DAVID SPEERS: Penny Wong, thank you for joining us.
PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE: Its good to be with you.
SPEERS: Now the Liberals did win 52.5% of the popular vote. Is there something wrong with the system when a party can win that much but not win government?
WONG: No, there is nothing wrong with the system. Lets remember the system we have in place was put in place at the urging of the Liberal Party. Thats the first point. Second, in our system of government you have to win not just 50% of the vote but 50% of the seats. And the reality is the Liberals didnt win the seats they wanted to win. I understand they want to blame someone for that, but thats the decision South Australians made.
SPEERS: Because it did happen to Labor and Kim Beazley in 1998.
WONG: Yes, and I made the point this morning that I didnt hear Mr Abbott and others at that time calling for federal reform.
SPEERS: No, but Labor then won, it was just a whisker under 51%. This is a more emphatic, popular vote win for the Liberals 52.5%. At what point does it get a bit silly that youre not winning the election?
WONG: How would you do it? I mean a lot of the Coalitions votes as Mr Downer said this morning, Alexander Downer said this morning are obviously in in regional seats where there is a very high Liberal vote.
SPEERS: So you need to put more seats in the bush?
WONG: What do you do? If you want one vote one value you have to have boundaries drawn a certain way. There is no electoral system which could redistribute Liberal votes from regional South Australia back into the metropolitan area unless you move to a PR system such as you have in Tasmania. I dont think the Liberals want that, and thats certainly not the Labor Partys position.
The reality is people did make decisions in relation to their MPs and there is a very different set of results in different seats. So in some seats which you might have anticipated, given the statewide swing, we would have lost, people have made a decision to keep their local member because they thought they were doing a good job. Thats democracy.
SPEERS: Labors primary vote though is less than 37% based on the latest count theres a little way to go. Is that really an embrace of the sort of industry support policy that Bill Shorten has talked about today?
WONG: First, I think lets look at the two-party preferred vote as well and lets look at the result. I think whats the take out of this election campaign? I think youd say weve done substantially better than was expected and if you look at the polls a few months out or a few weeks out from the result on the day, obviously there has been a very disciplined, strong campaign by Jay Weatherill and the team. I think there is a wariness about Tony Abbott in South Australia. That is what Ive picked up.
SPEERS: Do the results really show that when the Liberals have polled so much more than Labor?
WONG: I think the Liberals themselves would have told you that they thought they were going to form majority government. They havent. There are a range of reasons for that, and what Im saying to you is I think people in South Australia are wary of Tony Abbott. That wariness has been amplified by Holden, by this Commission of Audit that no one is releasing, by the discussion of penalty rates and the way in which that was played in the election campaign, and these things I think have been reflected in the final result.
SPEERS: Can I ask you about one aspect of the campaign that has faced a fair bit of criticism, Labors campaign. This was the pamphlet that Labor produced to attack the Liberal candidate Carolyn Habib. Your colleague Ed Husic criticized Labor for putting that out there. Do you agree with him?
WONG: You know I looked at that quite closely because it was raised with me I was travelling and I saw it online and I thought to myself well if this was a pamphlet with my name on it, and I have what people might call an ethnic name right, so if it said do you trust Wong and you had inside examples of what Id done in the past, I dont think racist would be the term Id use.
SPEERS: So youre okay with it?
WONG: Im just telling you, when I read that I thought to myself if this were about me and it had my name on the front would I think it was racist? No I wouldnt.
SPEERS: But it is a little different in that its a middle eastern name and the imagery was the sort of bullet-ridden wall and all of that
WONG: Sure, sure.
SPEERS: And a dark silhouette. It just
WONG: And people read these things differently.
SPEERS: Youre okay with it?
WONG: What Ive said is Ive told you honestly how I read that, and you know I understand Ms Habib has said she was offended. Im sorry she was offended but I can only express to you how I read the pamphlet.
SPEERS: You mentioned the Commission of Audit, lets move on to that. The Senate had been demanding this be produced by today, the interim report at least the Governments received. Now as the PM and others have pointed out you sat on the Henry Tax Review for a long time four months I think it was before producing that. So do you really have form when it comes to producing these things?
WONG: Weve got a Western Australian Senate election on. Weve just had state elections that you and I have been discussing Tasmania and South Australia. We didnt sit on the Henry Report through an election campaign. We didnt sit on 900 pages of secret cuts through an election campaign. If theres nothing to hide why wont Mr Abbott release it?
There are 2.5 million Western Australians who might be interested in what sort of cuts are proposed. And remember the context to this we asked this question today in the Senate, we put to Assistant Minister Nash here is what Tony Abbott said before the campaign, will you back it in again, and she dodged and weaved. Now if Tony Abbott is actually going to walk away from his pre-election commitments not to cut health, not to cut education, then why wouldnt he release the report and tell us which bits are ruled out?
SPEERS: But you say that this needs to be produced because of the Western Australian election. Are you suggesting the Government needs to rush its response to this because of that election?
WONG: No, they are entitled as every government is to prepare their budget. But this is not their budget, this is an audit report which was prepared with a great deal of secrecy, that has been with the Prime Minister since I think the 14^th of February, sitting on the desks of a few Ministers, 900 pages of secret cuts that they wont release. And I think its only fair to the people of Western Australia that they release it before their election.
SPEERS: Remind me again why didnt Labor put out the Henry Tax Review when you got it?
WONG: I think we put it out was it three or four months later? I cant recall, I wasnt
SPEERS: So why did you sit on it that long?
WONG: Probably because we were considering it. I wasnt in the Finance portfolio at the time so I wasnt as deeply involved.
SPEERS: So why is it okay for Labor to do it and not this Government?
WONG: Because Ive explained to you, I dont think the Henry Review was about a whole range of cuts which are contravening an election commitment made by the Prime Minister and I dont believe
SPEERS: Well it was about taxes going up and taxes going down.
WONG: But we didnt you know sit on it through an election campaign. The government is desperately trying to construct a reason for it - for hiding this report, theres only one reason: theres something in it they dont want Western Australians to know. Thats the only reason theyre sitting on it.
SPEERS: A final question if I can on the Royal Commission thats being held today, the home insulation. You havent been asked to go and give evidence I dont think?
WONG: No, I havent.
SPEERS: Unlike Peter Garrett, Kevin Rudd, Mark Arbib. Interesting today though that the senior public servants, the Assistant Secretary of the Environment Department told the Commission she was told and given just two days to put together this scheme over the Australia Day weekend. She recommended that there be a five year roll out, it ended up being a two year roll out. Does that ring true to you, the sort of Kevin Rudd management style? Youve got two days to put together this whole thing.
WONG: Id make a general comment which is first Ive been in the Senate, weve had a bit on today so I havent been following all of the media on it. But also as a general principle, there is a Royal Commission in place, evidence is going to be given, I think its probably not helpful for me or others to comment on it every day. Its there for a purpose and we should allow that evidence to be given without further commentary.
SPEERS: Alright, Labor Senate Leader Penny Wong, thank you.
WONG: Good to speak with you.
ENDS