Christine Milne Transcript: Direct Action, budget surplus, Gonski, marriage equality, ANZAC Day

CHRISTINE MILNE: The wheels have now fallen off Tony Abbott’s Direct Action Plan on reducing emissions. For so long he has gotten away with going from one end of the country to the other saying that Whyalla would be wiped off the face of the earth, claiming that a roast would be $100 or more. He has managed for three years to just go ‘no, no, no’ to pricing emissions. But today the Australian Energy Supply Association has come out and expressed grave concern about the Abbott Direct Action Plan. They are saying that with the emissions trading scheme that is now in place they have some certainty in terms of a forward trajectory, they know that they will be linking to the EU in 2015, but they have no idea how Tony Abbott’s plan would work. They are saying, well how much is the budget fund that the Coalition intends to put in place to actually pay the polluters not to pollute. They want to know because they are the biggest polluters and they want to know how much money is sitting there to pay them. They also don’t believe this massive claim about 60 per cent of the emissions reduction that’s necessary is going to come from soil carbon, they are saying effectively that it is Tony Abbott who is presenting sovereign risk. He is the person who is creating business uncertainty. He is the reason that there is stalled investment, particularly in this area of reduced greenhouse gas emissions and clean energy technology. So what now has to happen is – Tony Abbott has to start coming out and saying to Australians exactly what he will do. It’s not good enough to say he is going to tear everything down and then say he is going to enter a white paper process that will take a couple of years. That’s two thirds of a full period of government where there is a big vacuum and black hole. Tony Abbott now really has to come clean and say to the Australian people before the election if he is not going to keep in place what even the International Energy Agency has said is a template system – what is he going to do and how is he going to pay for it?

Equally he needs to come clean on what he intends to do with the renewable energy target. There seems to be an acceptance around the business community that he is going to reduce that target. But he has refused to say so. He keeps wriggling out it saying he intends to respect the 20 per cent. Well does he? And answer to the question – will he reduce the renewable energy target from 41,000 gigawatt hours? Simple yes or no? That’s what the community needs to hear because that is the question that is causing a hold-up in investment in a whole lot of renewable energy projects because people are not prepared to go ahead as long as Tony Abbott is all over the place. Mr No turns out to be someone who absolutely has nothing to say when it turns to – yes what are you going to do?

JOURNALIST: And is that your biggest concern?

CHRISTINE MILNE: My biggest concern here is that Tony Abbott has gotten since 2010 with running around Australia scaring people about emissions trading. He’s tried to pretend that nowhere else in the world is doing emissions trading, that no one is taking any action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and now he’s being caught out. And now the biggest polluters in Australia now saying not good enough Tony Abbott, the wheels have fallen of Direct Action, we need to know exactly what you intend to do.

JOURNALIST: What do you want to see from that intention?

CHRISTINE MILNE: What I want to see from Tony Abbott is now some honesty about the fact that he does not have a carbon plan – a white paper process is an excuse, it is a sham, what he now needs to do before the election is detail exactly how much is his Direct Action plan going to cost? How much is going to be in this budget account to pay the polluters not to pollute? How can he guarantee that he’s going to reduce emissions? He needs to come out and say also on the RET exactly what is he going to do, is he going to reduce the 41,000 gigawatt hour target?

JOURNALIST: Just on another issue Standard and Poor is speaking of the need to bring the budget back into surplus otherwise we’ll risk downgrading the credit rating. How soon does this need to happen?

CHRISTINE MILNE: Well the Greens were the first ones saying we need to get over the surplus fetish that both the Government and the Coalition had. We said that it was impossible to achieve it in the timeframe and that it was leading to a lot of loss of jobs. And that we had to ease out and recognise that we need to go into deficit. So deficits of themselves are not a bad thing, but the issue is you do not want to just be going on and on and on into deeper and deeper deficit. It needs to sort itself out over the economic cycle. So what the Greens have said is, yes we can run deficits but we need to be investing in nation-building projects, but particularly we also need to raise revenue. There is a revenue crisis in Australia and that means we have to actually look where we can raise money. And the first place we can look to raise money is fixing the mining tax. If we were to now fix the flaws in the mining tax we would be able to secure $26 billion which would go a long way to rolling out Gonski for example and fair education funding. Equally we’ve said that if you were to abolish fossil fuel subsidies to the mining industry, not to agriculture but to the mining industry that would achieve $13 billion over the forward estimates. Well why wouldn’t you do that? Yes continue to run a deficit but also raise revenue at the same time.

