25 January 2012 in Media
To listen to the audio of this interview, please click here.
MATTHEW ABRAHAM:
Jamie Briggs is the Liberal MP for Mayo. Good morning Jamie Briggs.
JAMIE BRIGGS:
Good morning Matthew, good morning David.
ABRAHAM:
And Amanda Rishworth, Labor MP for Kingston. Good morning Amanda Rishworth.
AMANDA RISHWORTH:
Good morning, and I have to say that David, as soon as I saw you on Twitter I signed up straight away and a little bit disappointed you changed your photo…
ABRAHAM:
Yes.
RISHWORTH:
I liked the original.
DAVID BEVAN:
Oh, you liked the original?
ABRAHAM:
Amanda Rishworth, I don’t remember you signing up that quickly for me but that’s fine.
RISHWORTH:
No, I didn’t actually.
ABRAHAM:
No, no, no, no. Have you yet?
BEVAN:
For you, Amanda Rishworth, for you I will revisit the photo.
RISHWORTH:
Oh great, that would be great.
ABRAHAM:
We’ll find a compromise between the mad professor and the accountant, there’s got to be a middle ground. Now, Amanda Rishworth, do you have a taxpayer funded car and is it an Australian made car?
RISHWORTH:
Look, I do have a car that is funded partly by the taxpayer and yes it is, it is a Holden.
BEVAN:
Is that sort of thing…
ABRAHAM:
…a contractual obligation sort of thing…
BEVAN:
Well exactly, do you scratch your head with the whole Tom Kenyon thing? I know that, for instance Leon Bignell down in the southern suburbs; his electorate takes in part of yours, I think in the State Parliament. It was just a given you bought a Mitsubishi, if you lived down in the southern suburbs you bought a Mitsubishi, a few years ago. Now they’re gone you just buy yourself a Holden. It’s a gimmick.
RISHWORTH:
Well look, originally when I first got elected I did have a Mitsubishi; unfortunately you can’t get those anymore. But look for me it was a personal decision, there were a number of choices you could make. And for me I really did want to show my support for Holden so that is why I chose it, I can’t speak for other people. But that is certainly why I chose to have a Holden…
ABRAHAM:
I tell you what, you can pick up some very nice Magna’s for around three to four grand.
RISHWORTH:
Yes, there are a few around, my Mum’s got one actually.
ABRAHAM:
Yeah, Jamie Briggs, Liberal MP for Mayo, who’s now had time to think of an excuse for why he’s not driving a Holden. Jamie Briggs, good morning. What do you drive?
BRIGGS:
I drive a Territory.
ABRAHAM:
What? Oh that’s a Ford.
BRIGGS:
Yeah, well we have to, you haven’t got any choice, it’s part of the…
ABRAHAM:
What you’re forced to drive a Territory?
BEVAN:
What do you mean you’re forced to?
BRIGGS:
Well, if you take the electorate car as part of your package, you get a list of cars you can choose from and they are all Australian made.
ABRAHAM:
Oh okay, so there is no flexibility there?
BRIGGS:
No and some MPs have their own arrangements but I, like Amanda, take as part of my package a car because they are big electorates so I drive around a lot and the Territory’s got extra room to carry stuff.
BEVAN:
Are you saying that under the federal regime you can’t choose anything else but an Australian made car?
BRIGGS:
Right.
BEVAN:
Oh okay, because clearly the State MPs have a lot more flexibility.
ABRAHAM:
Yeah, that’s an interesting distinction. Do you think that should be rolled out across the states?
BRIGGS:
Well, I think what Tom Kenyon did is just highlight the hypocrisy really. I mean, if they were serious, he wouldn’t be doing that but at the end of the day, if Holden’s and Ford and Toyota are relying on fleet sales, which sadly most of them are, then it shows how…it is on the edge, this industry.
ABRAHAM:
Because you don’t want to support the industry?
BEVAN:
You’ve given up on the car industry, haven’t you?
BRIGGS:
No, no, I’m happy to support the industry, but I think consumers should have choice and they do have choice and you look around, they use their choice very differently than what they did 20 years ago…
ABRAHAM:
Jamie Briggs, I don’t think you are happy to support the industry. You seem to be arguing in articles you have written and Simon Birmingham, our South Australian Senator that the car industry ought to be standing on its own two feet and we shouldn’t be throwing good money after bad.
BRIGGS:
Absolutely, I don’t see why one job is better than another, right? That’s not to say I don’t support the industry but I don’t think taxpayers’ money - $12 billion dollars in the last decade, $500 million each year for rolling out into forward estimates. I don’t see why one industry is more valuable than another.
RISHWORTH:
Jamie, are you…
BRIGGS:
Hang on, hang on Amanda, stop interrupting. I want Amanda and the Labor Party to tell their small businesses in their electorates why they don’t get the same amount of government subsidy.
RISHWORTH:
Well look, quite frankly, Jamie what you’re saying, is that our car industry, our automotive, our manufacturing industry doesn’t deserve support in these difficult times to transform. And look, I’m not going to walk away and say ‘I give up on manufacturing’, you might be happy to do that, ‘I give up on automotive manufacturing, I give up on the manufacturing’. Let’s face it, the automotive manufacturing is very important to a broader manufacturing.
ABRAHAM:
Amanda Rishworth, I was just talking to a younger person yesterday who said to me, ‘4,000 Telstra jobs went to India and we didn’t hear boo from State or Federal Governments but’…
BRIGGS:
1,000 jobs from ANZ last week, what about those thousand people, they don’t deserve any assistance Amanda?
RISHWORTH:
Well we don’t – we have made our position very clear that we don’t believe that off shoring is the right way to go for Australian employment and I think if you look at our records in terms of employment…
BRIGGS:
Well, you need to come invest then…
RISHWORTH:
If you look at our record in terms of employment, it has been this Government that has been supporting employment, whether it’s through the global financial crisis or whether it’s into the future, we have an active policy that looks at how we support people in a whole range of industries…
BRIGGS:
Yeah it’s going well…
RISHWORTH:
And at the moment, at the moment, automotive industries are doing it tough because of the dollar and we don’t want to turn our back on manufacturing...
BRIGGS:
Hang on, hang on Amanda, if that was true…
RISHWORTH:
You might be happy…
ABRAHAM:
Hang on, well now Jamie Briggs have say here…
BRIGGS:
Amanda, if that was true, why is it then that $12 billion – if it’s all because of the dollar and the mining boom, where’s the $12 billion from the last 10 years gone?
RISHWORTH:
There is significant investment and we have seen a significant co-investment from the car companies that have led to significant jobs here in Australia. Look at the Toyota, for example, just one example of our investment with the Hybrid Camry, which was a co-investment through the Automotive Transformation Scheme, has led to the building of an engine plant, has led to an increase in jobs and has led to …
ABRAHAM:
Well, aren’t they laying off 350 people?
RISHWORTH:
In these difficult times they are having to make difficult decisions, but if it was up to the Liberal Party they wouldn’t have this problem, because there would be no automotive industry here in Australia.
ABRAHAM:
Amanda Rishworth, thank you, Labor MP for Kingston and Jamie Briggs, thank you, Liberal MP for Mayo.