Sky News AM Agenda

SUBJECTS: Coalition’s Paid Parental Leave policy E&OE................................ Kieran Gilbert: The Manager of Opposition Business Christopher Pyne, Alex Hawke doesn’t miss does he? Hon Christopher Pyne MP: The paid parental leave scheme as proposed by the Coalition will be one of the most important employment and wages policies of the beginning of this century, because we are treating paid parental leave as a workplace entitlement, not a welfare entitlement. All around the world, countries treat paid parental leave as a workplace entitlement, except in Australia, where the Labor Party treats it as a welfare entitlement. Our policy is more generous. Our policy recognises that if you are a person who is having a child, you should spend half the year, if you can, with that baby, and you should be paid the wage that you were earning before you left the workforce. So, this is a pro-family, pro-business, pro-employee policy and we make no bones about it. Gilbert: Alex Hawke says it’s an albatross around the party’s neck Pyne: Well Alex Hawke is a new backbencher. He’s a very good fellow. He’s a sound thinker, and he’s entitled to his opinion and it’s refreshing, and it’s also healthy, for the Coalition to be full of people who have an intellectual capacity to mount public policy arguments, but on this occasion the paid parental leave scheme is a policy that is revenue neutral because we are collecting it from the 3200 biggest businesses in Australia. It represents a cut to small businesses and medium sized businesses because their paid parental leave will be paid for them. It’s fully funded, it’s not a hit on the budget, and I think women around Australia will welcome the fact that Tony Abbott is the only leader federally who is recognising, out of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, that women deserve to have support for the first six months of the birth of a new child, paid at the wage they would otherwise have been paid at, as a workplace entitlement not a welfare entitlement. Gilbert: Does Alex Hawke’s… does his critique have broader support within the Coalition? Are there others that agree with him? Pyne: Look, the Coalition has enthusiastically embraced Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave scheme. I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about it, Kieran, if I’d written it myself, and it will be our policy for the next election. Gilbert: The economic dries – some economic dries – see it as a battle over the party’s principles, and they’re trying to knock this off. A tax and spend policy, and they don’t like it. Pyne: We’re a party that supports small business, supports women who want to work, and also want to be able to have families. We want to be able to treat paid parental leave as a workplace entitlement, not a welfare payment from the government. The Government’s payment is paid out of the budget – paid out of consolidated revenue, paid out of welfare. It is a fraction of the incomes of most working women. 61% of full time working women in Australia earn above the average wage, so therefore Labor is short-changing all those women. And that very notable feminist in Australia, Eva Cox, is an enthusiastic supporter of Tony Abbott’s scheme. Where are the other feminists around Australia who have treated paid parental leave as a workplace entitlement and as a cause célèbre of feminism Gilbert: Many of your colleagues aren’t convinced, including the Nationals, who say that it’s inequitable when compared to their constituents who don’t earn as much as their city counterparts. Pyne: Well, people will be paid at the wage that they are earning, so no-one’s going to get more. This is not a payment in excess of what you are earning. If you are being paid $60,000 a year then you will be paid $60,000 for six months if you are have a baby. If you are earning $120,000, the same. So essentially, everyone is being treated exactly equally. You can’t expect to leave the job you’re doing and then get paid suddenly more as though you’re being paid for a different job. Labor’s policy, on the other hand, treats all working women as though they are being paid the average wage when they are not. Therefore they are treating it as a welfare entitlement when it should be a work… this is pro-business, this is pro-employee, its pro-productivity, and its pro-family. Gilbert: Why should voters think this is a good policy if even some of your colleagues haven’t been convinced? Malcolm Turnbull this morning’s asked about this. He says there’s no prospect of it being changed. Tony Abbott supports this 100%. He says he’s not going to comment on whether he thinks there should be a review of the paid parental leave scheme, so there are those who are much less enthusiastic… Pyne: Well every colleague I talk to, Kieran is very enthusiastic about Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave scheme because it’s good for working women. It’s good for productivity in the economy. It is good for business, it’s fully paid, and if Alex Hawke has a different view at this time, well he’s entitled to have a different view as a backbencher. Gilbert: Malcolm Turnbull’s hardly emphatic either, this morning he says “I won’t comment on whether I think there should be a review”. It’s hardly emphatic. Pyne: Well I don’t know the circumstances of Malcolm Turnbull’s interview this morning. All I know is that I’m here, on your show, and I can tell you the Coalition, if we’re elected on September 14 - if we’re fortunate enough – women in Australia will have one of the best paid parental leave schemes in the world under Tony Abbott. They will have a paltry, second rate scheme under Jenny Macklin and Julia Gillard that is not the envy of the world. Gilbert: Do your colleagues have to avoid complacency? Because there has been a lot of discipline to this point. Pyne: Well Labor could win the election, Kieran. There’s a hundred and thirty-one days to go. Labor can win the election. This election will be tight. Labor will use every weapon in their arsenal. They’ll use the power of incumbency as a government. They’ll run a vicious smear campaign against Tony Abbott and other members of the coalition, as they’ve already been doing. They will promise far beyond their capacity to deliver, as we saw in the defence whitepaper last week. They’ll have baubles all across the screen that will try and bribe people into voting for the Labor Party. So of course they can win the election, and the Coalition has to ensure that for the good of the nation, we have a responsibility to win the election and deliver good government. Gilbert: It has been a long time since we’ve seen a Liberal MP criticise party policy, and certainly a signature policy from Tony Abbott. Do you worry that this might be a sign of what’s to come? Pyne: Well, I’m encouraged that there are people in the Coalition party room with the intellect and the capacity to mount public policy arguments. I don’t see that on the other side of the chamber. One of the reasons I am Liberal is because we don’t enforce a Stalinist discipline regime on our members like the Labor Party do, although in the last few years Labor has been a bit frayed at the edges, as we’ve seen. I think Alex Hawke is a good man and if that’s his view, he’s entitled to put it, but he’s not on the frontbench. If he was on the frontbench, he wouldn’t be entitled to put it. Gilbert: Mr Pyne, thanks for your time. ENDS.