JOURNALIST: Penny, thanks for your time.
WONG: Good to be with you Steve.
JOURNALIST: Penny, youve foreshadowed that its going to be a tough budget and that you are going to tighten your belts youre using all of those sorts of clichs. How tough is it going to be?
WONG: Well we are going to have to make some difficult decisions and there are things that people will not like. Thats inevitable. But we are also prioritising expenditure. Were making sure we spend money on the things we think are important. And the Prime Minister has announced one of those today.
So yes, it will be a tough Budget. But there also will be very clear Labor priorities in this Budget.
JOURNALIST: Lets go through a couple of the areas that have been foreshadowed. The HECS incentive if you pre-pay your HECS fees you get a 20 per cent discount. Why would you attack that? Thats about students, thats about our future, thats about disadvantaging people who really arent on an income.
WONG: Well thats been reported. The Government hasnt actually announced any detail in relation to that so youll have to look at the things which are announced on Budget night.
But I think your question about education and training is a good one and Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister, has made very clear its one of her priorities. And youve seen a couple of announcements already made by her this week which confirm that education and training is a key priority of the Gillard Government.
JOURNALIST: What about cutting the solar panel subsidy? Why would you escalate that?
WONG: Ive seen that Greg Combet has announced that today. And thats not really something associated with the Budget. Thats about making sure that that program the Renewable Energy Target which supports solar panels and those sorts of renewable technologies is sustainable in the long term. Thats why Gregs made the announcement hes made.
JOURNALIST: The public service union and representatives of the public service have said if you cut us and youve foreshadowed that you will, youve said youre going to do that thats going to mean longer queues, shorter opening hours, less staff to deal with clients. Thats a natural consequence, isnt it?
WONG: Look, we think that there are efficiencies to be found in the public service and we have increased whats known as the efficiency dividend. So that is an amount thats taken out of their budget growth each year to give the incentive to find those efficiencies. It is going to be a tough Budget and we think its important that government in its own activities makes sure that we also cut our costs. Thats what thats about.
But Steve, this is the inevitable consequence of meeting a commitment to bring the budget back to surplus, which is the right thing to do.
JOURNALIST: Why is it the right thing to do? Why is that an immovable undertaking when so much in the rest of the world has changed? Why is that one locked in stone?
WONG: Because if you look to where this economy is going, you see that weve got this massive wave of investment in the mining sector. Thats going to have an impact on the economy. Its going to mean that the private sector employs more people and uses more resources. Now we dont want government out there chasing those same resources and the way you do that is to bring the budget back to surplus.
Now that does require some difficult decisions which is why it was so extraordinary yesterday when we saw Joe Hockey, the shadow Treasurer, come out and say: we are going to have a surplus earlier but not announce a single save. Not one save. I mean, its quite amazing, isnt it? Tony Abbott is actually asking Australians to believe that you can bring the budget back to surplus without any further saves.
Now we all know that in our lives, in our fortnightly or weekly budgets, if we want to have more money at the end of the week we have to spend less. Tony Abbott is not applying the same sort of discipline to himself.
JOURNALIST: What are you challenging Tony Abbott to do?
WONG: If he says that he can bring the budget back to surplus a year earlier, then he should put up or shut up. He should show Australians the money. He should show Australians where it is he says these additional savings can be found. Hes got the opportunity to do that next week.
JOURNALIST: $770 million promise for family tax benefits. Joe Hockey says you cant do that and return the budget to surplus by 2012-2013?
WONG: I havent seen Mr Hockey put forward savings that deliver on what he said which is returning the budget to surplus not even by 2012-13 but earlier. But on that issue, well this reflects our priorities. And our priorities are to expand opportunity. We know that we have a boom but we also know that boom is not being experienced in every part of Australia and every household. And our job is to try and make sure we can spread the benefits as far as we can.
And a key priority is to keep people in training. To make sure we do support people getting better skills because thats about getting better jobs and thats about long term financial security. So the policy you referred to Steve is about supporting families to support their kids, teenage kids who remain in study. Thats a good investment for the nation, and its an investment that we have made space for.
JOURNALIST: This carbon tax is really killing you isnt it? I mean we hear, even now, we see Gail Kelly, Westpac CEO come out and say, warning of the uncertainty that the lack of policy is causing her business and the customers, she says. Youre entertaining the PMs entertaining people at Kirribilli House. It is really weighing down the Government at the moment.
WONG: Steve, Im not going to pretend to you this isnt a tough reform. And you might remember in my previous job I had the job of explaining a carbon price to Australians and you know it is a difficult reform. And theres always people who want something different.
Ive got to say when it comes to Gail Kelly that Westpac has been a long term supporter of putting a price on carbon and I think people should have a look at what she actually said rather than the headline. Fundamentally this is about do we want to live in an Australia that just keeps polluting more or do we want to live in an Australia that starts to pollute less and has a cleaner economy? A cleaner energy economy, and thats really what pricing carbon is about.
JOURNALIST: A couple of quick ones Penny. Mark Latham has weighed into the debate. Hes a former Labor leader. He says Gillard has wedged herself on climate change, the public mood demands an insipid scheme with the electoral carrot of overcompensation. Is an insipid scheme youre proposing? And is there an electoral carrot of overcompensation?
WONG: Well we havent laid out the detail of our plan to price carbon because were consulting with business, with industry, with community about it. And we will make sure that we lay out those details. So that people can see just how it will work and what it will mean and how we move to an economy and a nation that pollutes less and that starts to get more advantage, in terms of the world, in renewable energy and clean technology.
JOURNALIST: Finally Penny Wong, Labor is facing an uphill battle. From internally youve got some division in the Labor Party over the push to change the, according to Bob Browns bill, to change the powers of federal ministers to override state-made laws, which would clear the path for gay marriage, euthanasia on a state level. Thats looking like its going to be compromised internally by the Labor Party itself. Is it going to get up?
WONG: Well look, those are issues where a lot of people in the community and inside the Labor Party do have a range of views. But just in terms of that report, obviously thats something the Government will consider and the Labor Party, and the Labor caucus will consider the report, and consider its position on the legislation as we do on every piece of legislation that goes before the Federal Parliament.
JOURNALIST: Penny Wong, appreciate your time. Looking forward to seeing the Budget next week.
WONG: Thanks very much, nice to be with you Steve.
JOURNALIST: Penny Wong, Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation.
ENDS