Tony in Tassie … read for yourself

28 June 2010

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
GRANGE RESOURCES
PORT LATTA, TASMANIA

Subjects: Julia Gillard’s great big new tax on mining; paid parental leave; Newspoll; federal election; Labor frontbench.

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s good to be here at Port Latta. It’s a big mistake to think that the mining industry is concentrated in Western Australia and in Queensland. There are mines right around this country. There are jobs right around this country that are dependent on the mining industry and which are at risk if this tax is to go ahead, that are at risk even if this tax is threatened because mines like this operate on very tight margins and if there’s any increase in their costs, if there’s any reduction in their rate of return obviously their future is gravely threatened. So, if the Government wants to ensure that the mining boom continues, if the Government wants to ensure that jobs here in north west Tasmania are protected there’s really only one thing to do and that’s to kill the tax. In any shape or form, this is a bad tax. We already have a profits based tax, it’s called company tax. We already have a way of ensuring that the people get value for non-renewable resources, it’s called royalties. We don’t need any new taxes, we don’t need any different taxes, we don’t need anything which kills the mining boom and damages jobs in places like north west Tasmania.

QUESTION:

Is Julia Gillard in an impossible situation in that she can’t kill off the tax and underwrite this year’s Budget?

TONY ABBOTT:

Her problem is that she is addicted to spending, just as her predecessor was, because Labor is addicted to spending and when you’re addicted to spending, you’re addicted to taxing. She can’t change the tax without destroying her Budget, but she can’t keep the tax without very, very badly damaging Australia’s economy and if she does try to change the tax in any significant way there’ll have to be an urgent mini-Budget to adjust the revenue and the expenditure expectation going forward.

QUESTION:

Your thoughts on the latest Newspoll? Julia Gillard seems to be doing well.

TONY ABBOTT:

I always expected that we would be the underdogs going into this election. It’s very, very difficult to beat a first-term government but regardless of who is leading it, this has been a very bad government. This has been a government which has broken promises, which has wasted money and which is now threatening the entire basis of Australia’s prosperity and the only way to change the policy is to change the government.

QUESTION:

So if it does go ahead in August, will you be ready, particularly in Braddon?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, we’re always ready. Garry Carpenter is a good candidate. We are always ready for an election. An opposition is always ready to go out and fight for its principles, fight for its values but the message that I give to the people of Braddon, as I give to the people right around Australia, is that if you want to stop the tax, you’ve got to change the government. There is no way that this Labor government regardless of who the leader might be will stop the tax because it’s addicted to spending and that means it’s addicted to taxing.

QUESTION:

Are you anticipating major changes to the Government’s frontbench today?

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s not the ministerial line-up that matters, it’s the policies that matter and you can change the ministers, bur the only way to change the policies is to change the government.

QUESTION:

[inaudible]

TONY ABBOTT:

I think it’s very much a city-based Government. I think that this is a Government which is based on the inner-cities. But, again, my message is there’s no point changing ministers. If you want to change the tax, you’ve got to change the government.

QUESTION:

Do you have a view about whether Kevin Rudd should stay or go?

TONY ABBOTT:

We know what the factions think of Kevin Rudd, we know that the factional and union warlords who control the Government, they think that Kevin Rudd is a dud, but my point is that the only person who I think should be Foreign Minister is Julie Bishop.

QUESTION:

One that’s close to my heart at the moment, do you have your party’s support in pushing ahead with six months paid parental leave…?

TONY ABBOTT:

Yes, I do.

QUESTION:

Are you confident that Garry Carpenter has a high enough profile here in Braddon to take him past the post?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think that Garry is very well known in the community. I think he’s got a strong record of support for good causes and I tell you what, there’s only one candidate in Braddon who’s against the mining tax and that’s Garry Carpenter, so if you want to stop the tax you’ve got to vote for Garry Carpenter. Don’t believe anyone other than Garry Carpenter who says that he or she might adjust the tax, he or she might want to change the tax – the only person who will stop the tax, who will kill the tax, is Garry Carpenter. Russell, do you want to say something?

