LEON COMPTON: Penny Wong is in Tasmania today. She is the Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, and she joins us this morning. Penny Wong, good morning to you.
SENATOR PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Good morning, good to be with you.
COMPTON: Just on how would you govern, given that the State Liberals are in power here, weve been talking to them regularly on mornings, theyve loathed to promote anything that you are keen on. You have pledged more money for health and education, which constitutes the bulk of our state budget and theyre lukewarm at best. If elected, would you be able to work with Tasmanias Liberal Government?
WONG: Well, I think Tasmanians would ask why wouldnt the State Government work with us? We are pledging to put more money into Medicare, reversing some of the cuts that Malcolm Turnbull has made that will lead to essentially a GP tax, we announced yesterday that we would reverse the higher cost for pharmaceuticals, higher costs for prescriptions that the Government has put in place, and of course we are investing in Tasmanian jobs, $150 million into the development of the campuses of Inveresk and West Park. That is a big commitment on jobs, but also big commitment to ensuring those many Tasmanians who could get a university education get access to it. I would hope that the state Liberals put Tasmanians first, were we to have the privilege, honour of being elected.
COMPTON: Penny Wong, the Liberals are campaigning on the theme of jobs and growth, you only need to watch a Liberal interview, or listen to a Liberal interview for about 30 seconds and youll hear that. I mean theyre campaigning on a perception, that is the issue in fact you are weak on, creating jobs in Tasmania.
WONG: Well, Malcolm Turnbull doesnt have a plan for jobs and growth, hes got a slogan. And I think that governing is more than playing slogan bingo, which you could play. Im sure you have had them on your station and you could count the number of times that they say it. But as I said, we have put on the table, $150 million for the University of Tasmania, something that Labors candidate for Bass, Ross Hart, and Justine Keay in Braddon have been pressing us for. The University have said that they will stump up $75 million. This is all about creating local jobs, but it is also about ensuring many people who could go to university here in Tasmania, are able to.
COMPTON: Private health insurance premiums are rocketing at the moment, six per cent plus per annum, year after year your party signed off on these rises when in power as the Liberals have since they have come to Government, Penny Wong, what practically can you do to control the cost that people dont feel in many cases they can avoid.
WONG: Look, we have had to make in government hard choices around where you put your money, and remember these subsidies, just like negative gearing, they are not for free, they are taxpayer dollars. Every subsidy is a dollar from a taxpayer that goes to someone else, and you have to make a decision about what is the best way to spend that.
Now we have made clear that our priority is Medicare. We will also be making announcements prior to the election on public hospitals, where we have seen billions of dollars being cut from our public hospital system, which obviously has a direct impact on peoples experiences of the health system and their access to critical services. In addition, we have said we will put money back into our schools, because we know weve seen reductions under the Liberal Government despite the fact that Malcolm Turnbull and Christopher Pyne promised a unity ticket when it came to school funding. Well, they backed away from that when they got into government. We think every kid across Tasmania deserves the best education we can give them. Its good for them, good for their family and good for the economy.
COMPTON: Okay back onto private health premiums for a moment. As I said they are rising higher, ever higher. Are you suggesting that you want to create a health system that people can trust to take care of all of their health needs, to create a health system where people are confident of leaving their private health insurance and trusting the state funded system?
WONG: Look, our system in Australia has both doesnt it? It has a publicly accessible public hospital system, it has a universal system of Medicare, and it also has the private health insurance system. The reality is though, the question is what extent do you keep subsidising it? We made decisions in government about continuing subsidising it, but not as generous as a level as it had previously, and of course that enabled us to put money into Medicare, money into our public. These are some of the difficult decisions in government. But, I think the heart of your question, Leon, is cost of living and I think what we have seen is a lot of pressure on peoples cost of living. One of the ways in which we are assisting with that is that we are trying to reduce peoples cost of living in other ways. And Ive mentioned the pharmaceutical scheme, additional co-payments for people who need scripts, it simpl y increases the cost of living, as does the GP tax. The Governments decision to freeze Medicare rebates for six years will lead to a situation where GPs - and you dont have to believe me on that, thats what the doctors say, the AMA, the Australian Medical Association says this - it will lead to a situation where doctors have to charge upfront fees, that will increase peoples cost of living.
