CURTIS: Penny Wong, welcome to News 24.
WONG: Good to be with you.
CURTIS: Are you trying to dump bad news about the deficit on the Royal wedding day as Joe Hockey alleges?
WONG: Well it was a lot of hyperbole from Joe. But if he had read the Treasurers speech from, I think its over a week ago, the Treasurer already has spoken about the fact that we are likely to see the higher deficits in the early years than we were predicting in the Mid Year Review. And thats logical given what were battling and given the natural disasters, the high Australian dollar and the cautious consumer that were seeing.
CURTIS: Is a deficit this financial year in the upper end of the range to $40 to $50 billion, $47 or $50 billion out of the question?
WONG: Im not going to engage in the sort of speculation that Mr Hockey is. Obviously those figures will be revealed on Budget night.
It is true that revenue is down. We have been upfront about that. In fact Ive released figures today which show that revenue to the March quarter for the financial year is about $6.5 billion down in terms of tax receipts. So weve been upfront about that. The Treasurer has been upfront about that. We know the reasons why: natural disasters, high Australian dollar, our patchwork economy and Australians saving much more than they used to.
CURTIS: Isnt it the case though that some of the spending that was done under the stimulus programs is still flowing through? Youre still spending that money?
WONG: Most of the stimulus, practically all of it, is spent. Thats just a convenient line for Tony Abbott.
I mean the thing about Tony Abbott is this: he says he wants to come back to surplus - he wont say when and he wont say how. And under his economic team which includes no Peter Costello; it includes Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb weve seen a $10.6 billion black hole which they havent explained. And Ive put out figures which show on their own costings, they would be in deficit in every year if they were in government.
CURTIS: But wont you have to cut potentially unnecessarily hard to turn around a sizeable deficit in two years just to meet what is a political target of a surplus in 2012-13?
WONG: Well I dont accept the premise of the question. The surplus is a sound economic target. Its a sensible thing to do. We know despite the fact that weve got some short term softness in our economy which Australians are experiencing we know that the outlook over the medium term is very strong.
And we have to do the right thing and come back to surplus. Its the way the Government can do its bit to limit inflation; to not add to price pressures down the track.
CURTIS: Are you worried though about exacerbating the short term weakness while youre keeping your eye on the long term problems?
WONG: We obviously have to look at both. But I think the national interest is served by us recognising where the economy is going, where the nation is going and preparing for that. A surplus is part of it. So too is investment in those things which add to the economys capacity like participation.
CURTIS: One of the areas where the Government wants to spend money is on a regional processing centre for asylum seekers. But East Timors president Jose Ramos-Horta has put an end to bilateral talks on the matter. Is it time to admit its not going to happen in East Timor and look for other options?
WONG: I think Minister Bowen has made some comments about it already, I wouldnt want to add to them. This is obviously a difficult problem. Its a difficult policy problem world wide. And its a regional problem and thats the way we are approaching it.
CURTIS: And finally Tony Abbott has said today that under his climate change policy he can guarantee that no jobs will be lost and the competitiveness of Australian business wont be reduced. Is it time for you, for the Government, to put out exactly what youre detailing under the carbon price in order to move the debate along?
WONG: You know the only thing Tony Abbott - the only things Tony Abbott can guarantee when it comes to climate change? That his policies will cost Australian taxpayers more and that they will do very little, if anything, to reduce pollution. He can guarantee that pollution will continue to rise under Tony Abbott, thats what he can guarantee.
CURTIS: Former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has spoken in the last day or so and writes in his book about the reform challenge being more difficult now because he said the media has turned politics into a sideshow. Given those sorts of difficulties, if you accept them, do you need to do more to inform the public, and inform the public exactly what youre thinking of?
WONG: We want to put the detail out there. We want to have the discussion with the Australian people about that detail, and Greg Combet is working through the development of that as he should.
Look, I think this is a tough reform. Dealing with climate change is a tough reform. I had the portfolio previously and I know it was tough then and its got even tougher. But its the right thing to do for the economy and for the future.
CURTIS: And just finally on this issue, Mr Tanner last night said that he doesnt dispute whats on the public record about his opposition last year to the dumping of the emissions trading scheme. Do you similarly have no dispute with whats on the public record?
WONG: You know I dont discuss what occurs internally either in the Cabinet or within the Government but I will say this: I think this Government, under Julia Gillard, is demonstrating its commitment to act on climate change. We know this is a tough reform, we know there is a lot of opposition, particularly from Tony Abbott, and were pressing ahead and we will do.
CURTIS: Penny Wong, thank you for your time.
WONG: Good to be with you.