HADLEY:
Treasurer, good morning.
TREASURER:
Good morning Ray and Happy Birthday.
HADLEY:
Thank you very much. Now the $6 billion, I guess it caught everyone on the hop including the Opposition.
TREASURER:
Well as you said, there are a number of proposals to cut tax in there, particularly for small business, and to improve childcare and as you said, technical colleges. I think the technical colleges is really an exciting idea actually because we know we have got a situation where there is a shortage of skills in Australia and I think that is to some degree because skills have not been as highly valued as they should have been. And if we get these technical colleges going they would give kids a fantastic opportunity to get a first class technical education and get a trade. And we want a situation where our country values trades as much as they value tertiary education. And if you can get that kind of situation going, I think you are going to get a lot of people to fill some of the shortages that are now emerging.
HADLEY:
How would they work Treasurer? In concert with the ones that are run at State level now? TAFE here in New South Wales for instance?
TREASURER:
Well, this is a commitment to have 24 Commonwealth technical colleges around the country. And the Commonwealth is going to fund them and we are going to pay on performance and we are going to try and attract the best trade teachers…
HADLEY:
Right.
TREASURER:
…and if we can attract the best students as well, we want to really just add the prestige of 24 colleges around the country to the qualifications that kids get in these institutions.
HADLEY:
Okay. Now back to education before they get to that level. The package where you will, as I understand it, tip $700 million into public schools and $300 million into the poorer private sector. But it will go to the P&C on request…
TREASURER:
Yes.
HADLEY:
…as opposed to via the State Government. That will obviously set the State Labor Premiers back on their heels?
TREASURER:
Yes. Well, at the moment the Commonwealth invests, the Canberra Government, the Commonwealth Government invests quite a bit in the schools and we just send money to the States and then the States dish it out. We get a bit frustrated with the bureaucracy that is involved in all of that and we are always getting parents coming and saying, look, we know the needs better than the State bureaucracies, why can't you deal direct with us? So, we have announced that we will. And there will be this fund available, and if the Parents and Citizens clubs, school councils, principals, want to put together a proposal they can come direct. It might be for some shade cloth in the playground or some air conditioning or some new computers, capital works in relation to these schools, they can come direct to the Commonwealth rather than go to the State and the State come to the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth make a decision, the money go back to the State, the State send the money out to the school with several layers of bureaucrats in between. It just goes straight to the parents and the school principals.
HADLEY:
Predictably Mark Latham has attacked all of this, the $6 billion as reckless. I guess your reply quite simply is, we have got the money to spend because of sound economic management.
TREASURER:
Well look, I think I probably know the Commonwealth Budget better than anybody else in Australia. I have brought down nine Budgets, seven surplus Budgets, which is more than Mark Latham has ever done. And the reality is, that these targeted measures, which are over four years, are affordable. We are not going to do anything that is not affordable. We are not going to put the Budget into deficit. They are affordable and they are targeted. And they are one of things that you can do when you run a strong economy. If you run a strong economy you have got the capacity to invest more in health and education and so we should. But they are not just spending measures, they are actually tax cutting measures as well.
HADLEY:
Hmm.
TREASURER:
And what that will do I think, is, particularly the small business tax cuts, liberate a whole lot of people who will hopefully set up more enterprising businesses which will hopefully grow the economy faster.
HADLEY:
You mention your ninth Budget there, now on that Channel Seven Programme, Sunday Sunrise, you mention, I thought rather offhandedly, that you were going to talk to your family at Christmas about deciding whether you might retire from politics. We are not talking about the immediate future are we?
TREASURER:
No. What I said was I was going to talk to my family at Christmas. I am not going to retire from politics. I said I was going to talk to my family.
HADLEY:
Well they have linked that today in the media to talk of perhaps a change in direction for the Treasurer.
TREASURER:
Yes. Well that is right, I don't know why they do that. They were probably just short of copy. But you know, what I said is I am going to talk to my family at Christmas. I have been away 30 or 40 weeks this year. I would like to get home for Christmas and talk to my family. Does that mean I am contemplating a career change? No. (inaudible).
HADLEY:
You were just generally talking about how they have been since you have been away?
TREASURER:
I would like to talk to them about how they have grown two inches in the last year. Oh, is that you? You know, oh my goodness. You don't get much of a break in this business and if you can spend time with your family over Christmas I want to take it. But if you, somebody in the media wants to read into that some kind of career change, they are wrong. Bad luck.
