Tony talks to Kim and Dave. And has a Doorstop

16 February 2011

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR
INTERVIEW WITH KIM AND DAVE FOR BREAKFAST
HEART 107.3 FM, HOBART

Subjects: Visit to Hobart; cost of living pressures in Tasmania.
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………
PRESENTER:
A beautiful day this morning in Hobart as Tony Abbott drives through the streets of Hobart. Hello, Tony Abbott.
TONY ABBOTT:
Hello, Dave. How are you?
PRESENTER:
Of course, Leader of the Opposition. What exactly are you doing in Hobart this morning?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well Dave, look, my main task here in Hobart is to go and visit a very successful local business called Uniform City. Now…
PRESENTER:
Are you doing ads for them, Tony?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well look, I’m happy to do an ad for them because they’ve done well. They’re in fierce competition with imports and I’ll be making an announcement about the Coalition’s anti-dumping policy at the Uniform City business today.
PRESENTER:
Well, that’s all very ‘eyebrow,’ very ‘eyebrow,’ but we want to ask you a couple of questions that we’ve been debating on the show this morning.
TONY ABBOTT:
Sure, Kim.
PRESENTER:
Can you tell your wife, or can you tell your husband, that you love them, miss them, can you call them and refer to them as ‘darling’ and ‘sweetie’ too much, Tony Abbott?
TONY ABBOTT:
You can probably do it too much and I think after I’ve called my princess ‘angel’ for, you know, four or five times in the one sentence she does get a bit sick of it sometimes.
PRESENTER:
Oh, no.
PRESENTER:
Are you seriously a romantic person like that? It’s hard to believe because certainly your public image would come across as…look, I don’t see you as a romantic.
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, I’m sure my wife doesn’t see me as very romantic either and perhaps the ‘princesses’ and the ‘angels’ and the ‘darlings’ are a way of trying to make up for the fact that as a politician you’re away from home too often and as a politician you miss family events and all that but look, yeah, I’d be the first to accept that as a husband and father I probably make a good politician.
PRESENTER:
So, have you got a pet name for Julie Bishop?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, Julie – I call her Julie.
PRESENTER:
Just Julie? How about for Julia Gillard?
TONY ABBOTT:
Oh look, I sometimes think bad thoughts in that direction but I normally refer to her as Julia or the Prime Minister, yeah.
PRESENTER:
Never ‘ranga’?
TONY ABBOTT:
I’ve heard the term and I’ve heard it applied that way but not by me.
PRESENTER:
How have you recovered, you took a bit of a bashing in the media a week or two ago with your interaction with a journalist and you didn’t want to talk about what you’d said in Afghanistan. I think a lot of people have seen that footage where he’s asking you questions and you were just nodding and not saying anything. What was going through your head at that point?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, at the risk of opening something which the family of a dead soldier would prefer to stay basically in the past, you know, what do you do when people are out of line? I mean, I think sometimes a sort of a frosty silence is the best response.
PRESENTER:
Yeah, it appeared like you didn’t want to say anything for fear that you might say too much to that journalist and then whatever you said would be manipulated and turned against you anyway, so it was best just to shut up?
TONY ABBOTT:
I think that’s a pretty fair assessment, Kim.
PRESENTER:
There was a little look, like your old boxing days in the UK might have come out and there might have been an upper cut?
TONY ABBOTT:
I suspect I wasn’t radiating goodwill at that moment.
PRESENTER:
Ok, you’re down here in Tassie. Tassie, at the moment, we’re going through a bit of a struggle financially and I think it’s sort of the global financial meltdown has finally arrived in Tasmania. If you were the Prime Minister today how would you help Tasmania?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, I wouldn’t make a bad situation worse with new taxes and that’s my big gripe against the Gillard Government. A lot of families are really suffering with cost of living pressures and all of these new taxes starting with the flood tax, continuing with the carbon tax, the mining tax are just going to make a tough situation much tougher.
PRESENTER:
Have you met Lara Giddings, our new premier?
TONY ABBOTT:
Yes. When she was the Health Minister and I was the Health Minister I had quite a bit to do with her. It wasn’t always an easy interaction because we, the Commonwealth, at that stage were trying to take over the Mersey Hospital and prevent it from being stripped of services and the Tasmanian Government was deeply resistant to that. They eventually reluctantly agreed. The Gillard Government in fact – or the Rudd Government as it then was – said during the `07 election they would keep the Mersey in federal hands but that was one of their early broken promises; they gave it back to the state government.
PRESENTER:
Well, Tony Abbott, enjoy the beautiful sunshine of Hobart this morning with no cyclones, no wind, no rain, it’s just absolutely perfect conditions.
TONY ABBOTT:
It is a magnificent day and I can understand why people feel good with the world today.
PRESENTER:
And can we just thank you for not going on and on, because often you get politicians and they see it as their opportunity just to talk and they go on and on and on and only manage to get out one point and people have switched off by then. So, thank you for that conversation.
TONY ABBOTT:
Kim, you’re very kind and I will keep my answers short on all future conversations.
PRESENTER:
I think it’s good advice I’m offering, Tony.
TONY ABBOTT:
Good on you.
PRESENTER:
Ring your wife up and tell her that you love her and then you can do some business around Hobart. Thanks, Tony Abbott.
TONY ABBOTT:
I’ve had to text her because she’s already busy at work but I have texted her to that effect.
PRESENTER:
Excellent, beautiful. Enjoy your day, thanks for talking to us.
TONY ABBOTT:
Thanks, Kim.