RUSSELL CLARK:

Sure. Look, on behalf of Grange we’d just like to thank you, Tony, and your colleagues for coming today. It’s important to recognise that the iron ore business is not just located in the Pilbara in Western Australia. This is a huge business here, it pumps $200 million into the local economy and employs 600 people. Any further burden on the downstream processing that we do here will just make this project marginal and we’re looking to use the profits from here to invest in another project in Albany in Western Australia, a very similar town, creating another 600 jobs, and we just look forward to the opportunity to be able to move our cash from here to there without losing half of it on the way through. So, thank you very much for taking the opportunity of coming today and thanks very much.

28 June 2010

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR
INTERVIEW WITH TIM COX
ABC RADIO, HOBART

Subjects: Border protection; Julia Gillard’s great big new tax on mining; waste and mismanagement in the school halls programme; federal election.

TIM COX:

Tony Abbott, good morning.

TONY ABBOTT:

Good Morning, nice to be with you.

TIM COX:

A week of course is a long time, dot dot dot dot dot… You’ve been reading the papers, I’m sure, on your flights this morning. What have you made of the news and of course those polls results?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think the new Government’s… well, it’s not really a new Government, I think the new Prime Minister is getting a bit of a predictable bounce but I think people will soon work out that it’s the same old government and changing the title from Deputy Prime Minister or Acting Prime Minister to Prime Minister hasn’t really changed the problems that she’s got to deal with and if she can’t fix the problems she won’t keep the headlines fixed for very long.

TIM COX:

Irrespective, though, of how well she performs, is it likely that because she isn’t Kevin Rudd, if there were an election say in four weeks or five week, six weeks, that perhaps she would enjoy the support of the electorate merely because she isn’t Mr Rudd?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think there’s going to be a certain amount of novelty value for a while but in the end it’s the policies that count and it’s the ability of the Government to solve the problems which counts, and the interesting thing is that nearly all of these problems are problems of the Government’s own making. I mean, if the Government hadn’t mucked up our policy we wouldn’t have these boats arriving; if the Government hadn’t had this silly idea about the mining tax we wouldn’t have the investment strike, we wouldn’t have the dollar under pressure, we wouldn’t have the share market under pressure. If Julia Gillard hadn’t come up with the Building the Education Revolution programme we wouldn’t have the problem of waste of money. So, these are all self-inflicted problems and the Government needs to fix them but I don’t know that that’s going to persuade people because people will ask about the Government’s judgment and values in the first place.

TIM COX:

And what will it mean for you and the Coalition and the way you will lead the Coalition, for your policy direction et cetera?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, our policy direction is pretty clear. I released a 12 Point Action Plan for Australia on the weekend and our position is clear regardless of who leads the Government. We believe in smaller government, lower taxes, greater freedom. We believe in a fair go for families. We believe in respect for values which have stood the test of time. We believe in policies that work. We believe in not trifling with people’s future, that’s the stuff that we believe in and I think that’s been pretty clear, but how can Julia Gillard as Prime Minister fix up the mess that she helped to create as Acting Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. I don’t think that’s clear at all.

TIM COX:
That’s the interesting thing, isn’t it, that certainly in the eyes of those people polled clearly they don’t see that had a hand to play in the Resources Super Profits Tax debacle for example and other issues. She’s seen as being you know, coming in unsullied.

TONY ABBOTT:

I think there’s always this novelty value and obviously the novelty value is a little bit greater in that she’s the first female Prime Minister and as the father of three daughters, obviously, it’s nice to have this demonstration that there’s no position in the country that’s barred to women, but the fact is here in northern Tasmania there are hundreds of jobs at risk from the mining tax. I don’t think she’s going to fix that problem. I think she’s going to try to massage over the headlines, she’s going to try to keep the miners talking for the next few weeks but I think everyone knows that if Labor gets re-elected the mining industry is going to get hit with this great big new tax and that will be terrible for jobs, certainly here in northern Tasmania but it’ll be bad for jobs right around the country because in the end the mining industry is vital for jobs everywhere, not just mining jobs but for all the other jobs that depend upon the buoyant economy that the mining industry helps to produce.

TIM COX:

Do you think though that the show of good will from the miners that she called for last week suggests that there will at least be some negotiation, something, that intransigence that existed before perhaps is no longer there?

