ABC24 Capital Hill - 3 September 2013
On 3 September, I spoke with host Lyndal Curtis and Opposition MP Steve Ciobo. Topics included why an ETS achieves least-cost abatement and the ethics of same-sex marriage.
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Preferencing in Fraser
An article in today's Canberra Times discusses the preference-ordering on the ALP How-to-Vote card for Fraser. The journalist made no attempt to contact me before going to press, leaving readers with the unfortunate impression that I support an extremist party.
As someone who is passionate about multiculturalism, eliminating discrimination, and building community, I was disappointed not to be offered a chance to respond. So here's a summary of what's going on.
In federal elections, it's compulsory to number all boxes. So major parties' How-to-Vote cards typically number all the boxes.
In choosing a recommended numbering for the ALP How-to-Vote card, we could do one of two things.
Whether you do strategy #1 or strategy #2 depends crucially on whether you think there's a chance of your preferences being distributed. Any candidate who comes third or lower has their preferences distributed. The top two candidates' preference ordering is irrelevant.*
And here's the thing. Since the seat of Fraser was created in 1974, preferences of the Labor and Liberal candidates have never been distributed. In other words, it has never mattered in Fraser how Labor voters numbered the other boxes.
So that brings us to informal voting. From 2007 to 2010, the number of informal votes in Fraser nearly doubled, from 2679 in 2007 to 5171 in 2010.
Faced with the choice of worrying about a near-zero chance of Labor preferences being distributed, versus worrying about the very real rise in informality, Labor's How-to-Vote in Fraser opted to focus on reducing informality.
I haven't come lately to the issue of reducing informality. My 2010 book Disconnected crunches the stats on the rise in informal voting, I've spoken several times in parliament about reducing informality (eg. here, here and here), and Sunday's Canberra Times contained an article about my concern about reducing informality in Fraser.
Labor voters in Fraser should number the other boxes any way they want - our How-to-Vote just suggests the easiest option. The key is: if you want to vote Labor in Fraser, please don't make a mistake!
PS. The article also incorrectly describes me as the member for Canberra, but I'll leave it to another time to take umbrage with that error.
* This differs from the Senate, where most candidates have some of their votes distributed to other candidates. There, you really do need to worry about where parties' preference flows are going.
Post-election update (as at 10 Sept): As expected, my preferences were not distributed. Nationally, the informal voting rate rose, but in Fraser, current figures indicate that it has fallen from 4.4% in 2010 to 3.7% in 2013 (a larger drop than was recorded in the ACT overall). Had the 2010 informal voting rate prevailed, nearly 1000 people would have been excluded from the democratic process in Fraser.
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As someone who is passionate about multiculturalism, eliminating discrimination, and building community, I was disappointed not to be offered a chance to respond. So here's a summary of what's going on.
In federal elections, it's compulsory to number all boxes. So major parties' How-to-Vote cards typically number all the boxes.
In choosing a recommended numbering for the ALP How-to-Vote card, we could do one of two things.
- We could number all the boxes in our order of preference. For me, this would put the Greens above the Liberals, above any party with a racist agenda.
- We could number the boxes in the simplest way possible, to reduce informal voting caused by people making mistakes.
Whether you do strategy #1 or strategy #2 depends crucially on whether you think there's a chance of your preferences being distributed. Any candidate who comes third or lower has their preferences distributed. The top two candidates' preference ordering is irrelevant.*
And here's the thing. Since the seat of Fraser was created in 1974, preferences of the Labor and Liberal candidates have never been distributed. In other words, it has never mattered in Fraser how Labor voters numbered the other boxes.
So that brings us to informal voting. From 2007 to 2010, the number of informal votes in Fraser nearly doubled, from 2679 in 2007 to 5171 in 2010.
Faced with the choice of worrying about a near-zero chance of Labor preferences being distributed, versus worrying about the very real rise in informality, Labor's How-to-Vote in Fraser opted to focus on reducing informality.
I haven't come lately to the issue of reducing informality. My 2010 book Disconnected crunches the stats on the rise in informal voting, I've spoken several times in parliament about reducing informality (eg. here, here and here), and Sunday's Canberra Times contained an article about my concern about reducing informality in Fraser.
Labor voters in Fraser should number the other boxes any way they want - our How-to-Vote just suggests the easiest option. The key is: if you want to vote Labor in Fraser, please don't make a mistake!
PS. The article also incorrectly describes me as the member for Canberra, but I'll leave it to another time to take umbrage with that error.
