JOURNALIST: Joining us this morning for our first political debate of the year, Finance Minister Penny Wong and Shadow Immigration Minister Scott Morrison. Firstly, thank you very much both for joining us in the studio.
Penny first of all with the development in Egypt this morning, whats our Governments response to the decision by Mubarak to hold onto power?
WONG: Well its obviously a very concerning situation in Egypt. We are urging democracy. We are urging a transition that is orderly and in which the Egyptian people have the opportunity to express their views. But our first thoughts are obviously to hope that we dont see the violence that we have seen; that we see a peaceful and orderly transition. Its obviously a very difficult situation. I understand the Prime Minister is giving a press conference shortly so hopefully shell have more to say on this.
JOURNALIST: Theyre just live pictures we are seeing now out of Liberation Square in Cairo. Things are set to become very difficult.
Alright onto the local political agenda. Scott Morrison firstly to you. How did the Opposition get itself into such a mess with this flood levy or its response to it? There have been so many divisions now appearing in the Party. Instead of just saying yes we agree with it, all these things that have come up with you also yourself have decided to try to pull out of funding for schools in Indonesia showing massive divisions within the Party.
SCOTT MORRISON: Well tough decisions always bring on fierce debate. Weve had some fierce debate and weve made some tough decisions. Our decision is this. We think this Government cant control its spending and when they keep running out of money they keep going back to tax us. And were saying to the Government quite clearly this is not something thats going to be on as far as the Opposition is concerned. Savings are possible. We first offered to sit down with the Prime Minister and say lets sit down and talk about some savings. She didnt want to do that. We put our money where our mouth was. And if she believes those cuts arent doable and she would prefer a tax, thats what shes saying to the Australian people. She wants a tax. Were saying other opportunities are possible.
JOURNALIST: Minister, Andrew Wilkie is saying he cant understand why you just didnt let the budget run out for another twelve months.
WONG: We are committed to bringing the budget back to surplus and we think there are very strong economic reasons for that. The reality is, Scotts package the floods package that Tony Abbott wants to put in place - doesnt even have the support of his deputy leader. I mean, he says that tough decisions need to be made but he cant even convince his shadow cabinet that this is the right tough decision.
In terms of our package, lets remember two-thirds of this $5.6 billion package to rebuild Queensland and other flood-affected parts of Australia two-thirds of it is funded by cuts to the budget, cuts to Government spending. One-third is funded by a modest levy that people who earn over $50,000 a year will pay a small proportion of. I mean, 60 per cent of taxpayers will pay less than $1 a week.
JOURNALIST: If its only $1.8 billon why not raise it from other avenues rather than causing this political turmoil?
WONG: Were focused on giving Queenslanders and people in other parts of Australia the security they need to rebuild their lives, their homes, their communities.
MORRISON: But Penny theres no disagreement about the expenditure. Theres no disagreement about supporting Queensland floods. Its how youre going to raise the money.
WONG: And we know we are going into a budget, as per your first question, where we will have to make tough decisions. This is a very large natural disaster. Probably the most economically costly natural disaster Australia has seen. A modest levy for a third of the cost, two-thirds of the cost funded by spending cuts. A very sensible package. We should just get on and pass it. We shouldnt be playing the sort of procedural games weve seen from the Opposition.
JOURNALIST: But youre going to. Youve got to convince the independents to come on board. Theyre going to have their hands out for something. How are you going to cope with that? Whether it may be this easy eligibility for Youth Allowance for instance?
WONG: Thats a different issue. But certainly on the independents well do what weve done, what we did on the NBN bill, on the Telstra bill. And that is to keep talking to them. We think this is a good package. We obviously have to negotiate our passage on this legislation.
JOURNALIST: More than negotiate; it means watering it down.
WONG: Well see, well see what happens on that front.
JOURNALIST: Scott Morrison, theres nothing more dangerous for a Liberal leader than have all his parliamentary MPs standing behind him telling him that his position is rock solid as has been shown by the recent past. Tony Abbott has all of his MPs standing behind him, including his deputy leader, very clearly telling him that his position is rock solid. How rock solid is it going to be?
