15 July, 2011
TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR
JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH MRS. MARGIE ABBOTT &
SENATOR MITCH FIFIELD, SHADOW MINISTER FOR DISABILITIES, CARERS AND THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR,
MELBOURNE
Subject: Julia Gillard’s carbon tax.
E&OE………………………………………………………………………………………….
TONY ABBOTT:
I really want to think Chris and Kathleen for letting us into their house. It’s good of the Bergins to open their house to us and I want to say that there are millions of households right around our country like the Bergins who are going to be hit by this tax and there are millions of households right around this country who are confused by this tax because they keep hearing from the Prime Minister and from the Treasurer, from the Finance Minister, indications that the Government doesn’t know what it’s doing. We know from the Government’s own figures that a single income family starts to be worse off from average weekly earnings. We know from the Government’s own figures that a policeman married to a part time nurse will be worse off, that a school teacher married to a shop assistant will be worse off and these are from the Government’s own figures.
Then of course you see indications from other reputable bodies that for instance the cost of a modest new house will be up by $5,000 which means that the mortgage repayments will be up $480 a year. Now, how can the cost to households be just $515 a year if the cost of mortgage repayments is going to go up $480 a year? So, not only on the Government’s own figures are millions and millions of Australian households worse off but people just don’t believe the Government’s figures and why would you believe this Government given that they have got it wrong so often before, given that this is a Government that you just can’t trust?
Now, if things are as good as the Prime Minister says they are, why won’t the Prime Minister take this package to an election? The people don’t trust this Government and the Government should clear up the matter of trust by taking this package to an election. It’s crystal clear that if people are to have trust in their politicians and in their political system you shouldn’t say one thing before an election and do the opposite afterwards. The Prime Minister should have the courage and the confidence to take this package to the people if it’s as good as she says it is.
Now, I also want to thank Senator Mitch Fifield for helping to put together this morning, both this morning tea that we’ve been at with the Bergins but also the function we’re about to go to in Frankston and Mitch, you might like to say a few words.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Sure, thanks Tony.
Families such as the ones we’ve met this morning feel betrayed. Before the election Julia Gillard said that there would be no carbon tax. After the election she changed her mind. These families feel betrayed and it’s a pretty common feeling that an election should be called, but there’s also a message today for the local member here in Isaacs, Mark Dreyfus. He is the Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and a carbon tax. That’s what his focus is, is introducing a carbon tax. He should forget about that. He should start representing his constituents. He should meet with them. If he did he would hear that they don’t want a carbon tax, they want him to abandon the venture that he’s on and it’s also a message for Labor members of the House of Representatives around Australia start representing your electorates. Coalition senators around Australia are doing that now, you should do it too.
TONY ABBOTT:
Ok, are there any questions?
QUESTION:
Are you saying Treasury’s figures are wrong?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, I respect the professionalism of the Treasury, but there’s no doubt that the Treasury has been given an impossible task by the Government. The Government is constantly chopping and changing and the Treasury has struggled to keep up. Some of this package was modelled at $20 a tonne, some of it was modelled at $23 a tonne, much of it wasn’t modelled at all. And how can we trust the Prime Minister when she says the tax won’t hurt us when she just doesn’t know? She just doesn’t know because the modelling has been either not done or it hasn’t always been done on the right figure.
QUESTION:
The Government is set to announce, along with the ACCC, a crackdown on any price gouging that might come out of this tax. Are you confident that they can achieve that?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, it’s interesting isn’t it that the Government today announced a new package to crack down on misleading and deceptive conduct, well the most misleading and deceptive conduct has been by the Prime Minister herself. I mean, the Prime Minister herself was misleading and deceptive before the election and the deception continues. Back in February she said that the package would be revenue neutral, plainly it’s not there’s the $4 billion plus announced black hole and then it seems there’s $3 billion that’s going to have to be plucked out of the contingency reserve. She said back in February that there’d be no move to an emissions trading scheme without a review and a consideration of what was happening around the world, now come what may we’re moving to an emissions trading scheme in 2015. So every day the deception deepens.
QUESTION:
What do you make of Bob Brown’s declaration that he intervened to make sure that carbon capture and storage wasn’t included in the green energy one?
TONY ABBOTT:
Yet another example of who is really in charge here. The caucus are deeply unhappy because they know that this is a Greens package, it’s not the caucus package, and the more people see of this the more they understand that it’s the Greens that are driving the agenda and they don’t like it because they know that the Greens are hostile to the coal industry, hostile to much of manufacturing, hostile indeed to many aspects of a modern economy.
QUESTION:
It’s been revealed the Member for Flynn, Ken O’Dowd, has bought 10,000 shares in a coal exploration company. Does that suggest there is confidence in the industry even among your own backbench?
TONY ABBOTT:
Just about every Australian has a stake in the coal industry through their superannuation. There’d hardly been a superannuation fund that doesn’t have shares in the coal industry or shares in companies that have big stakes in the coal industry. All of us have a stake in the coal industry and that’s why this is such a bad package. And I have a question for the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister thinks that this package is going to be so good for the coal industry let her answer this question: does she think that our coal exports to China should go up or go down? That’s a very important question that the Prime Minister should answer. Does she want our coal exports to China to go up or to go down?
QUESTION:
Pensioners and self funded retirees will be getting, we’re told, about an extra $200 or so under this carbon tax. Will you offer similar sort of money to pensioners when you go to the election?
TONY ABBOTT:
We give a guarantee that pensioners will be better off under the Coalition and they will be better off first and foremost because there will be no carbon tax.
QUESTION:
This morning you were at the fish market. As I understand, according to Treasury figures, fish will only go up by a couple of cents per fillet. Do you believe that modelling?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, electricity is central to the operation of the fish market and to the fish industry. The fishing industry generally crucially depends upon power and fuel. Power to refrigerate the product, fuel to transport the product, fuel to get the trawlers to sea and all of this is going to be immediately or down the track impacted by the carbon tax. So, look, one of the ways in which the Government could clear up much of this debate is by releasing all of the detail behind the modelling, releasing all the assumptions behind the modelling because, in the end, the modelling is only as good as the assumptions behind it.
QUESTION:
You’ve brought your family with you here today. Have you done your own sums for how much presumably you would be worse off under the carbon tax?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, look, the question is not about us really. I mean, this whole thing is not about the Abbotts. It’s about the country and, as I said, even on the Government’s own modelling, modelling which is already being substantially questioned, more than three million Australian households would be worse off. Now, I think the whole country will be worse of under this because it’s going to damage our economy. It’s going to subject us to a competitive disadvantage. Let’s not forget that according to the Productivity Commission, there is not one other country on earth, not one, which has an economy wide carbon tax or emissions trading scheme and why should why be putting this hobble on our economy? Why should we be engaging in this act of economic self harm?
QUESTION:
Margie, how are you finding it, being back on the campaign trail again?
MARGIE ABBOTT:
Well, look, I’m fine, to be quite honest. It’s school holidays. I work in early childhood. So we’ve taken the opportunity, the girls and I, to join Tony. So, yes, the fish markets were a great experience and it was lovely to meet these young families here today who are concerned about hidden costs that are going to continue to put pressure on their family budgets.
[ends]