14 November 2011 in Media
To watch the video of this interview, please click here.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Welcome to the program, this is AM Agenda. Thanks for being with us. We are going to now have a chat with Labor MP, Anna Burke, who is with us in Melbourne. And from Adelaide, Liberal MP, Jamie Briggs. Good morning to you both.
ANNA BOURKE:
Good morning Kieran.
JAMIE BRIGGS:
Good morning Kieran.
GILBERT:
Anna Burke, first to you, the Neilson poll, the Prime Minister’s approval rating up six points, it is quite a jump for her, but from a low base. Will it be enough to quieten the internal critics?
BURKE:
Oh look, in my thirteen years within the Parliament, polls come and go, there is only one that counts and it is two years off on election day. So we can all get hysterical, we can all get excited, we can all say that there won’t be a leadership challenges. It makes for more interesting information for you, than for anyone in Caucus. We are just getting on with doing the job and I think what the polls are showing is that people are showing what Labor has actually been able to do in this minority government.
GILBERT:
Do you think there is a bit of a shift on, Anna Burke? Given the passage of the Carbon Tax and the other issues, has the Prime Minister been able to argue the case for the industrial relations for example?
BURKE:
I think there has been some very important issues that we have dealt with this year and in the Parliament. And I think that the public are happy to see progress on those, people want us to take action on climate change, we finally introduced something, world leaders are congratulating Australia on making this step and I think that people at home are also saying, ‘Yes, finally some action on climate change’. It is a great issue, certainly an issue in my electorate, people are very concerned about. I think people are happy to see progress made.
GILBERT:
Jamie Briggs, I asked Christopher Pyne about this particular part of the poll on the mining tax. It shows there is a clear majority in favour of this. Is the Coalition, is there a risk here that you are backing the big miners and people will say, ‘You have got this one totally wrong and that we need to level things out a bit in this two speed economy’.
BRIGGS:
Well slowing down our most successful sector at a time when obviously our economy is under some pressure from global events and from cost of living increases particularly electricity increases and so forth. It is a bad policy and we don’t agree with it, so we have made it very clear, that is our clear position.
GILBERT:
(Inaudible)
BRIGGS:
Well I don’t think that is right. I mean I think there are a lot of mining companies who are saying this will cause them significant problems and now ultimately, it is not really about whether big miners/small miners lobby or whatever they may say in their interests, it is about making the right decision for Australia. And we say that this is a bad decision for Australia, because it will slow down our best performing sector and it also creates sovereign risk issues as well, as we have seen. People are concerned about that the investment in environment in Australia over the past couple of years, we know that people are concerned about influence the Greens have on policy. Everything that the Labor Government does is for the Greens and that is what we have seen over the last few months.
GILBERT:
Anna Burke, the US President is here this week of course. Do you think that that will provide a boost for the Prime Minister?
BURKE:
Look I think it is a wonderful thing that the President of the United States is coming to visit Australia. I think it will give a boost to Australia. This is a President who has led many changes in his country, he is the President of one of the largest democracies on the planet and I think all Australians will welcome his visit and I think it will give a boost to all of Australia.
GILBERT:
Jamie Briggs, you are going to be there for this speech, there will be massive security ahead of it. There will be a big day for the Parliament no doubt?
BRIGGS:
Look it is great, I agree with Anna, it is fantastic that the President of the United States is visiting. They are our best friend in the world, they are our closest ally, our relationship with the United States is very important and it should get stronger and we hope it gets stronger. That is something which is bi-partisan. Obviously the Greens in the past haven’t been as supportive of the US Alliance, in fact, they think that we should get rid of the US Alliance, so that an issue for the Labor Party in coalition with the Greens. But I think having the President of the United States here, adds to the strength of our alliance, it is good that he is speaking to the Parliament. It is good that he is, spending a day or so in Australia and I understand that he is visiting Darwin as well, which would be very special for the people in Darwin.
GILBERT:
The Greens were critical of reports of increased marine presence, Anna Burke. The Prime Minister repudiating that, is it important now for the Government to differentiate itself from the Greens, on issues like this, to take every opportunity again to do that?
BURKE:
I think the thing we need to realise is that the Labor Party, who is in Government here, it is not an alliance government, it is an Australian Labor Party, who is in government. Julia Gillard is the Prime Minister, the Australian Labor Party’s always had a strong alliance and respected our alliance with the United States and I think that the US President visiting when we are in government, strengthens and shows that we have a great time with them. They are our strongest ally, increasing ties and training exercises throughout Darwin, is a great way to show that the alliance is strong. It also shows within the region that Australia is playing its part in security within our own region. This isn’t a risk of anybody else’s security, it just shows that we have a strong alliance and we will continue to work on that and I think that we need to recognise that it is the Labor Government that is in power now.
GILBERT:
Anna, on another issue, I want to return to, reports of a mini budget. This is the front page story in the Australian Financial Review this morning, reports of deep spending cuts, the Government wanting to show that it is on track to return to surplus, some of economist say that this is simply a political commitment, not an economic one, it doesn’t matter if it is one billion dollars either way and that in terms of surplus or deficit?
BURKE:
Look it is the Labor Party again who has been leading on economics. I mean before Christopher Pyne on this show was talking about, you know, what the Government is currently doing and how it is all bad. But it is the Liberal Party that seems to have the magic pudding at the moment; it had its amazing cuts that it was somehow it was going to fund out of thin air at the last election. It is going to have Direct Action Policy on climate change; we have no idea how they are going to fund that. They are going to keep the increases to superannuation that we are guaranteeing out of mining tax, but there is no way of funding that. So I think that the Labor Party is the one that has got the credentials on the board at the moment, in respect to the economy.
GILBERT:
And, Jamie Briggs, you know, with those numbers in the mid year budget review, that will give them a chance to reinforce that. Do your colleagues need to be more aware of this and say look there are questions now about our credibility on funding $70 billion dollars worth of commitments.
BRIGGS:
Oh that is just hilarious. I mean this is a Government that came to power with money in the bank, with a big surplus, a twenty billion dollar surplus, when they came into government. We now have over $100 billion dollars of net debt, well over 200 billion in gross debt. The debt is growing on a daily basis. It will grow in this budget no doubt; there is always an excuse for the Labor Party to spend more money. And that is what they are doing. They waste money on school halls, on pink batts, on green loans. They are wasting money left right and centre and it is an extravagance of waste out there and yet have the gall to sit there and try and allege that they are somehow the more prudent financial manager, it is a complete joke and the Australian people don’t accept it. They know that the former Howard Government put in place the fiscal rigour that is required to have surplus budgets and put money into the bank, the future fund was established by Peter Costello and John Howard. They had surplus budget after surplus budget and nine out of eleven were surplus budgets. The Labor Party hasn’t delivered a surplus budget and it won’t deliver a surplus budget. It cannot manage money properly; people know that if they want the economy managed properly they will vote for a Coalition Government.
GILBERT:
Thank you both this morning for that discussion, appreciate that. We will see you both later in the week when Parliament returns for sitting, the address by President Obama.