MARIUS BENSON: Good morning.
PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Good morning Marius, good to be with you.
BENSON: Yes, thanks for joining us. It looks like were going to be handing over the printing of Australias money to private firms. Is that a good idea?
WONG: Look, I think what were seeing in this Budget is a range of broken promises and absolutely the wrong priorities. I mean it will be a budget that will make it much harder for Australians to make ends meet and a budget which is putting in place an ideological agenda that I dont think Tony Abbott was upfront with Australians about.
I mean well assess the things hes trying to privatise, but I would say this: if you look at the things that could be abolished or sold off, they include things like Australian Hearing which delivers services in remote Aboriginal communities. I dont know how the private sector are going to be capable of replicating that service. Theyre also abolishing a range of independent oversight bodies. All that means is more control and more power to Tony Abbott.
BENSON: But it does seem like a bit of a jumble sale from whats been handed to the papers and journalists generally this morning. Theres not a huge financial result. Theyre talking of savings of $470 million over four years. I mean that is simply small change when you compare it to say the prospective sale of Medibank Private at a $4 billion price tag.
WONG: And well assess each of the propositions which are put forward in the Budget about what they want to take out of public hands. But, for example, youve got a couple of oversight agencies, the Information Commissioner, an integrity body that looks at national security legislation theyre important. The Information Commissioner oversights freedom of information and privacy laws. These are things that you dont really want to put in the Prime Ministers Department, and youre simply giving Tony Abbott more power.
But look I think the fundamental and most central problem with this Budget is this: its full of broken promises, its got the wrong priorities, it will make it harder for a great many Australians to make ends meet, at the same time as it will deliver a gold plated Paid Parental Leave scheme to the wealthiest people in Australia. I mean this is not a budget that people, when they voted for Tony Abbott last year, would have thought would have been his first budget.
BENSON: How big a deal do you think this Budget is? Because we know some things that are going to be done, agencies scrapped and merged, the petrol excise increased again or indexed again, the deficit levy and so on. Do you think this budget is likely to be a real watershed in Australian economic management, or when it comes out, for all the roaring, will it turn out to be a mouse?
WONG: The watershed is this: its a budget which will demonstrate to Australians that Tony Abbott cant be trusted. He cant be trusted to keep his word, he cant be trusted with Medicare, he certainly couldnt be trusted when he told Australians that there were no changes to the pension, no cuts to health and education and we know those things were a lie, and he told Australians that there wouldnt be new taxes and we know already that that was a lie. This is a budget that shows that Tony Abbott has got the wrong priorities and that hes quite prepared to break his promises.
BENSON: Its the wrong priorities in your view, but do you think its a big deal? Do you think it is a genuine watershed?
WONG: It is a big deal when youre going about dismantling Medicare. We means tested a lot of things, Marius, when we were in Government, we did it to ensure fairness. But we understood that one of the things that is extremely important is the universality of access to our health system. It is one of the things that makes Australias health system one of the best in the world. We actually get very good value out of Medicare if you look at our health outcomes and the proportion we spend on it compared with similar countries around the world. Part of what is important is you ensure that we dont have a two-tiered system, we have a system where all Australians can get the health services they need.
Tony Abbott wants to start to dismantle Medicare. Its not what he told Australians before the election and I dont know why he thinks its in the national interest to say to families you should pay more to take your children to the doctor.
BENSON: Its not clear what will be within the scope of the Senate to oppose in this Budget, or what will be tied to an appropriations bill which by convention arent blocked. But will Labor use its Senate powers to the maximum to block things to which you are opposed?
WONG: Well first on your point about supply bills, and there has been some commentary in the paper about what the Government wants to attach, well certainly be ensuring Senate practice continues and that we ensure that legislation that should be considered separately is considered separately. And well assess the legislation, the specific proposals that are in the Budget carefully. Well look at its impact on fairness, well look at whether or not its a broken promise and well look at its impact on the Budget. And we will be responsible but well also stand up for Australians who are forgotten by this Government.
BENSON: Penny Wong, thank you very much.
WONG: Good to speak with you.
ENDS