BRADBURY:
Today we hear that at the weekend at the National Party conference the Nationals have committed to introducing new divestiture powers, which will give the Australian Government the ability to smash up successful Australian companies into little pieces. This is a great sovereign risk, it will be a risk to our economy, a risk to jobs and ultimately this sort of reckless economic activity is likely to drive up prices for consumers.
This is something that's ill-thought out, it's ill-conceived, but the real question is, is this Coalition policy? I see that over the last few weeks the Nationals have been out there freelancing. We need to know whether they're freelancing on this one or whether this is Coalition policy. In the absence of any policies from the Coalition, there is a policy void. There's a policy vacuum that is now being filled by the National Party and some of these wacky, extremist economic proscriptions we're seeing come forward from the National Party, a motion endorsed by no less than Barnaby Joyce, a senior frontbencher within the Coalition, was out there on the weekend saying he wants to give governments the power to arbitrarily smash up major, successful Australian companies into little pieces. He wants to do that, that's National Party policy. What is the Liberal Party's policy? We've seen a complete lack of policy from the Liberal Party, and in that vacuum the National Party, with all of their snake-oil solutions, have come forward. It's about time we heard from Mr Abbott and the Liberal Party about what their position is. We all know the reason why they haven't detailed their policies, it's not because they don't have them. Andrew Robb has already conceded that he's got them all in his top drawer. They just don't want to release their policies because if they were to release their policies, the full horror of those policies would be clear to the Australian people. In the absence of them releasing those policies we have the Nationals out there, but all Australians can look to the State Liberal governments to see exactly what Tony Abbott would do.
We've said before that this is a curtain-raiser, the State Liberal governments are the curtain-raiser for what would happen if Mr Abbott were to become Prime Minister. That's what's in Andrew Robb's top drawer, it's about time they released it, but in the absence of having done that, we'll continue to have these crazy, wacky suggestions come forward from the National Party and frankly it's all because of a lack of economic leadership within the Liberal Party that this is occurring.
JOURNALIST:
But can the government ensure that no public service jobs are going to go to get the budget back into surplus at the MYEFO update?
BRADBURY:
Look, we are determined to return the budget to surplus and we do not underestimate the magnitude of the challenge involved there, but we've shown we've got a strong track record when it comes to making savings, responsible savings and that's something that will guide the way we approach our future economic decisions around the budget.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible]
BRADBURY:
We have always said that you need to be responsible in the way in which we manage the budget and the economy and that has required us to undertake responsible savings. We will continue to make those responsible savings as and where they're required and they're identified, but we will do that in a responsible way.
JOURNALIST:
Isn't Labor being hypocritical though in attacking the states for cutting public sector jobs when there are already 3000 federal public service jobs to go and you could be poised to cut more when you release the MYEFO update?
BRADBURY:
Mr Hockey is on the record saying that he wants to cut 11,000 public service jobs – 11,000 public service jobs. We have always opposed that approach. We believe that you do need an effective public service, but we've also said that it's important that government is operating as efficiently as possible. We need to make sure that we take the tough economic decisions that the country requires, but we will always do that in a responsible way, a way that allows us to continue to be focussed on delivering the key services that we believe the nation requires.
JOURNALIST:
But aren't you being hypocritical by making such a calamity about the states cutting public service jobs when there are federal public service jobs to go as well?
BRADBURY:
We are not in the business of taking to essential public services with a meat-axe – that's what we've seen from the state Liberals. When we saw the decisions that were taken in the Queensland budget last week and the decisions announced by the New South Wales government, what we see is what we always see when Liberals are in government. They're taking the axe to vital public services, whether it be health and education, that's what they've always done, that's what they'll always do.
JOURNALIST:
On the Nats' policy, aren't they saying they just want to see greater competition which could eventually drive down prices by breaking up big groups?
BRADBURY:
We support greater competition in all markets and that's why we need to ensure that the ACCC has all of the necessary powers to ensure competition. But what we're talking about here is a proposal to give governments the power to move in and to break up successful Australian companies into smaller parts. Now that will drive prices up, that will cost jobs and the most absurd thing about this is that this type of reckless policy will have its greatest negative impact in rural communities. We will see rural communities suffering at the hands of this economic vandalism that is masquerading as National Party policy.
JOURNALIST:
Enterprise migration agreements, do you think the need to find workers is lessened now that there is a slow-down in the mining sector?
BRADBURY:
We will obviously continue to monitor these matters closely. It is important that we have a labour force that is not only mobile but also sufficiently skilled to meet the demands of the jobs market right across this country. In terms of the current state of the resources boom and what demand for labour that will ultimately drive or continue to drive, that's a matter that the government will obviously be monitoring very closely.
JOURNALIST:
Have any businesses in your electorate expressed concern to you about their ability to pay penalty rates on Sunday and what have you said to them [inaudible]?
BRADBURY:
Look I think that there are plenty of businesses out there that would prefer to not have to pay penalty rates but we also take the view that, and I think this is a pretty commonly-held view out there in the community that if people are giving up their weekends to be at work, at a time when they can't spend that time with their families, then they should be properly compensated for the time that they're at work.
JOURNALIST:
But don't you see a problem here that in fact some of these businesses will close their doors instead of opening on a Sunday, instead of paying these penalty rates. Instead of there being jobs there they'll just close their doors completely.
BRADBURY:
There's not a great deal of evidence that that is in fact the case, but can I make this point, that we have always stood up very strongly for the rights of working people and where people are required to work on weekends, there is a cost to the community in them not being able to be involved in the activities that families are involved with on weekends. They're not at the sporting events that their kids are involved with. They're not at home spending time with their families. There is a personal cost attached with that and it's not unreasonable to think that there should be some compensation paid to employees for giving up time on weekends and hours outside of the normal working day.