18 January 2012 in Media
To listen to this interview, please click here.
DAVID BEVAN:
Jamie Briggs is the Liberal MP for Mayo, the federal seat of Mayo. Good morning Jamie Briggs.
JAMIE BRIGGS:
Happy new year to you both!
BEVAN:
And welcome to the program. Amanda Rishworth, ALP member for the federal seat of Kingston. Good morning Amanda Rishworth.
AMANDA RISHWORTH:
Good morning.
BEVAN:
And happy new year to you.
RISHWORTH:
Happy new year.
BEVAN:
Where do we begin? We’ve got handouts for the car industry, we’ve got poker machine reform, and we’ve got handouts for Premiers. Let’s start with the Premiers. Amanda Rischworth, how do you feel? Does it sit comfortably with you that State Cabinet has agreed to hand another round of perks to Mike Rann? He’ll get a driver; I think an office and up to a value of a $100,000. What do you think of that?
RISHWORTH:
Well look my understanding, and I haven’t seen the details, except what’s been written in the paper, is that it’s for a six month period and that it is in line with other states. So I think, he has been the Premier for a long time and that some assistance as he transitions, you know, outside. I mean I’ve also read that it can’t be used for private use, it does need to be for official functions. So I think for a six month period, we are looking at a modest time, it is not like it’s forever, until the end of time, so I think it is a modest amount.
MATTHEW ABRAHAM:
So do you think we’re molly-coddling him though? Honestly, I mean it’s not as though he’s incapacitated; he’s a very fit, alert sort of guy.
BEVAN:
He’s retiring on $200,000.
ABRAHAM:
He’s got plenty of money.
RISHWORTH:
Well I mean look, this is in line with what other Premiers in other states do get and do have in order to transition. I’m sure there’s a lot of correspondence, a lot of events over the next, but it is six months, I think we’ve got to keep the timeframe in mind.
ABRAHAM:
Well it’s $100,000 you can keep in mind as well.
RISHWORTH:
Well, yes, but that’s the cap. As you mentioned he may or may not use some or all of that.
ABRAHAM:
This is true.
BEVAN:
Jamie Briggs, what do you think?
BRIGGS:
Well look, if it was part of a review and if it came out not just after a long term Premier had stepped down you could probably have a discussion about it, but the timing stinks and people are right to think, ‘well hang on this just looks like a handout to a mate’. I think the timing of this really does bell the cat that this is extra assistance which people will find unacceptable. It is one of the reasons, I think, this sort of behaviour by government is one of the reasons people question all entitlements that Members of Parliament get and I can understand their frustration.
BEVAN:
What about arguing though that if we treat our politicians better, with a little bit of respect, maybe we’ll get better politicians and we’ll feel better about ourselves, rather than forcing them to slink off into the night, howling at them, we should treat them with a bit of respect and you could show that by these sorts of measures?
BRIGGS:
Well we should treat people with respect also and then we’ll get respect in return and I think late night decisions behind closed doors just after a Premier has retired from the same party.
BEVAN:
Well I’m not sure it was a late night decision Jamie Briggs, it was behind closed doors, but all Cabinets sit behind closed doors.
BRIGGS:
Yeah, but hang on, as I said, if this was part of an ongoing review about how entitlements worked and this was a decision made outside a recent retirement you could understand that, but it’s not, it’s made as a one off decision.
RISHWORTH:
No it hasn’t been made; the policy has been any Premier that’s served more than four years and six months.
BEVAN:
Yeah, from here onwards.
BRIGGS:
Yes, from here onwards.
RISHWORTH:
No, no, but you were starting to say that ‘only Mike Rann would get this’.
BRIGGS:
What a coincidence, well he’s the first.
RISHWORTH:
Let’s be clear, it’s not just Mike Rann. The policy has been set as for anyone into the future.
BEVAN:
Well, Isobel Redmond says she’ll overturn it. Ted’s called from Bellevue Heights.
CALLER:
I lost my job four times during my working life because of retrenchments, retirements and goodness knows what. Nobody gave me that sort of assistance and I put as much effort and time into my job as I’m sure ex Premier Rann did. If it’s good enough for him then it’s good enough for me.