MORRISON: There was a very enthusiastic queue of people lining up to support Tony as there always is. Why? Because Tony has taken our party
JOURNALIST: Well some past leaders who had the same support arent there to tell their story today.
MORRISON: Tony has taken our party to an incredible place in such a short period of time. And hes done that by being decisive. Hes done that by showing clear leadership and direction. And I think thats been shown again, that hes standing up for clear principles. Our party being a party of lower taxes, our party being a party of saying we dont want to go down the road of exorbitant spending, and we want to keep those things under control. And weve acted in accordance with those principles. The Government is taking the view to tax. The carbon tax is coming as Penny knows, weve got the mining tax which is on its way and weve also got the flood tax. And we said in Parliament yesterday, with a $290 million blowout in their asylum seeker budget yesterday, well, wheres the boat tax?
WONG: Well, come on. First off, you always try and link these things. You know mandatory detention is expensive, it was expensive under you, you spent $400 million on Christmas Island.
MORRISON: You spend $100 million a year in this budget -
WONG: I listened to you Scott, I listened to you. $400 million on Christmas Island, around $300 million on the Pacific Solution. I mean mandatory detention is expensive.
But if you want to talk about fiscal responsibility which Im happy to talk about you yesterday, if I may finish, I did let you finish...
MORRISON: You raised Penny, how much we did spend on the Pacific Solution and your colleagues have done the same. What you ask for from the Parliament yesterday was more than we spent on the Pacific Solution, and that was just your budget blowout.
WONG: Well thats actually not true. If you want to talk about fiscal responsibility. Yesterday in the Parliament your Senators voted for legislation which would, if it were ever passed, would put $300 million plus on the budget with no offsetting savings.
MORRISON: Our savings are there. We announced them before the election.
WONG: Yes, the $10.6 billion black hole
MORRISON: We announced our savings, you can take any one you like Penny.
WONG: (laughs) So you cannot Scott, come on. I did listen to you.
MORRISON: Well youre asking questions!
WONG: Let me finish, come on. Fair cop here. You supported legislation that will impose $300 million on the budget, were it ever to be to be passed without offsetting savings.
MORRISON: Thats not true.
WONG: You cannot come in and lecture people about being fiscally responsible when you keep putting up things that have a cost without giving up savings.
MORRISON: The savings were announced before the election Penny. Theyre there.
WONG: The $10.6 billion black hole.
MORRISON: Take your pick, its a smorgasboard of savings.
WONG: A $10.6 billion black hole that was found by Treasury and Finance.
MORRISON: You dont want to find them! Were offering them to you.
WONG: (laughs) Its not me saying that! Its Treasury and Finance.
MORRISON: You rejected our savings.
JOURNALIST: Minister, on Sunday the Premiers gather in Canberra. Are you about to dump Kevin Rudds hospital plan and in other words, abandon a core Labor promise to fix hospitals?
WONG: The Labor promise is to deal with this enormous health problem that we have coming.
JOURNALIST: So youre going to dump Kevin Rudds package?
WONG: And the problem we have, as you probably know, is that health costs are rising. Unless we do something, health costs will subsume too much, or all in the medium-term of the states budgets. So we have to do something about health. Now were interested in an outcome; an outcome thats good for patients and that deals with this health funding problem that has been around for years. That was identified under the Howard Government and will be with us for some time. Obviously, theres a lot of negotiation occurring but well be very focused on how do we meet this challenge, and how do we do whats best for patients.
JOURNALIST: So Kevin Rudds package will be dumped?
WONG: I will leave the negotiations to the Prime Minister. The problem is one that does need to be addressed and were committed to addressing it in a way that deals with the needs of patients. But obviously were not going to be writing any blank cheque. Were very clear about that. This is a problem that needs to be resolved by the Premiers and the Prime Minister.
JOURNALIST: Are they on the right track?
MORRISON: The gap between announcement and delivery on health for this Government is going down the same road that weve in New South Wales. Were sitting in Sydney today, the people of NSW have already worked out that gap about Labor in New South Wales, and Im sure theyre seeing the same thing now from the Federal Government on health.
JOURNALIST: Minister Penny Wong, thank you very much for coming in. Scott Morrison, always a pleasure to have both of you on the program. Thank you very much indeed.
WONG: Nice to be with you.