JOH LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR FEDERAL MEMBER FOR WARRINGAH 6 August 2013 TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH MRS KAREN MCNAMARA, LIBERAL PARTY CANDIDATE FOR DOBELL AND DOUG EATON, WYONG COUNCIL MAYOR, CHARMHAVEN, NEW SOUTH WALES Subjects: Labor’s FBT hit on cars; Labor’s carbon tax con; Kevin Rudd's border protection failures; Labor/Green partnership; Kevin Rudd’s tax increase on cigarettes; tobacco company donations; interest rates; the Coalition’s Direct Action Plan. EO&E........................................................................................................................................... TONY ABBOTT: It’s fantastic to be up at the Central Coast. This is a beautiful area. I love my visits to the Central Coast, I am delighted to be with Karen McNamara our candidate for Dobell. I’m pleased to be with Councilor Doug Eaton – the Mayor of Wyong and obviously it’s good to be here with Margie as well. I’m going to deal first of all with FBT issues and then take some questions on that. Then I will spare the Mayor the general politics, make a few statements about issues generally and then we will take questions generally. First thing I want to say is that the Central Coast is a terrific part of New South Wales. It's an important part of our country. Hundreds of thousands of people live here, and they deserve a better deal. Amongst other things an incoming Coalition government will ensure that the F3 to M2 link actually gets built. We've had years of promises from the Labor Government in Canberra. Nothing has happened. Barry O'Farrell, to his great credit, wants to see this go ahead and it will certainly go ahead with the full support and backing of a Coalition government in Canberra. At the end of the day though, what a Coalition government is on about removing unnecessary burdens that are hurting the families of Australia. We all know about the carbon tax which is hurting the families of Australia and I will have more to say about the carbon tax later, but the particular burden that I want to talk about now is this new tax on employer-provided cars which is going to hit hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australian workers. Wyong Council, for instance, has 200 cars that are driven by its staff, those staff average $70,000 dollars a year. The Government's fringe benefits tax change is a $2,000 a year tax hit on those people. So, this company car tax is a tax hit on aspirational Australians, it's a tax hit on people that don't deserve this hit and the only person here in Dobell who has pledged not to go ahead with that hit, the only candidate here in Dobell who has pledged not to go ahead with that hit is Karen McNamara. I want to say what a pleasure it is to be with Karen McNamara. Karen, like so many people, came to the Central Coast but she has been here for 12 years. She’s deeply involved in the local community. She is deeply involved in the sporting associations. She's deeply involved in the civic life in particular, she's raised her family here, her husband is on Council and she is the local Red Shield Appeal coordinator. So, you couldn't ask for a better person to 1 represent the Central Coast than Karen McNamara. I am going to ask her to say a few words and then I am going to ask the Mayor to say a few words about the fringe benefits tax hit but if you want to see your cost of living pressures reduced, there's only one team to vote for in this election and that is the Coalition. That is your local Liberal and National Party candidate, Karen. KAREN MCNAMARA: Thank you, Tony. It's an absolute pleasure and it's always a great source of inspiration to campaign here on the Central Coast with the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott. I thank you very much Tony and you too Margie for being today with me here in Dobell. Campaigning here today in Dobell, it reinforces what politics is all about. It's about the community. It's about the people, about the households, the families and the businesses which make up our great community that we have here on the Central Coast. Tony and I have been talking with the community of Dobell this morning and people are saying they want real change. People want real plans and they want real solutions and that's what the Coalition can provide to this great community. And having Tony here on the Central Coast today it just reinforces how committed we are to making a positive difference to the people of Dobell and to all Australians for having a stronger Australia and also for providing a better future. For me, as the candidate for Dobell, I give my commitment to the people of Dobell that I am working hard to put Dobell back on the map for the right reasons and also to restore respectability and credibility to the representation of this great community. Thank you. TONY ABBOTT: Well said. Doug? DOUG EATON: Thanks. Can I first of all welcome Mr Abbott to Wyong Shire. It's really great to see him take such an interest in our area. So, that is something we're very excited and pleased about. In terms of the fringe benefits tax changes that are proposed, it will mean a million dollar hit to this council. That is a million dollars that we can't spend repairing pot holes, mowing parks, library books. Essential government services provided to our rate payers will suffer to the tune of $1 million a year and a year ongoing. So, it's a very significant additional impost, it