LANE: Minister, good morning and welcome.
WONG: Good to be with you.
LANE: Mr Abbott says the Prime Minister has played the class war card. Are you playing it?
WONG: The person who is playing the class war card is Tony Abbott. The person who is putting the interests of wealthy miners ahead of the interests of low and middle income Australia, is Tony Abbott.
Tony Abbott walked into the House of Representatives yesterday and said: I don't want to support assistance to low and middle families. He said it's because he didn't trust them, because parents wouldn't do the right things by their kids. So it's Mr Abbott who is playing the class war card.
LANE: Is it? The Prime Minister also had a dig at people living on Sydney's North Shore.
WONG: The Prime Minister was making the very, very good point that if Tony Abbott doesn't think that parents do the right thing by their kids, if he doesn't think that parents merit some assistance with school costs, then he probably should get out more and talk to a few working families.
LANE: Has this back-fired on you a bit? I mean one of the papers points out today that a number of Labor leaders live on Sydney's North Shore and live in Sydney's ritzier suburbs.
WONG: Not at all. I think we stand very proudly by a policy that says we believe that the benefits of the mining boom should be shared more broadly and more fairly across this country. We stand for that kind of fairness. And we also say that to put the interests of profitable miners ahead of low and middle income Australia is simply wrong.
LANE: Well, just on that point, how should we read these attacks on mining magnates, people who actually employ thousands of Australians and they help generate the wealth in this country that's cushioning it from what's been happening around the world?
WONG: All we are saying is that the Australian people are entitled to a fair share of the minerals wealth which is theirs. Now there is nothing wrong with people making a profit. In fact the minerals tax only cuts in if you make a very good profit.
So to put a suggestion, as the Opposition do, that somehow we're against business and people making profit is simply wrong. What we're saying is there are things called priorities and our priority is to make sure we share the benefits of this boom.
LANE: Is the Gillard Government more focused on redistributing wealth rather than creating it?
WONG: I am very happy to answer that question because I see that's some commentary from Tony Abbott in a speech which I have to say was devoid of any vision for the nation, devoid of...
LANE: We knew we weren't going to get detail, we knew that for days ...
WONG: Well, should we talk about that then in terms of detail?
This is a man who is not simply saying to the House of Representatives, to members of Parliament and the Australian people elect me next year, at the next election. He is saying I should be prime minister now. He is saying I am ready to be prime minister now.
This is the surplus year and he is so negative and arrogant that he doesn't believe he should tell Australians what he would do. So he is saying give me the job but I am not actually going to tell you what I'm going to cut.
LANE: That's no different from what Labor has tried in previous years.
WONG: No, I don't agree with that at all. I don't agree with that at all. And I don't think there's ever been an Opposition that has been in such disarray when it comes to their policy costings.
I mean this has just been a litany of errors from the Opposition, starting with the accounting firm who was fined for unprofessional conduct in the so-called auditing of their election policies which were found to have a huge hole in them and it has just continued from there.
But the political tactic now is different. The political tactic is now we're not going to tell you We're not going tell you what we're going to do. I don't think that's reasonable for a man who says he should be prime minister now.
LANE: Tony Abbott's highlighted Australia's poor record on high students speaking a second language, Asian languages in particular. This was one of Kevin Rudd's pet interests. So why has so little been done on this since 2007?
WONG: We have a national curriculum which focuses on Asia literacy, it's not just languages but more broadly, and Asia literacy is very important.
But I have to say it's pretty extraordinary from Tony Abbott that he's suddenly discovered what's occurring in Asia and how important that is for our region.
This is the bloke who dismisses the surplus as being Made in China. I mean he is asking people to believe he gets the importance of our region after he speaks about the economic relationship in that way. I mean, it's just ... it does not make sense and he has no credibility on this issue.
LANE: Why did in Parliament yesterday why did Anthony Albanese raise an indecent assault claim against Tony Abbott from the 1970s, a charge that was thrown out of court?
WONG: I think Anthony was making the very sound point that there are allegations made against members of Parliament, made against individuals in our community, and the appropriate way to deal with those is to allow the courts to deal with them.
Now I've spoken about this for some time, including on the ABC. When I'm asked about a number of the things which are in the public arena, for example in the Fair Work Australia report, I have said if those allegations are correct they are manifestly inappropriate, manifestly.
But politicians are not judge and jury when it comes to these matters. And there's a very good reason for that - because we have a system that is about the separation of powers and is about proper process when it comes to this. And Anthony was making that point.
LANE: Are the gloves now off?
WONG: We have said very clearly that we believe the Parliament should respect the processes of our courts - the processes which exist for very sound reasons. Regrettably that's not the way the Opposition on this issue are approaching it.
LANE: Rob Oakeshott says that someone who has 1100 pages of findings against them but somehow was preselected and helped Labor form government, that there's something extremely troubling and wrong with that and he is indicating that maybe he might withdraw his support ...
WONG: Well, ultimately Mr Oakeshott has to make his decisions. What I would say is what I've said. You know, the way in which this matter is dealt with should be respecting the separation of powers. Parliament isn't judge and jury.
LANE: Penny Wong, thanks for your time this morning.
WONG: Good to speak with you.
ENDS