Sky News AM Agenda
Ashleigh Gillon and Mark Butler MP
15 March 2010
8:45am
Subjects: Public hospitals, parental leave
ASHLEIGH GILLION:
Welcome back to AM Agenda. Joining me this morning on our panel of politicians, the Parliamentary Secretary for Health Mark Butler and the Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield. Good morning to you both.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Good morning Ashleigh.
GILLON:
Thank you for joining us. Now we have already spoken about the health reforms with Mark, so let’s get your reaction to this Mitch. We’ve seen over the weekend the Premiers have been meeting with the Prime Minister, but it seems to be at a bit of a stalemate. The PM is saying there is a lot of work yet to be done. Is this doomed for failure or do you think that the PM will be able to end up convincing the Premiers to get on board?
?
FIFIELD:
I think it’s doomed for failure and I think that’s the most obvious thing about the process that the Prime Minister is going through. This process is designed to show that he is trying to do something. It’s not actually designed to reach an outcome. It is yet another example where it’s more important for this government to be seen to be trying to do something than actually achieving something. I mean you wouldn’t treat Kristina Keneally the way Kevin Rudd treated her last week if you wanted to work cooperatively with the states and to get an outcome. I think his behaviour in relation to her was pretty ordinary. Victoria is taking quite a reasoned and rational approach to health. The Victorian health system is far and away the best health system in the nation. It’s still got a way to go. But it’s far better than NSW. Far better than Queensland. So I can entirely understand why Premier Brumby is reluctant to embrace this health proposal. But what strikes me as absolutely stunning is the fact that the Henry Review, which goes to the heart of commonwealth-state relations, hasn’t been released. Yet the Prime Minister is expecting the states to sign up to a health agreement in the absence of the knowledge of what Henry proposes. It’s quite extraordinary.
GILLON:
Well the Treasurer did make it clear yesterday that the Henry tax review will be out by the Budget. So as you point out, that might not be out by COAG and State Premiers might not get to see it. But the Treasurer says that these two should be viewed as different things and the Premiers don’t need to worry about missing out because of that tax review. But as to what the Coalition is doing on this, we don’t have a full plan from Tony Abbott. What makes you think that the Coalition will have a better luck in reforming the countries hospitals than a Labor Prime Minister with so many Labor Premiers?
FIFIELD:
Well we’ve outlined what we would put in place for NSW and Queensland, which is local boards, because NSW and Queensland is where there’s the greatest need for improvement.
GILLON:
So there’s no need for improvement in the other states and territories?
FIFIELD:
No, we’ve put forward a proposal for local boards for NSW and Queensland and we’ll be outlining other elements of our health policy over time. But this is the government that promised it would have fixed public health by the middle of last year. They didn’t. They said that if it wasn’t fixed by the middle of last year that they would take over the public hospitals. They haven’t. So they’ve broken a promise. They’re behind schedule, they’re behind their own schedule and they’re now putting forward a process which is destined for failure simply to provide them with a cover, “well we tried and failed.”
GILLON:
Ok, well as I said, we have gone through this with Mark Butler but I will let you respond to a couple of those points, especially the meeting that Mitch Fifield raised between Premier Keneally and the Prime Minister last Friday. We saw the very awkward television scene of pic fac as we call it of the Prime Minster seeming to ignore Premier Keneally as she was talking to him. Was that awkward and embarrassing do you think for the government?
MARK BUTLER:
Well look, I think there’s been a very heavy analysis of the body language in that which probably didn’t really get to the nub of the discussion that the Prime Minister was there to have with Premier Keneally and that was the crux of the reason for them being there. It was a constructive meeting. This is the biggest state in the federation. It was proper that the Prime Minister visit Premier Keneally first to have a discussion with her about her views on the reform plan. I think her response has been very constructive. She’s got some questions that she wants answered before the COAG meeting which is a reasonable position for her and her government to take, but I think there’s been a bit too much analysis of the body language of that frankly.
FIFIELD:
Mark would never behave like that. We know that for sure.
GILLON:
We know that. Look, lets move on to some other issues that are around. Of course there has been a lot about Tony Abbott’s plan for a paid parental leave scheme. But now the Coalition’s turning the spotlight back on Labor, saying well why haven’t we seen any legislation for Labor’s scheme which is due to kick in in January next year, but the legislation hasn’t been before the Parliament. Why not?
BUTLER:
The legislation will be presented in due course. We’ve committed to the scheme starting on the first of January and there will be a legislative time-frame that makes sure that we’re able to meet that commitment. What we do know though is that particularly parents who are conceiving at the moment have a guarantee from the Labor Party that come the first of January there will be a paid parental leave scheme in place when they finally have their baby arrive. Now its way, way overdue. For 12 years the previous government did nothing. Indeed Tony Abbott said it would be done over his dead body and for that time we were only the second after the United States, on the second OECD nation not to have a paid parental leave scheme in place. We made a commitment before the election we’d do that. Probably it could have been done a little bit earlier if the global financial crisis hadn’t inter-veined. But it will be in place by the first of January. That is a rock-solid commitment that the Prime Minister and Julia Gillard and Jenny Macklin have given to parents or expecting parents of Australia and we’ll meet that.
GILLON:
Well Mitch, the government has been making a lot of your plan and what it says has been confusion over what companies will need to deal with this new 1.7% levy to pay for your scheme. There’s been debate about whether or not the policy is income after tax or profit or that $5 million mark is to when it actually kicks in. Julie Bishop was speaking on one of the Sunday programs yesterday. Here’s what she had to say.
Julie Bishop grab:
JULIE BISHOP: This will affect less than one per cent.
LAURIE OAKES: But it’s the one per cent that employs more than half of all Australians.
BISHOP: But it’s also the companies that will have made a profit of $5 million or more . . . . Taxable income is $5 million. It’s a substantial business and that’s $5 million in profit.
GILLON:
So Mitch, does this apply to companies that have a taxable income of $5 million or is it a profit of $5 million? Isn’t there quite a bit of a difference between those two things?
FIFIELD:
There is a difference between those two things. But my understanding is companies with a taxable income and profit of more than $5 million. Just going back to what Mark was talking about before that we should trust Labor that they’ll get this scheme in on time. We’ve heard a lot about Labor in relation to promises. They promised they’d fix public health by the middle of last year. They didn’t. We’ve got no reason to have any greater confidence in this government that they could introduce a paid maternity leave scheme. If it’s intended to come in by January next year, you’d want to have legislation in the Parliament right now. Not only has legislation not been introduced in to the House of Representatives, we haven’t even seen a draft of the legislation. There’s no reason to have confidence that the government will get this scheme in and their scheme is an inferior one. Ours covers carers for six months. Ours replaces the wage that’s forgone by being out of the workforce. Ours is a better scheme. Ours is a more comprehensive scheme and I think ours is a scheme which will get the head nod of the Australian public.
GILLON:
But it does seem that your scheme has been, the message of your scheme has been getting a little bit confused on the way with senior figures in the party not seeming to know the difference between what companies are going to be affected.
FIFIELD:
Well I think with these policies it’s best if we leave it to the prime spokesman. In this case it’s Sharman Stone to be the spokesman. Sharman is across the detail. Sharman is consulting with industry and with business about the application of the new scheme. I think that’s as it should be.
GILLON:
Ok, Mark Butler, Mitch Fifield, we have run out of time for today’s program. Thank you so much for both joining us today.
BUTLER:
Thank you.
FIFIELD:
Thank you.
Ends.