14 February 2013

Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News AM Agenda

Note

SUBJECTS: Drugs in sport; MRRT; Coalition’s uncosted dam policies; climate change policy

KIERAN GILBERT:

Joining me now is the Shadow Minister for Small Business, Bruce Billson, and Assistant Treasurer, David Bradbury. Gentlemen, good morning. First of all, let's get a reaction to this ongoing drugs in sport scandal. 150 to be interviewed, finally a little bit of detail but no names or clubs, David.

DAVID BRADBURY:

Look I think we're all obviously quite concerned about the scale of what's potentially involved here. I think that it's important that the investigation progresses as quickly as it can. I've heard a bit of criticism out there about the fact that perhaps the Government shouldn't have come out and put this on the table with the ACC, but to be honest, when you get into investigations of this sort, had we not publicly brought this forward then I think people would be suggesting there was some sort of cover up. I think it's important you tackle these things head on, that's what's occurring and I welcome those [inaudible] cooperating.

GILBERT:

Bruce, what do you think?

BRUCE BILLSON:

Well it's sort of left a cloud over so many sports and so many athletes and you have to get some clear air about what's going on. What I found strange was listening to the drug agency heads talking about this being a concern for some years, then why has the Government cut the drug testing budget, it just doesn't make any sense. I mean, $15 million of cuts there, if something was going on in the background, why on earth would you reduce your testing capability? This is just many of the incoherent aspects that are around something is troubling many sports-loving fans.

GILBERT:

Let's look at some other issues now. In terms of the mining tax, the revenue hasn't generated what the government had hoped. This morning Wayne Swan didn't rule out the prospect of income tax rises to fill the void. Joe Hockey was very quick to respond. This was Joe Hockey this morning talking to the media:

[AUDIO]

GILBERT:

Politically it would be disastrous; I wouldn't anticipate any increase before the election?

BRADBURY:

Well we've delivered $47 billion worth of personal income tax cuts in the time we've been in office. Don't expect Joe Hockey to tell you that. Don't expect him to tell you that his plans to rip away the carbon price and the mining tax also involve an unwinding of the tripling of the tax-free threshold, which means that for millions of Australians, they are paying less tax, that's a tax cut that's been delivered to them; joe Hockey's plans – if you unwind the mining tax, if you unwind the carbon price – is to unwind the tripling of that tax-free threshold. He needs to explain what they are going to do in that regard and then beyond the tax cuts, we are talking about cuts to pensions. Pensioners will have their pension cut, family payments will be cut and he has said that all of that assistance and compensation is on the chopping block.

GILBERT:

Bruce Billson, that point that Joe Hockey made this morning, he said the Coalition's not in the business of tax rises but if you don't go ahead with the lowering of the tax-free threshold then that will inherently be a tax rise?

BILLSON:

Well we've made it clear, and Joe's made it clear, that we're not in the business of tax rises. Our tax plans see taxes being cut and we've made that clear with the mining tax and the carbon tax and that will deliver benefits. We've also made it clear that we're keen to see a reduction in income tax, a modest reduction, and a modest reduction in company tax. So we've made it clear, we're waiting to see the numbers but what you're hearing again from the Government is nothing but a scare campaign trying to whip up some hysteria when they've got this enormous budget problem and are already massaging the Australian public for higher taxes on mining, higher taxes on superannuation and can't even rule out increases in income tax.

GILBERT:

David Bradbury, the thing is that Bruce alluded to there is that Tony Abbott has said repeatedly that there will be a tax cut without the carbon tax.

BRADBURY:

Oh yeah, and there'll be fairies at the bottom of the garden. It's an uncosted policy, like all of their policies.

We saw one today, another $30 billion. Where is the money coming from? If you're going to give people tax cuts, give them more services, we're living in a fantasy land here. If you take away revenue sources, that's income to Government – mining tax, carbon price – then you've got a handful of choices. You either rip away the expenditure – that means cuts to pensions, it means unwinding the tax-free threshold, which is a tax hike, it means ripping away family payments – or you've got to go and jack other taxes up. We do know they've got a paid parental leave tax.

BILLSON:

You've just heard David Bradbury describe the dilemma the Government's got itself in. That's exactly the situation the Government's got itself in. Claiming these extraordinary revenues that haven't materialised, already spending the money, and you hear David Bradbury, I think he's verbalising what the Labor Government's thinking about its options. We think the Government has an expenditure problem, we've made that clear. Our tax plan is clear. We want to reduce taxes and not put them up. David's talking about all the dilemmas that this Government's created for themselves, where they've got a $2 billion revenue stream that they've banked and spent and then some on the mining tax for instance, that's bringing in a fraction of that amount.

