DAVID BEVAN: Let's welcome our panellists. Liberal Senator from South Australia, Minister for Trade Simon Birmingham. Good morning to you.
SENATOR SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Good morning. Good to be with you.
BEVAN: Labor Senator from South Australia Penny Wong and Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister. Good morning to you.
PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY IN THE SENATE: Morning. How are we?
BEVAN: Very well. Central Alliance MP for Mayo, RebekhaSharkie. Good morning to you Rebekha.
REBEKHASHARKIE: Morning. Good morning, everyone.
ALI CLARKE: Simon Birmingham with regards to the trade wars that were seeing unfold between America and China. I was watching an economist on the telly last night, and after watching his report, I was pretty much ready to go and buy canned goods and start building myself a bunker. I mean, is this going to get worse before it gets better?
BIRMINGHAM: Ali Im inherently an optimistic person, but these are troubled times. No doubt about that. In terms of the impact that different trade disputes are having. The rate of growth in global trades slumped to a level thats not seen since the Global Financial Crisis. Now, Australia has been riding through that pretty well. In fact, just yesterday, we had new trade statistics out showing record levels of exports from Australia. Record trade surpluses. So we have been, coming through this incredibly well thanks to the hard work of Australian business, the opportunities that trade deals weve struck over recent years have created, and indeed some good fortune in areas that can be quite volatile like commodity prices. And so we have to just keep being determined to keep opening up new markets, to keep helping our exporters and, and of course to keep trying to engage and urge the rest of the world, particularly those in major disputes like the US and China to maintain dialogue and hopefully resolve these issues because they are having a negative impact on global markets and economic growth.
BEVAN: Penny Wong, theres not much else Simon Birmingham can do about this, is there?
WONG: Ill make a couple of points. First, no one wins from a trade war. We know there are consequences. And we have consistently raised these publicly, we want the trade conflict resolved and we want it resolved in a way where, you know, trading arrangements that Australia benefits from are preserved.
But I would take issue with one point Simon said. We arent facing this uncertainty from a position of strength. We're facing this uncertainty globally, in a much weaker economic position than we would want to be. We've got economic growth the slowest it has been in the ten years since the Global Financial Crisis. In this time, weve slipped from one of the fastest growing developed economies to one of the slowest growing, and Australians know their wages are stagnant. So not only do we have the consequences of a trade war, which on this way agree with the government - no one wins from a trade war - but we are facing it at a time where for home-grown domestic reasons, our economy is much weaker than we would want it to be.
BEVAN: Simon Birmingham, if your party had spent less time ripping itself apart, and perhaps addressing fundamental reforms, such as energy, we would be in a much better position to deal with these things.
BIRMINGHAM: Well David, I don't accept Pennys analysis. Australians know that unemployment is at quite historically low levels. Weve seen incredibly strong jobs growth.
WONG: Its a fact. Youd agree that economic growth is the slowest it has been in ten years since the GFC. That's actually a fact, it's not an opinion.
BIRMINGHAM: And for Australians, their employment outlook is incredibly strong. Weve seen very significant growth in full time employment through our time in government. We have a budget position, which is now coming back to surplus. And that, of course gives government greater capacity in terms of how we handle these things. It's allowed us to provide for significant legislation of tax cuts and many Australians at present are receiving $1,080 back in their tax returns, which is extra impact into the economy. So because of that budget management, because of that jobs growth, we've been able to provide that type of uplift that wouldn't have been possible with the type of deficits that were run back when we inherited the government.
CLARKE: RebekhaSharkie, Centre Alliance MP for Mayo, you've been listening to the two major parties back and forth here. Do you feel confident?
SHARKIE: Well I think it's the uncertainty that that is leaving many of us alarmed. I mean, we have an American president who is incredibly volatile. You know, he's conducting so much of his public policy on Twitter. And anyone who follows him on Twitter would naturally be deeply concerned. What I think is particularly interesting though, I thought that America would have tempered much of the rhetoric but I was talking to a US policy expert last week in the parliament from the United States Study Centre. And I mentioned how, you know, how are the US farmers feeling? And he said, look theyre right behind Trump on this. And I think that that's, thats where the concern is, because they, theyre the ones that are feeling the brunt of the US-China trade wars. I think more than anyone and yet theyre right behind the president, and this is politically attractive in his country. And that's where we're caught in the crossfires. And I think it's uncertain days.
BEVAN: Simon Birmingham were coming back to you. An expert panel appointed by your government has recommended tying university funding to graduate employment. Now youre a former federal education minister - now hold the trade and tourism and infrastructure portfolios - but you know the sector well. Is this long overdue?
