23 July, 2012
Sky News AM Agenda
With Kieran Gilbert
23 July 2012
8:45am
E & OE
Subjects: National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Labor’s economic management
KIERAN GILBERT:
Joining me now on the program, Liberal front bencher Senator Mitch Fifield, who is also in Melbourne. Senator Fifield thanks for your time. I want to look at the Deloitte Access report. Things remain strong; no problem with sovereign debt, overall the outlook is quite good despite their suggestion about the mining boom having a use-by-date in a couple of years.
MITCH FIFIELD:
It’s important when looking at the Australian economy not to compare ourselves to other nations but to compare ourselves to the best that we can be and the best that we should be. That’s been the great disappointment with this government’s economic management: how they’ve handled the budget. Deloitte have belled the cat. We never believed for a second that this surplus forecast on budget night was real. Each of Wayne Swan’s budget night forecasts have been works of fiction. We will hear from the Government again today that the reason why the “technical” surplus might be under challenge is because of revenue write-downs. But for this budget, as for each of Labor’s budgets, the reason that they’re in deficit is not because of revenue write-downs. The overwhelming reason that they’re in deficit is because of policy decisions taken by the Government. That means spending decisions. That means Government taking bad decisions and living beyond its means.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Chris Richardson says he doesn’t have any problems with the numbers that the Treasurer used upon which he made that forecast return to surplus. As you heard in my interview with him a bit earlier, he’s not suggesting that a surplus is out of the question, it depends what happens in China. If China rebounds, so will commodity prices and take with it the surplus.
MITCH FIFIELD:
This is a technical surplus. It’s a fudged surplus. It’s only there as a result of shuffling programs between years. This budget shouldn’t be just in surplus, this budget should be strongly in surplus. We’re experiencing the strongest terms of trade that we have in decades and yet this government is scraping together a technical surplus. This government has taken shocking spending decisions. That’s why we’ve had cumulative budget deficits over four years.
KIERAN GILBERT:
One thing that the Access Deloitte report says is not an issue, at least in terms of economics, is the carbon tax. He says it’s a far more political than an economic issue. What do you say to that, with little economic impact according to Chris Richardson?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I think it’s very much an economic issue. You go and visit small businesses Kieran, or go and visit manufacturers as I often do in the southeast of Melbourne. I visited a manufacturer the other day who said that his electricity bill was going to go up by $150,000 a year. That is a real life economic impact on a real business. Yes it’s political in that the public don’t like to be lied to, but it’s also very economic because it’s having a detrimental effect on real business.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Let’s look at something that you do have very direct responsibility for in your shadow ministerial responsibilities. The NDIS, the disability insurance scheme, this is going to be top of the agenda on Wednesday when the COAG meeting takes place, the premiers and chief ministers along with the Prime Minister here in Canberra on Wednesday. Do you expect progress to be achieved here given the positive noises that we’ve heard from the Liberal states as well as the Labor states about this national scheme?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Kieran I hope that the NDIS is at the top of the COAG agenda. One of the disappointments for me is that the state premiers haven’t had a serious face-to-face discussion with the Prime Minister yet. They’ve sought it. They were reduced at the last COAG to having a brief discussion over dinner about the NDIS. I know the state disability ministers and state treasurers have been chasing Jenny Macklin around the country to have a serious discussion about the NDIS. I hope this COAG will be a different experience for the states and territories to those that they’ve recently had with the Commonwealth on the NDIS. The issues that the states and territories want to discuss and which the Commonwealth should discuss are the governance arrangements and the funding arrangements. The Government talked a big game before the last federal budget. They put $1 billion towards the NDIS in that budget, which was good and which we support. But that $1 billion is less than the $3.9 billion that the Productivity Commission said was necessary over the forward estimates to kick off the NDIS. The Federal Government still has to answer the question as to how they’re going to make this work, and where they’re going to find that money from. I’m extremely keen to see the NDIS up and running. As are Victoria and NSW. The ministers there have been champions of the NDIS. I hope the Commonwealth brings a far more cooperative approach to COAG than they have to date.
KIERAN GILBERT:
We’ve only got about thirty seconds left, but you’re talking in terms of the detail, because it’s hard to fault their commitment to it. They’ve been very vocal in their strong support of the idea.
MITCH FIFIELD:
They’ve been vocal in their support but they’ve departed from the Productivity Commission’s timeframe, and they’ve departed from the Productivity Commission’s funding profile. They need to explain why they’ve done that.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Senator Fifield, good to see you. Thanks for that today, we appreciate it.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Thanks Kieran.