HADLEY:
Okay.
TREASURER:
Won't happen.
HADLEY:
Well you have cleared that up. Now, Simon Crean was in the studio last week with me and spoke about this $700 million funding hole in the tax policy. Have you had a chance to reflect on that? Do you still stand by that claim?
TREASURER:
Oh yes, but it is more than 700. This is the point, the hole in the tax package is about $2.6 billion.
HADLEY:
Hmm.
TREASURER:
That is just one component of it. There are four components of this. Now, you know, we can argue about this until the cows come home.
HADLEY:
Right.
TREASURER:
But I will make two points. One is, why doesn't he release the report of Anne Harding? He relies on Anne Harding, why doesn't he release the report? Mark Latham said he would. He said he would nearly three weeks ago. The second point I will make is this. Why not put the policy in for costing? Not just part of it, the entirety of the policy in for costing. He has had 20 days I think, to put this in for costing. Why doesn't he do it?
HADLEY:
Just wait there for a second. Because he told me without fear of contradiction that this would be submitted to Treasury to be costed and then it would be revealed to the public and the electorate prior to the election on October 9. You have got an intimate knowledge of how long this takes. Now he said that to me on Thursday of last week.
TREASURER:
Hmm.
HADLEY:
And it still hasn't…
TREASURER:
He didn't put it in on Thursday, he didn't put it in on Friday…
HADLEY:
So how long is it going to take for Treasury to cost it?
TREASURER:
Actually Ray, depending on how much information, it could take between now and the election. You see what they do is they send it in…
HADLEY:
Hmm.
TREASURER:
…if you don't give the reports, if you don't give the technical details, if you don't answer all of the questions, they will come back and they will say, look we have got all of these unanswered questions you are going to have to answer them before we can do it. But it could take, even if they put it in tomorrow, it could take between now and October the 9th to do it. And this is where you have got to read their fine print very carefully Ray. Because they said they would put in elements, elements. You can't put in elements, you have got to put in the full thing so that you have got all of the details so that you can go through this. Now, you know, even if he puts it in this week, you know, just answer me this question. Why didn't he put it in three weeks ago? If it is all there, if it is all fine, if it is all hunky dory, why didn't he put it in three weeks? It is now 20 days since they put it in and we have got 12 days to go to the election…
HADLEY:
Hmm.
TREASURER:
…and you are trying to run down the clock.
HADLEY:
Well I, let me say this to you, I will go after him. I have got the tape here. And I will play it back to him what he said to me last week.
TREASURER:
Yes.
HADLEY:
He gave me a guarantee that we, that would determine the fate of this country in terms of who will govern federally would have all of it costed by the Treasury…
TREASURER:
Yes.
HADLEY:
…before October 9. He said, it was quite clear, I asked him two or three times.
TREASURER:
Yes. Well he hasn't, he didn't put it in, he spoke to you on Thursday, he didn't put it in on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
HADLEY:
Right.
TREASURER:
So, you know, just watch these guys. They are running the clock down, this is what they did in the 2001 Election. They are running the clock down. I just don't understand why it didn't happen three weeks ago, myself. But, you know, they must have some deep dark reason why they can't put it in.
HADLEY:
Okay, just back to the announcement yesterday, childcare. There is some welcome relief in the form of tax relief as I understand it there for parents who bear the brunt of paying childcare costs.
TREASURER:
Yes. It is a proposal for a 30 per cent rebate, tax rebate, for your costs. So you get out of pocket costs, then you can actually go and claim 30 per cent as a tax rebate and the way I look at that, is that if Mums using childcare to go into the workforce to pay tax, it really is a part of earning the income…
HADLEY:
Hmm.
TREASURER:
…the cost that she is incurring. And it is a chance for her to claim some of that back through a tax rebate.
HADLEY:
Okay. All right. We will no doubt talk again leading up to October 9. I appreciate your time this morning again.
TREASURER:
Great to be with you and have a Happy Birthday Ray.
HADLEY:
I will do my best. It is one of those milestones.
TREASURER:
Oh 40 is it?
HADLEY:
Yeah. I wish it was. See you later.
TREASURER:
See you.
HADLEY:
Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello talking to us.