ABC 891
07 May 2014
Transcipt E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – ABC 891 Adelaide with Matthew Abraham and Mark Butler
7 May 2014
SUBJECTS: Budget; Q and A; Privacy of public figures
(greetings omitted)
COMPERE:
Chris Pyne, you’re about to go into a Cabinet meeting, the reports are that you are going to have a look at another version of the tax you promised you wouldn’t introduce. What version are we up to now, is it version 2.1.1?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Well of course I can’t comment on the budget next Tuesday, but the month before the budget there is always speculation and toing and froing about what will be or not be in the budget. There are changes right up to the weekend before the budget as Mark would remember from the time he was in the Cabinet, the golden age of the Labor Government when he was a Cabinet minister. And obviously the Cabinet is now today signing off extensively of the last budget measures. I think the budget will be a sensible response to the deficit and debt disaster left to us by the Labor Party and whatever we do has to be right for our country and fair for all.
COMPERE:
Okay, so I will come back to the question. What version of the tax will you come up with? Are you back tracking at a fast rate now? I mean, are we going to go back to Windows 3.1, let’s put it like that?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Well as you know there is always a lot of speculation…
COMPERE:
Well I know that but…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
There is always changes to the budget.
COMPERE:
Chris Pyne, the Prime Minister has commented on this tax, because he said it is not a tax. He has been happy enough to encompass speculation by saying well it wouldn’t be a broken promise because it would be a temporary tax. So it is out there, let’s not pretend it is not there.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Well, there has been no confirmation of any changes to the tax system at this stage. But the budget will finally determine the Government’s response to the Audit Commission’s report. Now as you know, Matthew, I am not the Treasurer.
COMPERE:
No.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
I am the Minister for Education and the Leader of the House, so what version the budget is up to is really not a question that I can answer.
COMPERE:
Okay, but you can answer this one; you are the Liberal MP for Sturt. What are people telling you electorate office?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Well, in fact my office is overwhelmed yesterday with phone calls of people saying how well I managed the protesting students on Monday night on Q and A. That was the phone calls to my office yesterday.
COMPERE:
In their second breath do they say, please we want a tax?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
No, in their second breath they say they understand that we have a very tough situation left to us by the Labor Party.
COMPERE:
Oh come on, Christopher Pyne. Are you seriously saying people are ringing your office, this is the overwhelming message to your office, what a great guy you are on Q and A, and we understand how difficult things are? You are not getting any calls from people saying we are seriously worried about you breaking your promises regarding taxes?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
I think people individually are worried that decisions of the Government makes might affect them, but they also know that there is a job to be done by this Government and they elected us last September to do it.
COMPERE:
Are you getting people ringing you saying please don’t impose this deficit tax?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Of course we are getting people who don’t want us to change the tax system in a way that might affect them.
COMPERE:
How many? How many calls are you getting? A lot?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
I don’t know.
COMPERE:
A lot?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Look…It really is an (inaudible) question. I am getting emails and phone calls…
COMPERE:
I think it’s an important question. I think it’s an important question. I’ll ask it again.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
You want an exact number of phone calls that my office has received?
COMPERE:
Yeah, well…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
A precise number of phone calls that my office has received?
COMPERE:
On that issue, how many phone calls has your office received?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Well I can’t tell you the answer to that. My staff don’t tell me…
COMPERE:
A few, a lot?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
We are getting very few, actually.
COMPERE:
Very few. Okay.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Very few calls about people saying do not change the tax system. Very few. And I have been in Parliament for twenty one years, and I know when there is a massive issue running. And there are times where my office has been inundated, whether it is live cattle exports or other issues, and I can tell you that I think that there is an understanding in the public that, yes they are worried about individual decisions that might be made that hurt them, but they also know that there is also a job that has to be done for the whole country. And I have been surprised about how few emails, phone calls or letters that I have had about the speculation around the deficit, so called deficit levy.
COMPERE:
The people of Sturt are flooding your office with congratulations about how you handled the student protesters on Q and A?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Well you asked the question…
COMPERE:
No no, I am just saying…
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
How many phone calls my office had yesterday and I can tell you that the overwhelming phone calls to my office yesterday were about Q and A on Monday night, not about the debt levy.
COMPERE:
Mark Butler?
MARK BUTLER:
Well whatever version of the tax increase is considered by Cabinet will be a breach of a solemn promise by Tony Abbott not in increase taxes as will see the budget breaking solemn promises around the end to bulk billing which we are going to see…
COMPERE:
And you’ve been there with Julia Gillard and the carbon tax? The solemn promise?
