KIERAN GILBERT:
For the Government's reaction to this I'm joined by the Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury. Mr Bradbury, thanks for your time. As you've heard, this is just a discussion paper at this stage, a collation of submissions that the Coalition has received. It's good to have these sorts of debates isn't it?
DAVID BRADBURY:
Look, I'm not surprised that Tony Abbott is walking away from this at a million miles an hour. What is set out in this policy proposal would be an absolute disaster for so many people across this country. Let's be clear about this. This is a proposal to divide Australia in two and what that means for people in regions like Western Sydney, in my part of the world, is that there will be higher taxes for people in Western Sydney, we will see jobs that people currently have in places like Western Sydney relocated to the far north of Australia. People will be given the option of either packing up your bags and your family and go to the other side of the continent to keep your job, or else, stay where you are, we're going to jack up taxes and, wait for it, we'll review immigration laws to see whether or not we can allow cheap foreign labour to come in and fill the jobs that we've taken.
GILBERT:
You say it's a policy proposal but it's not a policy proposal, it's a collation of submissions that the Coalition's received. It's not even an options paper that they're putting out there yet.
BRADBURY:
Like I said, I can understand why they're trying to walk away from it. If the report in the paper is correct, Mr Robb, who's overseeing their policy development process – which he's already told us, Kieran, he and Mr Hockey have told us they've got all these policies in the bag, we're yet to see. Well, we're beginning to see them and when, all of a sudden, in the full glare of scrutiny, the Australian people see what's on offer, it's no wonder they're walking away from it.
Let's be clear about what we're talking about in this proposal. We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars – have a look at what they're proposing – hundreds of billions of dollars of white elephant infrastructure projects in the far north, funded by increased taxes on people in places like Western Sydney. You're going to have gold-plated footpaths in Karratha while people are stuck in traffic gridlock in places in Sydney.
GILBERT:
But isn't that part of it, to help sustainability, have population in the north and to tap into the economic advantages of the north through dams and infrastructure. How is it white elephant?
BRADBURY:
Well, when you start shipping off jobs that people already have in places like Western Sydney. For someone in Penrith who works at the Tax Office to all of a sudden find that the Tax Office is being shifted to northern Australia, they've got the option to either pack up your bags and your family, follow the job all the way to northern Australia, or otherwise –
GILBERT:
Can you see the benefits in it though, of developing northern Australia?
BRADBURY:
We have always said that there are great economic opportunities in northern Australia, but what we see in the proposals that it appears have been circulated under Mr Robb's name, are whacky, these are absolutely whacky ideas, they involve hundreds of billions of dollars. They take about real solutions, but I'll tell you what, this ain't a solution, these are real problems they are creating. We're talking about hundreds of billions of dollars of white elephant infrastructure projects in parts of the country where people don't already live, when people in existing population centres need more assistance.
GILBERT:
I want to ask you about the superannuation issue. There has been talk that the Government was going to tax withdrawals on superannuation withdrawals for people over 60. The Prime Minister said that that was not going to happen yesterday, she ruled that out. But is the Government now considering a plan that will increase the tax rate on super earnings for the wealthy?
BRADBURY:
Well the Prime Minister has made the Government's position clear in relation to tax treatment of withdrawals. I'm not going to speculate on superannuation or other measures that people are out there talking about. What I can say very clearly is that superannuation is the very significant industry that it is today, providing security in retirement for millions of Australians –
GILBERT:
But that's all in the past.
BRADBURY:
No, you've got to understand the history Kieran –
GILBERT:
That doesn't mean you can undermine the system as it stands.
BRADBURY:
No, we're not undermining the system. There's only one person undermining the system and that's Tony Abbott, who has a plan to jack up taxes on superannuation for the lowest-paid 3.5 million workers. Let's be clear about this: he has not committed to the increase from nine per cent to 12 per cent. He hasn't committed to that. The only policy in superannuation that he's put on the table is to jack up taxes on the lowest-paid Australians.
GILBERT:
Got to wrap it up there and get to the rest of the day's news. David Bradbury, appreciate your time.