* This differs from the Senate, where most candidates have some of their votes distributed to other candidates. There, you really do need to worry about where parties' preference flows are going.
Post-election update (as at 10 Sept): As expected, my preferences were not distributed. Nationally, the informal voting rate rose, but in Fraser, current figures indicate that it has fallen from 4.4% in 2010 to 3.7% in 2013 (a larger drop than was recorded in the ACT overall). Had the 2010 informal voting rate prevailed, nearly 1000 people would have been excluded from the democratic process in Fraser.
ABC RN Drive - 2 September 2013
On ABC RN Drive last night, I spoke with host Waleed Aly and Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos about vocational training, costings gaps, boat buy-backs and more. Here's a podcast.
Find the full transcript below.
ABC RADIO NATIONAL DRIVE INTERVIEW
MONDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2013
_____________________________________________________________
Subjects: Senate preferences; campaigning; costings; Tafe and trade centres.
___________________________________________________________
WALEED ALY: I’m joined for the last time before the election campaign, and I say that with a tinge of sadness, although we might get them together after the campaign’s all over. Dr Andrew Leigh, the Member for Fraser, previously Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, or then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard and Arthur Sinodinos, Parliamentary Secretary to the Opposition Leader, former Chief of Staff to John Howard and according to some reports, as well as prospective Finance Minister, an endangered Senator. Gentlemen welcome and Arthur, you must be concerned!
ARTHUR SINODINOS: An endangered species indeed, well I should be protected under the EPBC Act.
ALY: Well, it’s not likely to happen that way because, now this is the story, some reports have emerged that because of the proliferation of the micro parties and the strange preference flows that pertain in the Senate and proliferation of people who have voted above the line rather than below it, you are in danger. Not much I think we can say, but some danger of being knocked off of that Senate seat in NSW by Pauline Hanson, are you worried?
SINODINOS: Oh look, as long as we maximise the Coalition vote in NSW it should be fine and people put the 1 above the line and preferences flow accordingly it will be fine. It’s a statistical possibility what you mentioned, but I mean my best bet is to maximise Liberal votes for NSW for that very reason.
ALY: Well no that’s certainly true but are you worried about it? I wouldn’t have thought that this would start turning up in reporting from people who’ve crunched the numbers unless it was a realistic possibility.
SINODINOS: Look, it’s a mathematical possibility but I believe our vote in NSW is going to be pretty strong and I’m going to spend the next few days, as Kevin has advised, doing my best to up the vote.
ALY: Good to hear you’re taking advice from Kevin Rudd on campaigning, that’s wonderful, we need unity in politics. Why are you…
ANDREW LEIGH: …and Waleed, just to break in briefly to say how pleased I am that no Labor votes will go to seeing Ms Hanson get elected ahead of Arthur Sinodinos.
ALY: Ah yes.
SINODINOS: (Laughs) thanks.
LEIGH: We’re definitely preferring him over her.
ALY: That’s wonderful. It’s almost schmaltzy. Hey Arthur, why would you be third on the Liberal Party’s Senate ticket? I cannot understand that.
SINODINOS: Oh well, I took over from Helen Coonan, I’m the junior Senator and seniority dictates the line up on the Senate Ticket and I was quite happy with that and it aligns my interests with the party’s interests, which is to maximise the vote.
ALY: Well, hang on, but you’re the prospective Finance Minister
SINODINOS: Well look, what happens after the election is a matter for Tony. Let’s get there and we can worry about all that afterwards.
ALY: Andrew, if Arthur were to lose his seat, would you be happy to be paired with Pauline Hanson in debates in future?
LEIGH: That’s a truly terrifying prospect I think Waleed, but look, the real pity is that the Coalition doesn’t have Arthur as Finance Spokesperson right now. I mean that then would’ve had them I’m sure in a position where months ago they’d brought out all of their costings and where we’re now talking about two properly costed visions of the future rather than this sort of spectacle where Mr Hockey seems to be saying to, the argument Mr Robb’s seems to be saying to people ‘well look, we’d like to sell you this used car but you can’t take it for a test drive and you can’t look under the bonnet because you know, well just trust us that the coat of paint on the outside is tip top and it’ll drive just fine’.
ALY: Alright, I’ll get to a response from Arthur in a moment, but Andrew Leigh, I’m not sure that your costings are out there really are they?
LEIGH: Policy by policy they are, Waleed.
ALY: Yeah but you want them in the one place where you can actually examine them, that’s the point.