MARK BUTLER:
Well I am not getting into that sort of piece of history…
COMPERE:
Well that’s why you are in Opposition.
MARK BUTLER:
…the relevant piece of history is that Tony Abbott made an incredibly solemn promise very clear about funding to the ABC, about funding to health, funding to education, tax increases, all of which appear to be up for breach in this budget of broken promises. So whatever version it is it doesn’t matter. But the other thing that Christopher continues to go on about, as do all of the other Ministers in Government is this confected budget emergency. Let’s be very clear, even the Australian newspaper today, no barracker for the Labor Party, pointed out that out of the $68 billion that has been added to the budget deficit since Joe Hockey became the Treasurer, more than half of the budget deficit over the four year period, another $10 billion has been put into the secretive contingency reserve. We have seen money shifted of to the Reserve Bank of Australia and we have had also seen change to economic assumptions, some of which are utterly ridiculous by Joe Hockey. All to create this idea that the budget is in an emergency and justify the breaches they are promising.
COMPERE:
Is it Labor’s position that there is no extraordinary structural problem with our budget, it is ordinary run of the mill stuff…
MARK BUTLER:
No we have never said that. We have been quite clear that since the Global Financial Crisis there has been a very significant problem with revenue, a very significant problem with revenue… commodity prices, but through our period of times tried to put up what we thought worked sensible and equitable changes to the…
COMPERE:
Taxes that don’t raise money, like the mining tax, taxes that don’t raise money…
MARK BUTLER:
For example, means testing the private health insurance rebate so that the taxpayer would not continue to subsidise people on high and very high incomes for their private health insurances. This government for example is going to reinstate that subsidy at the same time it ends bulk billing for Medicare. So these are all questions of priorities.
COMPERE:
So how big do you think the problem is, in terms of money? Do you think it is a problem that is worth what, $80 billion over ten years, or $40 billion over…?
MARK BUTLER:
The figures are there. The figures are there. And it is quite clear that in the mid-year fiscal outlook that Joe Hockey handed down before Christmas, about $68 billion was added to the budget deficit which is more than half of the deficit over the four year period. So it is a substantial issue but Joe has revved this up, Joe has confected a scale of budget emergency that is simply not reflected by reality.
COMPERE:
You are listening to 891 Breakfast Matthew Abraham, David Bevan our mid-week politics with Chris Pyne and Mark Butler. To change the subject entirely, Chris Pyne, and Mark Butler, there is a photo, a really large photo, on page eleven of The Advertiser this morning of the Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s middle child, Frances Abbott, and it says ‘Smoko’, she went to Melbourne to study and live a more private life, but Frances Abbott, 22, has been busted for breaking her family’s healthy living code and she is smoking a cigarette outside with her boyfriend. It is obviously highly doubtful that she has conceded to, or agreed to the photo being taken. Chris Pyne, is this a gross invasion of privacy? Or do you feel that because she and the other daughters were in the election campaign that it is fair cop?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
Well, I am happy to answer that, but before I do my staff have told me we had four calls yesterday about the budget. Three supported reform, one was against it, and I was right – the overwhelming number of calls yesterday were about Q and A. So David, you can’t say I don’t answer your questions.
COMPERE:
Thank you very much. And now the Prime Minister’s daughters?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE:
I think it is an invasion of privacy. Unfortunately in the modern era, that is the daily rigour and smoking last time I looked wasn’t illegal and Frances Abbott wants to have a cigarette that is entirely her choice.
COMPERE:
Mark Butler?
MARK BUTLER:
I agree. If that was my daughter I would be beyond furious. I fail to see what the public interest is in the daughter of a politician, even if the Prime Minister, being out engaging in an activity, whatever people might think of it, is legal. Clearly it is night-time, she is engaged in some sort of personal socialising and I cannot for the life of me see the public interest in having such a big photo splashed over the pages of a daily newspaper.
COMPERE:
Why would they do it then?
MARK BUTLER:
I have no idea, I have no idea. I can’t look into the minds of the editors of this paper. But I can’t see the public interest in the private lawful activities of children of public figures, even the Prime Minister.
COMPERE:
Do you think there might be a different mindset if other newspapers published photos of the daughters of editors of newspapers out smoking?
MARK BUTLER:
Well look…
COMPERE:
Do you think it might change…
MARK BUTLER:
I think it would be unfortunate for daughters and sons of public figures whether they are editors or Prime Ministers or ordinary MPs like myself, if we get into that tit for tat. I just think that family members, particularly when they are engaging in completely lawful activities, should be out of bounds. I cannot see the public interest.
[ends]