What Tony said …

12 April 2012

TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR
JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR STEPHEN PARRY, SENATOR FOR TASMANIA AND DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND MR. ANDREW NIKOLIC, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR BASS,
LAUNCESTON

Subjects: Julia Gillard’s carbon tax; government regulation; federal budget; pulp mill; forestry industry.

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s good to be here at Glasgow Engineering. I’d like to thank John and Alf Hutton and their staff for making me, Andrew Nikolic, the Liberal candidate for Bass and Senator Stephen Parry, Senator for Tasmania and Deputy President of the Senate, so welcome.

This is typical of the tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses right around Australia which are going to get hit and hit hard by the carbon tax. This is a business which is already under a lot of pressure from government policies. It’s under pressure because of the high dollar which government policies are helping to drive. It’s under pressure because of the declining forestry industry which government policies are helping to diminish and for businesses like this, the danger is that the carbon tax is just going to be the last straw. Now, my message to the people of Tasmania, my message to the people of Australia, is this is a toxic tax. It is a bad tax based on a lie and the best thing that we can do for the people of Australia is get rid of this bad tax. It’s a bad tax that won’t clean up the environment but it will clean out your wallet, big time. That’s why it’s a tax that must go and that’s why it’s a tax that will go if the Coalition is elected at the next federal election.

We are seeing evidence everywhere in our country how this tax is threatening jobs and damaging families’ standard of living. We saw earlier this month here in Tasmania the announcement that the fares on the ferry to Melbourne are going to rise by an average of $36 for a family because of the carbon tax. So, if you come to Tasmania you pay more because of the carbon tax, you leave Tasmania, you pay more because of the carbon tax. You turn on your lights in Tasmania, you pay more because of the carbon tax. You open your fridge in Tasmania, you pay more because of the carbon tax. It’s a toxic tax and it’s just going to get worse as time goes by. I notice that we’ve just seen the announcement in New South Wales that power prices will go up by an average of 16 per cent on the 1st of July. The largest component of that increase is the carbon tax: more evidence that the last thing this country needs now is the world’s biggest carbon tax.

One other issue that I might just comment on. Look, this is a government which was dishonest with the Australian people when it said that it believed in cutting red tape. This government went to the 2007 election promising that for every regulation they put in, they’d take one out. Well, instead of a one-in, one-out rule, they’ve had a 200 in, one out practice. They’ve put in more than 16,000 regulations since the end of 2007 and they’ve taken out less than 100. So, when you hear the Prime Minister talking about her desire to cut red tape and green tape, don’t believe her. Look at what she does. Don’t listen to what she says. If the Prime Minister is serious about cutting green tape, why isn’t the carbon tax on the agenda for her discussions with business people? Because the greatest addition to green tape that this country has ever seen will be associated with the carbon tax.

I might ask Stephen and Andrew to say a few words and then we’ll take some questions.

ANDREW NIKOLIC:

Thanks, Tony. Look, can I just thank my leader Tony Abbott for coming here today. It’s been a rapid eight months since I was preselected and this is his third visit to northern Tasmania and it’s not just Tony Abbott but the shadow ministers who have been coming here in droves as well, becoming familiar with the interests and aspirations of northern Tasmania and we hope to have the opportunity to make sure that the legislative agenda in both Hobart and Canberra reflects those interests and aspirations. So, Tony, thanks for coming here again today.

TONY ABBOTT:

Thanks so much, Andrew. Stephen?

STEPHEN PARRY:

It’s great that we’ve got three candidates on the ground now preselected. Andrew was the first candidate selected by the Liberal Party for the next federal election. He is on the ground running. I think it’s evident by the fact that he is getting a lot of support by the Shadow Cabinet. Equally, he is getting support by the Tasmanian Liberal senators here and Tasmania will be well served to return Andrew Nikolic to the House of Representatives after the next federal election along with Michael Burr in the seat of Braddon and Eric Hutchinson preselected for the seat of Lyons. So, we have got three outstanding candidates who are ready on the ground running, preselected, taking the fight up to Labor to restore some great sovereign governance to this state because it’s very evident from our discussions here today and elsewhere around the state that Andrew and I have been travelling to, that people perceive Tasmania as a great sovereign risk at the moment. Investment is drying up simply because people don’t have the confidence in the federal and state governments, both controlled by the Greens that are running this state and running this state backwards.

TONY ABBOTT:

Any questions?

QUESTION:
Tony, do you feel a real sense from the businesses you speak to that they want certainty and clarity about how much this tax is going to affect their bottom line?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think business does want as much certainty as we can possibly give them and the best certainty is no carbon tax. I offer them the certainty of no carbon tax. What Labor offers them is a carbon tax which is going to go up and up and up as their business opportunities shrink and shrink and shrink.

QUESTION:

You mentioned today’s discussions about red tape. What regulations would be involved in your carbon plan?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, we want to get rid of the carbon tax. Simple as that. So, the carbon tax and all of the various paperwork associated with that will go under the Coalition. Instead, what we want to do is to provide significant encouragement to businesses that are already doing the right thing – trying to reduce their power bills, trying to reduce their fuel bills, trying to become more technologically efficient. We will have a significant fund of money available to help businesses to do the kind of common sense things that many of them are already doing.

QUESTION:

But as you’ve said, repealing the carbon tax will mean that there will be a funding shortfall. How would you address that?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, if you don’t have the tax, you don’t need the compensation and what this government is doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul, only it’s going to rob more from Peter than it ever gives back to Paul and that’s the trouble with this government. Every time they rob Peter to pay Paul, they pocket a whole lot themselves. So, the best way to go forward economically and environmentally is to ditch the toxic tax; the bad tax based on a lie.

