KIERAN GILBERT:
Good morning and welcome to the program. The Prime Minister's new team members will be sworn in this morning at Government House in Yarralumla. One of them that won't be there though is the former NSW Premier, incoming Foreign Minister Bob Carr. He has to be confirmed by the NSW Parliament, expected to be sworn in later this week. One of the new Ministers that will be there is the incoming Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury and he joins me now on the program. David Bradbury, thank you for your time.
DAVID BRADBURY:
Good morning Kieran.
GILBERT:
Congratulations, you obviously must be very pleased.
BRADBURY:
It is a very proud day. It is a great honour to serve in the Ministry, to serve as part of the Gillard Government. Particularly a Government, I think, that has taken so many of the big challenges on. We've got 18 months until the next election and we've got a very big agenda ahead of us. But particularly, to be part of the economic team. This is something I find to be very rewarding and a great opportunity because there are very few areas of policy that impact quite as much on people and communities such as mine or right around this country. The efforts that we've undertaken over the last few years to grow jobs, to support jobs in the economy, to keep interest rates low, to make sure that the economy has continued to grow, with all of the challenges that come in the future as well like spreading the benefits of the mining boom. It's a great opportunity, it's one that I welcome and I know that we as a Government will be putting our best foot forward and the new Ministry that the Prime Minister has announced gives us every opportunity to take on those challenges.
GILBERT:
Have you got a flak jacket and a helmet as well? Because your boss is picking some fights. Let's look at what Fortescue Metals is saying today, they've spent some money on a lot of advertisements across the nation's newspapers. Herb Elliot, the Deputy Chairman, says that for Mr Swan to demonise Andrew Forrest, whose team built the fastest export and mining company in the world, for not paying taxes where there was no taxable income is an act of cynical hypocrisy. So they're fighting back.
BRADBURY:
I think the first point to make is that no one in this Government is critical of people for being successful, or for generating wealth. That's the first point to make. Nowhere has the Treasurer ever suggested that that is the case. But I think that what we saw today, particularly with the full page advertisements that have been taken out in the newspaper, is a complete lack of understanding of the basic point that Wayne Swan is making. That is that when you are taking on big public policy challenges, like the mining tax for example, we expect that there will be people out there that will try and robustly defend their own interests. But the Treasurer is saying, and I think it's a valid point, don't masquerade behind some notion of national interest when you are simply out their pushing your own barrow. It is important for people to have a say, but just as we see some mining interests taking out full page advertisements in the newspapers today, the other side of the coin of what Wayne Swan was saying is that the 2.7 million Australian small businesses that will get the benefit of the tax cuts that come from the mining tax, they don't have the capacity to take out a full page ad in the newspaper.
GILBERT:
But Andrew Forrest and Herb Elliot, the Deputy Chairman, have a point don't they, when they say that it is rich to be criticised for not paying tax when they're building this thing up, this export company and in the investment phase there is no taxable income is there?
BRADBURY:
I think most Australians would have been deeply surprised to hear the revelation that Fortescue is not paying corporate tax. I think most Australians would be shocked and surprised to hear that, particularly when you consider the squealing that went on during the mining tax debate. I think that most Australians take a pretty fair and balanced perspective on this. They see that this resources boom that's occurring is something on a scale that needs to be tapped into, not just for the Clive Palmers, the Twiggy Forrests, the Gina Ryneharts, but the other 22 million Australians and indeed those Australians that are not even born today who have a stake and an interest in the national wealth of this country.
GILBERT:
But it's not just the miners that are critical, it's the banks, the former Westpac Chairman and former Treasury Secretary Ted Evans calls Wayne Swan irresponsible for his comments on interest rates and that the RBA has put a bit of sensible commentary back out there, that their borrowing costs have gone up, and Wayne Swan is not recognising that.
BRADBURY:
I certainly respect Ted Evans, he is someone who has contributed both in public service and in the private sector and I certainly take no issue with him as an individual, he is entitled to make those comments. What I would say is that one of the most important challenges for Government is that there are a whole range of things occurring out there in the economy, whether it be issues that are impacting upon banks as far as their funding costs are concerned. But we as elected members of our communities, we have to stand up and try to navigate between all of these interests, a sensible middle path to make sure that we come up with a set of policies that secure what is in the national interest and not just the interests of one corporation, a couple of corporations, or a particular sector. Sometimes that means we end up rubbing shoulders in a way that might seem that this is a body contact endeavour that we're engaged in and in the end, we have an obligation to govern in the national interest.
GILBERT:
Incoming Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury congratulations again, we appreciate your time, a big day for you. Thanks.
BRADBURY:
Thanks Kieran.