TRANSCRIPT
Of
SENATOR MITCH FIFIELD
Sky News AM Agenda
Ashleigh Gillon & Senator Mark Arbib
1 September 2008
8:30am
E & OE
SUBJECTS: Vietnam veterans, Australian Building and Construction Commission, interest rates, Peter Costello, WA election, Lyne and Mayo by-elections
ASHLEIGH GILLON:
Let’s go straight to our panel. Joining me here in Canberra is the Labor Senator Mark Arbib and the Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield. Thank you both for joining us again. Firstly to you Senator Arbib, I’d like to get your opinion on a story out today that Vietnam Veterans will have to pay $12 each to receive this gallantry award that I understand they’ve been waiting some forty years to get. Is that acceptable?
SENATOR MARK ARBIB:
Well look my understanding is, and we’ve just got to wait to see, that the Minister Stephen Smith is actually announcing this morning that that matter will be overturned and that he has already been speaking to the vets and will actually pay the money, that the money the Government will put that forward which is a great outcome. It was previous government policy that vets would pay for it, pay for those medals themselves. He’s changed that position…
SENATOR MITCH FIFIELD:
You’re the government now.
ARBIB:
He’s changed that position, This was the Howard Government position. He’s changed it. And now, we’re gonna pay for it. So I think that’s a great outcome. Listening to the actual community, listening to the vets. So we’ll find out but I’m pretty sure he’s announcing that right now.
GILLON:
You can understand why though these veterans would be pretty outraged about this and why did it take so long for this decision to be made?
ARBIB:
Well that was previous government policy, Howard Government policy.
FIFIELD:
That’s a cop out Mark. That’s a cop out.
ARBIB:
But Mitch it was previous government policy…
FIFIELD:
You’re the government now…
ARBIB:
And that’s right we’re…
FIFIELD:
You’re in government to take decisions.
ARBIB:
Exactly. And we’re acting. And we’re acting. So this is a government with heart, this is a government with compassion. We listen to the vets. These are the people who have served our country greatly and we’ve taken action. So it’s a very very good outcome for those vets.
FIFIELD:
Ashleigh, I’m not surprised Mark comes here with good news today because it was an outrageous decision. It was mean spirited, it was unnecessary. These are people who put their lives on the line, who fought for Australia, who put themselves in harm’s way. I don’t think it was too much to expect the Government to cough up the $12 per citation. And I know Mark says this is the fault of the government which has been out of office for 9 months, but in today’s papers the Veterans’ Affairs Minister, Alan Griffin, was actually defending this decision. Was actually saying that it’s not the Government’s responsibility because it’s a foreign award. It’s a cop out. The previous government can’t be blamed. This Government took the decision and it’s the right decision today to overturn it.
ARBIB:
Well I wish you guys had taken that decision earlier, yourself. I mean previously your position was vets would pay for it themselves. So we’ve actually acted. You’ve had 12 years to do something about it.
FIFIELD:
What about the end of the blame game Mark?
ARBIB:
You’ve had 12 years to do something about it. We’ve acted.
FIFIELD:
You’ve been in government for 9 months. You can’t blame this on the previous government.
ARBIB:
Well the vets are the winners. The vets are the winners. That’s right.
GILLON:
Let’s move on to claims in The Australian today that a culture of thuggery has returned to building sites around the country. Senator Arbib, do these reports do you think highlight the need for the Australian Building and Construction Commission to stay as it is?
ARBIB:
No worker should face intimidation on a worksite. There’s no doubt about it. No one should face intimidation. We’ve seen the reports today. Our policy is to keep the ABCC in place until 2010. That policy stands. So there will be a cop on the beat in the construction industry. At the moment, there is a review going on, the Wilcox Review is going on into the ABCC, looking at its powers. Also looking at the role it will play in the new directorate. So it’s there. But again, really, it doesn’t matter, you just can’t have intimidation in a workplace. That sort of behaviour is unacceptable. So the ABCC will remain in place.
GILLON:
Senator Fifield, the Government seems to be taking on the unions in a number of areas. There’s this row with the CFMEU over the ABCC, there’s also the Prime Minister last week seeming to pick a fight with the education union. It makes all these ads we saw in the last election campaign look a bit laughable now. These ads repeatedly looking at the ties between Labor and the unions.
