KIERAN GILBERT:
Mr Hockey joins me live from Sydney airport, Mr Hockey thank you for your time. In terms of the NDIS, it is the fastest growing area of expenditure in 17-18. You already agreed to it, what are you going to do about it? You are not going to back away from that commitment are you?
TREASURER:
Well we’ve got to make sure that you get the same or better quality of service in an affordable manner. Now we just had an independent report released in relation to the NDIS that identified that the current structure of the NDIS is such that it is equivalent to a plane being taken into the air half built and still being built in the air. So clearly, it is not about the money in relation to the NDIS, it is about the quality of services and the outcome and making sure we don’t end up with another pink batts program or a $900 cheque program or a school halls program which was another one of Labor’s legacies.
KIERAN GILBERT:
The Government promised no cut in health spending before the election. Yesterday the AMA warned of a half a billion dollar cut, which is it going to be?
TREASURER:
Well you will see on Budget night we are keeping our promises but we also have an obligation Kieran, to ensure that whatever is deliverable is affordable. Now I know this is hard for some of our critics to get their mind around, we have been left with 16 years, at least 16 years of deficits, at a time when Australia never went into recession or was not expected to go into recession. So, we’ve been left with a program of expenditure that keeps increasing well above any increase in the size of the economy and the net result is, we are inheriting a standard of living that is unaffordable unless we take decisive action in the May Budget and it won’t just be the May Budget it will be subsequent Budgets as well. There is no easy fix here, there is no silver bullet but we have an obligation to make sure that we live within our means, otherwise it is going to end it tears not just for our generation but for those that follow.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Mr Hockey you say that more information is emerging about Labor spending. But isn’t it true that all of this detail on NDIS, on Gonski, that it was all there in the Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook beyond the four year budget cycle?
TREASURER:
No, not at all. For example, the massive increase in foreign aid, 125 percent increase in, well over 60 per cent increase in foreign aid, 125 per cent increase in National Disability Insurance Scheme, the structure of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. These things weren’t revealed in any detail before the election and certainly, certainly, there was nothing there about a massive blow out in overall expenditure in defence, in healthcare, in education care. Those increases, Kieran, were never revealed by Labor and if they were, even if they were, they had no solution. I mean the idea somehow we are embarking on a plan of cuts because we are driven ideologically by the need for cuts is absurd. I mean there is no good politics in cuts but there is good politics in good policy and the fact is, Labor never had good policy, we are focused on the right policy to deliver the right outcomes.
KIERAN GILBERT:
I know you have to get on a plane, just two quick questions to finish. A Galaxy poll shows 56 per cent of people don’t accept the need to cut welfare. What would you say to your colleagues who might have second thoughts on this ahead of your first Budget?
TREASURER:
Well there are no choices here, and if you ask anyone in the community, would they would like to have less money in their pocket or perhaps a lesser increase in welfare or perhaps a tax increase of course everyone will say no, but this a call to arms for the nation, this is a call for all Australians to do the heavily lifting, so that we can just maintain our quality of life and the more burden you put on any one cohort in the community, the more that cohort is going to be crushed and we cannot afford to let that happen, we have to all make a contribution and the Budget will be about everyone making a contribution. If you go to the whole community, then the individual contribution is going to be smaller than if you try to put the burden on one group and therefore that group is crushed and we end up paying a price for that at any rate.
KIERAN GILBERT:
My last question, you get the final Commission of Audit report today from Tony Shepherd. How soon will everyone else see it?
TREASURER:
Well as soon as we can get it out, Kieran. The fact is we have got to go through the details of it. I can say to you, that we expect to release the Commission of Audit report in a timeframe less than what it took our predecessors to release the Henry Taxation report they received and probably even the Gonski report they received. So we are moving as quickly as we can but it is important that we work through all the issues carefully and methodically which is what we are doing. We are not just going to play the politics of Labor; in fact we are not going to play the politics of Labor. We are going to focus on policy outcomes that are in the best interest of the nation.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Mr Hockey thanks for your time, I appreciate it.
TREASURER:
Thanks, Kieran.