LIPSON: Now to the Shadow Trade Minister, I should say and Labors Leader in the Senate, Senator Penny Wong joins us from Adelaide.Good afternoon Senator Wong. First, just a response to Kevin Andrews appeal just there to all Senators to allow the Government to implement its saving measures.
WONG: First, good to be with you Lippo. What I would say to Kevin Andrews and to the Government is if you want people to respect what you did in the Budget then you shouldnt have lied to people before the election about what you would be doing in the Budget.
We all know before the election Australians were told very clearly on many occasions by Tony Abbott, no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no changes to the pension, no new taxes. All of those promises have been broken in this Budget.
Its unsurprising that Australians not just Senators but Australians across the country are feeling pretty betrayed by this Government. And of course those broken promises, those lies, will impact on many Australians many vulnerable Australians when they take their kid to the doctor, when they get in the car and in many other ways.
LIPSON: So Labor has lined up against $18.5 billion worth of savings measures in this Budget. I know you wont outline Labors own savings measures at this time, theres still some time before the election. But would Labor be willing to offer the same quantum of savings that the Coalition has put forward and get those savings from different areas?
WONG: Lets start by understanding what our position is. Chris Bowen has articulated very clearly well look at measures that the Government puts forward in its Budget. Well assess not only their impact on the Budget but also whether they are fair and equitable and thats the approach were taking.
Weve made it clear what our priorities are. Were the party of Medicare and we are not going to let Tony Abbott do what he wants to do which is to destroy Medicare and to increase cost of living pressures for health costs on Australian families.
LIPSON: But would Labor be willing to commit to reducing the same amount of debt as the Coalition is?
WONG: Well, you saw at the last election our approach to the Budget, our approach to reducing debt and that was set out and essentially ticked off you know the figures were endorsed by the Departments of Treasury and Finance in the Pre-Election Fiscal and Economic Outlook.
LIPSON: But thats not always, as we saw when Labor was in Government, a certainty, far from it in fact because we were promised a surplus over and over and it never eventuated either.
WONG: Budget figures obviously arent always a certainty as we can demonstrate by the fact that Joe Hockey doubled the deficit and then massively increased debt after he came to Government through a range of spending promises, spending decisions, and changes to economic parameters in the Budget.
But look, we will make clear our position on the range of measures that come before the Parliament but we are not going to allow Tony Abbott to punish so many Australians with his broken promises, and we have made clear some of the areas which are a priority for us. Medicare is one, were very clear about that and there are a number of others.
LIPSON: But if you wont actually agree or commit to actually reducing debt by a similar or the same amount as the Coalition, is that an indication that Labor doesnt see the debt that Australia has and will continue to have into the future as big a problem as the Coalition?
WONG: We dont agree that there is a Budget emergency and we think that has been quite demonstrably a political trick by the Government to try and justify breaking Tony Abbotts promises -
LIPSON: But what about the fiscal imbalance in the medium to long-term?
WONG: And Im about to answer that. Our approach to the long term position of the Budget is demonstrated by a number of the hard decisions that we took in government; around $180 billion worth of savings. We funded in the 2013-14 Budget, the school reforms the Gonski reforms and DisabilityCare over ten years. We laid out how we would fund that over ten years.
So of course we understand with the ageing population, with the importance of investing in our education system as well as the importance of providing proper healthcare to Australians, we understand the importance of making difficult savings decisions. We made a number of them, many of which were opposed by Joe Hockey.
But Ill tell you this: if Joe Hockey is so concerned about his bottom line how about he has a look at the paid parental leave scheme that is extraordinarily expensive which will overwhelmingly benefit well-off Australians? How about that instead of imposing some of the tax increases on Australians, the damage to Medicare and putting university education out of the reach of too many Australians.
LIPSON: The paid parental leave scheme though is funded largely by a tax on the biggest companies in Australia. So if Labor is claiming that as a saving i.e. scrapping that, would you push the retention of the tax on the biggest businesses? Because otherwise its not much of a saving is it?
WONG: What we know is where the Budget bottom line is, that it includes around $5 billion a year expenditure on this paid parental leave scheme. Now what youre asking me for is essentially what would Labors position over the forward estimates be. We are not the Government, we are the Opposition.
Before the next election Australians will see very clearly our priorities and I can tell you what, our priorities are not going to be increasing cost of living for families, attacking Medicare and cutting $80 billion out of our schools and our hospitals. People should understand what this means: it means fewer beds, fewer doctors, fewer health services in our hospitals and it means a worse outcome for Australians students across the country. Now that is not only unfair, it is bad for the countrys future.
LIPSON: Was Bob Hawke wrong when he introduced a GP co-payment?
WONG: Yes, I think he was and I think the subsequent action by the Labor Government to remove it was the right call. But lets remember this Government is not only simply introducing a co-payment, its actually reducing the benefit that doctors get, thereby ensuring that there is a disincentive to bulk bill.
Its a highly ideological attack on Medicare, something that we know the Coalition have long opposed privately and not been supportive of for many years. We know the history of Medicare, that the Coalition governments tried to dismantle it. Well, now what theyre doing is really striking at the heart of its universality.
LIPSON: Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs says that if the Government was surprised by the reception to its Budget, it will be even more surprised by the global reception to Australias position on addressing climate change. And yesterday, several European Ambassadors here in Canberra were unusually blunt when asked if they thought an emissions trading scheme was inevitable in Australia. This is what they said:
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Pier Francesco Zazo, Italian Ambassador: Yes. Sooner or later yes, we were all a little bit surprised when I thought theres a very positive (inaudible) about the Australian presidency of G20 but I wasnt surprised that the environment wasnt considered one of the priority issues. I think sooner or later, Australia will be brought back to understand the importance of the environment.
Sven-Olof Petersson, Swedish Ambassador: And I must say Im amazed that the Liberal Government doesnt choose a market mechanism to regulate the emissions. I think thats really shocking.
LIPSON: The Government, Penny Wong, hasnt even scrapped the carbon tax. Is the case building to bring it back?
WONG: Look, what was said there is what economists have said for many years, what sensible people in the Liberal Party used to say before Tony Abbott became leader, what John Howard said, what Malcolm Turnbull said.
If you want to reduce your pollution, your carbon emissions, you should do it in the cheapest way possible and that is to use a market mechanism, an emissions trading scheme. What weve got instead is a joke of a policy. And its unsurprising, I dont know has Greg Hunt actually appeared in public lately? Because you know its a pretty embarrassing thing to be a Minister in charge of a policy that no one believes will work, that is simply a waste of money.
LIPSON: Well Greg Hunt was on Sky News last night, just for the record.
WONG: There you go.
LIPSON: But well have to leave it there, Senator Penny Wong.
WONG: Congratulations.
LIPSON: Thank you for your time this afternoon.
WONG: Good to speak with you.
ENDS
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