LEIGH: Well, this is an important point because it’s one of the subtleties which I think has been lost in the hurly burly of the costings debate. In all previous elections, as Oppositions have brought out policies, they’ve shown on each occasion how they’re going to pay for them. The Coalitions’ departed from that strategy this time around. You even see the difference on the same policies. So you look at Paid Parental Leave that they released in 2010 and the one they’ve released now. In 2010 it was accompanied by a table of costings and savings, this time it’s not. We’ve shown very clearly how we’re paying for everything. The Coalition I think are raising the spectre I think of pretty savage austerity being imposed on the economy.
ALY: Well they’re not really. I mean, this is the bone I have to pick with the way the Labor Party has run their campaign, Andrew, and that is that it seems to have been a phantom campaign against things that nobody’s proposing. You had the GST, then you had cuts in health and education, all of which have been completely ruled out. It’s one thing to say the numbers don’t add up, it’s another thing to say oh this stuff is going to happen when actually it’s been flatly rejected.
LEIGH: But Waleed, I disagree with you there. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that the Coalition’s policies are in many cases unfunded. So it’s fine if Mr Abbott wants to spend $22 billion on an unfair Parental Leave Scheme or to give a tax cut to big miners or to give a tax cut to companies, but he can’t make all of those bold claims and not say where the money’s coming from.
ALY: Yeah, that’s fine, but that’s a different thing from you then saying: where’s the money coming from and that there will be certain cuts when they’ve specifically said there won’t be.
LEIGH: Well, I don’t think it’s unfair to speculate Waleed, I mean...
ALY: Oh no, you are, see that’s the point, you are speculating exactly on things they’ve already ruled out.
LEIGH: Certainly what is mathematically true is that the Coalition can’t pay down debt faster, spend more and tax less.
ALY: Arthur, I might get your response on this and you could perhaps work into your answer why it is that you just won’t come out with actual costings, I mean what we saw last week was not even costings it was savings and it was really a pretend document because there was no detail.
SINODINOS: No, no, no I don’t think it was a pretend document. What was put out last week was something like $31.6 billion worth of savings and that will go towards helping to pay for promises and this week you’ll have the full sonata, the full symphony if you like in terms of the spends, the saves and the contribution to the budget bottom line because all the commitments will be out by then. The point Tony Abbott was making on Sunday is there’ve been promises made including some additional promises today on defence for example and veterans and therefore, you know, until all of that is complete you can’t put out the final document.
ALY: Andrew let’s talk about the campaign launch that Kevin Rudd did mysteriously late into the election campaign, yesterday. He’s focused really on specific kinds of jobs, trade type jobs or vocational education. This was the theme. We haven’t really seen much of that before this last week and then when we did his message on TAFEs seemed really strange to me, that if State Governments cut our funding to TAFEs then the Commonwealth is just going to ramp up its funding. Why wouldn’t every State in the country just say alright, fine, you carry the can and we’ll just cut our funding and we won’t be any worse off.
LEIGH: Well Waleed, you’ve raised an important point and this is certainly something that we’ve been talking about in the context of schools, about the importance of ensuring that as the Federal Government invests more in schools through the Better Schools Plan, that State Governments don’t take money out. But we’ve also got a responsibility to make sure that TAFE training continues and you know this issue has a pretty long lineage, we had the former Howard Government investigate trade centres, which ended up not working out. What we’ve done as a Federal Government is to expand trades training in schools and I’ve got a work experience student with me this week who has a trade training centre in his school, St Francis Xavier, and then we’ve also looked to investing in apprenticeships, boosting their completion bonuses and we want to be ready as a back stop for the TAFE system because you’ve got to invest in skills right across the board as a way of building prosperity.
ALY: That’s fine but what Kevin Rudd’s saying is that we’ll pump money into it in 2015, so some time into the future, we’ll pump money into it if the States decide to rip out their money which is an incentive for them just to rip out money.
LEIGH: I don’t think it’s as straight forward as all of that. I think what Mr Rudd is saying is that it’s important that we maintain a strong TAFE system and that we will commit to making sure the trades training is strong. We’ve done that through investment in apprenticeships, through providing larger completion bonuses and providing more to apprentices to get their tools. The Labor story of productivity, which I know is an issue Arthur and I both care about, is that it is centrally underpinned by great education at all those three levels, schools, TAFEs and universities.
ALY: Alright, I’ll get Arthur to respond on the point in a moment, but before I do that, the campaign launch, why so late really? I mean there’s been some positive reviews about it in the press, some but, there seems to be a consensus that it’s too late to make any kind of difference now, why wouldn’t you launch earlier and get some momentum?