16 February 2011

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR,
JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH SOPHIE MIRABELLA MHR, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INNOVATION, INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE AND SENATOR THE HON. ERIC ABETZ, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE
HOBART

Subjects: Coalition’s anti–dumping taskforce; border protection.
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, it’s good to be here at Uniform City. I’m here with the Shadow Minister for Industry, Sophie Mirabella. I’m also here with the Leader of the Coalition in the Senate, Senator Eric Abetz, who is the Shadow Minister for Workplace Relations. I want to thank Dianne Cook and her team for showing us around this fine Tasmanian business. This business has flourished for quite a few years now and it’s a sign that the textile industry can prosper in Australia if it is adaptable, creative and flexible.
I’m also here today to announce that the next Coalition Government will have a strong and effective anti-dumping policy. We will be setting up a taskforce chaired by Sophie including the Shadow Minister for Customs, Michael Keenan and my two agriculture shadows John Cobb and Richard Colbeck. This will look at the whole dumping issue. It will consult widely. I’m going to ask Sophie to say a bit more about this in a moment but it is very important here that we enable good Australian businesses to flourish and that means that they face fair competition not unfair competition. Soph.
SOPHIE MIRABELLA:
There’s no point in having anti-dumping laws if they don’t work and we want to make sure that it’s not expensive, it doesn’t take a long time and there isn’t an undue burden on Australian business. If we have laws we want to make sure that they prevent goods being dumped in Australia, threatening successful and innovative Australian businesses and threatening Australian jobs. That’s what we want. The hardworking men and women of Australia don’t want a handout, they just want a fair environment in which to run a business and in which to work and that’s what we’re committed to doing. We made that commitment at the last election and we’re following through with that.
We want to ensure that at the next election – if we’re fortunate enough to get the support of the Australian people and form government – we will hit the ground running and we will have within a few months an anti-dumping regime that actually works, an anti-dumping regime that stops foreign companies unfairly dumping their goods in Australia and putting Australian businesses to the wall and threatening Australian jobs.
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, just to reinforce what Sophie had to say, the existing anti-dumping rules are expensive, they’re time consuming and they’re often ineffective. Just to give you two examples, between 2008 and last year we had a situation where toilet paper from overseas was coming into this country at up to 45 per cent below cost. Initially, anti-dumping action was taken but then it was no longer proceeded with. We have a situation where bio-diesel is coming into this country at, it’s believed, 40 per cent below cost. Customs have a report that’s been sitting on the minister’s desk since late last year with no action being taken.
Now, the last thing we want to do as a Coalition is damage Australia’s strong free trade credentials. We fully support free trade. We fully support our World Trade Organisation obligations. Nevertheless, we do need a more effective anti-dumping regime than we’ve got and I’m very pleased to be able today to say that Sophie and my colleagues will be working to finalise our policy so that we do have a much more effective anti-dumping regime under the next Coalition Government; a regime which ensures that good Australian businesses can continue to get a fair go. Not an easy ride but a fair go. That’s what we want for Australian business.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, why make this announcement here in Hobart?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well look, I think that Tasmania has a small but vibrant manufacturing sector. Businesses like Uniform City are under constant pressure. There’s nothing wrong with competitive pressure, that’s a good thing, but it’s got to be fair competition not unfair competition and that’s the problem if you don’t have a strong and effective anti-dumping regime.
QUESTION:
Do you think textiles or uniforms are coming in, are being dumped?
TONY ABBOTT:
I’d certainly defer to Di Cook when it comes to providing specific examples about what’s happening in the textile industry and I don’t think any Australian manufacturer objects to strong competition but it’s got to be fair competition and when you’ve got material, produce, coming into this country well below the cost of manufacturing it and transporting it, that is dumping, and we’ve got to make sure that our excellent manufacturing industries, our excellent producers are not needlessly put at risk by an ineffective anti-dumping regime.
QUESTION:
But some would argue, Mr Abbott, that these lower-priced goods are actually helping people, for example, cost of living as we know there are a lot of cost of living pressures.
