HALL: One person who'll play a key role in that is Finance Minister, Senator Penny Wong. Minister, headlines like Swan pickpockets families and a welfare blitz on disability pensioners - did you expect this sort of reaction to what you say is a Labor budget?
WONG: This is a Labor budget. It is a budget focused on jobs, creating jobs, training people for more jobs and getting people into the workforce. They are very much Labor values - opportunity and responsibility - and I think headlines, people say a lot of things in headlines, but we are happy to be judged on the content of the budget.
HALL: How hard do you think it will be getting your budget through the Senate?
WONG: Well, you know, this is a Government that has to negotiate everything and there are a range of measures in the budget. But I would say this, really the onus is on the Opposition because the Government has presented its budget, we've made clear where we are spending money, where we are saving money.
We put that up for the scrutiny of the Parliament and the Australian people and we look forward tomorrow night to Mr Abbott doing the same. Because we have seen Mr Hockey saying I'll get the budget back to surplus by 2011-12 and then last night he was running around saying he opposed a whole range of spending cuts. Well, you can't have it both ways.
HALL: Do you think that the Opposition will oppose this budget and therefore it will be left to the Greens in the Senate to determine whether it gets through?
WONG: Well, it depends how economically irresponsible Tony Abbott is intent on being. I mean this is a man who likes to talk tough, he likes to have the political fight but politics is more than that and particularly around budget time because you have to show how your dollars are spent and how they're saved. And we've put forward our spending and our savings. And it is up to Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey to deliver on their talk and do the same.
HALL: Well, the Greens are already making it clear that they do not support several of the measures and that they will be seeking amendments. Are you amenable to amending this budget?
WONG: We'll continue to talk to Members of Parliament about getting this budget through. What I would say on these welfare changes is that they are very, very Labor focused. They are very Labor, a very Labor policy where you provide opportunity and support.
So for example on sole parents, we are delivering tax changes which mean that sole parents who work keep more of every dollar they earn. We are delivering additional support services. We will ensure people get childcare. It is not a good thing, it is not a progressive thing to have children growing up in jobless families.
It is not a good thing, it is not a progressive thing to have single parents on welfare for years. It means they have fewer economic opportunities. We need to break that cycle.
HALL: Well, they are some of the issues that the Greens have flagged. They are concerned about the Disability Support Pension changes, they are concerned about punitive measures for young mothers and single parents. They are also talking about concerns about the cuts to the renewable energy sector including cutting the solar schools program. Would you consider any changes in any of those areas?
WONG: This is our budget. We want our budget passed because we want to bring the budget back to surplus and we want to deliver the spending that we believe is important in mental health and in skills as well as in participation.
So this is the budget that has been put forward to the Parliament. Obviously we will advocate very strongly for it and continue to have a dialogue with Members of Parliament and the Senators but again it does come down to what Mr Abbott will do.
HALL: It is interesting the accusations from the other side of course that this really isn't a tough budget. I mean the headline of $22 billion in savings but that when the spending measures are put in place it really only amounts to a net $3 billion in cuts. Were you framing this budget so that it was more likely to get through the Senate? It looked tough but really you knew that it would pass through the independents that you need in the House and that it would ultimately get through the Senate?
WONG: Actually the net save position is about $5 billion but we have also delivered a lot of spending restraint. So if you look at real growth in expenditure, which is a very important measure, Peter Costello averaged over 3 per cent real growth each year in his last five budgets. We are delivering over the forward estimates, over the budget period, an average real growth in expenditure of 1 per cent and in fact in one year, spending goes backwards.
You know the last time a government delivered that was the 1980s, so we are delivering the surplus through spending restraint as well as savings measures.
HALL: You're having a tough time though selling this budget.
WONG: Oh well politics isn't easy and it certainly isn't easy when you have got an Opposition that is not interested in good economic policy but is only interested in brawling.
I mean Mr Hockey really has been extraordinary in the last week. He says one day I'm going to bring the budget back to surplus by 2011-12. He then says this Budget is not tough enough. He then opposes at least two of the savings measures. It just doesn't add up.
HALL: We hear Tony Abbott again this morning focusing on the carbon tax which isn't even in the budget but he's saying that you know, that the numbers are meaningless without the carbon tax. The carbon tax and the mining tax are both due to start on the same day. Why include one and not the other?
WONG: Because one has its policy finalised and the other doesn't. But why is Tony Abbott saying that? He is saying that because he doesn't want the responsibility of responding in detail to the budget. That is the only reason he is using this line about the carbon tax and if he wants to talk about meaningless numbers, the meaningless numbers are the ones that Joe Hockey is throwing around when he pretends he could bring the budget back to surplus.
This is a test for the Opposition. Are they up to it when it comes to the economy?
HALL: Penny Wong, thanks very much for joining us.
WONG: Good to speak with you.
ENDS

---