BRADBURY:

What is your tax plan?

BILLSON:

We've already said. We'll cut the carbon tax. That's good news for Australian business, that's good news for Australian families, cost of living pressure off the cost of doing business pressure off. Mining tax – got to go. Not raising anywhere near the huge amounts of sums that David's talking about. Modest income tax, modest corporate tax reductions and that'll all be detailed.

GILBERT:

On the dams issue that I discussed with Barnaby Joyce, why not have a debate about vision, about plans of infrastructure building and so on? He said that they're not going to build all 100, that is was a 'compendium' as he described it of possible options. Isn't it good to have a debate about vision, about maximising Australia's resources?

BRADBURY:

Well someone in the Coalition thought it was a good idea, that's why they leaked the policy document. I think it is important that the Opposition's plans are put on the table so they can be subjected to some scrutiny. Now, I'm sure that if you took a straw poll out there in the community and said would you like the government to build dams, there'd be lots of people who'd say that's a good idea. But where is the damn money coming from? How are you going to afford it? How are you going to afford $30 billion worth of projects at a time when Joe Hockey's already –

GILBERT:

It's not going to be that much though.

BRADBURY:

Well how much is it?

GILBERT:

He was talking about seed funding and infrastructure partnerships.

BRADBURY:

At the last election they had half a billion.

BILLSON:

[Inaudible]

GILBERT:

Okay, let's have Bruce's response.

BILLSON:

It couldn't have been clearer. Barnaby made it perfectly clear. Since 2011 we've had a taskforce working on water security and water availability. We've consulted widely and this Government is afraid of ideas. I mean, it's so busy worrying about itself. And in that report you'll see there are business case propositions where the private sector would see value in engaging. That is the list of the projects that the public has brought forward. There is an appetite in the Australian public to build a stronger and more prosperous economy. Water security's part of that, part of our five-pillar plan to strengthen the economy. It's important to support agriculture, we've got large tracts of arable land where the bulk of our rain will fall. We can convert that into wealth and opportunity and David and the Labor Party are just going berserk because we consult, we try to work through our ideas and involve people, and here you've got David getting all shrill like he did last week.

BRADBURY:

We're talking about a discussion paper that was not open to public discussion, only thankfully someone from the Liberal Party leaked it. That's what we're talking about, but if you're talking about a mass program like this, $30 billion – that's the figure, that's the figure that was mentioned – now people might try to walk away from that but they've already got a $70 billion black hole, not to mention the cost of their big northern Australia policy's going to be, and that'll be billions and billions. How are they going to fund it?

GILBERT:

Let's move on – just a quick one Bruce.

BILLSON:

I'm sure the people of Western Sydney are interested that some of these dam proposals actually also work as flood mitigation measures. They can help generate zero emission energy, they can help secure environmental flows. These are ideas and when we consult before the paper's released, the Labor Party goes out to [inaudible].

GILBERT:

I want to play something Greg Combet said yesterday, it was about Tony Abbott's climate change policy following Barack Obama's State of the Union where he committed the US to action on climate change.

[AUDIO]

GILBERT:

Colourful language there, very colourful language from Mr Combet. He says there's no other way to put it; Greg Hunt says it's un-Parliamentary. Is that an accurate description?

BRADBURY:

A lot of people are saying it's un-Parliamentary but I haven't heard many people say it's untrue.

BILLSON:

What an interesting day we had, what a great moment in Parliament with the Act of Recognition in the morning, bookended by one of these grim moments where they're trying to verbal the United States President who made it clear over and over again there would be no carbon tax.

GILBERT:

He also said something about a market-based mechanism didn't he? Which is what the Government's plan is?

BILLSON:

Well that's right, then later on in his speech he talks about direct action investment and how that can improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions. The Coalition has a market-based measure, we've seen what the best-value low emission investments would be to improve our competitiveness and reduce our emissions. Labor wants to punish everyone with the carbon tax when they promised they wouldn't do it and the President said yesterday you should honour the promises you already made. He made that point, and not make new promises until you keep the ones you've already made.

BRADBURY:

And half of your mob are still in denial about whether climate change is happening. Should've put that to Barnaby Joyce a bit earlier. They are in denial. Now they have a ham-fisted, shambolic direct action plan which if you think the $30 billion they plan to spend on dams is a lot of money, wait until you see the sort of money you've got to spend in order to use direct action to reduce emissions. We are doing what is sensible, which is a market-based mechanism. That's what President Obama's doing. Minister Combet made this point, that there will be a billion people living around the world in jurisdictions where a market mechanism is in place when it comes to attempts to reduce emissions. That's something that is important.

BILLSON:

They're still making it up as they go Kieran.