WONG: Thanks very much for coming. Its good to be here with Gary Gray, my colleague, the Special Minister of State, but I think today here in his capacity as Minister for the Public Service.
Weve made an announcement today about more budget savings. But I want to start by reflecting on what the Treasurer said yesterday at the announcement of the Final Budget Outcome. He made the very clear point that when Labor approaches the task of budgeting, we do that in accordance with Labor values.
Labor targets efficiencies. The Coalition slashes jobs.
And you see that approach very clearly when you look to Premier Newman in Queensland. He told people they had nothing to fear, public servants had nothing to fear, and now hes sacked 14,000 people. It harks back to John Howard, who told Australians when he was first elected that only a few thousand public servants would get sacked, and he ultimately sacked about 29,000 over time.
So we see very clearly, a very clear difference of values between the way Labor governments approach the task of budgeting. We make hard decisions, but we focus on finding efficiencies. The Coalition slashes jobs.
So Ive announced today with Gary savings of some $550 million to be found over the forward estimates through pursuing further efficiencies and savings. These are things like reducing business class travel, reducing international travel, reducing external consultants and contractors, moving recruitment advertising online, and seeking to print more online. So, reduce actual printing and to put more publications undertaken by departments online. Were starting with a small amount of the total budget there, and we will look to build that over time as we can try and move more of the Governments publications online.
I also want to mention something today about whats in the papers about Tony Abbotts proposed discussion about Defence. Well, weve got one question for Tony Abbott wheres the money coming from?
Wheres the money coming from? We have Joe Hockey and others claiming that they have their policies costed, claiming that theyve done their numbers, but refusing to let the Australian people in on the cuts to services, the cuts to jobs that they will impose to fund their $70 billion of savings. And now we have Tony Abbott out there making more expenditure commitments without telling anyone where theyre funded from.
Id also make this point, as a South Australian, on the issue of submarines. It appears from the reports in the paper that Tony Abbotts message to South Australia is that submarines are on the never never, and all of those people employed in the Defence industry in South Australia, well, were putting your jobs at risk, because were putting this major project into the never never.
Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Will the efficiencies that youve announced today be sufficient to prevent Labor from having to make significant job cuts in the public sector at the next budget?
WONG: We have made clear, in our approach to date, and in the announcement now, the approach we take. And our approach is one that targets non-staffing efficiencies. We dont slash jobs. We dont focus on slashing jobs in the way that the Coalition does.
JOURNALIST: Isnt it the case that you can only get so far with working through efficiencies? This is $550 million, the deficit is $40 billion; youre not going to get there through cutting travel and publication costs.
WONG: Which is why the Government has demonstrated its willingness to put in place structural saves many of which were opposed by the Coalition. And Id refer to two particularly to you: the Private Health Insurance rebate, where Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey think that subsidising millionaires private health insurance is a better use of Commonwealth resources, and the Commonwealth dental scheme the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme. Again, millionaires dental services are more important than other frontline services such as in health and education.
JOURNALIST: Minister you say that this wont be savings wont be made by targeting jobs. We know Government departments have been already asked to find efficiencies. How many redundancies have been offered to date, or jobs have gone?
WONG: We, unlike the Coalition, have been upfront about what happens in the public sector. If you refer back to the last Budget youll see were upfront about the level of employment in the public sector. But we have taken a very different approach. Our approach has been to target non-staffing efficiencies. And weve got the runs on the board when it comes to that.
JOURNALIST: Are you confident that staff numbers wont have to be seriously reviewed then?
WONG: Im confident in the priorities that the Government has made clear to agencies. Which is, you should be prioritising non-staffing expenditure, such as travel, such as printing, and ICT, and all of those other things that weve already looked at, to find efficiencies.
JOURNALIST: Youve talked about prioritising spending. What principles will you apply when looking at government spending, for example, education spending, health spending? What principles are you applying?
WONG: Marcus, I think this is a Government which has increased its expenditure on education almost doubled school funding and I think that shows Labor priorities. And thats not just a priority thats around equity, thats a priority thats about the future strength of the Australian economy. In the Asian Century, we know we are going to need even more skilled Australians, were going to need young Australians to be more Asia-literate and more Asia-capable. And were going to have to improve, and continue to improve, the standards of our education.
JOURNALIST: Youre closing grants schemes across the board, so will there be spending cuts in those grants schemes, for example, to education?
