TRANSCRIPT
Of
SENATOR MITCH FIFIELD
Sky News AM Agenda
Ashleigh Gillon & Senator Mark Arbib
8 December 2008
8:45am
E & OE
SUBJECTS: Stimulus package, Coalition
ASHLEIGH GILLON:
Welcome back to AM Agenda. Joining me now from Sydney is the Labor Senator Mark Arbib and from Melbourne the Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield. Good morning to you both.
SENATOR MARK ARBIB:
Morning.
SENATOR MITCH FIFIELD:
Good morning Ashleigh.
GILLON:
Let’s just have a bit of a closer look at these cash bonuses being handed out today. Single pensioners and carers will get $1,400, couples getting $2,100 and familles eligible for the Family Tax Benefit A will receive $1,000 per child. Mark Arbib firstly to you, this package was pretty warmly welcomed when it was announced, but do you think it can actually create jobs and stimulate the economy as the Prime Minister is hoping?
ARBIB:
Well we hope so and that’s why the Prime Minister was out yesterday saying if people can afford it they really need to spend it and we’re hoping people will go out and spend it on their kids, spend it on their grandkids. We’ve got Christmas coming up. If people can afford it we really need that money in the economy, because that’s the best way to protect jobs, that’s the best way to create jobs. We really need to stimulate what’s happening out there. When you look at what’s happening overseas, you look at the jobs figures in the United States, 533,000 out of work, really, and I mean last month, we need to get money into the economy quickly and that’s what this economic strategy is about.
GILLON:
Senator Arbib, what timeline do you think we’re looking at to see if this has actually worked the way the Government wants it to and when do you think we should be starting to talk about a second stimulus package? Is that the way it’s looking?
ARBIB:
We’re constantly looking at the figures, but remember this isn’t the only part of the strategy. I mean we are stimulating with $10.4 billion but also we’ve got the car plan, the jobs going on there, we’ve got the local government spending, $300 million to actually get infrastructure moving at the local level. We’ve got the extra money from COAG, $15 billion which will out extra money into the schools, extra money into our hospitals, and we’re going to bring forward more infrastructure so there is a lot going on and the Reserve Bank is doing their bit as well. We’ve seen monetary policy easing. We’ve seen now cuts of 3% in the last four months. So hopefully this is going to provide more confidence into households and they will go out and spend more and we really do need it given how bad the global recession is getting.
GILLON:
Well Senator Fifield, it’s difficult politically for the Opposition to argue against cash handouts like this but do you think that it will work to keep the economy churning along?
FIFIELD:
Well we certainly supported the package through the Parliament, but I think it’s important to look at why we find ourselves in this situation. We know from the National Accounts last week that the economy was slowing before Lehman Brothers collapsed, before the ripples of the global financial crisis went around the world. So the reason we have this situation, the reason we have a slowing economy in Australia at the moment isn’t because of the global financial crisis, it’s because of decisions and actions by this government shortly after the election…
ARBIB:
That’s rubbish Mitch.
FIFIELD:
This government talked down the economy. This government talked up inflationary expectations, which put the Reserve Bank in a situation where they felt the need to act to increase interest rates and this government also put forward a budget which was not stimulatory. So at just the time the Australian economy needed help, this government was doing the exact opposite. So the National Accounts figures that came out last week, they’re not reflective of the global financial crisis, they’re reflective of what this government has done.
ARBIB:
That is just crazy though, I mean look at the last budget, the biggest tax cuts, $55 billion in terms of the working family package, tax cuts, increases in the child care rebate. I mean we were spending money at the same time as economists were saying ‘be careful, don’t spend too much.’ We actually put in place the tax cuts for that reason. On top of that we’ve put aside $22 billion, second largest surplus in the country’s history in case we needed it. So if things got bad then we could use it. And that’s what we’re doing now, we’ve hit the rainy day and we’re spending it.
FIFIELD:
But the Government was boasting that it was not a stimulatory package. The Government was saying that the inflation genie was out of the bottle…
ARBIB:
Well it was.
