ABC NewsRadio

SUBJECTS: Foreign aid cuts; Budget; paid parental leave; E&OE................................ Announcer: Marius Benson is speaking to the Manager of Opposition Business in the House, Christopher Pyne. Marius Benson: Christopher Pyne, there’s a lot of speculation about what the budget will bring tomorrow, and some specifics from the Government. One that is being generally reported is that there may be a cut to foreign aid. How would the Opposition feel about that? Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Well a cut to foreign aid would be very disappointing, if the Government’s economic management stocks had reached such a low point, because of course there’s been a commitment from both Kevin Rudd five years ago, and Tony Abbott, to the Millennium goals, including foreign aid at a certain percentage of GDP and Australia is heading in that direction, and I think a lot of people around the country will be very disappointed that the Government feels a need to cut foreign aid, but when you have a budget that’s falling apart as quickly as this one, I suppose every option is on the table as the Prime Minister said herself. Benson: What lies ahead for foreign aid if you become the government? Pyne: Well, we’ve had a commitment for some time to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including in the area of foreign aid, and we haven’t made any announcement that that has changed. Benson: Some more specifics are being reported today, another is that the unemployed may be allowed to earn more before they start seeing their dole cut. Is that a good idea? Pyne: Well we would welcome any reform to welfare and unemployment benefits that would encourage people back into the workforce. Obviously a person who starts work and earns income, if they can continue to see that grow, are more than likely to end up leaving the welfare system, so any measure that encourages people into the workforce has got to be a good measure, but we’ll look at the detail when we see the budget. Benson: What about the task you’ve set for yourself, because the broad undertaking from the Opposition is that you’ll cut tax that you’ll return to surplus, that you’ll introduce the paid parental leave, that you’ll pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and you’ll in all likelihood pay for the Gonski education reforms. Is all that possible? Pyne: It’s all very possible depending on how you manage an economy and a budget. We know this Government can’t do either, and we won’t promise things that we can’t achieve, unlike this Government. So we’re very confident, for example, with the paid parental leave scheme, Mr Abbott’s scheme is a workplace entitlement, not a welfare entitlement, and it’s fully paid for by a modest one and a half per cent levy on 3200 of the biggest businesses in Australia, so our policies will be fully costed, and believable, and achievable. Benson: When you say it will be paid for by that levy on the biggest businesses, that’s described as just a temporary levy before it just goes into being drawn from general revenue. Pyne: Well you have to remember, of course, that during the Howard and Costello eras we had a surplus budget, we had money in the bank, we had no debt, so it can be achieved. Benson: But when you differentiate the paid parental leave from others saying it’s not a welfare provision, it’s a workplace provision, it’s paid for by the taxpayer. What’s the difference to other welfare provisions? Pyne: The Government’s paid parental leave scheme is a welfare measure that you only attract the average wage for eighteen weeks, and of course, sixty one per cent of women in the workforce are earning above the average wage, which means it’s a cut to those women. The workplace entitlement reflects the fact that women are paid at the salary that they would expect to be paid for six months, and that will be encouraging for businesses, for families, for women and for the economy. Benson: But the critics of it say that if it’s a workplace entitlement, the employer should pay, not the taxpayer, which is your plan after this interim temporary levy is lifted. Pyne: Well the employer is effectively paying of course, Marius, through the 1.5% modest levy. Benson: But that’s just a temporary levy. Pyne: Well, you obviously know more of the details about this, Marius, than anybody else does. Benson: It’s been described by all opposition figures as a temporary levy. Pyne: Yes Marius, in the years ahead, if the budget can afford it, it will go, but let me say - tomorrow and this week is not about the Coalition’s paid parental leave scheme. You could be forgiven for thinking that the Government is a sideshow in Australia at the moment. It’s their budget. They’re handing it down tomorrow. The full horror of Wayne Swan’s incompetence will be on display for us all to see. The broken promise on the surplus, increased taxes, cuts to spending that were never affordable in the first place, and this myopic obsession with the Coalition’s paid parental leave scheme kind of misses the point that we’re not actually in government. Benson: Christopher Pyne, thanks very much. Pyne: it’s a pleasure, Marius. ENDS.