PRESENTER:
Mr Bradbury good morning.
BRADBURY:
Good morning Nick, good to be with you.
PRESENTER:
Tell us your role in putting together this document.
BRADBURY:
Look, my role has been largely a support role. I'm not involved in the Expenditure Review Committee, but certainly providing support to the Treasurer, who as you can imagine has put in an unbelievable effort, as I think all Treasurers are required to.
This is an exercise that goes on for somewhere in the order of around six months. As you can appreciate, the last few months, and in particular the last six to eight weeks, there has been frenetic activity that the Treasurer, the Finance Minister and the Assistant Treasurer have been involved in.
PRESENTER:
Mr Swan says it's jobs, jobs, jobs. That's not just creating jobs because of the expected boom over the next 10 years continuing, but also getting what The Australian called the idle back to work. Is that really the theme of this Budget, has that really frame every decision you've made?
BRADBURY:
Well look there's a couple of themes to this Budget, and the first one is it delivers on our commitment to chart a pathway back into surplus, and this Budget document does set out a plan for us to return the Budget to surplus in 2012-13.
But it is also a Budget that tackles the big economic challenge that we face, and at the centre of that challenge is a labour and skills shortage, and particularly with all the activity in the resources sector there is a great need for us to ensure that all of the human capital, all of the potential members of the labour market are out there in the workforce getting jobs. When you have a labour shortage or a skills shortage you end up having essentially two options – you either have to import labour from overseas to fill those needs or you ensure that we boost participation from people within Australia. This Budget has some measures that provide for skilled migration, but a very focus of this Budget is about looking at those people who are currently not in jobs that are here in Australia and having a look at how we can best help them make that transition into the workforce, whether it be long-term unemployed, or whether it be those with disabilities, or indeed those that might be teen single parents so that they will also have the opportunities and the dignity that flows from having a job and getting the income that comes with that.
PRESENTER:
Some of the papers have said that it is a tough Budget. Wayne Swan in his speech says that public debt is tiny compared to comparable economies, a fiscal position the envy of the developed world yet the patchwork economy grows unevenly across the nation. Why are we in such a hurry to return to surplus when there are so many infrastructure needs, the Illawarra being just one of the places that are crying out for it.
BRADBURY:
Well certainly infrastructure investment is a key part of this Budget and I'd make the point that over the period that we have been in Government we have dramatically increased the investment in infrastructure and in part that was in response to repeated comments the Reserve Bank had made about the capacity constraints the economy was running up against because there hadn't been sufficient investment in infrastructure.
But on the broader question of the need to return the Budget to surplus, running a national Budget is not that much different to running a household Budget. In the end, through difficult times, you can justify going into deficit, but you can't spend all your time in deficit. You've got to make sure the money coming in is at least as much as the money going out and as soon as we can return the Budget to that position the better. There's also a very big and important macro-economic reason why we do this, and that is there are real price pressures within the economy and those price pressures are because there is a lot of competition for scarce resources, particularly for workers and in the labour market. The more money that government is spending, the more government's expenditure begins to compete with the hungry resources sector and other sectors that are also seeking to purchase labour in the economy. If we take up a greater role through government intervention into the economy, then over time that will push up prices, that will increase prices right across the economy. That'll mean an increase in the cost of living for us all, and ultimately that will put pressure on inflation and interest rates. I think that is a very big challenge we are trying to tackle in this Budget.
The skills and the labour training measures are in large part about trying to ensure that we do not have a continued build up of these price pressures, which ultimately will drive up interest rates for all.
PRESENTER:
Tony Windsor says this is a good Budget for regional Australia. It certainly is for his region and for Rob Oakeshott's region as far as roads and money going to hospitals is concerned. What's in it for the rest of regional Australia?
BRADBURY:
There is a very big commitment from this Government to regional Australia and in the Budget itself we have allocated some $4.3 billion towards regional hospitals, health care in general, universities and roads in our regional areas. Of course, in addition to that, the Government is engaged in what I think is the biggest game changer for regions that we've seen in a generation, and that is the investment in the NBN. The National Broadband Network will present opportunities to regions that will totally shift the paradigm through which regional development has been viewed in the past. The tyranny of distance is something that will be conquered with the roll out of the NBN. It's a massive project, it's going to take time to roll out but I know, and I'm certainly of the belief that in the future generations will look back at what has been done with the NBN and will see that this has made a dramatic impact on regions right across this country.
PRESENTER:
In the short term, is there anything in the Budget for the Illawarra, for instance, besides a punishment in a way for those people who are brand new mothers, teenage mothers to get back to work?
BRADBURY:
Well look, in terms of the specific projects for the Illawarra, I think the local Members, and you've got some good local Members in the region, will be better versed on the specifics of those, but I would make the point more generally that, and you made the point in your introduction, that it is a natural inclination for us all to gravitate towards the Budget and ask what's in it for me directly, but it is also the most important document that a Government hands down to frame the economic policy framework of the coming years. When you have a look at what we're doing in that context, we are trying to manage the economy for the benefit of all Australians, and in doing so many of the programs that we have announced will benefit the Illawarra greatly. When we announce a Workforce Development Fund and funds for training, as we have done, and we have invested somewhere in the order of $3 billion in skills, the Illawarra, as will other regions, will be able to tap into those programs as and when applications open.
On the question of participation requirements around teen single parents, and the application of the pilot in places like Shellharbour, I think this is an important step forward. On the one hand you cited the notion of punishment. I don't think this is about punishment and I do encourage people who are interested in this issue to look at the detail of what we've announced. When people talk about carrots and sticks, people will see there is both the carrots and sticks here, indeed I've heard some of the welfare agencies come forward and say they were surprised at just how many carrots there were in this regard. It's not just about saying to teen single parents that there is an expectation that once the child turns six months you will be engaging in participation, looking for work, undertaking training or indeed finding work. But if you don't do that, then in the same way as income support right across the economy is not unconditional, there are expectations, we do expect reciprocation and responsibility but we're not just taking to people with a stick, we're saying we will invest in your skills, we will give you opportunities to give you the training that you need, and also the other assistance, it's not just about training it's about access to childcare, it's about all of those considerations.
PRESENTER:
Alright, I've got to move on but David Bradbury thanks very much for talking with us this morning.
BRADBURY:
Pleasure Nick, good speaking with you.