15 November 2011 in Media
To watch the video of this interview, please click here.
(Greetings omitted)
LYNDAL CURTIS:
Joining me to discuss the days events, Labor MP Rob Mitchell and Liberal MP Jamie Briggs. Welcome to you both.
ROB MITCHELL:
Good afternoon.
JAMIE BRIGGS:
Thanks Lyndal.
CURTIS:
We will start with the talks at APEC, Barack Obama has spelled out where his country’s economic interests lie.
(CLIP)
CURTIS:
Jamie, what benefits are there to the sorts of free trade talks we have seen at APEC and also the idea of a Trans-Pacific Partnership?
BRIGGS:
Well look, free trade is an overwhelmingly good thing for Australia. It is good for job creation, it provides opportunities for our markets elsewhere and our farmers need free trade, they need bigger markets than they have got. We produce far more food than we consume, so we need bigger markets. Equally for manufacturing, if manufacturing in Australia is to survive and prosper it needs access to world markets and we want access to those world markets on the most reasonable terms, so we want other countries to join with us in lowering their barriers to trade and so forth, because it is overwhelming good for us. It is also good, let’s not forget for our consumers, consumers pay less because goods are cheaper when you trade, when we are trading.
CURTIS:
Rob, as the Nationals Leader Warren Truss said, ‘it is only good if the rhetoric is followed through with action’, isn’t it?
MITCHELL:
Look I think what is important to note there, is that I think Jamie is right. It is important that we do have free trade, that we do get better access to world markets. I just hope Jamie is able to convince the Nationals, to stop being luddites and get on board with this because we are talking about a region that is thirty five percent of the world’s GDP. This is a big region, the Trans – Pacific Partnership and we want to see that we make sure that we get access to all of the markets for our manufacturers, for our primary producers and we don’t need the Nationals getting in the way.
CURTIS:
But Rob, there are also those in the Union movement and in your own left of the party and in the Greens, who have questions about this. How do you address those?
MITCHELL:
Well I don’t address the Greens Party; I am not a member of the Greens Party. And you know, what they say, is what they say. But what the Unions are saying, quite rightly, is to make sure that we have the best opportunity for manufacturing workers here in Australia to get access to markets and to get our goods sold overseas, that is what they have been saying.
CURTIS:
Jamie, there was also…
BRIGGS:
No…
CURTIS:
Sorry you go ahead.
BRIGGS:
I don’t that is quite right, I think what I heard them say today, Dean Mighell and Dougie Cameron in the Parliament have said, that they are suspicious about any further trade arrangements and they want to see the benefit first.
MITCHELL:
That is not quite try.
BRIGGS:
So I think that Rob needs to sit down with Dougie and have a chat about that.
CURTIS:
Rob, a quick response.
MITCHELL:
Dean Mighell is not a member of the ALP, so who cares what Dean Mighell thinks.
BRIGGS:
Doug Cameron is, he is a Senator mate.
MITCHELL:
This Government is showing leadership by getting out there and being part of a free trade agreement, it is not our coalition partner that is saying ‘No, no, no, we can’t do this’. It is your coalition partner.
BRIGGS:
I don’t think that is ….
CURTIS:
If I could...
MITCHELL:
Listen to what Truss has said and to what Joyce has said.
CURTIS:
If I could just break in for a moment there, Jamie one of the other things talked about during the APEC meeting certainly in the talks between China and the US, is concern coming from Australia and the US about China’s currency, that it should be a market currency; it should be floated and also about China needing to be a responsible international citizen when it comes to world trade rules. How important is that for China to take those steps?
BRIGGS:
Oh, of course, it is very important. It is very important and might I say, also for us to continue to work with our US friends on ensuring that they get ready of any impediments to trade. Because of course some of our farmers will say that rightly that there are restrictions in getting access to United State’s markets, so in that sense, I think no one is perfect in this and it is a work in progress. Always a work in progress and we need to keep pushing forward. Australia has done that over the years, we have been a leader when it comes to our free trade arrangements and it would benefit it enormously. Now some people are reluctant, you know, Doug Cameron one of them, about going into further agreements, now I will just make one point; this is not a free trade agreement what is being discussed. This is a proposal and it has merit and we hope it does come off, but so far in government, Craig Emerson has talked a lot about free trade but he hasn’t delivered very much on free trade.
MITCHELL:
(Inaudible)
BRIGGS:
Well in fact he has delivered very little on free trade. Well know it is not Warren Truss’ rhetoric at all; Warren Truss is right.
CURTIS:
If I could…
MITCHELL:
Warren Truss is right, right.
CURTIS:
If I could just move on now, President Obama as I mentioned will be visiting Australia on Wednesday and Thursday. He is likely to get a very different reception to the one he got from the then Prime Minister John Howard, when he was just a candidate.
(CLIP)
CURSTIS:
Now many things have moved on from 2007 when John Howard made those remarks. It is clear from what President Obama and the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton have said is that Asia Pacific is very much part of their focus. Hilary Clinton said, ‘from the twenty first century, the world’s strategic and economic centre of gravity will be the Asia Pacific’. Rob, are there opportunities but also threats in America having a greater, particularly a security presence, in Asia and Australia?
