CONLON: ... A ten year plan at a time when you are looking down the barrel of a big defeat. What are you trying to achieve with the Budget?
WONG: When we sat down to put this Budget together, there were really two things we had to deal with. One was the economic circumstances, where youre seeing the biggest write down in tax receipts tax revenue to government for a very long time in fact the second biggest since the Great Depression, and what do we have to do in the face of that. And the second was, how do make room for the really important reforms for the future.
Thats what this Budget is all about a responsible Budget that protects jobs and growth in the near term, but actually finds the space for schools and DisabilityCare, two important reforms for the nation.
CONLON: The Baby Bonus goes some of it comes back through family tax benefits. That might be part of what Joe Hockey, on the other side, describes as having to wind back the age of entitlement. Were there other areas that you should have looked at now that you see the sums, that you dont get back into surplus for years now?
WONG: Weve taken some $43 billion worth of savings in this Budget. Thats a lot of savings and well be criticised, and are being criticised for some of them, and the Baby Bonus is one of them. Id make that point if you want to make the space to fund big reforms, like the schools reform, which is fundamentally about making sure you dont leave kids behind. I mean, the current system leaves too many Australian children behind. Your postcode shouldnt determine your chance in life and thats what this is about. Weve made a lot of savings and the reason we have is we want to fund these really important things that are all about the next generation of Australians.
REILLY: Minister, theres been many broken promises in recent times. How confident are you that this Budget will deliver a surplus by 2016-2017?
WONG: We deal with the economic circumstances we confront. And I accept theres criticism around. We are taking a bit of political pain for the fact that we did have to respond to different circumstances.
But it absolutely is the right choice for the country. You know, you take a bit of political pain but if wed chased revenue down, that is, continued to cut and cut really hard in this year and next year to try and get a surplus, you know what we would have risked? High unemployment and slowing economic growth. Now thats not good for Australians.
CONLON: We talked to BusinessSAs Rick Cairney this morning and he was very disappointed at the lack of any sort of boost for small business and in fact, if there was some extra input for them. Small business in South Australia, as you know, just helps to drive our economy and we are really crunching along the bottom. Was their thought, at least, for some sort of stimulus to that sector and at least not whacking them again?
WONG: I think the two things that business benefits from in these circumstances; they obviously benefit from settings that ensure growth and jobs. Because theres nothing worse for any business, small or large, than high levels of unemployment and low levels of economic growth. I mean, that is the way you ensure businesses cant do well and thats what our focus has been. And Id also say one of the tax measures in our previous Budget that is already being rolled out and Id encourage small business owners to take up if they havent already is a tax break, an instant asset write-off that weve put in place. Something that the Coalition is promising to take away and its a tax break for business recognising the circumstances they face. But ultimately, its all about making sure weve got good employment numbers and economic growth and thats good for everybody across the economy and thats what weve got to focus on.
REILLY: Senator, thank you for joining us on what is a very busy morning for you.
WONG: Its good to speak with you, cheers.
ENDS