TONY ABBOTT:

She still hasn’t talked about compromise – that’s one word that hasn’t escaped her lips – and the fact is that if she does negotiate seriously she’s going to have to radically change this tax. The only good way to change the tax is to dump it all together, and if she changes the tax, there’ll have to be a mini-Budget, a very urgent mini-Budget, to change the spending which the Government has promised. So, she’s essentially in the same dilemma that Kevin Rudd had. She can’t change the tax without destroying her Budget, but she can’t keep the tax without really badly damaging the economy for many years to come.

TIM COX:

Where does Tasmania fit in your plans? You’re in the north west, you’ve got the newly endorsed candidate for Braddon today. Of course, you go into this election not holding any of the five lower house seats.

TONY ABBOTT:

Obviously, if we’re going to win we’ve got to win some seats in Tasmania and so that’s why I’m here. I think it’s very important that the people of Tasmania know that if they want to protect their jobs, they need to have a change of government in Canberra.

TIM COX:

Do you think that the mining sector in Tasmania, not a huge sector but an important one, sees the same sort of issue, priority of issues that you do?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I think that for the people of northern Tasmania this Savage River mine is pretty important. There’s about 700 jobs dependent upon it and given that you’ve had hundreds of jobs lost in the Wesley Vale paper mill closures, you’ve had jobs lost in forestry, I think it’s very important that we don’t lose any more jobs and who would want to put the Savage River mine at risk under those circumstances?

TIM COX:

We’ll talk about it more, I’m sure, as polling day approaches, always good to have you along this morning. Tony Abbott, many thanks.

TONY ABBOTT:

Tim, I really appreciate the chance to say g’day.

28 June 2010

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW

BURNIE

Subjects: Ministerial changes.

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s clear from the Gillard ministerial announcement that there’s nothing new at all here. It’s the same people with the same policies producing the same problems for our country and probably what brings this home much more is that while the Coalition has a plan to get Labor’s debt and deficit under control, Labor doesn’t even have a plan for a finance minister.

They’ve got a lame duck finance minister going into the election. I can tell you how we will get Australia’s finances under control, Julia Gillard can’t even say who the finance minister will be after the election, and if she was a stronger Prime Minister she would have been able to name the finance minister.

QUESTION:

[inaudible] about the timing of the election?

TONY ABBOTT:

I expect that the powerbrokers will want to try to surf a wave of good will and get us to the polls before people really understand that this is the same old government, it’s not in any way new, but the basic point I make today is that they don’t even have a plan for a finance minister let alone a plan to get the debt and deficit under control.

QUESTION:

The powerbrokers don’t seem to have been rewarded here though, do you suggest [inaudible]?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I think the thing is that she knew that any significant change was going to upset the factions and the last thing she can afford to do is to upset the factions who put her there. That was why I think it was impossible even to tell us who the finance minister is going to be after the election.

QUESTION:

[inaudible]

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s interesting that she was adamant that he was coming back after the election should Labor be returned to government but I think the fact is that, you know, they might as well have even kept the gang of four going.

QUESTION:

What do you think Mr Crean should with the building the education revolution?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think that the education revolution has been probably one of the all time great wastes of money and the first thing Simon Crean should do is he should show some leadership and he should immediately suspend the remaining $5.5 billion worth of education revolution payments. The thing is that there’s been rip-off after rip-off in this programme. There’s a value for money inquiry. No more money should be spent until after the value for money inquiry has reported. So, if Simon Crean has any real leadership capacity, if he has any real independent judgment, the first thing he should do is to suspend those payments.

QUESTION:

You’ve said that this was both a ruthless execution but you’ve also said that the leadership transition has been…the Liberal Party’s claiming a scalp. Well, which is it?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I think that plainly the government was in all sorts of trouble. They were in all sorts of trouble at least in part because of the critique which the Opposition has very effectively mounted of the Government and faced with that, what they should have done is kept the leader and dumped the tax. Instead, they’ve dumped the leader and kept the tax.

Thank you.

Tuesday …

29 June 2010

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR
JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH MR. STEVE TITMUS, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR BASS
GEORGE TOWN, TASMANIA

Subjects: Julia Gillard’s great big new tax on mining; carbon tax; insulation; federal election.

