15 September, 2010
ABC TV News Breakfast
Michael Rowland & Mary Gearin
15 September 2010
7am
E & OE
Subjects: Coalition frontbench, disabilities portfolio
MICHAEL ROWLAND:
Now the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has unveiled his new Shadow Cabinet returning Malcolm Turnbull to the frontbench in the very sensitive communications portfolio.
MARY GEARIN:
And another winner in the opposition reshuffle is Victorian Senator Mitch Fifield who is the new Shadow Minister for Disability and he joins us now in the studio. Thanks for coming in.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Good morning Mary.
GEARIN:
Are you happy with the promotion?
FIFIELD:
I’m happy obviously personally, but mostly I’m happy for the disability sector. This is something that the disability sector had been calling for for some time. Bill Shorten had told many people in the sector that he would argue for disabilities to be given ministerial rank. That didn’t happen when Julia Gillard announced her new frontbench line-up and, worse than that, they actually forgot to appoint a frontbencher specifically for the role of disabilities. They’ve belated amended that by appointing a parliamentary secretary. But we thought that it was very important that disabilities have a voice at ministerial level.
GEARIN:
So do you believe this is already a political win, if you like, that you’ve actually seen that Labor got this profile for the ministry and you’ve jumped on that and Labor failed to?
FIFIELD:
It’s a win for the disability sector. Disabilities has been the forgotten area of social policy. The needs of Australians with disability have been overlooked for too long and this is a way for us to make sure that doesn’t happen.
ROWLAND:
Well you’ve got people like Rhonda Galbally from the People With Disabilities Council, and of the key interest groups, saying that she’s quite happy with Jenny Macklin being the relevant minister given that she is a heavy hitter. She’s got the resources of the department of community services behind her. Surely the sector is best served by that approach?
FIFIELD:
We have disabilities represented in the cabinet by Kevin Andrews as well. But disabilities in the last parliament had a dedicated parliamentary secretary on both sides. Bill Shorten undertook that that would be lifted to ministerial rank. That didn’t happen. It’s not good enough for disabilities, something of the order of 20% of Australians have a disability, it’s not good enough that they don’t have a spokesman of ministerial rank to argue their case in the Parliament.
GEARIN:
Is it not the case that Jan McLucas will be taking up the parliamentary secretary role?
FIFIELD:
She will. But that was one of the ten things that Julia Gillard forgot to do when she was announcing her frontbench. They forgot to appoint an education minister. They forgot to appoint an indigenous health minister. They forgot to appoint someone with dedicated responsibility for disabilities.
GEARIN:
Nevertheless, it’s done. They’ve corrected the mistake. Is that not good enough?
FIFIELD:
We think disabilities deserves to have a spokesman at ministerial level to make sure that voice is heard. And the reason the voice needs to be heard is that if you’re an Australian with a disability you basically have a pretty frayed patchwork of support and the support that you get if you have a disability is determined not by your need. It’s determined largely by how you acquired your disability. It’s a bit of a lottery and in most cases you face a Soviet style system of rationing. That’s why we had a pretty comprehensive policy for disabilities at the election. One of the features of that was an education card so that if you are a parent of a child with a disability you would get an education card to the value of $20,000 which you could take to the school of your choice so that the money would follow the child and that parents would have real choice about what school they send their child to. They’re the sort of policies we need.
GEARIN:
As I understand it though, Bill Shorten who has been often praised for his almost evangelical approach to the disabilities sector while he had that portfolio did pursue some good goals that the Opposition certainly wasn’t against. For instance the national disabilities scheme that’s before the Productivity Commission. Were there not some good policies and isn’t perhaps this portfolio just something that there needs to be this new spirit of bi-partisanship actually extended to?
FIFIELD:
Look there have been some good things done by the previous government and also when we were in office. But I think it would be fair to say that no government has covered themselves in glory in the area of disabilities. There’s more that needs to be done. You mention the concept of a national disability insurance scheme which the Productivity Commission is currently looking at. We’re very strong supporters of the Productivity Commission work. We do need to find a way to fill those gaps to make sure that Australians with disability have their long-term need looked after. That’s critically important. Disabilities has been an area where partisanship has been readily put aside because quite frankly those in the sector aren’t interested in petty political point-scoring. They just want to see results. But Labor did let Australians with disability down. I’ll just take one area, that of supported accommodation. Bill Shorten promised in 2008 an extra 300 positions. Four Corners in February found that only 40 of those supported accommodation places had been delivered. The Government promised another 150 in the campaign, but we can’t have any confidence that they’ll actually deliver those. That’s why we said there should be a comprehensive audit of supported accommodation needs in Australia so we know exactly what the needs are and so we know where the beds are, where the places are, and what needs to be done.
ROWLAND:
As a former high profile critic of Malcolm Turnbull when he was the Leader of the Liberal Party are you entirely comfortable that he’s now back in the frontbench and back with a fairly senior role?
FIFIELD:
I’m extremely comfortable. Malcolm is a person with immense talents. He has a Dr Who-like capacity to regenerate from time to time and we’d be crazy not to make use of his skills particularly in the area of communications where he has a great deal of knowledge. He’s got terrific commercial experience so he knows when a business case stacks up and when it doesn’t. And Labor’s NBN doesn’t.
ROWLAND:
You weren’t too happy with his consultative skills from memory late last year. Do you think that’s going to change with MPs seeking input into the Coalition’s communications policy?
FIFIELD:
Management of a parliamentary party requires a unique set of skills. Each leader does that in their own way. Malcolm has a different role now, that is to be the communications spokesman and he is going to hit Labor for six.
GEARIN:
Kevin Rudd is being painted as this festering sore within Labor by opposition ranks. How can Malcolm Turnbull there on the shadow frontbenches also not be considered this?
FIFIELD:
Because Malcolm is committed to being part of the team. I’ve been incredibly impressed since the end of 2009, that period that we refer to as ‘The Troubles,’ incredibly impressed by how Malcolm has conducted himself. He has been a team player. He hasn’t put a foot wrong. And Malcolm wants to see Labor gone as much as anyone.
ROWLAND:
So you think the baton’s left his knapsack or is it still there maybe wedged a bit deeper down?
FIFIELD:
Well we’re all working to get Tony Abbott to be Prime Minister as soon as possible and I don’t think anyone is considering any other possibility.
ROWLAND:
Now when Parliament resumes later this month what can we expect? How will the Opposition play the Government on the floor of the House of Representatives in what is meant to be a kindler, gentler new Parliament?
FIFIELD:
We’ll be what we’ve always been and that is a responsible opposition. If legislation is good, if policy is good, we will support it. If it’s bad legislation, if it’s bad policy, we will critique it and we’ll oppose it. And that’s what the public expect. We’re there to apply the scrutiny and when we apply scrutiny, that forces the Government to be better. And heaven knows this Government can be a heck of a lot better.
GEARIN:
The public was also perhaps moved along by the rhetoric of the independents which we were exposed to for a long time there about the new paradigm and it being different. I don’t think the independents perhaps will be happy to hear you say ‘we’ll do what we’ve always done.’
FIFIELD:
To be a responsible opposition? That’s what we should be. There will be a different dynamic. I’m from the Senate so we’re used to dealing with minor parties and independents. We’re used to having to negotiate. So the House will be different in that our House colleagues I think will be less likely to be critical of their Senatorial colleagues now.
GEARIN:
Mitch Fifield thank you very much for coming in.
FIFIELD:
Thanks very much.
ENDS