MATTHEW PANTELIS:
Treasurer, good morning.
TREASURER:
Good morning, Matthew.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
You’re in a world of pain at the moment aren’t you? No one likes your Budget, it seems. I must say, here on FIVEaa, filling in for Leon Byner this week, of all the calls, emails, texts and I said this, I think to Scott Morrison speaking with him yesterday – it has been running about 50/50. People who understand why the pain is there, others who basically call the Government a liar, feel betrayed, say they voted for you but are now let down by what is in the Budget. What do you say to them?
TREASURER:
Well, I just say to everyone, that we’re not doing this to be popular; obviously, we are doing it because it is right for the country. If emphatically, we do not make the decisions now that are going to help to fix the Budget, where everyone contributes now, then the pain will be far greater down the track and the impact on everyday Australians will be far greater down the track. So now is the time to fix things and ensure that we have a future where there are jobs and where there is prosperity.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
But nevertheless I mean we get reports out now, for instance, parent advocacy group – Parenthood, saying their modelling shows single mums will be $3800 a year worse off under this Budget.
TREASURER:
Well, everyone is coming up with their own modelling; I don’t know what the basis is for that claim. The fact is that, for example, a mum with two children earning $50,000 a year still receives over $17,000 tax free from the Australian Government. In addition, they will be receiving childcare benefits and a range of other services including discounts on pharmaceuticals and so on. So the fact is, that we are a nation that now needs to live within our means and if we do not live within our means now, then eventually it does lead to higher unemployment and worse outcomes for that single mum with her children.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
Your greatest fear would be that this Budget might derail your re-election plans should the Coalition not recover, and granted, there’s plenty of time, there’s two and a bit years, but you’re in a terrible position now in the polls. I mean, this Government is full of experienced people who have been there before. People like you, like Tony Abbott, like Christopher Pyne, you know there’s an endless list, Julie Bishop, it goes on and on. But, you have taken such a big hit, so early, it’s unprecedented, is it recoverable from?
TREASURER:
Well, Matthew, you say my greatest fear is the failure to recover from polls, that is not my greatest fear. My greatest fear is that people do not appreciate that if we do not make these decisions now, the pain down the track will be far greater. So, if we all make a contribution in one form or another now, then we can ensure that there are jobs and there is prosperity. Now, nothing illustrates that better than what we are doing in health. We are asking Australians to make a co-contribution of $7 when they go to see the doctor and if they don’t have the capacity to pay that, the doctor has the discretion not to charge it and no pensioner or child under the age of 16 will have to pay more than 10 times a year. We are asking people to do that with a dividend. We are going to invest more in medical research than anyone ever has at a federal level, any level, in Australia; build the biggest medical research fund in the world where the money is going to go to pay for clinical trials, for things like cancer and Alzheimer’s and dementia, with jobs, with jobs particularly in Adelaide. And that is the way to build prosperity.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
And we know that because Peter Dutton, in town yesterday, did foreshadow that the fund would deliver new jobs in Adelaide, and obviously you’d welcome that from the comments you’ve just made. But, on the issue of pensioners and children and the co-payment, part of the horse trading may be that you will have to exempt them. Will you look at doing that down the track? If you can’t get it passed?
TREASURER:
What that means, if people do not contribute, as they do now, for their pharmaceuticals – you see this is the great irony here; Labor in 1990, introduced co-payments for pharmaceuticals. So, everyone who paid for the drugs prescribed by the doctor – makes a contribution in one form or another. We’re just asking them to make a contribution when they actually see the doctor. And Labor in 1991 actually passed legislation to do just that, at a time when Australians, on average, visited the doctor four times a year. Now Australians visit the doctor on average 11 times a year. So the fact is, if we want to maintain a universal healthcare system and you want to ensure that everyone has access – equal access to the healthcare system, we’re asking people to make a contribution, fixed at $7 with no more than 10 payments a year for anyone who is receiving the pension or has a healthcare card or is under the age of 16.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
What are you going to do though, if you can’t get most of the Budget passed in tact?