FIFIELD:
Not at all. The Government isn’t taking on the building workers, they’re not taking on the building unions. Their policy is to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission. They’re acting as though they’re heroes because they’re not going to abolish it until 2010. But merely by announcing the abolition of the Commission, they’ve given the green light to the building unions to go back to their old tactics. And that’s what we see on the front pages of the paper this morning. The reason why we have the Building and Construction Commission is because we established a Royal Commission, the Cole Commission, into the building and construction industry. And that Commission found that there were 392 separate unlawful acts in the industry. The main recommendation of that Commission was to establish this Commission, and as a result we’ve found that lost days on work sites have gone down from 355 per 1000 workers to 7 per 1000 workers and that productivity has increased by 7.3%. Now that wouldn’t have happened if not for the Building and Construction Commission. Given that this Commission is going to be abolished by Labor, we are going to see, and we’re already seeing, a return to the bad old days of union thuggery on building sites.
GILLON:
Senator Arbib your reaction to that?
ARBIB:
Well the ABCC is in place until 2010. This was a policy, and it’s no surprise, this is a policy we took into the election and it’s the same policy we’re sticking to now. There will still be a cop on the beat. There is a process underway to move it into Fair Work Australia. There is a review also looking at its power. So, really, in the end you will still have a review, still have a cop on the beat in the industry. And that’s important.
GILLON:
OK well rates are expected to be cut tomorrow by a quarter of a percent. The Treasurer Wayne Swan is talking tough urging the banks to follow the Reserve’s lead here is some of him speaking yesterday.
WAYNE SWAN:
(Inaudible)
GILLON:
Okay well we had a bit of a problem with that grab but basically Wayne Swan was calling on the banks to follow the Reserve’s lead. We saw Wizard over the weekend say that they will be dropping their variable loan by a quarter of a percent. Brendan Nelson though seems to be trying to be tougher than Wayne Swan. He’s delivering a speech today. He’s going to call for a full 50 basis points to be cut. Senator Fifield it’s easy to do that sort of thing when you’re in Opposition, isn’t it?
FIFIELD:
It’s not harder to be tougher than Wayne Swan…
ARBIB:
Oh come on.
FIFIELD:
He’s an absolute pussy cat when it comes to the banks. But the reason Australians are paying more for their house mortgage than they should be is because Wayne Swan fuelled inflationary expectations shortly after the election. He said that the inflation genie was out of the bottle and he egged the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates, which is what they did. The other thing that Wayne Swan did was he gave the green light to the banks to increase their mortgage rates apart from decisions of the Reserve Bank. He didn’t come down hard on the banks when they first did that. Sure they have some higher funding costs. But he did give the green light to them to put the rates at whatever level they wanted whenever they wanted. As a result, I think Australians are paying more for their mortgages than the Reserve Bank anticipated as a result of their decisions. So the Reserve Bank should go further than just a quarter of a per cent. They should go to half a per cent cut.
GILLON:
But the Reserve Bank is meant to be independent. How responsible is it for you and Brendan Nelson to be making those sort of calls?
FIFIELD:
Well because they are independent and because we live in a democracy it’s okay for politicians, for commentators, for economists to express a view as to what should happen with interest rates. That’s the beauty of an independent Reserve Bank. You can still express a view without anyone being concerned that they’re actually causing the Reserve Bank to do something they mightn’t have otherwise done.
GILLON:
Senator Arbib, the Government’s likely to be under pressure over the economy again this week in question time. How much of a lifeline do you think it could be to see these rates go down tomorrow?
ARBIB:
Look I think everyone is hopeful that the Reserve Bank will act. The markets have already factored in a quarter of a per cent cut. If you look at the Australian dollar that’s where it seems to be heading. It’d be a great thing. It’d be a great thing for people with a mortgage. It’d be a great thing for working families and we’re all hopeful. Again, the Government I believe has got the economic settings right. We had a budget, a very strong budget with a big big budget surplus, $22 billion, and that’s given the impetus I believe for this rate cut if it happens. At the same time as that we’ve provided working families with tax relief, child care rebate increase and also an education rebate. So Wayne Swan has done a fantastic job in calibrating the budget properly. The Reserve Bank have done their job. Again, the Reserve Bank is independent so I think it’s pretty irresponsible for Brendan Nelson to be out there again trying to steal their thunder. But we’ve done the right thing with the economy. If there’s a cut tomorrow then that will be a great thing for working families. Going back to Mitch’s point, really, his side of the fence has got no credibility when it comes to interest rates. On inflation they left the country with a 16 year high inflation rate. 10 straight interest rate rises, the second highest interest rates in the OECD. I mean you guys really were the kings on inflation.
