SENATOR THE HON PENNY WONG
MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND DEREGULATION
TRANSCRIPT
21 May 2013
TOPICS: BUDGET, GST, MARRIAGE EQUALITY
E&OE - PROOF ONLY
WONG: Thanks very much for coming along. The first thing I wanted to address is the speech that was given by the Secretary of the Treasury today and some comments he made.
The Secretary of the Treasury said today: “Were the Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook” – the PEFO – “to have been released on the 14th of May it would have contained the numbers that were in the Budget”. That’s what the Secretary of the Treasury said today.
And what this does is completely destroy one of the accusations that Tony Abbott has been making, that somehow the Budget numbers have been fudged; that somehow they’re not legitimate. Well, the Treasury Secretary has made very clear today the numbers are the numbers, and were the PEFO to have been released on the 14th of May, the numbers would have been the same.
But why is this important? Well, the reason it’s important is this: One of the many reasons Tony Abbott has given for hiding the cuts he plans from Australians has been that he has to wait until later in the year, that he has to wait for the ‘real numbers’. Well, it’s quite clear from what the Secretary of the Treasury has said, these are the real numbers.
So, one of the excuses that Tony Abbott keeps making and that Joe Hockey keeps making as to why they don’t have to detail their cuts to the Australian people ahead of the election has been completely destroyed today by the statement of the Secretary of the Treasury.
The facts are these: Tony Abbott has more cuts planned. We’ve seen reports in papers recently that we’re looking at some $75 billion worth of cuts from the Coalition. But they’re refusing to tell Australians what they’ll be. What they will say is, ‘Oh, well, we’ll have a Commission of Audit’ which, as we all know, is a Commission for Cuts.
Well, what I’d say is this: Australians are entitled to know what Tony Abbott’s real plans are. Australians are entitled to know his plans to cut to the bone. And today what we’ve seen is the Secretary of the Treasury destroy completely another of the excuses that Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott keep using to keep Australians in the dark.
It’s time for the Opposition to detail what they would do. It’s time for the Opposition to be upfront with the Australian people – tell people how you’ll cut to the bone, rather than keeping them in the dark.
Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Senator, if it was you, wouldn’t you do the same thing? It seems to be a smart move not to get criticised too much in advance.
WONG: Well, isn’t that interesting. Is it a smart move? It’s certainly a politically tricky. But is it the right thing for the country to have a man who wants to make the sorts of cuts that the Opposition Leader does and hide them from the Australian people until the election? I don’t think that’s very democratic, do you?
JOURNALIST: Isn’t it fair enough to give him enough time to look at the Budget numbers before…
WONG: But that’s not what he’s talking about. He’s not talking about looking at the Budget numbers. He’s talking about waiting until well into the election campaign and after to tell Australians what his real plans are. I don’t think that’s very democratic.
JOURNALIST: Did the Gonski numbers come from your Department?
WONG: The Gonski numbers are in the Budget. You’re talking about the $16.2 billion worth of cuts? Those numbers are in the Budget. And it’s very clear – and I’ll refer you to the statement that Mr Garrett put out today – how they were calculated.
The reality is we have two very clear cuts that Tony Abbott has been prepared to ‘fess up on. One is, he wants to cut education and the second is he wants to hack into people’s superannuation savings.
JOURNALIST: On the topic of education, the Greens have met with University of Adelaide students today and had a roundtable meeting and spoken about cuts to tertiary education. The Greens are proposing that the Government should look instead at cutting funds to mining companies and the mining sector. What’s the Government’s response to that?
WONG: The Government’s response is this: Our record shows that we have increased higher education funding every year since we came to Government. That funding for Commonwealth places is up some 75 per cent since we came to Government. That there are more students at university than ever before because of a Labor Government. And there are more children from disadvantaged backgrounds at university because of the policies of a Labor Government.
JOURNALIST: What’s your reaction to Kevin Rudd’s backflip on same sex marriage?
WONG: As someone who has been advocating for equality privately and publicly for a very long time, I welcome anybody changing their position and looking to support marriage equality.
JOURNALIST: What’s your personal response – the Australian Christian Lobby has come out saying that same sex couples who have children are as bad as people who were involved in the Stolen Generation because they are depriving children of their natural parents.
WONG: I would say a few things. First, I’d say this: Today, Jim Wallace and his colleagues at the Australian Christian Lobby have demonstrated just how out of touch they are. This sort of bigotry really has no place in modern Australia. Regardless of his views on marriage equality, same sex families exist and we have children. And our children are loved. And our children are cherished. And they deserve far more than the sort of peddling of prejudice we’ve seen from Mr Wallace and his colleagues today.
JOURNALIST: Do you think religion has any place in politics?
WONG: I don’t think that the ACL speak for all people of faith in this country.
JOURNALIST: Why do you think Kevin Rudd’s chosen now – is this just an election ploy?
WONG: I think you’d have to ask Kevin that, but he’s laid his reasons out …
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister has again refused to state why she won’t support same sex marriage – she hasn’t given her personal reasons. Why is that? Why shouldn’t she be outlining her position?
WONG: I think the Prime Minister has made her position on this issue clear, as have I.
JOURNALIST: Has she given the Party Room an undertaking about why she believes that?
WONG: I’d refer you to her past statements which are on the public record. She’s made her position on this very clear.
JOURNALIST: Can I just ask you on the GST – do you agree with the Treasurer that is was always a bad tax?
WONG: I think that the Liberal Party’s plans to hike the GST are nothing more than an increase to the cost of living of Australian families, and particularly low-income Australians. I think that Tony Abbott has made very clear in his Budget Reply that he wants to go further and you see out there Mr Hewson and Mr Costello and other people in the Liberal Party who want to jack the rate up.
When Tony Abbott says to you that the States have to agree to a change in GST understand what the truth really is. Just as a new Parliament can change the carbon price, which is what Tony Abbott is telling you all, a new Parliament can change the GST. An Abbott Government could change the GST and could change both its rate and base and its distribution.
And, of course, from the South Australian perspective, we’re very clear what the agenda of the Liberal Party is when it comes to distribution of the GST. We’re very clear that Tony Abbott has not backed in the existing system of distribution which protects South Australia and other small states. And we’re very clear that Tony Abbott has said to Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett, ‘You go away and work it out and if you can get people to agree, I’ll come on board’. And we’re very clear that Colin Barnett has got the agreement of Liberal States.
So, if anybody doesn’t think that Tony Abbott has an agenda to hike up the rate of the GST and to change how it’s distributed, well, they haven’t looked at what he’s really said.
ENDS
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