COMPTON: On penalty rates at the moment, for our listeners who work or who have family members who work on Sundays, we understand clearly what the Liberal position is on penalty rates. If the Fair Work Commission finds that they should be reduced, theyve said they would stick with the umpires decision. Whats your position?
WONG: Well, Leon that isnt actually the Liberals position. The real position of the Liberal Party is that theyve got, I think its some 60 candidates, who are on the public record, on the public record saying that they believe that penalty rates should be reduced.
Labor has always stood, in government, in opposition, as part of the labour movement, to protect penalty rates. We have always done so. We made a submission to the Fair Work Commission in opposition, arguing for the retention of penalty rates. And in government, Julia Gillard in fact amended the act to require the Fair Work Commission to have regard to the need to additionally remunerate people who work unsociable hours, such as on Sundays. So I think our record makes clear our very clear philosophical position and is a very clearly different approach to the Government.
COMPTON: The question is will you accept what the Fair Work Commission hands down as its recommendation on this?
WONG: What we said is that if we were elected, what you would expect is that a Shorten Labor Government would make it an immediate priority to intervene in those proceedings and to put the view that I have just put to you. We are not about dismantling the independent umpire that is true. And we have a recent example of that where a Liberal Government dismantled the Safe Rates Tribunal because it didnt like its decision.
Now going down that path is a risky proposition, but I dont think anyone looking at Labors record would suggest that we have been anything other than supportive of and protective of peoples penalty rates. Its only the Liberal Party that want to reduce Sunday rates.
COMPTON: One of the Liberal Partys most senior former fundraisers, Michael Yabsley has come out and said that there needs to be major political reform when it comes to political donations, also comes out calling for bans on international individuals and corporate groups. Penny Wong, should Australian politicians and groups be allowed to take political donations from overseas donors?
WONG: I think that is problematic and one of the things we moved to do in government is, and we have moved in opposition too, is to ban foreign donations and anonymous donations. I think the other thing that needs to be done is greater transparency. The Liberal Party have the threshold for donations far higher than it ought to be, I think it should be reduced, thats what Labors position has been, and Im sure you will see us saying more about these things in the coming weeks.
COMPTON: The National Broadband Network, if you are travelling anywhere west of where you are sitting now, youll hear people talking about their concerns about the roll out, its been suspended in the far west of Tasmania until the political toing and froing of the political election campaign wraps up. Where is the money going to come from to continue the roll out of the NBN if youre elected?
WONG: The first point is that Malcolm Turnbull went to the last election with a set of promises on the NBN, those promises have not been met. The cost has blown out, and the roll out has been delayed. I think that is self-evident from what we know, despite the fact that Mr Turnbull has gone to great lengths, and the Government has gone to great lengths to hide that information from the public. We havent announced our NBN policy, we will be doing so prior to the election, and what you will see is a much stronger focus from our Party, than you have from the Government in making sure that this roll out is delivered.
COMPTON: When will you be announcing that? It is a hot, live issue in Tasmania at the moment.
WONG: Sure, well you do know that we havent even started a normal campaign yet? I think we are at day 40 and a normal campaign is just over 33 days. So I can say to you, Tasmanians will know what Labors NBN policy is well before they vote, just as they will know our investment in schools which we have announced, our investment in Medicare, and the Pharmaceuticals Benefit Scheme which we have announced, and our investment in the University of Tasmania.
COMPTON: One of our callers this morning says that you, Penny Wong, your party cut the single parent payment. How can people trust you when it comes to looking after families, particularly people raising families on their own?
WONG: Well I recognise that was a decision that in hindsight we might have made a different decision on. We had to make a set of difficult decisions in government, and in hindsight that was probably one that we would have approached differently. But what I would say to your listeners and to others, if you want to see a government that sought to make life harder for people who dont have a lot, have a look at the Abbott-Turnbull Government, have a look at the 2014 Budget and its cuts to families, its cuts to payments, its imposition of a GP tax, its cuts to schools and hospitals and many of those cuts remain Malcolm Turnbulls policies. Im very happy to have a discussion about which is a party that has a vision of a fairer Australia, and its the Labor Party.
COMPTON: Thanks very much for talking with us this morning. Penny Wong, Labors Senator for South Australia, Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment on mornings around Tasmania.