BIRMINGHAM: Well David I really look forward to seeing the details of this report and welcome its release. This is a process that indeed I kicked off when I was the education minister. Where universities in the demand driven system have been able to enrol as many students as they want, in whatever subject areas that they wanted, or courses that they wanted, and receive guaranteed payment flowing through from that. And what I was picking up was increasing concern that in some areas, enrolments were growing to a degree that wasn't keeping in check with the employment opportunities for those graduates.
BEVAN: Some of the universities were - and are - with very slick advertising, theyre seducing vulnerable students into courses that promise good jobs that few of them will get. Is any of that wrong?
BIRMINGHAM: Well David that was the concern that I was responding to. So we started with a process to shift where future growth in funding universities could be linked to the performance of those universities. And this report is the next step in that which say will, what are you going to assess? How are you going to assess universities against their performance, and what we're looking at here, as I understand it, the report recommends metrics around the employment outcomes of students, the success rate of students, as in whether they actually pass and complete the course that they're doing, the experience and satisfaction of those students, as well as the range of equity factors around the participation of rural and regional students, lower SES students, Indigenous students, etc. So this is a very important step to from next year start to strive universities to say, you can still have the autonomy to make decisions about how many students you enrol, and what courses and subjects they undertake. But it must absolutely be matched to the economic conditions that you're working in, in terms of ensuring that those students have got the best possible prospect of getting a job at the end of it, not just being put through a course for the sake of it.
BEVAN: Penny Wong if this was strictly applied the university would, would be in for a shock of their life, wouldnt they?
WONG: Well, look, we're not in government. And I don't know, what the government's proposing to do with this or what they're proposing, how they proposing to take this forward. I remain pretty sceptical about the government's reforms when it comes to education when we know that we have 150,000 fewer apprentices and trainees as a consequence of or under this government, so I will wait and see what they propose.
CLARKE: What about the government's reforms that theyre proposing with regards to unions Penny Wong. There have been allegations that the CFMEUs John Setka has been involved in more bullying behaviour. Thereve been reports that women have resigned from his chapter, bullying behaviour directed towards the South Australian secretary, former secretary and Aaron Cartledge. Do you support the Morrison government's pushes for new laws that would allow unions such as the CFMEU to be deregistered and people like John Setka to be banned if they break the law?
WONG: Well, therere two issues. First in relation to Mr. Setka Ive made my views I think previously very clear and so has Anthony Albanese. We don't believe he's an appropriate person to remain a member of the Labor Party. I was disappointed to see Mr. Hilakari from the Victorian trade union movement taking a position contrary to that which has taken been taken by Sally McManus who is the leader, national leader of the trade union movement. I think we are entitled to expect certain behaviours from our leaders. We don't expect them to be perfect. But I think leaders who breach, a leader such as Mr. Setka who has breached a family violence court order, and who's been convicted of harassment of his wife, I don't is an appropriate person to continue in the Labor Party. And I'm disappointed that another trade union person contrary to his colleagues might think he was an appropriate person to continue in his role in the trade unions. Many trade union members there are a lot of decent men, but there are many, many women. And I think it's pretty difficult to explain to a lot of them why someone who has engaged in this sort of behaviour is the appropriate person to continue.
CLARKE: It is quarter to nine that is the voice of Penny Wong, Labor Leader in the Senate and Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. Also joining us on this Super Wednesday is Simon Birmingham, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, and RebekhaSharkie, Centre Alliance MP for Mayo.
BEVAN: Penny Wong, in a former life you held the water portfolio. The federal government has announced an inquiry into the $2 billion water market is that overdue?
WONG: Well I think it is. I mean we did have the Auditor General look at water some time ago - looked at purchases - but since that time, we've seen a whole range of allegations including Mr. Angus Taylor, a Cabinet minister, in Cabinet with Simon who was involved in a Cayman Islands company which sold water and that led to as you might recall, quite a lot of media. So I do think it is a reasonable thing, and in the public interest, for the public to gain confidence about the integrity of the water market.
BEVAN: And Rebekha Sharkie many of your constituents in Mayo rely on that water and are affected by water trading. Do you welcome an inquiry by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission into the $2 billion water market? Somebody's being ripped off.
SHARKIE: Youre certainly right David. We have the end of the River Murray, we have the most vulnerable part. We have long supported the call for the Auditor General to review all of the purchases that have been made to make sure that there's a value for money and that we're getting water back into the river, and same with the efficiency measures. So look I think this is a good first step.
CLARKE: Alright on that note, Rebekha Sharkie, thank you for your time. Penny Wong and Simon Birmingham, thank you to both of you as well.
Authorised by Paul Erickson, ALP, Canberra.