FIFIELD:
…that there was an inflation crisis, that we had to fight a war on inflation and the Government was boasting that the budget was not stimulatory and that it was a neutral fiscal setting…
ARBIB:
Well Mitch you left the highest interest rates in the OECD…
FIFIELD:
…that’s what the Government was arguing.
ARBIB:
…I meant there was a need to fight inflation but at the same time as that we provided the tax cuts and on top of that, child care rebate. So we’ve done our bit in terms of spending and also the surplus.
GILLON:
Okay we are short on time today, but Senator Fifield I just want to touch on another issue with you. Over the weekend we learnt that Malcolm Turnbull met up with the Nationals senator, Barnaby Joyce, trying to recruit him to the Opposition’s front bench. Do you think that Turnbull really thought he could control Barnaby Joyce by doing this and do you think the Coalition’s been undermined by the Nationals going solo on some of these issues and speaking out against Coalition policies in recent days?
FIFIELD:
Barnaby Joyce is a terrific advocate for the National Party and a terrific advocate for the Coalition cause. We have to recognise that the National Party is a separate and distinct party from the Liberal Party. We are a Coalition. We do vote together on 99.9% of occasions, but the National Party is a separate party so from time to time they will have different positions on particular issues.
GILLON:
But in the Senate the other night we did see what seemed to be quite a debacle and, you know, we saw Liberal senators in droves leave the Senate and refuse to vote with the Coalition on the Government’s infrastructure bill. Do you think that was a bit of an embarrassing debacle for the Coalition?
FIFIELD:
Look Ashleigh I’m not going to pretend that Thursday night was the most elegant legislative episode in the history of the Australian Senate…
ARBIB:
You were hiding in the closet Mitch. You were hiding.
GILLON:
Did you vote, Senator Fifield?
FIFIELD:
No I was out of the chamber. We certainly have learned a lesson I think from that exercise about the need for good communication between the House and the Senate. But I’m not too sure what Labor are complaining about in this particular vote. Labor did get their infrastructure bill through the Parliament. It only got through with the support of Liberal senators. We still have some concerns about the Building Australia Fund. We don’t want to see it used as a Labor slush fund. We think it’s important that there is transparency as to how decisions are taken and as to which projects get funded. And we’ll still be looking to argue to make sure that that transparency is there. So I’m not sure what Labor are complaining about because it was with our assistance that that bill got through the Parliament.
GILLON:
Mark Arbib what’s your take on this from your side of the fence? Do you think Malcolm Turnbull is walking a fine line here in terms of his relationship with the Nationals?
ARBIB:
Well I’ll tell you what, I mean, he set a pretty poor example on the weekend. If you cross the floor, if you vote against his leadership, he’s actually going to offer you a position on the front bench. So Mitch, and other members of the National Party and Liberals, he’s set an example for you. But I think that the divisions here are much much deeper and what they’re about, there’s two things. First, and Senator Ron Boswell actually raised it, it’s Malcolm Turnbull’s style. His leadership style is very ego driven, it’s very him-centric, non-consultative, and there’s a backlash now on the backbench of the Liberal Party and also on the National Party. And remember it wasn’t just a split between the Liberals and the Nationals, this was a split inside the Liberal Party as well as the Nationals. Secondly, this reflects what is going on more broadly within the Liberal Party, it’s a debate over policy. You’ve got a debate over WorkChoices, you’ve got a large group of Liberal Party senators and MPs who want to keep WorkChoices, who want to keep individual contracts. You’ve got a large group of Liberal Party and National Party MPs and senators who actually don’t believe in climate change and certainly don’t want to go down the path of an Emissions Trading Scheme. And these are the debates which are going to dominate over the next coming months and the coming year. And if they had a problem on infrastructure, you wait and see the problem the Liberal Party and National Party are going to have on climate change and WorkChoices when the legislation finally reaches the Senate.
GILLON:
It will be interesting to watch. We have run out of time. Senators Mark Arbib and Mitch Fifield thank you for joining us again.
ARBIB:
Great being here, thanks.
FIFIELD:
Thank you Ashleigh.
ENDS