comes without any consultation, it's something that council will really have to struggle to find the money to meet and as I said it will likely result in cuts to services that our community badly needs and deserves to have. That is the bottom line. Also, in terms of the impact on the council staff, it's $10 a week out of their take home pay and in an area where we do have unfortunately fairly low incomes an economy that is not going gang busters, that $10 a week makes a difference to the average person. So, this is a serious matter. We thank the Opposition for their interest in it and for their commitment to review this and in fact not to go ahead with it. That's probably enough from me I think unless there's any questions. QUESTION: Mayor, can I just ask you how your million dollar hit for your council - the Government would argue that the fringe benefit changes would mean that your colleagues would just have to keep a log book. So where do you get that figure? DOUG EATON: Under the award that applies to local government in New South Wales at least and I imagine it's fairly widespread, the award limits the amount of any increase in the work contribution that can be passed on to the worker. So, the maximum amount under the award is 10 per cent. That is that $10 a week. The bulk of it therefore has to be picked up by the council. So, that is the answer. It's different because of the award constraints that local government is under. QUESTION: 2 [Inaudible] DOUG EATON: On average, it is the $500 a year which is roughly $10 a week. TONY ABBOTT: That is for council, he is talking about council people. DOUG EATON: Council staff, yes, and they are obviously and at that time some are on that $50,000 - $70,000 a year. QUESTION: Can you just clarify why will the cost will increase if council staff are using their vehicles for legitimate council business? DOUG EATON: The arrangement is and this is the same with pretty much every worker certainly in the public sphere or operations, that they are allowed to have private use. What is now required as I understand is they will have to demonstrate the level of private use and the effect of that is that the tax will go up significantly where under the award we can’t actually recover that extra increase in the tax. So, that’s how it relates back to council. QUESTION: So, if council working are using their cars too much for private interests the cost to council will increase? DOUG EATON: Well, no, they are already under the existing award frame work and their existing work arrangements using the car partly for business use, council use, and partly for private use. So, without any change except the change proposed by the Government the net effect of the change in the tax rule is that for the same arrangements they will pay more, council pays $1 million a year more. QUESTION: Does that mean [inaudible]? DOUG EATON: I wouldn’t say that, people have made their arrangements according to the existing laws. It is the government who are proposing to change the law. So, I don’t believe there is anything untoward in the current arrangements. It is the change that is forcing this impost onto the council. QUESTION: Just to clarify [inaudible] TONY ABBOTT: 3 Well, my understanding is that because of the particular arrangements the council has under the EBA it is $500 for them. If you are someone who is just a normal worker who has a $70,000 a year income and you are suddenly subject to these changes that the Government has proposed you’ll lose $2,000 a year. QUESTION: Mr Abbott just on your candidate for Greenway [inaudible]? TONY ABBOTT: Now, let’s, look no more questions on fringe benefits tax? Ok well Doug thank you so much. It has been great of you to have me and we will counsel from this, ok? Alright, look, again if I could just say what a pleasure it is to be here on the Central Coast, how good it is to be with Karen and with Margie. Today we were with a typical Central Coast family, an aspirational family to be sure, but a typical Central Coast family to talk about the cost of living pressures that they face. Government can’t rescue people from all of the ills of life but what we should always try to do is to avoid making a difficult situation worse and for the average family in Australian today costs are going up and up and up and nowhere is this more evident than in power and gas prices and even on the government’s own figures your power bill is 10 per cent higher because of the carbon tax. Your gas bill is nine per cent higher because of the carbon tax. The carbon tax will be gone, lock, stock and barrel, no ifs, no buts, the carbon tax is gone under the Coalition and that means that between now and the end of the decade the average Australian household will be $3,000 better off. So, this is real tangible benefits from the Coalition that will ease families’ cost of living pressure. That is the difference between us and our opponents. You will get positive plans from the Coalition, more of the same under the Labor Party. Just a couple of other things I should mention before I take questions. Sometime within the next day or so it is almost inevitable that the 50,000th illegal arrival by boat will turn up on Christmas Island on our shores as a result of the changes that Mr Rudd has made. This is a terrible indictment of the judgement of our Prime Minister. Never forget that the previous Coalition government inherited a problem, it crafted a solution. The current Prime Minister inherited a solution and created a problem. 