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s good to be here in George Town. This is typical of the smaller businesses that will be penalised by the mining tax. This is a business which has been going for about 25 years. It was started by a group of local people. They’ve built up to the stage where they’ve now got about 75 staff. All of those jobs are potentially at risk because of the mining tax. Now, the Government is talking about what it might do, when it might do it. There is only one thing that you can do and that’s to drop this tax and drop it today. Don’t wait until Friday; don’t wait until the week after next. Certainly don’t wait until after the election. The workers of this business need their jobs secure and that means drop the tax now. It’s a bad tax, it can’t be fixed, it should never have been come up with in the first place. Julia Gillard is the co-author of this tax with Kevin Rudd. She should never have dreamt it up in the first place. She should never have supported it in the first place, but she should admit that she’s got it wrong and drop it today.

Just a couple of other issues that I wouldn’t mind talking about. There is a real problem with this Government that became obvious yesterday. Julia Gillard cannot tell us who her economic team will be after the election. She’s got a lame duck finance minister, she can’t tell us who will be in charge of the nation’s finances after the election and frankly that’s no way to run a country and it’s no way to go into an election.

She was given today an opportunity to actually make something happen. Bob Brown said that he was prepared to negotiate with her now about putting a price on carbon. If she is serious about putting a price on carbon she shouldn’t wait until after the election, she should sit down with Bob Brown now, come up with something, tell us now what she’s going to do rather than just fudge this until after the election. But it’s typical of the new Prime Minister that she wants to get credit for wanting to do something without getting the blame for actually doing something and this is a Prime Minister who will tell people what she thinks they want to hear but she won’t then put the policies in place to deliver on that.

And finally, we had Bill Shorten yesterday tell the world on the Q&A program that he thought it was necessary to change the Prime Minister because of the insulation disaster, because of climate change policy problems, because of the mining tax. Well, we’ve changed the Prime Minister but we have not fixed any of the problems, so why was Bill Shorten so keen to execute a Prime Minister when it wasn’t going to change any policies.

I’m going to ask Steve Titmus to just say a few words. Steve is the candidate for Bass. I think he’s a really outstanding candidate, he’s got a high local profile, he understands the issues, he’ll fight for the area. He won’t be Canberra’s man in Bass, he’ll be Bass’ representative in Canberra. So, Steve, if you’d just like to say a few words?

STEVE TITMUS:

Sure. Tony, thank you very much indeed. I think what’s important about where we’ve come today, we’ve come to a local business here in George Town – this is a business though that is one of those that down the chain is actually affected by this big, bad tax. That’s why we’re here today. We’ve heard today, this morning, from a number of people, and in fact small businesses across this electorate of Bass are affected by the big bad tax and that’s why they’re very concerned about this continuing on. They’ve spoken to us today and in recent times as well in length about their major concerns and the Tasmanian Liberal Senate team that I and all our other candidates around the state are working enormously hard talking to people about consequences of this tax and of course they’ll be taking these concerns straight to Tony and the great thing is that Tony being such a down to earth person is listening to what we’ve got to say about what the people of Bass are telling us and I think that’s enormously important that we can take the concerns of the people of Bass straight to Tony which is enormously important. None of this stuff about going through someone underneath and bringing it back up to the top. We can go straight to the man at the top of the Liberal Party and that is enormously important for the people of Bass so we’ve got access to our leader.

TONY ABBOTT:

Thanks. Roger.

ROGER AALBREGT:

We’re just a local business which has been built up since 1982 to become a employer of 75 people. I’ve just come from a meeting with other small businesses and there is a bit of a real concern that we’re more than 80 per cent reliant on downstream processing for the mining industry and if that is affected, it affects us. In the event of, say, the Rio Tintos or the BHPs pulling out of the Bell Bay area that will effectively put 65 people out of a job here, which is a real concern. I think the other concern is that the mums and dads of Australia don’t realise that also affects them right down to, I’ve got a bit of a farming property as well, and the local lime contractor that I purchase lime off, the prices of lime will go up, the prices of concrete for building your new house will go up, and that’s a real concern for the mums and dads. I don’t think they realise it’s going to affect them.

TONY ABBOTT:

Ok, are there any questions?

