22 May 2013

Interview with David Speers, Sky News

Note

SUBJECTS: Western Sydney, Budget 2013-14, Joe Hockey's plan to water down the tax office

HOST:

David Bradbury, thanks for your time. Just on the battle for the west. How is it going in your seat? How confident are you at the moment?

DAVID BRADBURY:

Look, it's going to be a tough battle. I've always said that when you hold a seat like Lindsay, it's always been a seat that's been in the hands of the government of the day. We've got a few challenges between now and the election. There's no question about that. But I spend every day out there, working hard for my community, making the case about why we are making investments that will make a difference for our community, whether it be investments in education, giving every kid the opportunity to make the sort of contribution they can, or rolling out things like Disability Care, the National Broadband Network, these are things that will make a profound impact on people's lives, things I'm proud of and things that we need to make sure we keep reminding people of.

HOST:

Has the live export trade come up much in your electorate, because they are here in full voice this afternoon?

BRADBURY:

I saw a couple of protestors there. I think they've been to more community cabinets than I have.

HOST:

What about some of the Budget measures that [inaudible]. The Government has decided not to give families the baby bonus, they're going with a smaller payment instead, you're not going ahead with a promised tax cut, with a family payment increase. A lot of families in an electorate like yours surely must be unhappy about that.

BRADBURY:

Look, I think that most people would always like government to be providing them with more assistance, there's no question about that. We've been very supportive of families of the measures that we've put in place over the time that we've been in office, whether it be things like Paid Parental Leave, which of course the whole debate around the baby bonus all emerged at a time when the Howard Government refused to accept paid parental leave and instead came up with a baby bonus. We think that that's an important way of providing assistance.

HOST:

But does this Budget make your job harder, holding on to that seat?

BRADBURY:

One of the interesting things people have said to me after the Budget was it doesn't look like much of a budget for an election. But I think therein lies one of the strengths of this Budget is that it is about the long term interests of the country and we're saying to people ...

HOST:

You've got a short term interest though. You've got four months to hold on to your seat.

BRADBURY:

But what we've also seen with Mr Abbott's reply is a very clear choice starting to open up between a government that is making investments in education and investments in Disability Care and an Opposition that's out there talking about ripping away superannuation, deferring people's superannuation contribution, having a big impact, cutting money like Schoolkids Bonuses.

HOST:

They are wanting to deal with what is the structure deficit in the Budget. We saw the Parliamentary Budget Office today point out that we've been in structural deficit for the best part of a decade and will remain so for quite a few years. Has this government and governments before us been too generous?

BRADBURY:

The Parliamentary Budget Office today, I've only had a brief opportunity to review their findings today, but it seemed pretty clear to me that they are saying that there was some serious excesses in terms of the spending practices from the early part of last decade and changes were built into the system, many benefits and handouts were built into the system at a time when the mining boom was going ahead full charge.

HOST:

Now it's tapering off are you doing enough to rein all that in?

BRADBURY:

I think the PBO also did make the point that in the last two years in particular government has made some really significant long term structural savings measures. And I make the point that this Budget's been a little bit different, but every other time in this of the Parliament that we've made some difficult decisions, things like means testing the Private Health Insurance rebate, have always been opposed by our opponents. So we think it's important to take responsible measures. What I think that people really need to be concerned about is the so-called Commission of Audit, I think it's a Commission of Cuts. This is about getting through to the next election and then creating a pretext for then having massive cuts to the bone right across services.

HOST:

Just finally, Joe Hockey today announced the Coalition would review how the tax office works, to have better oversight so that it's not both a prosecuting and assessing people's tax. Is there a case for that?

BRADBURY:

Look I thought it was extraordinary what we saw from Mr Hockey today. It's almost as though it was a speech that was written ten years ago that was pulled out today. On this very day we see around the globe serious examples of where multinational enterprises are taking advantage of laws in order to shift profits and reduce the tax that they pay. One of the things we've been very strong on is making sure that the tax office and revenue authorities have the powers they need, always opposed by the Opposition. I find it extraordinary that in that context, Mr Hockey's now talking about watering down the laws and breaking up the tax office rather than cracking down and clamping down on loopholes and the companies that are avoiding paying tax right around the globe. That's been our focus and every time we've introduced a measure, $11 billion worth of them, Mr Hockey and his colleagues have voted against them. I find it extraordinary.

HOST:

David Bradbury, Assistant Treasurer.