JOURNALIST: Senator Wong, thank you very much for your time.
WONG: Good morning Kieran.
JOURNALIST: Obviously Im not expecting you to rule in anything or rule out anything from the Expenditure Review Committee, but it would have been contradictory, would it not, to cut the childcare rebate or to means test it when one of the key messages of this Budget is about workforce participation?
WONG: Participation is one of the key economic challenges and this Government is very focused on that challenge. The Prime Minister has spoken about the importance of increasing participation and we do have a very proud record as a government on childcare.
Weve increased the childcare rebate. Weve doubled the spending in the last four years compared with the last four years of the Howard Government in direct affordability measures for families. But these are all matters that will be resolved in the Budget. But as you said, participation is obviously a key part of it.
JOURNALIST: Important to encourage women to stay in the workforce, obviously, as you mentioned. That rebate plays a big part in that.
WONG: Womens participation in the workforce has increased but we need to continue that trajectory and the Government is very conscious of that.
JOURNALIST: And I suppose the childcare sector as well has a compelling argument too in the sense that standards have been increasing and they have been required to increase standards in training and so on. So costs go up.
WONG: Look, we have had a very clear agenda as a Government to improve childcare and to increase its affordability and our record demonstrates that.
JOURNALIST: OK medical researchers have been campaigning vocally. Have you been surprised by the groundswell on this issue? You havent even announced it, now as I understand it the cuts will be happening. But I wont ask you to rule it in or out because I know you wont. But tell me, have you been surprised by the groundswell of opposition to the suggestion that the medical research council could be cut?
WONG: Well, no, because all of us in some way have been touched by medical research, themselves or family and friends know the benefit of research in one way or another so its unsurprising that it is an area which has a lot of public support.
JOURNALIST: And a lot of people have been worked up about it. Would you caution people just to wait when it comes to those sorts of things?
WONG: Well as Ive said publicly, this has been based on speculation and rumour and what Ive said consistently in interviews like this is people really should wait and see on Budget night what decisions are made. There are obviously a lot of very difficult decisions the Government has to make for this Budget, but people should consider that.
JOURNALIST: And another thing that I was made aware of is the Government at one stage considered selling Medibank Private. That was knocked on the head pretty quickly. But it shows you the breadth of cuts that youre looking at. Can the Government afford a budget as unpopular as that given the polls right now?
WONG: The Government has to keep focused on what are the long term challenges of the nation. The Government has to be focused on whats the right thing for the economy because whats right for the economy is the right thing for Australian families and Australian households. So we cant be diverted by issues in the short term which might be difficult. We have to keep focused on whats the right thing for the long term and thats what were doing.
JOURNALIST: It has got to be pretty tough at the moment though when you look at yesterday the worst result in 15 years. And now youre saying that theres going to be this tough budget and it looks like the rhetoric might match with the reality this year unlike previous years.
WONG: Look we are committed to coming back to surplus. And there are very good reasons for that. And can I say thats in stark contrast to the Opposition who, if they were in government this year, if they were in government now, we would be in deficit as a government every year of the forward estimates. That is what my counterpart, Andrew Robb, if he were in my chair now, would be delivering. A deficit budget in every year.
So as we go into this budget as we go into this budget season I think it is incumbent on the Opposition to say if they do in fact want to bring the budget back into surplus, what are they going to propose because they are a long way behind.
JOURNALIST: On to the issue of the carbon tax. The big mining companies BHP, Rio are in town today for talks with your successor in the job as Climate Change Minister. The steel industry wants exemptions. Everyone is saying at the moment not me. How do you get around that?
WONG: This is not new. (laughs)
JOURNALIST: But do you think that industry will is it viable, for example, to exempt any industry altogether?
WONG: I seem to recall having interviews with you when I was in the job that Greg Combet now holds. And there is an air of familiarity to this debate. I mean, this is the same debate weve had for a number of years. Its the same debate we had after I released the Green Paper on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. We went through the process of consultation, locking down the design and then of course the long negotiations with Malcolm Turnbull.
I understand businesses want to advocate for the best deal for them. Thats their job. Our job as a government is to put forward a policy that is about bringing in place a carbon price to transform the Australian economy, to enable us to compete with other nations who are doing the same thing.
JOURNALIST: Is it viable for any industry to be exempt entirely, as steel is saying they want to be exempt. Is it viable in your view for any of these industries to be exempt in their entirety?
WONG: Were going through a process of consultation. And we are a government that has always prioritised ensuring a smooth transition through a carbon price implementation. Thats what the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme did.
JOURNALIST: So it is possible that steel can be -
WONG: No. What Im saying is the scheme does have to hang together. So Greg will go through the process of consultation and negotiation. But again, Id say to people because theres a lot of publicity, a lot of media, a lot of stakeholders out there making very familiar claims. This is part of the process that we went through last time. It is not surprising that people would put these positions but as a Government, we will work through this and make sure there are proper transitional supports in place.
JOURNALIST: When you were the minister at one point at least in 2007 particularly in 2008 there was a lot of support for an emissions trading scheme. Now the support has collapsed, 60 per cent opposed to a carbon price. What happened?
WONG: Kieran, theres always been more support for action on climate change then there was support for paying for it. And thats always been the case from when John Howard was Prime Minister, when he advocated for an emissions trading scheme. What happened last term I think everybody knows. We got a deal, a bipartisan agreement with Malcolm Turnbull to put in place this important reform.
JOURNALIST: You pushed ahead with it. You wanted the Rudd Government, the Labor Government, to push ahead with it regardless. It must be frustrating to you to now. As a minister who pushed for it, it must be frustrating to sit there and look at the supports collapsed.
WONG: I think what is frustrating is that were having the same arguments. What is frustrating is we see Tony Abbott doing nothing other than trying to swing the wrecking ball on a policy that I believe, that the Labor Government believes, and that many Australians believe is important for the nation. Transforming our economy, making sure weve got a price on pollution and doing something about climate change.
JOURNALIST: Penny Wong, appreciate your time.
WONG:Good to speak with you.
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