SUBJECTS: Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Lindsay Tanner and Resource Super Profits Tax
STEVE PRICE:
Chris Bowen is the Minister for Financial Services and Human Services. He's on the line. Good to talk to you again.
CHRIS BOWEN:
And you, Steve. Good morning.
PRICE:
Have you got more of a chance of retaining Government with a new leader?
BOWEN:
Well, look, I think there's a new focus in the Government, a renewed, fresh approach, and I think the Australian people will welcome that. But time will tell and we'll go to the polls in the not too distant future. The Prime Minister's made it clear she wants to seek her own mandate, get the mandate from the Australian people. She'll do that over the next few months and it will be clear after that.
PRICE:
She made the comment very pointedly yesterday, Minister, that she felt the Government had lost its way and that she needed to take control. As a senior Minister in the Government, do you feel slightly upset at her making those comments?
BOWEN:
No, I don't. I think she was making the point that this Government's been a very good government. It got us through the global financial crisis. We did what we had to do and got through better than almost any other economy in the world. But the Australian people were looking for renewed focus on basic services for working families, renewed focus on economic fundamentals, cost of living, and a new Prime Minister is a chance for a fresh approach to those issues.
PRICE:
Part of the criticism was that the Government's been run by a gang of four, three of whom are now, two of whom are no longer there now: obviously Kevin Rudd and Lindsay Tanner. I'll ask you about Lindsay Tanner in a moment, but Julia Gillard can't escape the fact that she was there making some of the decisions that have caused you grief in the electorate, like talk about roof batts and the Building the Education Revolution problems. I mean, she was there and ticked off on those things.
BOWEN:
And she hasn't tried to walk away from that. She's made it clear she takes her share of responsibility for the good things, for the economic management, and for some of the mistakes that we've made. And she's not walking away from that for one second, but as Prime Minister, of course, you have the ultimate influence and the ultimate responsibility, and she'll take a fresh approach as the new Prime Minister.
PRICE:
Any of us who've covered politics for any length of time have had great regard for Lindsay Tanner. You obviously worked very closely with him. What a loss to the Government he is.
BOWEN:
He is. Lindsay is a very talented individual; good insight into economic matters. I worked closely with him as a member of the Expenditure Review Committee of the Cabinet and the three key economic Ministers, if you like. He will be a loss, but I completely understand his reasoning. When he got up he said, "There's two little girls who need me more than my country needs me". As a father of a five-year-old and two-year-old it's something which I could very much relate to.
PRICE:
You and me both.
BOWEN:
And it's something I think all of us in the Parliament could understand and relate to, and we really just wish him well because he deserves it.
PRICE:
Finally, the point made by the Opposition in Question Time yesterday that you still have the $12 billion from the super profits mining tax in your Budget, and now you're negotiating with the miners. How can you have both things?
BOWEN:
Well, because we are committed to a Resource Super Profits Tax.
PRICE:
But you're not going to get $12 billion out of it.
BOWEN:
Well, but we're committed to the idea that Australians deserve a much fairer share of the wealth of the minerals under the ground. We're committed to doing that. We're committed to it being a profits based tax and we're committed to dealing with things like superannuation.
PRICE:
So it might not be $12 billion?
BOWEN:
Well, we've made it clear we're more than happy to talk to the miners. There's lots of suggestions that have been made as to how you could change the tax without having much effect on revenue. Many people have suggested, for example, that you could change the 40 per cent rebate and increase the threshold. I'm not pre-empting any results or going through where it might end up, but a lot of those suggestions would have differing effects on the revenue and if there are changes to the revenue then obviously we'll make those changes clear when we update the policy.
But we're absolutely committed to a Resource Super Profits Tax. It's important for the future of the nation that we have a much more sustainable and fair taxation system when it comes to minerals. Mining companies said themselves, most of them have said, "Yep, we're up for it, we can pay more tax, we get it, we understand where you're coming from, we know our obligations. It's a matter of the details around that."
PRICE:
Alright, appreciate your time. Thanks a lot.
BOWEN:
Nice talking to you, Steve.