CHRIS UHLMANN:
Good morning.
TREASURER:
Good morning Chris.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Joe Hockey, is the story out of yesterday's National Accounts that Australians face a fall in living standards?
TREASURER:
Well, there is a risk that Australians could face a fall in living standards if we are unable to implement our Economic Action Strategy and everything we have done this year, Chris, has been focused on addressing the future needs of Australia. That includes ending industry assistance, which was very difficult and very hard for a lot of people in manufacturing and a range of other areas, but we did it with a purpose and that is to try and strengthen the overall Australian economy. It also – there have been a number of other initiatives during the course of the year. Getting rid of the Carbon Tax has reduced electricity and energy prices for Australians and Australian businesses. Getting rid of the Mining Tax has opened the door to new mining investment; that's hugely important. Laying down a credible plan over the medium term to get the Budget back to surplus, that's hugely important. Privatising Medibank for a billion dollars more than expected, using the proceeds to get new infrastructure not only around Australia but around through the states into local communities.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Alright, if we come to some of those measures in a moment but let's look at the scorecard. Unemployment is rising, profits are falling, investment is down, wages are flat, inflation is near zero. Now, I'm old enough to remember what a recession looks like and all the signs are bad at the moment, aren't they?
TREASURER:
Well, well, you are wrong. Employment growth this year has been running at twice the pace that it did last year…
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Unemployment is at 6.2 per cent…
TREASURER:
[Inaudible]
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Youth unemployment – 13 per cent.
TREASURER:
Yeah, and it's too high. But we've got twice the employment growth this year than occurred last year under Labor; around 12,000 jobs a month created in Australia this year. Consumer confidence back at long term levels…
CHRIS UHLMANN:
After being hammered by the Budget.
TREASURER:
And business confidence and business conditions back to long term averages. The fact is we've got a pipeline of new infrastructure coming into play. We now have a record number of dwelling approvals and we're going to see a significant increase in housing construction over the next few months. So, I don't want this idea starting to spread as a result of poorly informed commentary that Australia is going to have a tough 2015. It will get better. But ultimately, we have to earn our future and the way to earn our future is to have sensible reforms, which we are laying down to higher education, for the health system and next year, through the federation and through taxation reform, that is going to build a more prosperous nation.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
But your May Budget should have inspired confidence and it didn't. In fact, it hammered consumer confidence. Didn't you talk about getting back to long term averages, that's because they dipped after the May Budget, even before you had problems with the Senate?
TREASURER:
And Chris, as I've been saying all year - previous budgets either had extraordinary surpluses where the Government was able to spend more money each year, or under Labor they borrowed money to spend more money each year. That had to come to an end, it had to come to an end. Now we needed to lay down a credible path to get the Budget back to surplus - and not for any ideological reason, but it is if you strengthen your household finances you're not only better able to cope with external factors but you have more choice about what you're going to [inaudible] for your future.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Do you agree that you shouldn't surprise people with the sorts of things that you're going to do in government? You need to engage in a conversation. You told no-one about the Medicare co-payment before the election. You told no-one about the changes to higher education before the election.
TREASURER:
Well, I'll tell you what we found before the election is that Labor were saying they were going to get to surplus. We thought at least, at least there might be a credible and recoverable base in the Budget at that point of time. But they first of all said there was an $18 billion deficit last year and then turned out just before election day to be $30 - just hear me out and then it ended up being $48 billion budget deficit and deteriorating. Now what Labor did was they locked in significant new expenditure against revenues that were never there like the Mining Tax. So we've had to deal with the cards that are laid before us.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
But they were known knowns and you went into the election saying things like there would be no cuts to education, there'd be no cuts to health, there'd be no real change when it came to higher education at all. You were trying to signal to the Australian people that there could be a change of government and no pain when it came to fixing the Budget.
TREASURER:
Well, I don't think that's right because for example Tony Abbott stood before the Australian people and said the School Kids Bonus had to go, we could not afford the School Kids Bonus. He did that courageously before the last election and one of the challenges we have now is that all the savings that Labor announced before the last election, they're now against - which is extraordinary, Chris. I mean Mr Shorten is going to worsen the Budget bottom line by $43 billion. His policies today worsen the Budget bottom line but most importantly, he's opposing the sorts of reforms that are going to make us a stronger nation in the future.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Certainly, but how much of this is your fault? You have actually come in for a lot of personal criticism recently. The Australian newspaper, which has backed the Government, would like to see you changed as Treasurer.
TREASURER:
Chris, I've faced criticism for all my political career. I expect I'll face criticism until the day I die. I don't care about what people say about me. I care about what needs to be done for the Australian people.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
And what about the fact that the Opposition basically when you were in opposition set up the template for the way the Labor Party's behaving now, saying no to absolutely everything?
TREASURER:
Well, we never did. That's again a furphy promoted by Labor because at the end of the day we supported 80 per cent of Labor's savings and then offered, and then offered another 25 to 30 per cent more in [inaudible] savings…
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Bill Shorten is saying he's supported $20 billion worth of your savings.
TREASURER:
Well, hang on, Mr Shorten's opposing $28 billion of our savings and wants to further worsen the Budget bottom line with a further $15 billion of unfunded promises. Now Chris, look, I want to say directly to the Australian people, we have a plan. We have a plan to deliver greater prosperity for our nation. We have a plan to deal with some of the headwinds that we're facing and we ask that the Opposition, Mr Shorten and the Senate work with us to deliver a plan that is going to deliver prosperity and hope for future generations.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
People don't like your plan.
TREASURER:
Well, it is the only plan on the table. It's come about because of a lot of work. It is the only plan on the table because it is about building prosperity and opportunity and we're the only political party that is prepared to lay down that plan.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
No matter how you may see the way that you operated in opposition, a lot of other people see it differently. Have we got a problem at the moment where the two major parties are actually locked in an ideological arms race and neither will give anyone anything that matters? In the end somebody has got to stop shooting the hostages, don't they?
TREASURER:
Well, I'm not quite sure where you're going with all that.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Well, I'm just talking about the way that politics has been played. When you were in opposition and when the Labor Party was in opposition.
TREASURER:
I'm sorry, in opposition we did make hard decisions. There are a number of things that we did support that the Government did that we didn't particularly like but we knew it was in the national interest. Now we're asking the Labor Party, the Greens, independents to be sensible. I've offered them all briefings, I've offered to open the Treasury and [inaudible] the challenges that Australia faces to them, but unfortunately the Opposition is not listening.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
Joe Hockey, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you as always.
TREASURER:
Thanks very much, Chris.
CHRIS UHLMANN:
And that is the Treasurer, Joe Hockey.