LEIGH Yeah I know, in the past that there’s been differences in the timing of the launch, sometimes they’ve been two weeks out, sometimes they’ve been on week out. I don’t think there’s any great science about these things.
ALY: Oh there’s science over everything, come on Andrew.
LEIGH: Haha, I think the only science is you probably don’t want to launch on the same day, I think that’s a loss all round.
ALY: Arthur let’s hear what the Coalition has planned for that sort of skilled manufacture, that skilled work, you know that stuff that TAFEs produce, that kind of labour that hasn’t been the focus really over the last decade while the mining boom’s been in trend. Does the Coalition actually have a focus on that? What’s its policy?
SINODINOS: Can I just begin on this point about the lateness of Labor’s launch. I think that was partly driven by that fact that, you know you maintain, I think, access to entitlements up until the actual launch of your party’s actual campaign, that may have played a role in their thinking. But I think you’re right to say a week out is a bit odd and may not have left Kevin enough time to do the sort of sell job he needs to do. That said, the policy announced around TAFEs and apprenticeships and the like sound like going back to the future in the 1990s. In fact I think Kevin worked on this stuff when he was in Queensland and the National Training Authority was set up, I think it was in 1993, trying to do something similar to what’s been talked about here. What we’ve tried to do with the TAFE system over a number of years is to actually make it more contestable, more market oriented and that’s been the theme of reform under a couple of Governments, including when Julia Gillard was Prime Minister, stemming from her time as Education and Training Minister. I mean what we’ve said on education and training is for example, we want to give loans to apprentices to help them with the expenses of getting through their apprenticeships, right, and that would supplement the other assistance we’ve been giving for employment or have suggested we’re going to give for employment and training. And importantly also taking the burden off employers, including through lower Company Tax and the like so we can actually increase the number of jobs that are potentially available for apprentices.
It was a bit tragic that when Rudd came to power in 2007, he decided to dismantle the technical colleges which we were putting into place, re-badged them and tried to replace them with trade training centres when I think it would’ve been better for the sake of continuity of policy in this area if we just refined and improved on whatever were the deficiencies of the technical college concept and got that sort of fully, if you like, implemented. Because the point John Howard made, which we should all, I think, should always have conscious of, is that not everybody is going to be interested or able to go to university and we have to have adequate alternatives for people and the proper sort of trade training system can help in that regard.
ALY: Sure but those centres need money…
SINODINOS: Sure.
ALY: …and it’s been States that have been ripping that money out, not least of which have been Liberal Party States so Victoria and WA that have been ripping money out. Now you’ve got Kevin Rudd saying that we’ll put that money back if it goes because it’s that important. Will you come out with any sort of commitment on funding? Will you match that?
SINODINOS: Well Susan Ley’s going to have a bit more to say on this in the next day or so…
ALY: I look forward to that…
SINODINOS: …at a conference in I think Brisbane and speaking on all of that.
ALY: Tony Abbott has said that if he wins the election he will repeal the carbon price. He’ll be able to do that because Labor will have to be acquiesce because of the walloping it gets at the polls which means that it wouldn’t dare block the repeal of the Carbon Price. So will Labor, ultimately, if they are in Opposition in the Senate, let that amendment pass given that Tony Abbott would have to be held to have a mandate for that.
LEIGH: I will fight for a carbon price with every fibre of my being
ALY: Even though there’s a clear mandate for the Coalition if they win government?
LEIGH: I don’t believe that the Coalition are as lay down as they are to win.
ALY: Yeah but if they do, this is the only circumstance in which this becomes relevant, if they do it clearly becomes a mandate.
LEIGH: If the Coalition wins, they will have a majority in the Parliament but that doesn’t tell me as a Member elected in, were I fortunate enough to be in that Parliament, which is the hypothetical that you’re giving, I would then be elected by an electorate which feels very strongly about pricing carbon, which respects the science and respects the economics of an ETS as being the lowest cost approach.
ALY: Gentlemen, I’m going to extend this just briefly because I do just want to get your reflections as we wind our way to the end of the campaign, Arthur I’ll start with you. Has this been a good campaign? What are the highs and lows that you’ve seen so far?
SINODINOS: Ah look, I’ll believe it’s a good campaign if we win. That’s the only test of a good campaign. If you’re asking me highs and lows, the highs are when you’re out there actually talking to real people as it were, on the street, and trying to respond to their questions, trying to come up with proper responses, and the thing that always strikes you is how interested people are in what’s going on and the outcome and how well informed they are. The lows of the campaign, is when there’s misinformation about what your party’s going to do and I’ll be fighting that until election day.