JOURNALIST: France has passed a same-sex marriage bill – what you think about this?

CHRISTINE MILNE: I’m absolutely delighted to hear that France has passed a marriage equality bill, coming hot on the heels of New Zealand and so many other countries around the world. It really is adding pressure and holding up the mirror to Australia. We are looking increasingly last century. This is not only about ending discrimination and respecting people’s love for each other, but it is also about saying whether you are a progressive country or not, and we are looking more and more last century, and that is really Prime Minister Gillard and Tony Abbott – they are the problems. If they changed their minds you would see the Parliament overwhelmingly support it. So really the challenge is to the Prime Minister and Tony Abbott – get with it, get with the action, watch what France has done, watch what New Zealand has done and let’s actually move on this in Australia.

JOURNALIST: Gay rights activists have said that if same-sex couples get married in France they should be recognised in Australia – what do you think?

CHRISTINE MILNE: Absolutely, and that’s why the Greens are going to have a Private Member’s Bill to say that if you are married overseas and come into the country that that will be recognised in Australia. That’s absolutely essential. But we oughtn’t be at this point, we ought to be saying, hey Australia is a progressive country, we want to be very 21st century, we want our brand Australia to be one of not just dig it up, cut it down, ship it away, old, old values if you like, but rather a country which is looking to the future, highly educated, progressive, innovative, entrepreneurial and recognising marriage equality is all part of that.

JOURNALIST: The Tasmanian State Government seems to be a little bit upset that they missed out on the dollars that come with the tourism with same-sex marriage so they have put together along with Tourism Tasmania a plan that they would allow more venues to become gay friendly and it’s an Australian first – what do you think about those plans?

CHRISTINE MILNE: Well I love the fact that the Tasmanian Government has recognised that to keep with the trends that you need to advertise the fact that you are friendly to all people and that there is no discrimination, but I don’t think it will cut it in the scheme of things, I think it’s a great initiative but the reality is New Zealand has stolen the march, New Zealand is our main competitor on wilderness tourism and New Zealand will now be able to say not only can you come to New Zealand for this sort of adventure holiday but also you can get married here and I think the pink dollars will go to New Zealand, it’s why Barry O’Farrell has rushed out quickly to say they will pass marriage equality in New South Wales to try and stem the tide. So I welcome it but I think in the scheme of things once again it’s been the Legislative Council which has completely undermined a real positioning for Tasmania in terms of a progressive brand.

JOURNALIST: Tasmania has not jumped on the Gonski bandwagon as yet, New South Wales have, other states are being encouraged to follow, what do you think Tasmania should be doing considering the fact that they probably can’t afford it?

CHRISTINE MILNE: I really welcome the fact that Barry O’Farrell has now signed up to Gonski. It’s a big state and it’s a Liberal state. So it really is a signal to the rest of the country. Barry O’Farrell has recognised that that’s an awful lot of Commonwealth dollars flowing into schools in New South Wales and hopefully that will bring pressure to bear on other Liberal State governments to come on board too. In the Tasmanian context the Premier has already come out and indeed education Minister Nick McKim has come out and said they are all on board in terms of in principle with Gonski, and it’s not even the money that they are concerned about, it’s more some of the arrangements to make sure that the equity principle that underlines Gonski is actually delivered in Tasmania. So the Labor states are on board in principle and I think that they will get there. It’s really the Liberal states that have been the problem and that is why Barry O’Farrell leadership on this is so welcome.

JOURNALIST: It’s ANZAC Day tomorrow, what does this mean to you? And apparently we are going to get the biggest crowds ever in Hobart, including firefighters – they’re letting firefighters in the Tasmanian March this year.

CHRISTINE MILNE: ANZAC Day is always a cause for reflection and to pay respect and to honour the people who have given their lives or who have served in defence of our country. One thing that’s special about tomorrow’s ANZAC Day as far as the Greens are concerned, we’ve been working with the peacekeepers around Australia who up until now have not been able to be recognised on the War Memorial. Only people who have died in combat are recognised in that way. And since the Second World War there have been 47 Australian peacekeepers who have died serving our country overseas and they have not received the same recognition. As a result of the campaign that the Greens have run and Penny Wright in particular from South Australia, this year the War Memorial has changed its mind and henceforth we’re going to see that recognition of people who have lost their lives as peacekeepers. So we are honouring ANZAC Day tomorrow by dedicating our wreaths to those peacekeepers who have died in service of our country.
Christine Milne Australian Greens Leader Wednesday 23 April 2013 Press conference Transcript