2GB with Ben Fordham

29 Mar 2017 Transcipt

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
2GB with Ben Fordham
29 March 2017

SUBJECTS: Minimum Wage; Big Business Pay Periods



BEN FORDHAM: Joining us on the line from Parliament House, Canberra, Christopher Pyne and Anthony Albanese, Albo good afternoon.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: G’day, it appears we’re now sponsored.

BEN FORDHAM: But Audi Alto Artarmon, didn’t you guys receive the free Audi as part of the deal, you didn’t get the Audi?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, I didn’t get the Audi.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Not even a toy one.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think you’ve kept the Audi there for you and 2GB, probably being driven around by the PA.

BEN FORDHAM: Yeah well I don’t have a PA Christopher but I’ll sort out the little toy Audi to go your way.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well you should have a PA.

BEN FORDHAM: Now, Mr Pyne good afternoon to you as well sir.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Nice to be with you.

BEN FORDHAM: This is the last chat we’ll have for some time because you’re heading into the, well what is it, six weeks holiday until the budget, is that right Christopher?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: If only, if only. No the House does rise this Thursday or Friday depending on the Senate’s behaviour and then we have the break before the budget. I certainly won’t be having a holiday other than Easter which I think most Australians have as a holiday but the job of an MP or a Minister or a Shadow Minister never ends really, it’s an 80 hour a week task.

BEN FORDHAM: Alright things tend to get a little bit hairy in the day leading to that break don’t they Albo so I’ll be watching everyone’s behaviour tomorrow during question time.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Albo’s perfectly behaved in question time.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I’m always well behaved; I’ve morphed into a statesman.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: If he does say so himself.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: No one else will.

BEN FORDHAM: Now opposition leader Bill Shorten wants to lift the minimum wage, he says Labor will make a submission today for a fair increase to the minimum wage, this just happens to follow the Secretary of the ACTU, Sally McManus, saying exactly the same thing, Albo your boss wants to be Santa Claus does he?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well I think that I would’ve thought that you as well and…

BEN FORDHAM: I’d love to but I don’t decide these things, the Fair Work Commission does.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Of course they do and they take submissions, and it is normal practice, often governments and oppositions make submissions to the Fair Work Commission or its forerunners, making suggestions and a lift to the minimum wage would obviously benefit not just those receiving it, but importantly benefit the economy as well because if you’re a low income wage earner you’re not making savings, you’re spending that money, creating jobs and stimulating the economy and that’s precisely what the Reserve Bank are saying is needed.

BEN FORDHAM: Obviously those businesses would have to pay more in wages which would affect the businesses involved; Christopher Pyne is this something that Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition team are going to welcome with open arms?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well of course the minimum wage is a matter for the Fair Work Commission, always has been, always will be, governments rarely make submissions in these cases and the minimum wage, an increase to it need to reflect the capacity to pay of business and the value to the business, so obviously the Fair Work Commission will take those matters into account. I notice that Sally McManus, the new ACTU Secretary, who is particularly left wing, she wants a $45 a week increase to the minimum wage, which is s pretty dramatic increase and I think business said today that the ACTU’s should stop treating businesses as ATMs, I think that’s a reasonable point because if a business goes out of business nobody’s employed.

BEN FORDHAM: It’s a populist kind of policy isn’t it Albo to take to the electorate, not that there’s anything wrong with that but can we afford it, can business afford to pay an extra $45 per week per employee?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well that’s not our submission of course, our submission, we will make and release when Bill Shorten thinks that’s appropriate but in terms of an increase in the minimum wage there tends to be increases in the minimum wage each year, that is what happens unless there is a – if there’s no increase of course that means a real cut because inflation, of course even though it’s small, is still present so the normal course of event is there will be an increase. It’s a matter of what the size of the increase is that as I said at a time where the Reserve Bank are basically saying that they’ve done all the heavy lifting with lowering of interest rates, that’s had a positive impact but it’s also had some negative consequences in terms of housing affordability by creating a whole lot of speculation in that side of the economy and they’re saying that we need to increase economic activity and one way, one of the problems that they’ve identified is the low wage growth, we’ve had effectively flat lining when it comes to wage growth in this county and that’s a problem particularly at the lower end.