ABRAHAM:
Ted, look thank you, from Bellevue Heights. Now on to other assistance, again we’re being told that hundreds of millions of dollars are needed for General Motors Holden. We’ve seen a package announced by the Government yesterday to secure the jobs into the future of their 4,000 strong workforce. It’s a consistent theme. Jamie Briggs, you think it’s throwing good money after bad, is that a fair call?
BRIGGS:
Yeah I do, yeah I agree.
ABRAHAM:
So you’d rather see the jobs just go from South Australia?
RISHWORTH:
Jamie…
BRIGGS:
No, no, not at all. Well hang on, let me put it this way. For 17 years the Mitsubishi manufacturing plant at Tonsley in South Australia, did not make a profit. It was subsidised by the Government to keep it here; it eventually left. The impact on the community has to be said was not negative at all, although we read after newspaper after newspaper articles saying that this would be the end of the southern suburbs of South Australia of Adelaide. It wasn’t, the unemployment rate is lower, and people have got more opportunities. This is a great big fear campaign by a multi-national company. Now if you are a small business in South Australia and you’re going through tough times, and there are many, the Government’s not there to write a big cheque for you, but if you’re a multi-national car company who gets to threaten the economy so-called and say ‘this is going to be Armageddon’ you get a big whopping multi-million cheque. Between 2004 – 2011 there was $48 billion subsidy given to the heavy manufacturing in Australia, largely the car industry.
BEVAN:
You are listening to Jamie Briggs, the Liberal MP for the federal seat of Mayo there. Amanda Rishworth, ALP.
RISHWORTH:
Well, I completely disagree with you Jamie, in terms of the investment in our car industry. And in particular, I mean let’s put first of all the issues on the table. The acute pressures that the dollar, the increasing Australian dollar has had on our manufacturing industry has been very difficult for car manufacturing. We are sitting down and saying how can we have an industry policy that actually helps these car manufacturers and other manufacturers transition through so that after the mining boom we don’t have no industry whatsoever. I just want to point out ... in terms of subsidy...
BRIGGS:
Hang on, that would be a fair point if this was the first time that we’d given the money, but it’s not. When does it stop, when does it stop?
RISHWORTH:
Let’s be clear about the amount of subsidy. Australia provides about $18 per person of a taxpayer subsidy, the United States is $265.
BRIGGS:
Yes and they’re $13 trillion dollars in debt.
RISHWORTH:
We have a very very small amount.
ABRAHAM:
Amanda Rishworth, is it fair to say, however, that we have heard time and time again that this money is to secure the future. This lot of money will secure the future and then five years later, this money will secure the future and so on. It would appear not to be working in many cases.
RISHWORTH:
Well that’s not true; in fact we’ve had the investment…
BRIGGS:
Mitsubishi.
RISHWORTH:
… Government invested in the Holden Cruze that is now providing a great small car manufacturing, the first time that that’s happened in Australia. I think the question is, Jamie has got a big task to argue obviously in his Cabinet. There’s a lot of people on his side, but there’s a lot of other people that disagree with him. Iain Evans, for example, disagrees with him.
BEVAN:
Well so does Nick Minchin. Minchin is in the Financial Review today saying ‘well hang on, don’t be a hypocrite about these things’. He’s talking generally here, ‘if you’re going to be pure you have to be pure’. He said, ‘what about all the support that’s given to farmers’.
RISHWORTH:
There’s a whole range of industries that we subsidise, a whole range that we co-invest with.
BRIGGS:
No there is not. Hang on, answer this question then – if the money was so worth it for Mitsubishi, why did it go?
RISHWORTH:
The money that…
BRIGGS:
Hang on, if it was so worth it for Mitsubishi, why did it go?
ABRAHAM:
Well, she is trying to answer, she’s trying to answer Jamie Briggs.
BRIGGS:
Jamie, what we had with Mitsubishi is a slowing manufacturing industry and we have a readjustment plan that has led to significant industry investment in the southern suburbs.
ABRAHAM:
Although it didn’t save Mitsubishi, it’s fair to say.
RISHWORTH:
It didn’t save Mitsubishi, but skills, a lot of skills and the people and readjustment as part of that package of Government help, but in terms of this car industry, we can’t lose these skills because of the short term escalation of the dollar.