50,000 arrivals by boat, 800 boats, $10 billion in Budget blow outs in border protection. Tragically more than 1,000 deaths at sea, this disaster has flowed from Mr Rudd's failure to be man enough to leave well enough alone back in 2008, he says it's all fixed. I have the PNG solution. Well, it's funny that this Government always relies on other countries to solve our problems but the arrangement has not been signed. The deal has not been done. What this shows is that the commitments that Mr Rudd made to the Australian people a couple of Fridays back were just a preelection fudge, not a serious solution to a very difficult national problem that he created. Finally, we had the Treasurer, Mr Bowen, say the other day in his book a carefully considered statement about the future of the Labor Party - Labor should govern alone or not at all. Mr Bowen's own words - Labor should govern alone or not at all. Now, we have Mr Rudd and Mr Bowen talking about doing yet another squalid deal with the Greens in order to hold on to government. Now, Mr Rudd needs to come clean. Is he prepared to do a deal with the Greens to hold on to government because we all know what deals with the Greens mean. It means betrayals, broken promises, it means indecisive government that doesn't provide us with the economic certainty and the economic security that the people of our country need. QUESTION: Can I ask you to clarify some comments that Joe Hockey has said. He's told The Guardian that you won't be releasing your budget bottom line when you release your costings. Is that the case and why is that so? TONY ABBOTT: 4 What we will be doing in the campaign is we will be fully funding and fully costing all of our commitments. We will be fully funding and we will be fully costing all of our commitments and the Budget bottom line will be better under the Coalition than under the Labor Party. QUESTION: Why won't you release your budget bottom line? TONY ABBOTT: You will be able to see, you’ll be able to do the arithmetic and you will see that the budget bottom line will be better under the Coalition than under Labor. QUESTION: Can I just ask about the local ALP candidate for the seat of Dobell and also the past history with Craig Thomson and how he characterised Labor in this seat? TONY ABBOTT: Probably the less said about the former Labor Member the better but I do think that the former Labor Member, the person who is apparently still having his legal fees paid by the Labor Party characterises and symbolises the last six years and Mr Rudd is only the Prime Minister now because apparently he got an assurance from the former Labor member for Dobell of support in the parliament. I don't know who the current Labor candidate is, all I know is we have a strong local candidate in Karen McNamara. She is typical of the people who live here on the Central Coast. She loves this part of Australia. She is embedded in this part of Australia. She has been a very significant part of the local community and as I said, who better to represent the people of Dobell than the local Red Shield Appeal coordinator for the Salvation Army. QUESTION: How much will your public service cuts, say, is the figure $4.8 billion or $2.8 billion and can you clarify how many jobs will be cut? TONY ABBOTT: We will be making all of those crystal clear well before polling day. QUESTION: Mr Abbott, just on your candidate in Greenway, yesterday in an interview, he didn't appear to be across basic Coalition policy. Do you expect your candidate to be across that level of detail and don't the voters of Greenway deserve better? TONY ABBOTT: The interesting thing is that the Coalition candidate in Greenway is the only candidate in that seat who is going to be supporting a policy which is effective to stop the boats. If you want to stop the boats, no point voting for the Labor candidate in Greenway because Labor doesn't know how to stop the boats. The Coalition does. If you want to stop the boats vote for the Coalition candidate and to stop the boats we need to do a number of things. We need to have temporary protection visas here in Australia to deny the people smugglers a product to sell. We have to have rigorous offshore processing at Nauru, PNG to let people know that they will not automatically come to Australia. We have to have the best possible relationships with source and transit countries such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Very importantly, we have got to have the 5 willingness to turn boats around where it is safe to do so. They are the policies that our candidate for Greenway supports. QUESTION: Shouldn't he be able to articulate those policies? TONY ABBOTT: They are the policies that he supports. They are the policies that will stop the boats and if you want to stop the boats you have to vote for the Coalition candidate. QUESTION: Mr Abbott do you defend the behavior of the Queensland LNP member involved in sexting ? TONY ABBOTT: Look, people should maintain high standards and good behaviour. QUESTION: Can I ask you about another one of your candidates? Bill Glasson [Inaudible] if he supports that will you keep that if you do win government? He also said he will be [inaudible] to make sure that the Liberal Party doesn’t accept donations from the tobacco industry. TONY ABBOTT: I really do hope that the question is being put to Mr Rudd today - why did you travel to Germany