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, I accept that there are very serious cost of living pressures on Australian families right now and I fear that the Government is going to make those cost of living pressures much worse in the course of the coming year with their flood tax, their mining tax and above all else their carbon tax. I mean, that is the real problem with the extra taxes that the Government wants to put on us, it will make cost of living pressures much worse. But I don’t think Australian families want to see Australian workers penalised and that’s why it’s important that we’ve got a strong anti-dumping regime.
SOPHIE MIRABELLA:
Can I just add to that, Tony? Australians expect their government, first and foremost, to look after the welfare of Australians and to ensure that we have the right environment and the right laws for this country to continue to grow and flourish. No one that I’ve spoken to, going right around the country, believes it’s fair for good, efficient, innovative Australian businesses to unfairly compete with subsidised foreign goods that are dumped on our shores. We have a responsibility to make sure that we continue to be a country that makes things and if we believe that and if we want small and medium sized businesses in particular like this one here today in Hobart to continue to employ people then we need to ensure that foreign goods are not dumped in Australia and that is the whole objective of our announcement today, to make sure that we have the exact policies to prevent this sort of dumping to occur because we have an extraordinary history but we’ve seen in the last three years over 87,000 manufacturing jobs disappear and we want to do whatever we can to create a fair environment in Australia so Australian businesses aren’t penalised and Australian jobs don’t disappear.
TONY ABBOTT:
Ok, any further questions?
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, will you repudiate either Joe Hockey or Scott Morrison for their comments about the asylum seekers?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, I want to say that Scott has shown a lot of guts this morning accepting that he might have gone a little bit too far yesterday. I think that it’s very important that we have a tough border protection policy. The Coalition will always have a tough border protection policy but we will never depart from being humane and I want to thank Scott for being man enough to accept that perhaps we did go a little bit too far yesterday.
QUESTION:
Was there a divide within the Liberal Party on this issue?
TONY ABBOTT:
No, I don’t believe that there is or was. We are totally united in wanting effective border protection. The Howard Government stopped the boats. The Rudd/Gillard Government changed the policy; the boats started coming again. Now, we’ve got to stop the boats. The only way to ensure that we don’t see more tragedies on the high seas is by stopping the boats and that’s why it’s important that we put a tough and strong border protection policy in place and we’ve got one and I invite the Government to reach up to the shelf, take down our policy and put it in place.
QUESTION:
Does the Coalition lack [inaudible]
TONY ABBOTT:
I’m not going to get into a sort of who said, what was said, that kind of discussion. Look, my argument is with the Government. It’s with policies which have failed and that’s an argument which we should be prosecuting and that’s what I’m doing.
QUESTION:
The Government has said that the cost for the funeral was $300,000. Is that appropriate?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, that’s a matter for the Government. It’s up to the Government to justify what the Government does.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible] my question. Does the Coalition have compassion in this sort of situation?
TONY ABBOTT:
I think the most humane thing you can do is put in place policies that stop the boats and we’ve got policies that have worked before, they can work again and I invite the Government and the Prime Minister to reach up to the shelf, to take our border protection policies down, put them into place and that will make a difference. That’s the most humane thing you can do.
QUESTION:
Given the situation yesterday, aren’t your calls for calm and unity falling on deaf ears?
TONY ABBOTT:
I think the important thing is to expose the flaws in this Government. Now, I believe that the Australian Workers’ Union today called for a new policy on dumping. I’ve just said what the Coalition’s position on dumping is. We will have a much stronger anti-dumping regime. We will be reconsidering this whole question of whether it is enough for damage to have taken place or whether simply threatened damage is sufficient. We will be reconsidering the whole question of the cost and the time of anti-dumping actions. We will be reconsidering this whole question of what expectations are rightly on ministers when dumping has been found to have taken place. Now, I’ve outlined our position, the Government doesn’t have a position. The Government is persisting with a system which is plainly inadequate and that’s our job, to hold the Government to account, to be a credible alternative and we’re getting on with it.
QUESTION:
What’s your position, then, on the asylum seeker funerals? You yesterday were concerned about the cost and you’ve had different people in your party saying different things. What is the position?
TONY ABBOTT:
That is a question for the Government to justify. It’s not up to the Opposition to justify the actions of a Government. It’s up to the Government to justify the actions that it has taken.
Thank you.