WONG: We always ensure that we consider all expenditure carefully. And I have never fronted up to a press conference like this and not been upfront with people. Were in a difficult fiscal environment.
Weve seen revenue fall compared to what it would otherwise have been $150 billion over five budgets since 2008-09, thats been the hit on revenue as a result of the global financial crisis. So were obviously in tight fiscal circumstances. How you respond to that is a reflection of your values.
JOURNALIST: Will the mid-year economic review be taking more the form of a mini-budget, and will it be released earlier than expected?
WONG: We made clear yesterday the mid-year review will be released, as it always is, in the last three months of the year. And youll have to wait until its released, and Im happy to answer your questions then about it.
JOURNALIST: You touched on the Coalitions Defence announcement plans, today. Defence has borne the brunt of a lot of budget cuts, is there any more (inaudible) is there any more fat to trim in MYEFO?
WONG: In Defence?
JOURNALIST: In Defence.
WONG: We do recognise that Defence has been asked as have, frankly, all departments, to contribute to the fiscal objective. And lets just remember why. Coming back to surplus is good for the economy. Coming back to surplus is the right thing to do, to ensure our economy stays strong, and to protect jobs, and to continue to support jobs going forward. It is true that Defence has had to contribute to that task. We have exempted Defence from todays announcement. Theyre not being asked, like other agencies, to find the additional targeted efficiencies that Ive announced today.
JOURNALIST: On that, Tony Abbott says that he is going to fund this increase in real growth of 3% by finding cuts within the Defence bureaucracy. Is that possible? Is there money that could be found by doing that?
WONG: I look forward to hearing him explain how hes going to do that.
JOURNALIST: Does business have a point the BCA and ACCI have called for an overhaul in the interaction between ministerial offices and the public service. Do you think there needs to be reform in this area?
WONG: We went to the 2007 election with a platform for reform when it comes to ministerial accountability, and the accountability of ministerial staff, and weve implemented it. Weve implemented it. Weve strengthened the Ministerial Code of Conduct, weve put in place a code of conduct for ministerial staff. Weve made very clear that we are responsible for the conduct of our staff. Gary may want to add more to this, but I would say, we have implemented what we said wed do because we do think that accountability is important.
GRAY: Thank you Minister. I think its important to have in mind that we do have the Code of Conduct in place. Its been in place now for four years. We have also reduced the number of ministerial staff by around 50. In addition to that, we operate within our published Code. I think it would be reasonable to say that the observations made on Thursday by the BCA were simply wrong.
JOURNALIST: Senator Wong, can I just ask one question on reports a former Reserve Bank Commissioner has said that people are storing $100 notes at home to bring down their income so that they can claim concessions that pensioners would get. Do you think that theres any truth to that?
WONG: Ive not been looking under pensioners beds lately, but I would say we have a system of means-testing for access to the pension, and people are required to declare their assets and their income in order to access the pension.
JOURNALIST: Senator, youve placed restrictions on travel... on business class travel for public servants, why wouldnt you go one step further and do that for politicians as well? Some might find it passing strange you dont place restrictions on yourselves when you do on public servants.
WONG: Wed encourage our colleagues to fly economy, particularly for short haul, and some politicians do do that.
GRAY: We found $240 million in economies and savings out of how we now do aeroplane bookings and travel bookings. Well extend that. Its true to say that the extension of that is targeted, and we think thats the best way of getting the optimum saving as we go forward over this estimates period.
JOURNALIST: Is the Government planning to dump its pledged referendum to recognise local government?
WONG: Youd have to speak to Minister Crean on that issue.
JOURNALIST: How would you characterise, in general, Tony Abbotts defence plan today? Is it a policy, or is it something thats just designed to capture the imagination? Particularly talking about the drones.
WONG: I think its yet another set of aspirations without any content, and without any numbers. I mean, this is an Opposition Leader who has never been upfront with Australians about his real plans. So, hes happy to talk about a lot of fluff, but he is not happy to ever disclose to people what his plans really are, and just what he would cut in terms of jobs and frontline services.
And look, we shouldnt be surprised about this approach, this is the Liberal playbook. This is the same playbook that we saw in Queensland, where people were told the public service have nothing to fear from us 14,000 jobs gone. 14,000 Queenslanders without a job as a result of the LNPs decisions. Its the same playbook. So the question for Tony Abbott is this: why wont you be upfront with Australians about your plans for cuts? You should be upfront with Australians about your plans for cuts.
Thanks very much.
ENDS