BEN FORDHAM: Alright can I make a suggestion when it comes to increasing business activity, and I’m wondering who’s going to step up to the plate on this one, who is going to say righto to big business you must pay your bills in a reasonable amount of time? We’ve been discussing this for a long period of time on this program, we chatted yesterday to Kate Carnell, the Small Business Ombudsman about it who has been taking submissions about this issue but you’ve got multinationals in some cases who stretch their payment terms out to four months, a hundred and twenty days until they pay their bills. A lot of small businesses don’t want to speak up about it because they feel like this is an imbalance in the relationship, there’s a power imbalance there for the big business so the big businesses will just say oh well stuff you, we’ll buy from someone else. Who is going to say to these bigger businesses, Christopher Pyne, can you start paying small business on time?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Ben that’s something we definitely need to look at, and what the government has done is try to lead by example, so we’ve introduced our own policy, which if you don’t pay on time then you have to pay interest, which means all business invoices for contracts valued up to a million dollars have to be paid within 30 days or the government pays interest to the small business and what that’s mean is that we now have a compliance rate of 97% with that policy. So the government is doing its part but I couldn’t tell agree more, when Kate Carnell hands her report to the government we will closely examine her recommendations and if big business is ripping off small businesses and we can do something about it I’ll be the first person to say we need to act exactly like I was on the effects test in the Trades Practices Act to make it harder for big business to hurt small business and to make it easier for small business to take big business to court over unfair competition.

BEN FORDHAM: Albo where does the Labor Party stand on this, whenever I mention it you get these horrible emails from small business people saying thank you for mentioning this because we’ve been suffering in silence and we just feel like there’s a gun to our head and we just have to agree to these ridiculous terms, 90 days, 120 days to be paid.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well it’s common sense and I certainly would support any government action, this should be a bipartisan issue because we all know that in today’s economy as well a lot of, when we talk about small business we’re talking about in a lot of cases businesses that are essentially Mum and Dad businesses doing work as contractors for major companies and they don’t have the ability to carry debt for a period of time and they should be paid in a prompt manner.

BEN FORDHAM: Alright lastly, considering it’s the final sitting we believe tomorrow of this Parliamentary term leading up to the six week break before the budget, let’s start a book here, how many people will be kicked out of question time tomorrow?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well plenty I reckon because they had about a dozen go today because Labor was, as usual, out of control, not interested in good debate, just interested in shouting.

BEN FORDHAM: Have a dozen kicked out today Albo?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Must’ve been close to.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I wasn’t counting, there were a few.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It was a very big number, a very nig number.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: There were a few.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: And Tanya Plibersek’s one of the worst offenders, she was thrown out again today..

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You’re a protected species though Christopher as Leader of the House, you’re one of the worst behaved.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Oh rubbish, Anthony…

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You get warned all the time.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Anthony and I are two of the best behaved people in the chamber and it’s not true that we once both held the record for being thrown out more than anybody else in the Parliament.

BEN FORDHAM: We’ll all be watching you both tomorrow.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: We will be on our best behaviour; we can’t speak on behalf of all of our colleagues.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: They should follow our example actually.

BEN FORDHAM: Thank you both, we’ll be watching. Have a good break.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Thank you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I wish it was a break.

BEN FORDHAM: I don’t mean a break as such; I mean a break from Parliament and a break from us.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well have us on during the recess.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yeah.

BEN FORDHAM: I would never do that to my listeners.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Oh come on.

BEN FORDHAM: No

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s your choice to push us out.

BEN FORDHAM: It would be cruel and unusual punishment.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You’ve pinched our car, and now you’re doing that

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You can’t afford us, that’s the problem.

BEN FORDHAM: I will find a toy car from Audi Alto Artarmon, have a good afternoon.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: See you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good on you.