JOURNALIST: Penny Wong is a South Australian Senator and Finance Minister. Good morning Minister.
WONG: Good morning to you both. Good to be on your new morning program. I hope youre enjoying your early, early start.
JOURNALIST: We are, thank you. And a long-time member of the left Jay Weatherills faction. Would you be happy to see Jay Weatherill replace Mike Rann?
WONG: Look, Im a federal member and there has certainly been a lot of public discussion in recent weeks. Some of it has been very interesting and Im sure quite entertaining for the two of you and lots of other people. But ultimately these are matters for the state party.
JOURNALIST: How would you feel about an ultra-conservative, Latin mass Catholic like Jack Snelling running South Australia as Labor Premier?
WONG: Look, I dont think -
JOURNALIST: I mean he wouldnt be into gay marriage.
WONG: I dont think thats the issue. We have a Labor Premier. His name is Mike Rann. Theres obviously some public discussion about the Deputy Premiers position. But that is a decision for Kevin Foley and a decision for the South Australian public.
JOURNALIST: But on social policy Matts right, isnt he? Jack Snelling you would describe him as extremely conservative.
WONG: Well you have described him as that.
JOURNALIST: Well how would you describe Jack Snelling?
WONG: There are obviously different views within our party federally and state. I think those views are on the public record. Obviously I dont share some of Jacks views. But really that is not the issue. The issue here is the South Australian party is going through a process. They will make a decision about the way forward.
I think the most important thing is to focus on what is good for the state and what gives Labor the best chance of being returned to government at the next state election.
JOURNALIST: To the big issue of the Queensland floods huge bill, we cant even get our heads around it yet. Is that a fair call?
WONG: That is a fair call. I think all of us watching the devastation, whether close-up or through our television sets, we can see its an enormously destructive natural disaster. And theres going to be a very significant bill. Not the least of which is the human cost as we know.
JOURNALIST: But you would have been given some sort of early estimates. They would be back-of-the-envelope stuff. People would not expect you to be locked into them. But what are your early figures on the impact of the Queensland floods on the federal budget?
WONG: David, it is really too early to say.
JOURNALIST: You havent been given anything?
WONG: Its really too early to say.
JOURNALIST: Too early to say or you havent got any? WONG: Its really too early to say because I understand that the CBD people are going back into the CBD in Brisbane today. But there are still areas in flood. The damage is still being discovered or being assessed. We still have many people we still have people who havent been able to return to their homes. Its just too early to tell. But look, Im not going to beat around the bush. I dont think any Australian would be surprised to understand that theres going to be a very significant rebuild cost for Queensland.
JOURNALIST: And Australians are also going to have to accept that no party likes to break a promise but your party promised and Julia Gillard promised to return the budget to surplus in 2012-13. Is that now going to be impossible? If you were a pragmatist, it aint going to happen?
WONG: The Prime Minister has made the position very clear. We remain committed to bring the budget back to surplus. We also are absolutely committed to standing with Queenslanders as they rebuild. That is going to require a lot of hard decisions, a lot of work and a lot of good planning. But that is what we are committed to do.
JOURNALIST: Increase the Medicare Levy? Is that on the agenda?
WONG: Look, we are not even in a position where we can get a good sense of what the price tag is likely to be. Im not going to -
JOURNALIST: Its going to be in the billions. Its going to be in the multiple billions.
WONG: Its certainly going to be more than a few hundred thousand, isnt it? And in fact, weve already -
JOURNALIST: Its not a magic pudding, isnt it? So your alternatives are to slash and burn the economy, and youve spent a lot of money trying to booster the economy, or you have a levy of some description.
JOURNALIST 2: Or you go into debt. You put off the surplus.
WONG: Our job is to do two things. Our job is to manage the federal budget to enable the rebuilding of Queensland and the other parts of Australia where we have seen also have been hit by natural disaster. And second, to bring the budget back to surplus.
Now Im not going to sit here on your show and say to South Australians that thats going to be easy. That is going to be very tough, and there are a lot of tough decisions that were going to have to make. Thats not the place were in at the moment. We have to assess the extent of the damage and work out what is the best set of options for the country.
JOURNALIST: Minister, because its early days and nobody would seriously expect you to be locked into any one thing, is it therefore fair for people listening, who you work for, to assume that everything is on the table?
WONG: I think its fair for people to assume that we remain committed to what we told them at the election which is that we want to bring the budget back to surplus. Its also fair for them to assume that we will look very carefully at the options that we have to ensure that we have sufficient funds available to rebuild for Queensland. And I think they would expect us to do that.
JOURNALIST: If youre remain committed to bringing the budget back into surplus, at the timetable given at the election, then pushing off the surplus is off the table and youve got two other options left. You either raise a tax, through a levy, or you find the money elsewhere, by cutting some other function. Is that fair?
WONG: I am not going to speculate about how we are going to do this. And I dont think youd expect me to.
JOURNALIST: Wed like you to.
WONG: Obviously, Im sure youd like me to.
JOURNALIST: Yes we do! Of course we do! (laughs)
WONG: (laughs) I like you, youre very honest. But Im not going to do it, even if you do expect me to. And were not going to rule things in or out. Weve got a very substantial task, everyone knows that. And were just going to have to work through those hard options and be frank with the Australian people about them.
JOURNALIST: Whats your timetable here? When is the next budget?
WONG: The next budget is in May. But obviously weve already made some decisions to put money in, theyve been made public. So well just have to work through this as the Queensland Government is.
JOURNALIST: When you think about it. What was the total stimulus package? How many billion? You know the GFC package?
WONG: There were two lots but $40 billion, over a number of years.
JOURNALIST: And the flood bill from Queensland over a number of years could be $40 billion, $30 billion could be. $10 billion sounds a bit cheap.
WONG: Well thats the Matt Abraham figures.
JOURNALIST: Well, what are the Penny Wong figures?
WONG: Well, the Penny Wong figures are
JOURNALIST: You dont have any figures.
WONG: Well, no, because how many days have we been in this?
JOURNALIST: Im just saying that youre not going to be able to rip that out. You put that in to stimulate the economy -
WONG: Well most of thats already been spent.
JOURNALIST: So if you rip that out, youre going to bring the economy to a crashing halt.
WONG: Most of the stimulus spending has already been unwound. It has already been rolled out the door.
JOURNALIST: Thats right. You have got to take it all back.
WONG: So that is a different situation. As I said, there are hard decisions to be made. Weve got to bring the budget back to surplus. There are a range of decisions the Government will have to look at. And there is a lot of speculation around. Ive seen Mr Abbott, for example, talking about the NBN. Obviously, he -
JOURNALIST: National Broadband Network.
WONG: National Broadband Network, Im sorry.
JOURNALIST: Well, no thats alright. Are you going to postpone that? Why go full steam ahead on that when youve got a bill to pay?
WONG: Well, Ive seen Mr Abbott say we shouldnt, which is unsurprising I suppose because hes always opposed it. Hes always opposed affordable, fast broadband for Australians.
But its important to remember this: first, the money we spend on the National Broadband Network is an investment, an investment on which Australians will get a return. So its not money you can just pull out and suddenly use for recurrent expenditure from which you dont get a return. And the second point is you also have to think about the long term as well as the short term. And the fact is this is a multi-year project to do something that I think Australians want to deliver affordable and fast broadband. We remain committed to that project.
JOURNALIST: Penny Wong, federal Finance Minister and South Australian Senator. Thank you for coming in.
WONG:Good to be with you.
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