FIFIELD:
On the point of interest rates. For every single day that we were in government, interest rates were lower than at any period under the Hawke/Keating Government.
ARBIB:
Oh here we go. Back to Hawke…
FIFIELD:
That’s a fact, that’s a fact.
ARBIB:
Haven’t you come up with any new lines yet?
FIFIELD:
Interest rates were…
ARBIB:
You’re still going back to Hawke/Keating. It’s a new government now Mitch.
FIFIELD:
Interest rates were lower. You’ve got to have these things in historical perspective. And we did a much much better job on interest rates than Hawke and Keating ever did and so far your outfit have been talking up inflation, saying there’s an inflation crisis, egging the Reserve Bank on to increase interest rates. Your record’s not too flash on interest rates yet…
ARBIB:
What about the inflation rate?
FIFIELD:
…and you were the party that promised to do something…
ARBIB:
20 Reserve Bank warnings…
FIFIELD:
…well that’s not true…
GILLON:
Okay well I’m sure you two could go on like this all day…
ARBIB:
We could! We could!
GILLON:
…but we have a couple of other issues that we’d like to get through as well. Of course on Friday night there was a tribute dinner to Peter Costello again renewing the speculation about the Liberal leadership. The latest version of what Peter Costello may do in The Australian today is that he may decide to remain in Parliament until the next election but as a backbencher. Wouldn’t that though be untenable for Brendan Nelson’s leadership, Senator Fifield, to have someone of Peter Costello’s calibre on the backbench waiting in the wings?
FIFIELD:
Well Peter has indicated that he’s not available for the leadership of the Party. At the dinner, Peter said that Brendan had his full and complete support. He also said that he fully expects that Brendan will lead us to the next election and that’s a view that I share.
GILLON:
OK well just finally, voters going to the polls in WA this weekend. Also the by-elections in Lyne and Mayo. Just final predictions, Senator Arbib?
ARBIB:
Look I think in WA it’s going to be close but I’m confident that the Premier Carpenter will get there. He’s been a strong strong Premier, done a lot for the state. That state is going absolutely booming at the moment. At the same time as that, opposition just hasn’t done the work. They’ve really not done the policy work expected and required to actually win an election campaign. You’ve seen a swing back to the government in the last couple of weeks because, or in the last week, because they’re learning that this opposition really stands for nothing. You had a leader, Coin Barnett, who was retiring three weeks ago, now he’s running for the Premiership. So I’m hopeful there that Labor will hang on in WA. In Lyne and Mayo, safe Coalition seats. They should win both seats. But at the same time as that, they’re running poor campaigns in both seats. In Lyne, extremely poor candidate choice and Rob Oakshott from what I hear is running a strong campaign so it could be a surprise. Over in South Australia, same sort of deal. So I think they’ll hold on, but might be a few surprises.
GILLON:
Senator Fifield?
FIFIELD:
Well in Western Australia we’re the underdogs, we’re behind. But Western Australians do need to ask themselves the question if they want to continue in a situation where people like Brian Burke basically have a seat at the cabinet table. Lyne, it’s going to be tough for us, there’s a strong independent challenge. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens there. Mayo, it’s not a safe Liberal seat as some people think. We should remember that Alexander Downer very nearly lost to John Schumann the Democrat candidate many years ago. So it’s not a safe seat for us, but given the Government is riding high you’d expect that they’d put in a decent performance if they actually had a candidate. But that’s one of the strange things about these two by-elections is that Labor are running scared in both Lyne and Mayo by not fielding candidates so, anyway, we’ll see.
GILLON:
Alright, we will of course all be watching with interest. Senator Fifield, Senator Arbib, thank you again for joining us we’ll see you again next Monday.
FIFIELD:
See you then.
ARBIB:
Bye.
ENDS