QUESTION:

Julia Gillard is hopeful that she will be able to strike a deal with the mining industry. Are you as optimistic?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, this is a big bad tax. That’s what it is, it’s a big bad tax and it doesn’t matter what you do to it, it will still be a big bad tax. What she needs to do is just drop it. Drop it now, not this week, not next week, but now.

QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, do you think that is realistic or do you think that will be major platform going into the next election?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, the interesting thing is that the Government depends upon the revenue that this tax raises in order to fund its continuing spending spree and we will know that the Government is serious about good faith negotiations when it pulls the revenue from the Budget. But, if it pulls the revenue from the Budget there’s got to be a mini-Budget immediately because so much of the Government’s future spending is dependent upon the mining revenue.

QUESTION:

So, that tax isn’t going to go so will the mining companies re-introduce their campaign?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, that’s a matter for them, but obviously I’ve been talking to various people in the sector and I think they have a very good case. Their case is, a) that the tax cannot be retrospective because it’s unconscionable to change the rules after the game has started and, b) that the tax can’t damage the competitive position of the Australian mining sector and that’s a very fair point because we want investment to continue. We want jobs to grow in this country and investment will dry up and jobs will evaporate if the tax rate becomes uncompetitive.

QUESTION:
Further on Bill Shorten, his argument to replace the PM, do you think that was convincing?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well it didn’t convince the ABC’s studio audience last night. I think Barnaby Joyce was the bloke who the ABC studio audience believed and if the ABC audience is going for Barnaby Joyce rather than Bill Shorten I think that the Government has got a big problem.

No, it’s not convincing because if it was fair dinkum, we’d see policy changes and instead you’ve got Peter Garrett who was responsible for the pink batts disaster still there, you’ve got Julia Gillard who was responsible for the school hall rip-off been promoted to Prime Minister and you’ve got Wayne Swan who was the ministerial architect of the big bad tax who’s now been promoted to Deputy Prime Minister. So I think Bill was kind of making it up as he went a long last night.

QUESTION:

Do you think Ms Gillard has a real grasp of regional issues, being a city girl herself?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, we can’t help where we were born and we can’t help where we grew up and I’m not going to attack the Prime Minister because she spent most of her life in the city, but I think it is important to get about and I think it is important to have a political party behind you that understands the real issues and I don’t believe that the Labor Party as currently constituted has the grasp of the reality of business that anyone needs if they are fit to govern this country. Now, I’ve got to say that Bob Hawke and Paul Keating in their own way, they got it. They understood that you’ve got to have a prosperous economy, you’ve got to have strong businesses if you’re going to deliver benefits for the Australian people, but I don’t think this mob gets it at all. I don’t think there’s any one in the senior reaches of the current government who has any real understanding of the way business works, I don’t think there’s any one who has ever had any real experience of the way business works and the most economically literate member of the government, Lindsay Tanner, is leaving at the next election because he understands what things are going to be like in the future.

QUESTION:

Given the polls of the last couple of days, is the Liberal Party gearing up to go to a federal election almost immediately?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think that the powerbrokers who control the Labor Party want to ride a wave of goodwill back into office. They want a bad government to get the second chance that it doesn’t deserve by making this cosmetic change. Now, I think the public are not mugs. I think that the public will not re-elect a government without having answers to all of these serious problems and I think that’s what people want, they want answers to these problems, they want the pink batt problem fixed, they want the school hall rip-off ended, they want the boats that are arriving in large numbers on our western shores stopped and they want the mining tax stopped.

QUESTION:

So is that a yes to an immediate federal election?

TONY ABBOTT:

We’re ready, we are ready whenever it happens, but as far as the public are concerned, what I think they want is they want their problems fixed and they don’t want someone rushing to the polls in the hope that the problems can be camouflaged.

QUESTION:

So you think that election will be sooner rather than later?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, again, it’s up to the Prime Minister to decide under our system. I think what she’s got to do is fix the problems rather than rush to the polls before people really know what kind of a prime minister she would be like.

QUESTION:

What do you think she will do?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, again, that’s for her to decide. She is the Prime Minister, if she would like to go to the Governor-General and make me the prime minister, then it would be in my hands but it’s not, it’s in her hands.