Jamie Briggs MP

Amanda Rishworth, the Labor Member for Kingston. Good morning Amanda Rishworth. 

 

 

Good morning. 

 

 

And Jamie Briggs, Liberal Member for Mayo. Good morning. 

 

 

Good morning. 

 

 

Amanda Rishworth, are you all glum at the moment with the latest Newspoll showing that maybe incredibly from the Labor perspective, Tony Abbott is preferred Prime Minister by a majority of Australians. 

 

 

Well look I think as I’ve said many times that polls are just that; they are polls. But I think we are in a middle of developing and explaining a very tough reform, being the carbon price, and it’s in the national interest to put a price on carbon. It is in our national interest to transform our economy. So it is tough in terms of that reform at the moment and so I think we will see the polls stay low. But I think as we explain the reform and as we work through it with the Australian people, I think when explain all the detail, I do think people will see that acting on climate change is an important thing to do. 

 

 

If not, you are in big trouble. 

 

 

Well, look, previous Prime Ministers have been there before. I think a lot of focus was on Prime Minister Keating. Prime Minister Howard had also at numerous times in his term, especially in 1998 and also 2001, being this low in the polls. So polls do go up and down. I think that is important. 

 

 

But is there a feeling in the Caucus, look the best thing you can do is just get on and do it and start getting some of this compensation out to people because talking about it is not helping you. 

 

 

Well look I think the Prime Minister announced this week that 9 out of 10 Australians will receive a combination of compensation, whether it be tax cuts and payments. Also the majority of those will not be out of pocket. So I think we are explaining a lot of the parameters, but we do have to get the details right. 

 

 

Ok, Jamie Briggs, Liberal Member for Mayo. 

 

 

Well look I think…

 

 

Are you surprised Tony Abbott is preferred Prime Minister? Because we were talking to Dennis Shanahan yesterday and it’s not just the Labor Party people who don’t take him seriously, but some of his own troops. 

 

 

That’s not very nice this early in the morning. I think Tony is obviously doing a very good job. He has taken a first term government to brink of defeat. For the first time since the second world war, a first term government lost its majority, and he continues to as he did on Saturday, outline how he would alternatively manage the country. Now of course the big problem Julia Gillard has and comparing to John Howard or Paul Keating is the great big lie before the election, and ultimately it’s a credibility and competency issue which Julia Gillard has to jump the hurdle, and I think she is going to have a problem with that because of course immediately before the election she told Australians there wouldn’t be a carbon tax, and immediately after, with Bob Brown’s instigation, she announced there would be a carbon tax. People are angry about that and I hear that every day and I think that is the major reason why Julia Gillard is genuinely struggling to connect with people. 

 

 

We’ve been reminded in the last few days how quickly things can turn. Peter Reith and his failure to get the top job of the Liberal Party, very quickly bringing out the spectre of Workchoices. 

 

 

Well I mean that is a bit unfair on Peter. He wasn’t in the country when that policy was being implemented, so I’m not sure how Peter could have had any influence. He obviously…

 

 

No but he just yesterday, talking to our colleague Jon Faine in Melbourne, he was saying yesterday, look if you want to improve the economy you’ve got to address industrial relations. What’s that code for? 

 

 

David, you understand that that is completely different than a previous policy. I mean Workchoices, the nub of it which was a mistake, and I said this plenty of times was that we took away the no disadvantage test. Now when Peter Reith was the Minister, the no disadvantage test wasn’t taken away, but he did reform the system quite substantially. Now quite clearly at some point we have re-engage on industrial relations debate and I think Peter has been making that point. Tony made that point yesterday, and I said that previously as well. But what you see from Labor of course is this desperate move every time anyone dare mentions its name to try and ‘break class in case of emergency’ and drag out the old scare campaign. 

 

 

Unfortunately Jamie, I mean this is the problem…

 

 

Well go on, start the scare campaign, go on, here comes the ghost…

 

 

No one was told about Workchoices before the election and then it was thrust on the Australian people…

 

 

Amanda, I don’t think you are in any position to be talking about things before an election. 

 

 

What we know is that it didn’t improve productivity of the economy. What it did was take away wages and conditions from people, and that’s what Peter Reith seems to be signalling the direction he wants the Liberal Party to go. 

 

 

Amanda Rishworth, it did improve productivity, did it not? I’m not defending it and it was unpopular and it was one of the reasons, but it did improve productivity, did it not? The shake up of the industrial relations system. 

 

 

In terms of productivity, there has been a number of things, including enterprise bargaining that has been shown to improve productivity.

 

 

But you just said it didn’t improve productivity. But that is not correct is it? 

 

 

But enterprise bargaining was not part of that. What we are talking about is individual contracts that didn’t have a no disadvantage test, that had no safety net, and it was shown not to improve productivity. What is was shown to do was decrease wages and decrease conditions. It wasn’t shown in any way. To increase productivity you’ve got to ensure that we are more efficient and effective. That is enterprise bargaining which is quite different, quite different from Workchoices which was individual contracts, which was really designed to rip-off wages and conditions. 

 

 

Can I just make one point Matt. The fact is, about a month ago, the latest productivity figures were released and since the introduction of Labor’s re-regulation, productivity has gone down. 

 

 

Amanda Rishworth, is that correct? 

 

 

I haven’t seen that at all and…

 

 

Well it’s true. Go and have a look at the figures. 

 

 

I haven’t seen that at all. But in terms of what we are getting through a good enterprise bargaining system and the enterprise level, where people can negotiate with their work colleagues is a very effective system and there has been a lot of evidence to suggest that industrial disputes are down and in fact…

 

That is not true. 

 

 

…what we have is an effective system. Well it is. That’s what the evidence coming out has suggested. So to suggest that Workchoices is the panacea, if you want to go ahead and suggest that, Jamie feel free. But make sure you campaign in the next election on it. 

 

 

The only people talking about Workchoices is the Labor Party. 

 

 

Well Peter Reith as well. 

 

 

No he’s not at all. 

 

 

Jamie Briggs, thank you. Liberal Member for Mayo. And Amanda Rishworth, Labor Member for Kingston. Thank you.