KIERAN GILBERT:
Welcome back to AM Agenda. Joining me now from Melbourne the Shadow Small Business Minister, Bruce Billson and from Sydney the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, David Bradbury. Gentlemen, good morning.
DAVID BRADBURY:
Good morning Kieran.
BRUCE BILLSON:
Good morning.
GILBERT:
Bruce first to you. We've seen the floods, now Queensland bracing for this massive cyclone. It is really a matter of just sitting and waiting for the military like everyone else as we heard there from the Minister.
BILLSON:
Yeah it's a whopper of a cyclone, one that people haven't seen, certainly in that part of the world, and larger than Katrina in terms of it's force. So it is a whopper. I think that all of the advice about early preparation is crucial, people moving to the evacuation centres, the advice that's being received about water in the bath and turning off gas and electricity, all of that very important. Also the way the Queensland government has prepared the health and medical services to contend with what may arise as well as the ready deployment of military assets and personnel to help with what is a really unimaginable force coming our way and due to hit the shore later this evening.
GILBERT:
Yeah another kick in the guts for Queensland. Internationally, David Bradbury we've seen some interesting developments. Mubarak this morning saying he won't be recontesting so it seems some movement there. The question is will it be enough to placate those protesters on the ground that we've seen so dramatically?
BRADBURY:
Well look Kieran obviously events in the middle east, in Egypt in particular, are very fluid at the moment and these latest developments I think are certainly amongst the most significant developments that we've seen in Egypt over the last couple of days and weeks. In terms of what that means for the future, as the Defence Minister indicated I think that there will be a time for others to comment on what this means for the Government more generally. But I think that the Defence Minister's point in relation to this being perhaps a sign of a willingness to progress to a peaceful and orderly transition is something that, to the extent that these actions represent that, they would be welcome. But obviously this has got a long way to play out and the situation, as I've said, is very fluid and we look on and we'll be watching this very closely.
GILBERT:
And back home to domestic politics again Bruce Billson the first sitting day of next week is going to be a condolence motion in the wake of those devastating floods and that comes of course as we mentioned at the start of our chat, as the nation braces for another major event. But quite appropriately you would have thought that this condolence motion be the way that the Parliament starts the year?
BILLSON:
I think that's very important. I've travelled to some of the flood affected areas and as much as we can prepare for such tragedies that may still be ahead of us and the challenge is certainly recovery and reconstruction. I think what the people affected need to know is their nation's Parliament is with them, that we understand that there's work ahead and that long after the most vivid pictures are no longer showing on television there's still an enormous job there and Kieran I think that the Parliament spending some time reflecting on not only the loss of life and loss of economic opportunity and damage to communities, it will send a strong message that we are there with those communities, we haven't forgotten the challenges they face and I hope it will be a tonic for those at the coal face seeking to rebuild their lives, get their homes back into shape and rebuild their livelihoods and I think that will be a strong message coming out of the first sitting day when Parliament resumes.
GILBERT:
But Bruce as you know the bipartisanship won't last long will it? The gloves will be off when you start talking about the levy.
BILLSON:
Well the task, the reconstruction and the rebuilding task is clear we all know that needs to be done. I mean the issue here is whether this levy is a smart way of dealing with it. We just started our discussion today talking about another natural disaster we're staring in the face of. It's clear that nature spits up some enormous challenges in this vast continent of ours and the levy that's proposed to deal with a very enormous challenges that has arisen recently, it underlines the fact that these sorts of challenges come our way. The best thing governments can do is have the capacity within its budgets, in its reserves to deal with these things as they arise. The amount to be raised by the levy is substantially less than the money that's spent on that debacle of a home insulation program and with a $350 billion budget, I'm certainly not convinced there aren't opportunities to find savings to carry out the reconstruction work, mindful there will be further challenges ahead and the Labor government needs to make sure that the buffer, the capacity, the resources are there in the budget to deal with these challenges as they rise, not slap a levy for one particular event.
GILBERT:
David Bradbury you heard from Bruce, there is going to be some bipartisanship on Tuesday but that ends Wednesday with this debate over the levy. It's going to be quite a battle royale isn't it?
BRADBURY:
Look I think that's right and Bruce has just exhibited yet another example of this very deliberate but selective amnesia that we get from the Opposition when it comes to that other really big event that's happened over the last couple of years and that was the Global Financial Crisis. It's all good and well for people to talk about making adequate provision for extraordinary events of this nature in the budget on an ongoing basis, and indeed there is a separate discussion that needs to be had around that. But to come forward in the context of a particular set of circumstances where we are now coming out of the back of what has been the biggest economic downturn that the world has seen in sixty years, I think it is a bit rich to say well simply these are matters that should be dealt with within the budget.
Particularly when we consider the fact that not all that long ago, when the Opposition did have the opportunity to go through with a fine tooth comb and to identify the particular savings to the budget that they would want to make, they did such an abysmal job of that back then.
We saw the $11 billion black hole in the election costings, and the other point that I'd make is that for all of the hot air about levies, and I think that this is an important and appropriate levy, but for all of the hot air about levies Bruce and his colleagues - Tony Abbott in particular - seem to have just ignored the fact that the former Howard government, apart from trying to introduce six additional levies, we had as recently as the last election campaign Tony Abbott proposing to fund his election commitments - not the response to a national emergency - but his election commitments from a levy. So I think that there's a lot of hot air. Clearly there will be a time for bipartisanship as Parliament resumes but there are some important challenges that we as a nation have to confront and we will very rigorously pursue the course of action that we believe to be the right one.
GILBERT:
Bruce just quickly, just 20 seconds left.
BILLSON:
The bipartisanship is in reach. We urge the Government to take up the offer to sit down with the Coalition and find those savings. Julia Gillard said that if her estimates are wrong, Labor will find more savings. We've said we are prepared to sit down and work with the Government on that, the bipartisanship door is open. I wonder whether the Government will take it up to work together to find those savings.
GILBERT:
Bruce Billson, David Bradbury I look forward to chatting to you both right throughout 2011. Thanks for that gents.
BRADBURY:
Thanks very much Kieran.
BILLSON:
Thanks Kieran.