CHRIS UHLMANN: Penny Wong is Labor's leader in the Senate. Welcome to AM.
PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Good to be with you, Chris.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Now Penny Wong, you had to make tough decisions to try and return the Budget to surplus. This Government is making tough decisions. What's wrong with that?
PENNY WONG: This is a Budget that trashes decency and also trashes democracy. I think everybody in this country remembers what they were promised by Tony Abbott before the election. They were promised no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no changes to the pension and no new taxes, and it's quite clear when this budget was handed down that Australians were shown the extent of Tony Abbott's lies.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Your Government also broke promises though, not just on a carbon price but also on what it would spend on defence.
PENNY WONG: Well look, what I'd say to you Chris is the promises that Tony Abbott gave to people were extensive, they were clear and they have been broken.
More importantly, what he is putting forward is a Budget that really trashes the sort of Australia we want. Your program earlier spoke about the Gonski reforms. Who can forget Tony Abbott saying we're on a unity ticket on schools, we're on a unity ticket on this policy. And now what we see is a massive cut to our schools; a cut which will mean worse outcomes for many Australian children and a cut that Tony Abbott promised he wouldn't deliver.
CHRIS UHLMANN: But didn't you make promises beyond the forward estimates when you were Finance Minister that you knew you could never find the money for?
PENNY WONG: That is simply untrue. And what I'd say to you is we took the unprecedented step before the election in the Budget which we handed down where we funded the Disability Care scheme and the educational reforms, the school reforms that Mr Gonski put forward. And we actually laid out a 10 year funding plan. We put in the Budget papers and distributed to Australians our plan for funding this over 10 years.
This is just yet another lie from Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey trying to explain the fundamental lie to the Australian people that they told before the last election.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Didn't you rack up costs that you were never going to be able to fund?
PENNY WONG: I don't concede that at all. We laid out a 10 year funding plan. But look, I was the Finance Minister and we, on our side of the chamber, we understand you do have to make difficult decisions to make sure you have room for spending which you prioritise, spending such as schools and hospitals and we did that.
And we were often opposed, I might remind you Chris. For example when we got rid of the Baby Bonus, Joe Hockey likened it to the one child policy in China. When we means tested the private health insurance rebate, something which I know was controversial and many people didn't like but we thought was the right thing to do because it was a very fast growing area of expenditure in the federal Budget, and Tony Abbott opposed that.
CHRIS UHLMANN: So why wouldn't you finish the process that you've begun on some of these things, cuts to what's called middle-class welfare?
PENNY WONG: Well, a number of reasons. And as Chris Bowen laid out yesterday at the Press Club again, we'll look at each proposal as it comes forward.
We've made very clear some of the things which we think are unacceptable to all Australians such as the cuts to Medicare, but we look at proposals, we'll consider whether they're fair and equitable and we'll also look at the position of the Budget.
But what we're not going to do is simply sign up to a Budget that is based on lies, which is based on a false premise and which massively cuts into the services and supports so many Australians need.
I mean this Budget hits low and middle-income Australia. It is a vicious assault on middle Australia, a vicious assault on the vulnerable in Australia, and it is full, redolent of the values that Australians would reject. We don't believe in the sort of Australia that the Budget demonstrates.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Well, Labor cut benefits to single mothers that took $110 a week out of what they had. That's as harsh as anything that we're seeing in this Budget, isn't it?
PENNY WONG: I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that. And I mean, look, have a look at some of the measures in this Budget: I mean not just the GP tax which will hit you when you go to the doctor, not just additional costs on anti-anxiety medication, not just the additional costs on higher education and the massive $80 billion cut to schools and to hospitals. But it's things like telling everybody under 30, if you have the misfortune to lose your job, we're not going to give you any support for six months.
Now what sort of measure is that? What is the philosophy that says you should be thrown to the charities in this nation, you should risk homelessness simply because you lose your job? There is no basis in any sound policy for that approach.
CHRIS UHLMANN: And what's the philosophy that drives you to oppose cuts that you proposed before the election; for example a billion dollars worth of savings in R&D tax charges among others?
PENNY WONG: What we've said on a number of fronts is we've presented savings which were linked to important expenditure. You might recall there were people who opposed not only that, that particular savings measure, but others associated with the Gonski reforms.
If the Government is walking away from funding those things and is funding instead a paid parental leave scheme which will massively benefit the well-off, why would we agree to continue to put, to support savings measures, when the very thing, the very priority that that money was going to be applied to has been junked by the Government?
CHRIS UHLMANN: Penny Wong, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you.
PENNY WONG: Good to speak with you.
ENDS