TREASURER:
Well, it does create a very significant challenge for Australia because fundamentally it means that things are going to have to go up in price, there’s going to have to be other sacrifices, because we cannot allow the Federal Government to keep running deficits. If we keep running deficits, then we are going to continue paying $1 billion a month in interest on the money that we have borrowed. Now what does that mean? In four years’ time, if you continue under the Labor way, in four years’ time every Australian will be paying $740 a year just on the interest on the money that we owe the rest of the world; just on the interest – $740 a year. So, people need to have a good look at that and understand that if we can get the debt down, the only way to get the debt down, is to start living within our means now. If we get the debt down then it reduces our interest bill which gives us more money in the future to help those most vulnerable.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
We’ve seen, along with the polls, the opinion polls, we’ve seen consumer confidence levels polls indicating that drop, that consumer confidence, according to the big bank surveys have dropped dramatically since the Budget release. Is this a hit you’re prepared to take? Well you have to take at this stage, no choice there, it’s dropped. But it is going to hurt your predictions, your assumptions, in the Budget in terms of employment in terms of growth, down the track?
TREASURER:
Well no, the bottom line is that yes there may be a drop now in consumer confidence, but what is going to improve consumer confidence is job confidence and increased wage confidence. And that will bounce back but we have got to be able to live within our means in order to create that. Now, we are spending a lot of money in infrastructure, as you know in Adelaide with the North-South Corridor that we are putting a lot of money into, and there is a lot of money going into roads and a range of other infrastructure projects right around the country. We are doing this to create jobs, and if we create jobs, then we create prosperity. Labor left us with rising unemployment and you in South Australia know, better than anyone, that the legacy of Labor is higher unemployment, well, we’ve got to turn that around. We are the Party of low unemployment and greater job creation and that is what we are focussed on doing.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
Treasurer, are you frustrated with the Government’s performance since coming to office because, as one commentator put it, I think quite clearly this morning, you’re tripping on your own banana skins, the lead up to the Budget was appalling. The management of perceptions regarding the Budget, whether it be you smoking a cigar or whatever it is, Tony Abbott winking yesterday, you know, the perceptions are just terrible for your Government. Is that frustrating to you?
TREASURER:
Well, we can’t worry about the sort of trivia that the media goes on with. We have got to focus on the policy that matters.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
But you take a hit in the polls as a result though.
TREASURER:
Well, not as a result of that, what happens is, inevitably there is going to be a response in the polls, but you can’t run the country on polling; you’ve got to run the country on good policy. And at the end of the day, good policy delivers you good politics, good political responses. And the problem with Labor over the last six years in Canberra was their policies were terrible. Now, they’re opposing, for example, getting rid of the Carbon Tax. Kevin Rudd stood before the Australian people at the last election and said he was terminating the Carbon Tax, Bill Shorten is trying to keep it in place; it is costing families $550 a year extra. So what we’re doing is trivial compared to the determination of Labor to keep the Carbon Tax in place and the impact that has on families and jobs. So, we are determined to put in place policies that actually deliver better outcomes. We’re stopping the boats, that’s what we promised we’d do, we’re doing it. We said we would fix the Budget, that’s what we’re trying to do. We said we would get rid of the Carbon Tax, that’s what we’re trying to do and we said we’d build the infrastructure of the 21st century, and my God we are going to do it.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
The Prime Minister yesterday foreshadowed tax cuts down the track and that is an easy promise to make at this stage and certainly while you appear to be behind. He overruled you on superannuation, your comments there the other night. Are you on the same page with him on that?
TREASURER:
Absolutely, and we’ve built in further tax cuts down the track but we have got to be able to pay for them first. And that’s why, if we make the hard decisions now, we ask Australians to contribute now, then you will see that there will be tax cuts down the track. But under Labor, if they had their way, there will be no tax cuts for as far as the eye can see. There will be no tax relief for people who need to keep working, who need to pay the bills every day at home. You can’t have it both ways, you can’t have bigger spending, which is what Labor want, and less tax, which is what Labor can’t deliver.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
How many of the Budget measures have to be passed before July 1?
TREASURER:
Well I haven’t done an (inaudible) tally on that but obviously the Deficit Levy is one example that needs to be passed and that is attached to the appropriation bills. But obviously the appropriation bills, which are in the House of Representatives at the moment, will go to the Senate before the first of July.
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
Alright, now you’re taking defamation action against a couple of newspapers over the “Treasurer for Sale” headline, why do you feel it is necessary to go down that path?
TREASURER:
Oh look, Matthew, I’m not allowed to comment. My lawyers have advised me not to comment and I’ll leave it to my lawyers (inaudible).
MATTHEW PANTELIS:
Treasurer Joe Hockey, thank you for your time this morning.
TREASURER:
Thanks very much Matthew, thank you.