks very much Fran.
FRAN KELLY: What do you think of this plan we just learnt about this morning, this insulation roll out, would you interested in that personally in your house.
ANDREW ROBB: Well look Fran, I’ll need to see the detail in all this and the context, the alternatives, really the quality of the spending is the important thing, what productivity improvements are we going to see at the end of the day from the spending. How will it keep people in jobs, how will it tackle productivity? What other initiatives are being potentially being forgone to do this insulation exercise? I mean, it all sounds fine if you’ve got the money to spend there are a million of things to spend it on but it’s the quality and return we’ll get. And now that we have got such a huge hole in the budget, a massive hole in the budget it puts all the more pressure on the Government to make the smartest possible spending decisions and you know we’ve heard a lot about the potential with some big ticket items, the ribbon cutting projects but nothing really about a lot of maintenance on roads, rail, ports or bridges or schools or hospitals. There’s a lot of very shovel ready projects which are not all that sexy but are potentially going to give an enormous return on productivity. I want to see what the totality of the package is before I comment on any part of it.
FRAN KELLY: Sure though your leader Malcolm Turnbull has been talking about green tax breaks, tax breaks for making buildings more energy efficient. A green jobs package presumably is along those kind of lines.
ANDREW ROBB: Well Fran, this is the fundamental difference in our approach. What the Government seems to do, is think that that just any amount of spending, picking winners, that their best placed to know where to spend the money. Our view is, in these difficult times with the limited money we’ve got we should use the taxation system and allow business and consumers to make the decision about to where best to spend the money, where to protect the jobs in their business. It is a fundamental difference in approach as to how we go about tackling this problem, how we attack the cost side of business, how we attack the demand side we think the taxation system in combination with lower interest rates is by the far the most efficient and effective way of doing it. The Government is obsessed with picking winners and I think it betrays a large element of playing politics with this global financial crisis. They are looking to be at the centre of every decision when really they should be providing a means by which individuals businesses and individual consumers are at the centre of decisions about what’s best for their lives.
FRAN KELLY: Don’t you think at a time like this that consumers might feel good about the Government remaining at the centre of projects that are after all are spending their money, I mean there are masses amounts of taxpayer’s money we don’t really just want to hand it out to business when dare I say it there’s a lot of business that got us into this mess in the first place.
ANDREW ROBB: Well look the world lived beyond its means Fran. Everybody in the main, many many people around the world including Australia we’re living beyond their means. We have all got to take some responsibility for the situation that’s out there and dealing with it, getting back to a point to where we are not living beyond our means, it’s the responsibility of every one of us and I think the Government’s job, at the moment it’s not clear what their strategy is, there’s almost a sense of panic about the Government, it’s like do anything, do something, do anything, spend, spend, spend but just be in a position to be able to say we are taking decisive action. We need a cool, calm and decisive and clear strategy and something which puts control back in the hands of businesses. A whole range of tax initiatives are possible. We have a credit crisis. This is a credit crunch of almost unprecedented proportions until you go back to the great depression. We have got to get investors willing to invest again. Again, the taxation system is a real possible there rather than trying to just willy nilly promote spending by consumers. It is a very flawed strategy the way the Government is going. It is not clear what the strategy is for that matter. There does just seem to be a sense of panic I think on the other side.
FRAN KELLY: Andrew you have been talking a lot about tax incentives, it’s a debate that is going on in America at the moment too as the Congress considers their President’s package. Where should the balance lie between spending on tax breaks and spending on infrastructure, the sort of shovel ready projects you have mentioned?
ANDREW ROBB: Well there is a role for infrastructure but at a time when we have got such a ballooning problem with the budget and the shortage of orders in business and the impact all of that is likely to have on jobs, the priority must be for, if you are going to spend on infrastructure which is always important, if you are going to spend on infrastructure, the priority must be on those things which can give a return very quickly. That is why I raised earlier the significance of looking at maintenance programmes across the country. You go to any State Government, they would have a bucket load of things in hospitals, in schools, in roads, in bridges, in ports and all of the rest where maintenance projects could see people start tomorrow on that work. The big ticket items are important for long term productivity but we have a looming budget crisis on our hands. We have to deal with it immediately so I do think the Government is not showing the sort of flexibility that is necessary to deal with the situation that has emerged.
FRAN KELLY: And the period of co-operation your Leader is talking about, at the same breath, all you can do is criticise.
ANDREW ROBB: We are looking to put up in good faith constructive approaches as to how we should go about dealing with this issue, this is a national problem. Everyone should be involved. To date there has been absolutely zero consultation with the Coalition from the Government about how to deal with this issue. I have just come back from the United States, President Obama has spent a lot of time both before the inauguration and following it trying to pick the brains of those on the either side of politics to try and make their package as effective as possible. This is what should happen in Australia. This is very unfortunate, it has been highly politicised, the response to all of this. People should put the politics aside and get down and work out what is the best way of tackling what is a very serious issue for the country.
FRAN KELLY: Alright Andrew, thank you very much for joining us.