QUESTION:

Should Mr Swan abandon his surplus plans?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think it’s very important that this government does deliver a surplus but I think the Australian public are rightly sceptical as to whether it ever will. This government has talked incessantly about delivering a surplus but in fact it has given us the four biggest budget deficits in Australia’s history. They are much better at forecasting surpluses than they are at actually delivering it and if they do announce a surplus on budget night it will be a Clayton’s surplus arrived at because of a whole series of accounting fiddles where they have ramped up spending this year only to artificially reduce it next year and that’s typical of this government. You just can’t trust them with money and you just can’t trust them to tell the truth.

QUESTION:

Besides them ditching the carbon tax, how would you eliminate the red tape that businesses are so worried about?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, we are going to be going methodically through every government department, every government agency, asking them to quantify the cost of their regulations and their reporting requirements on business. Every year we are going to require each department and each agency to offer up to its clients out there in the community a quantum of cost savings and we believe that we can deliver at least $1 billion a year in red tape reductions to the businesses of Australia, particularly to the small businesses of Australia.

QUESTION:

What’s your reaction to Gunns deciding that they might move to Melbourne?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think the important thing is to get the pulp mill built and operational. We have been talking about it for so long and it is high time it was actually delivered. Now, it can and should operate in accordance with the best possible environmental standards, but it must be built and government must not put any further obstacles in the way of getting this done. Now, I want the mill built. I want it there employing people. I want it there exporting for Australia. I want it there as a way of helping to sustain the forestry industry in this state and in this country. I want to get it done and to be honest, that’s my concern, to get the mill built. What companies call themselves and whether they are located here or across the Strait is not nearly as important as getting that enterprise going and getting more manufacturing jobs here in Tasmania.

QUESTION:

Would a Liberal government give any extra money towards the Gunns company if you were to come to power?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, the best thing we can do is stop loading up businesses that want to do the right thing with additional taxes and additional red and green tape and that’s what we will offer them: the certainty of no carbon tax, the certainty of red and green tape reductions under the next Coalition government.

QUESTION:

Does the mill need a social licence, though, and do you believe it has that currently?

TONY ABBOTT:

I don’t believe the Greens should be given a veto over the economic future of Tasmania. I don’t believe the Greens should be given a veto over Tasmania’s economic future and tragically, for too long because of weak Labor-Green governments, the Greens have been calling the economic shots in Tasmania. Tragically, because of the weak deal which the Prime Minister did in 2010, the Greens are calling the economic shots now right around Australia. Now, Tasmania is a terrific state with great people and I want it to have a good environmental future as well as a good economic future but you can’t make the whole of Tasmania a giant national park. It’s got to have industries, it’s got to have mining industries, it’s got to have agricultural industries, it’s got to have manufacturing industries and that’s what the Coalition’s policies will promote.

QUESTION:

What about the broader community? Would you support putting this project back through an independent planning system to achieve a social licence?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, this project has been studied to death. We don’t want more studies to make it more difficult. We just want the thing to be done. Now, we want it to happen in accordance with the best possible environmental standards. We know what they are. We know they can be met. Let’s get it done.

QUESTION:

Would a Liberal government scrap the intergovernmental agreement?

TONY ABBOTT:

A Liberal government would not make it harder and harder and harder to operate our forestry industries. Now, the tragedy of the intergovernmental agreement is that it’s basically about subsidising industries to shrink, not supporting industries to grow. I am all in favour of appropriate government assistance but it has got to be government assistance that expands our economy, not government assistance that shrinks our economy.

QUESTION:

What chance do you think the mill has of going ahead in the current climate, with the community views that are out there at the moment?

TONY ABBOTT:

It will have a much better chance of going ahead if it has state and federal governments that are unambiguously in favour of it and that’s what it would get from the Coalition.

QUESTION:

Can I just ask you your reaction to Senator Stephen Parry’s drink driving charge and do you think it’s appropriate for an elected member to have the court date changed?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, my understanding is that it is absolutely standard practice for people to seek those sorts of changes for important reasons. The important thing is that Stephen did the wrong thing, owned up to it and has paid the penalty and that’s the way people should handle the mistakes they make. All of us, from time to time, make mistakes. It’s how we handle them that is the test of someone’s quality and I am proud of the way that Stephen has handled this mistake and I know he’s not going to make it again.

Thank you.

• Senator Stephen Parry
Deputy President of the Senate
Liberal, Tasmania

Andrew Nikolic
Federal Liberal Candidate for Bass

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

Friday 13 April 2012

Tony Abbott listens to locals during visit to Launceston

Yesterday, Senator Stephen Parry hosted Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in Launceston, meeting with local businesses and participating in a community forum with Mr Andrew Nikolic, Federal Liberal Candidate for Bass.

Senator Parry, Mr Abbott and Mr Nikolic were keen to hear about the issues most important to Northern Tasmania.

“Recurring themes throughout the day included the dire state of the Tasmanian economy, the need to boost business confidence, concerns about our high unemployment rate, the negative effects of sustained attacks on our forestry and mining industries, and the sad state of Tasmania’s health system,” Mr Nikolic said.

“It is important to engage with the local community and let them know their voice is being heard locally and nationally, and to make sure Tasmanian’s interests are represented on the national policy agenda” said Senator Parry.

“This is Mr Abbott’s third visit to northern Tasmania in the past 8 months and each visit builds his understanding of the issues that are most important to our community.

“Labor is not listening to the needs of Northern Tasmania, which is demanding real action and a government that listens and responds to their interests and aspirations,” Senator Parry said.