ABRAHAM: Good morning to you Senator.
WONG: Good morning to you both.
ABRAHAM: Senator Wong, theres the old clich: How do you make a small business? You get a big business and give it to the Government to run. Is there a danger here that youre handing innovation over to, some would say, some of the least innovative people around that is, public servants And we are public servants, David and I, so Ill put ourselves in that category
BEVAN: We love public servants
ABRAHAM: Yeah
WONG: (Laughs) Youre the most interesting public servants Ive met in a while, I have to say.
ABRAHAM: Thank you.
WONG: Lets be clear what was announced yesterday in terms of the plan for Australian jobs; a $1 billion dollar investment across a range of programs to try and ensure we have a more diverse economy. One of the things that we are facing at the moment and South Australia has really understood the brunt of that is weve got a very high dollar that affects particularly our manufacturing sector but certainly our export industries. And we also know whilst we have historically high levels of mining investment, we have to plan for what our economy will look like beyond the peak of that investment.
What we are doing with this plan for Australian jobs is really three things: We are backing Australian firms to win more work; were putting in place what are called Innovation Precincts, which are not about public servants but are about trying to bring together researchers and the private sector; and, third, we are putting in place changes to encourage more investment and venture capital into our SMEs. So, if anything, its trying to leverage up the fact that of course the best people to innovate are the private sector. What we need is to get more bang for our buck from our research dollars.
ABRAHAM: What are the public servants meant to be doing? Youre actually going to have a process where they will be almost imbedded inside companies, is that correct? Looking at how they spend their innovation dollars?
WONG: Underpinning every aspect of this plan is jobs, and jobs in places like South Australia. Lets be clear what we are asking for. If youre a company that has got a very large project, so $2 billion dollars or more, and you are seeking tax concessions from the Government there are export tariff concessions which firms can get for large projects what we say is we want you to set up an office that can identify opportunities for Australian industry in this very large project. So, were not forcing you, were not demanding that you have, if it doesnt make sense for you, a contract with a local supplier, but we are asking you to resource making sure that those opportunities are explored.
And thats really because if you look around weve got some pretty large projects and part of what we need to do, and this is a common complaint from industry that I hear, is try and leverage those projects up more to enable local firms to get access to them.
BEVAN: Would that apply to State Governments? Because we regularly get concerns from listeners that big projects like the new Royal Adelaide Hospital or the Adelaide Oval Development dont have enough local content.
WONG: Look, thats a good point. Were the Federal Government and obviously what weve used is the tariff concessions on imported materials as the trigger because thats something we have responsibility for. I suspect the State Government may not be seeking that. But thats also a political issue.
I think that there is a role for Governments to say to business in relation to large projects: We understand you want to do this profitably, we understand you want to do this and get the most economic contract you can. But we want you to try and source what you can from local industry.
ABRAHAM: Penny Wong do you think Nick Xenophon is doing the right thing by highlighting the lack of democracy in Malaysia?
WONG: I listened with interest to the discussion you had earlier and I thought Im sure theyll ask me this question in part because Im a mate of Nicks but also as you know Im from Malaysia originally. I think theres a couple of issues. First, the Government has made clear how Nick was treated was not appropriate and those representations have been made to Malaysia by the Foreign Minister and
BEVAN: Bob Carrs also made it clear this isnt going to affect us in any way. Its about as low key a response as he could make.
WONG: Im not sure that thats the case and I dont think looking through todays papers youd suggest that it was a low key response. But I think the second issue is, you know, what is our proper role in relation to Malaysias domestic politics? And whatever personal views people might have about various nations internal politics, it is rare for Australia to engage particularly with mature democracies around their internal democratic processes.
ABRAHAM: Are you glad, personally, that he has highlighted this issue.
WONG: Thats a tough question. Look, I think that really is an issue for him
ABRAHAM: No, no, its an issue for
BEVAN: Youre a tough cookie you can answer tough questions.
WONG: (Laughs)
JOURNALIST: No, its an issue for you. Are you personally glad Nick Xenophon has highlighted this issue?
WONG: Look, its not the approach I would take and thats not how I deal with my return trips to Malaysia as you know, my family are still there. My view is that these are matters that ultimately Malaysians will find their way through and theres a political contest and its a robustly contested political contest and I think its a democracy that is mature enough to manage its issues on its own. I think Nick, you know he obviously has a strong personal view about it, and thats entirely a matter for him.
ABRAHAM: It is interesting though, going back to the Fraser years, you wouldnt want to apply that same logic or answer to the Apartheid debate, would you?
WONG: Oh, I think there are occasions where the international community do make a decision to take a stand around a countrys internal or domestic politics. And youre right, South Africa was one of them. Myanmar or Burma more recently has been another, weve had
ABRAHAM: ... But not Malaysia?
WONG: I think Malaysia is, as I said, a mature democracy and whatever peoples views might be about a particular policy or another particular policy, ultimately its a country that I think does have the capacity to manage these issues in its own terms.
JOURNALIST: Senator Penny Wong, thank you for joining us.
WONG: Good to speak with you all.
ENDS