MITCHELL:
Well, we will need to wait and see what the final thing is with President Obama. But I for one will certainly welcome his visit here. I think he is going to be different to when George Bush came out, one thing that is important to note is that the Government is very supportive of our friends in the United States of the ANZUS Alliance which is in its sixtieth year now, we are actually very keen to see our President Obama here so to be part of that. I want you to cast your mind back to when the announcement was made in the Parliament; the laughing and the immature childish carry on by the Liberal Party then about the visit. To the point that we forced Tony Abbott to have to get up and actually say, ‘look we actually do welcome the visit’. Now what is important is, who knows where they sit on it but it is a continual attack by the Liberal Party on Presidents of the United States, we actually want him out here, we know how important the US Alliance and relationship is to Australia and that is why Prime Minister Gillard has been pushing to bring him out here, to have him here as part of his visit which will be beneficial for Australia and the United States.
CURTIS:
Jamie, the Government and the Opposition agree on very few things, is this going to be one of those occasions where we see an outbreak of bi-partisanship?
BRIGGS:
Well, what Rob just said then is just absurd. I mean of course the Liberal Party has been for a very long time…
MITCHELL:
(inaudible)
CURTIS:
Rob, if you can just let Jamie finish?
BRIGGS:
When we were in Government we established the ANZUS Treaty. It was the Menzies’ Government initiative, a Liberal Government initiative. So let’s begin with that. No one from the Liberal Party is attacking President Obama, while about this visit. Everyone welcomes it; they are our best friend in the international environment. It is an important relationship, we continue to build on. Now the issue for the Labor Party is that their coalition partner the Greens, their coalition partner, the reason they are in government is because of the Greens, doesn’t think the ANZUS alliance is a good idea and in fact, their stated policy is to get rid of it. Now their stated policy was also to have a carbon tax and now we have a carbon tax. The Labor Party is fond of following the Greens down paths. We wonder whether this is a path they will follow them down. Also if we want to talk about the support of the US Alliance, it is not us who is in partnership with the Greens in government.
CURTIS:
Rob, if there is any concern about US having an increased military presence in Australia; it is likely to come from the left of your party and the left of politics, isn’t it?
MITCHELL:
Well I don’t know and I can’t speak on behalf of the Greens Party, but Jamie, might want to go back and clearly have a look at the Hansard of the Parliament of the day, when it was announced, about the laughing, about Obama’s visit, to the point where Tony Abbott had to on indulgence to make a statement to say, now we support it. Now we have always been consistent in our support for President Obama, he is coming, we have welcomed it and that is the way we have been since day one. We can’t say the same for the Opposition.
CURTIS:
If we can turn now to the domestic political climate, Rob, things seem to be looking slightly better for the Government at the moment, but at the moment, but you are a long way from being in the position where you can win an election and you are going to need everything to go right for you between now and the next election, aren’t you?
MITCHELL:
Well what I think we have seen is the people are tired of these childish ‘no, no, no’ antics from Tony Abbott they are seeing that the Prime Minister is a women of strength, who has gone out there delivered everything that she said she would. This is a Parliament that has gone through two hundred bits of legislation; it has gone through the House without fail. She has delivered on everything that she said she would and people are realising quite strongly that the Prime Minister is more than capable of being the leader in this country, as opposed to Tony Abbott whose constant negativity and constant many faces of Tony Abbott going on about what he says and where he says it. Talking down the Australian economy.
CURTIS:
But you have some way to go, don’t you, before you re-build the trust in the Government and in the Prime Minister?
MITCHELL:
Lyndal, one thing we have never done is commented on the polls, they go up and they go down all the time and I have seen that over many many years. What I can say is that people do respect the Prime Minister, respect the job that she has done in showing leadership for this country and delivering on the things that are important to her and important to the Australian Government.
CURTIS:
Jamie, there is still something of a question mark over Mr Abbott, he hasn’t got huge amounts of support. He is not a long way in front of Julia Gillard; do you think that hasn’t been helped, certainly by confusion over your policy on superannuation in recent days and indeed a lack of any policy on industrial relations?
BRIGGS:
Well look, I think that Tony Abbott has done a magnificent job. You go back to when he took over the leadership of the Liberal Party in December 2009, at that point in time we were struggling badly. And we didn’t look like we had any chance at the next election and we nearly tossed out a first term government, we took away their majority, for the first time since the Second World War that that has happened and since then he has continued to power on and he is opposing what are bad policies. It is not just being negative to oppose what are bad policies and the carbon tax which of course wasn’t promised prior to the last election is a bad policy and we will continue to say that. But obviously, going forward, he will have plenty of opportunities to announce how he plans to govern the country and he has been doing that over a period of time and as we go forward he will continue to do that.
CURTIS:
Has though the confusion in recent days over the superannuation policy and the fact that Andrew Robb was left off a call helped?
BRIGGS:
Well look I don’t know about those sorts of things. They are far above my pay grade, as you know Lyndal. So I will just get on and keep working away for issues which I think are important and obviously ensuring that we have a well managed budget policy of how we will approach running the Australian economy and how we will approach our fiscal policy is important and I think there has been, rightfully, there has been a debate about that.
CURTIS:
And that is where we will have to leave it, I am very sorry to interrupt you, but Jamie Briggs and Rob Mitchell, thank you very much for your time.