WONG: Australians have come to know that Tony Abbott is negative to the marrow of his bones. And tonight that was on display again.
Its quite clear that the only language Tony Abbott understands is no.
He said no to the SchoolKids Bonus.
He said no to costed policies.
He said no to a surplus.
The only glimmer of a policy tonight, the only time his eyes lit up, was when he flagged a return to WorkChoices.
But not only negativity was clear and on display tonight whats also clear is just how arrogant he is.
What hes clearly saying to Australians is: I dont need to tell you anything. I dont need to tell you what my plans are. I dont need to tell you how Ill return the budget to surplus. I dont need to tell you how Ill find the $70 billion that I know I have to find. I dont need to tell you how Ill cover the costs of the mining tax even though Im agreeing with some of the expenditure.
Quite clearly what Mr Abbott is saying is that my tactic when it comes to the Australian people is tell them nothing. Tell them nothing.
The Budget Reply is supposed to be where the alternative prime minister sets out their vision for the nation and their response to the Budget. Instead what we got from Tony Abbott was yet more negativity and arrogance.
Really, it shows just how out of touch he is. Mr Abbott needs to learn the language of the family budget. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Mr Abbott was saying that the Budget was class warfare. Do you agree with that?
WONG: The only class warfare that is being waged is by Mr Abbott against working families. The class warfare is Tony Abbott walking into the House of Representatives and voting against the SchoolKids Bonus for low and middle income Australia at the same time as he is defending the rights of wealthy miners, the rights of Clive and Gina. Thats the class warfare that is being waged.
JOURNALIST: Isnt the fact that Tony Abbott thinks he can get away with just telling them nothing at this stage actually an indictment on the Gillard Government?
WONG: I think it is an indictment on the Coalition. And it is unsurprising that we see reports that Peter Costello was seeking to come back because I think that demonstrates the knowledge inside the Coalition party room that their economic and fiscal policy is in complete disarray, complete disarray.
We saw my counterpart on Tuesday night, on Lateline, promising a surplus of $15 billion. To achieve that and this is on top of their $70 billion black hole theyd have to not pay any Medicare next year, in the year of 2012-13.
They are completely without economic and fiscal credibility and it is a measure of Tony Abbotts arrogance that he does not believe he has to front up to tell the Australian people anything about what he would do to the Federal Budget.
JOURNALIST: What about the promise to get $50 billion in savings? Is that possible, do you think?
WONG: Where are these mythical savings? Perhaps one of the best lines on this is Joe Hockey who says he doesnt want to tell Australians what the savings are because the Government might steal them. I mean, give us a break.
These are the people who say they are ready to govern but cannot even turn up to the Australian Parliament in the Budget Reply and tell Australians how they would fund any of their policies. Its simply not only negative, its arrogant.
JOURNALIST: If I can ask you about three specific policies he mentioned. One requiring government agencies (inaudible) red tape (inaudible) compliance rules, delivering annual savings target. Firstly, is there anything in place like that at the moment and what would it cost?
WONG: We already have a very comprehensive regulation impact statement process through the Office of Best Practice Regulation and we have increased the transparency around that. Again, what we have seen is more words from Tony Abbott. And if you look at the history of the Howard Governments policies on deregulation youll see it took a Labor Government to deliver a number of those; a Labor Government to deliver them.
JOURNALIST: Sorry three things I wanted to ask you about. The second one was the foreign language initiative, surely youre sympathetic to that?
WONG: Id make the point that this is an old policy that was announced by Mr Abbott. In fact, its a rehash of a previous policy that they then backflipped on and now are promoting again. I think the record of this Government in terms of the investment in schools is second to none. We have almost doubled almost doubled funding for schools.
JOURNALIST: If we have to make Australias place in the Asian Century, surely were going to have to do something?
WONG: I think the language that Mr Abbott needs to recall is the language of working families, and the language of the family budget.
JOURNALIST: And then, finally, the welfare changes that he proposed that work for the dole should be mandatory for the long-term unemployed people under fifty?
WONG: This is, I think a policy they announced last year.
JOURNALIST: Welfare quarantining should be extended to the rest of the country and unemployment benefits should be (inaudible) for people under 30 where skilled work is readily available. Do you have any response to all that?
WONG: What Id say is that this Government has put a lot of effort into improving participation. Weve also substantially extended a range of requirements on income support recipients. What Id say again is Tony Abbott is simply rehashing old policy. Not putting forward any detail in an attempt to pretend he has something other to say than no.
JOURNALIST: Just touching on that foreign language policy (inaudible) but given that there is a need to try and encourage more students to learn a foreign language, particularly in the Asian Century ...
WONG: Weve been increasing funding for schools. Increasing support for teachers. Weve been talking about the importance of the Asian Century. I think it takes more than a line in a Budget Reply speech for Tony Abbott to demonstrate he understands the economic importance of the Asian Century.
The reality is that hes simply said nothing in his speech about the Budget. Nothing in his speech about the economy. This is a day where we see an unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent nothing on that from Tony Abbott. Simply more negativity and the arrogance of not telling the Australian people what he has in store should he become Prime Minister.
JOURNALIST: Minister, the Chinese-Japanese foreign language, Asian language idea
WONG: I dealt with that already before.
JOURNALIST: Well hang on. Let me ask the question (inaudible) 2007 election campaign and Tony Abbotts figures seem to say it hasnt worked. Is it working, are you still spending money on it?
WONG: Id make the point that we doubled investment in schools. Weve increased support for teachers. Yes, Asian languages are important but Id again make the point, this is a backflip policy from Tony Abbott. The opposite of policy that was previously announced by his shadow. And what we need to do in terms of the Asian Century is what the Prime Minister has done, which is to look across the board at the policy settings, whether they are educational or economic, and prepare us for the Asian Century. Thats why were preparing the White Paper.
JOURNALIST: Kevin Rudd said last month that there wasnt enough being done on Asian languages and he thought (inaudible) is that something that Labor is concerned about?
WONG: Well, would I like it if more of us spoke an Asian language? Yes. But my point is this, in a Budget Reply, is this: what we saw from Tony Abbott was nothing but negativity, and the arrogance of not fronting up to the Australian people with any plan about what he would do were he prime minister. Nothing on any costed policies and on a day where he said no to the SchoolKids Bonus. Thank you.
ENDS