on sponsorship from a tobacco company? Mr Rudd has accepted a personal donation from a tobacco company and I think he really should answer that question. The point I want to make is that donors to the Liberal Party, don’t buy us, they don’t buy our policy. When I was the Health Minister I put graphic warnings all over cigarette packets and as a result, in part, of the policies that I pursued as Health Minister, smoking rates in this country fell significantly. QUESTION: If interest rates are cut today, will that be a good thing or a bad thing? TONY ABBOTT: There is no doubt that a reduction in interest rates is a good thing, no doubt at all that is a good thing but you have to ask yourself why are interest rates likely to be cut? Interest rates may well be cut because the Reserve Bank is concerned about the state of our economy and why wouldn't they be given that just last Friday the Government's economic update revealed that the budget is hemorrhaging to the tune of $3 billion every single week. Unemployment is surging towards 800,000 and debt is spiraling to $400 billion. If interest rates go down, it is because this Government is presiding over an economy which is in much more trouble than Government has previously been prepared to admit. QUESTION: [Inaudible] Do some Australians have realistic expectations about what the Federal Government can do to fund their lifestyles? 6 TONY ABBOTT: I think people are perfectly entitled to want a government that doesn't make their life harder and this government has made peoples' lives harder. The carbon tax, which the Labor Party told us was good for us until a few weeks ago, they now admit is bad for us. They now admit that it is hurting families and households to the tune of $550 a year and it is bad for job security. Whether you're well off or not so well off, you deserve a decent government, you deserve an adult, honest government and that is what you will get from the Coalition. QUESTION: Should families like the government live within their means? TONY ABBOTT: Obviously and what we want to do is try and ensure that the bills that families face are not needlessly padded by foolish decisions from government. QUESTION: Can I ask you about interest rates - John Howard said that a Coalition government would always have interest rates lower than a Labor government. Would a Coalition government that you lead have interest rates lower than Labor? TONY ABBOTT: Well, we aren’t going to chloroform the economy. A chloroformed economy - you only have to look at some of our, some countries overseas to see what happens when you what happens chloroform the economy. Sure, interest rates are low but economic activity is almost non-existent. What I say is that the economy will always be stronger under a Coalition government. Taxes will always be lower under a Coalition government. Government spending… QUESTION: Will interest rates be? TONY ABBOTT: Government spending will always be lower under a Coalition government because we understand that the job of government is not to burden people but to support people. QUESTION: Mr Abbott on the carbon tax… TONY ABBOTT: Very polite, are you sure you don't want to interrupt him? QUESTION: You have said that good economic management will be the hallmark of a government that you lead, bad economic management under the Labor Government has led to interest rates falling, it’s argued. Will interest rates be higher under an Abbott Coalition government? 7 TONY ABBOTT: You have got to ask yourself why are interest rates quite possibly going down? They are quite possibly going down because the Reserve Bank has serious concerns about the state of the economy. If interest rates go down today it won't be because the Reserve Bank says ‘yippee, isn't our economy in great shape’, it will be because the Reserve Bank thinks that economic activity is heading south and why wouldn't they be concerned given that unemployment is surging towards 800,000, debt is spiraling towards $400 billion and the Budget is hemorrhaging to the tune of $3 billion every single week. QUESTION: On the carbon tax, we don't allow employers or anyone else to pump pollution into the air. If we accept that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, surely there has to be a mechanism, whether it’s a carbon tax or Emission Trading Scheme to reign in the carbon emissions? TONY ABBOTT: I absolutely accept that we should rest lightly on the planet and the Coalition has a strong Direct Action Plan to ensure that emissions actually do reduce by 5 per cent by 2020. The interesting thing about the Government is that even on Government's own figures - and I really do invite you to go back and look at the modeling which the Government released back in July 2011, when they put forward their carbon tax plan. Go back and look at the modeling figures which show that despite a carbon tax of $38 a tonne in 2020, Australia's domestic emissions actually go up, not down, they go up by 8 per cent, not down by 5 per cent. We only get the 5 per cent emissions reduction because in that year alone, we buy 100 million tonnes of carbon credits, in that year alone we spend about $3.5 billion, that is a $3.5 billion hit on Australian consumers. We buy those emissions from foreign carbon traders. So, the Government's plan - it clobbers our economy, it makes jobs less secure. It attacks families' cost of living but it doesn't actually improve the environment. Thank you. [ends] 8