ALY: Not the James Diaz controversy earlier on? I’ve had that as a suggestion for a low in the campaign you might have nominated, Arthur.
SINODINOS: Well, I suppose Labor would nominate that as a high in the campaign, I’m not sure.
ALY: (Laughs) and I’ve always wanted to know what a real person is, am I not real, Arthur? Is that what you mean?
SINODINOS: Waleed, you are one of the most real people I’ve ever met. I’m talking about those I meet in the flesh.
ALY: Alright, OK, nicely handled, still offended. Andrew? Your highs and lows?
LEIGH: Well I think Arthur put it nicely there in terms of the importance of the ideas that you wrote something a while back, Waleed, where you talked about poisonous politics being the politics of teams, not the politics of ideas. And I really enjoy the conversation on the street, the couple that came up to me and said: “so tell me why Labor’s going to be the best choice for my three year old daughter”, or the woman I spoke to yesterday from Florey in my electorate who’s a part time public servant who’s worried not just about the quality of our public services, but also about her future employment. If you were going to nominate a low, I think I’d go with the politifact wisdom and nominate the boat buy back as being that. But it’s been just a tremendously invigorating campaign for me on the ground in North Canberra. I’ve got nearly 140,000 electors, biggest electorate in Australia, so getting to as many mobile offices, community forums and hitting the phones and door knocking has been wonderfully invigorating.
ALY: But Andrew maybe if you bought all those boats we could relocate them to a naval base in Brisbane.
LEIGH: (Laughs) Three quarters of a million boats in South East Asia, Waleed, I think we’ll need a significant sum of money particularly as they can probably build boats faster than Mr Abbott could buy them.
ALY: I don’t know, that’d be a hell of a Navy, that would be an amazing Navy, that many boats. Oh well we’ll just have to go and think about whether or not this can be bipartisan.
LEIGH: A flotilla rather than an armada?
ALY: Arthur, Andrew, it’s been one of the genuine highlights for me in this election campaign having the chance to speak to you, I hope we get an opportunity to do it again. Thank you so much for your time and I’ll let you get back to campaigning.
LEIGH: Thanks Waleed.
SINODINOS: Thanks Andrew, thanks Waleed.
ALY: Arthur Sinodinos, perhaps threatened NSW Senator. Pauline Hanson may be in the frame to take his seat, but perhaps not, he’ll be Finance Minister if the Coalition wins, and Andrew Leigh, who’s the Member for Fraser in the Lower House for the Labour Party.
ENDS
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Find the full transcript below.
ABC RADIO NATIONAL DRIVE INTERVIEW
MONDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2013
_____________________________________________________________
Subjects: Senate preferences; campaigning; costings; Tafe and trade centres.
___________________________________________________________
WALEED ALY: I’m joined for the last time before the election campaign, and I say that with a tinge of sadness, although we might get them together after the campaign’s all over. Dr Andrew Leigh, the Member for Fraser, previously Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, or then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard and Arthur Sinodinos, Parliamentary Secretary to the Opposition Leader, former Chief of Staff to John Howard and according to some reports, as well as prospective Finance Minister, an endangered Senator. Gentlemen welcome and Arthur, you must be concerned!
ARTHUR SINODINOS: An endangered species indeed, well I should be protected under the EPBC Act.
ALY: Well, it’s not likely to happen that way because, now this is the story, some reports have emerged that because of the proliferation of the micro parties and the strange preference flows that pertain in the Senate and proliferation of people who have voted above the line rather than below it, you are in danger. Not much I think we can say, but some danger of being knocked off of that Senate seat in NSW by Pauline Hanson, are you worried?
SINODINOS: Oh look, as long as we maximise the Coalition vote in NSW it should be fine and people put the 1 above the line and preferences flow accordingly it will be fine. It’s a statistical possibility what you mentioned, but I mean my best bet is to maximise Liberal votes for NSW for that very reason.
ALY: Well no that’s certainly true but are you worried about it? I wouldn’t have thought that this would start turning up in reporting from people who’ve crunched the numbers unless it was a realistic possibility.
SINODINOS: Look, it’s a mathematical possibility but I believe our vote in NSW is going to be pretty strong and I’m going to spend the next few days, as Kevin has advised, doing my best to up the vote.
ALY: Good to hear you’re taking advice from Kevin Rudd on campaigning, that’s wonderful, we need unity in politics. Why are you…
ANDREW LEIGH: …and Waleed, just to break in briefly to say how pleased I am that no Labor votes will go to seeing Ms Hanson get elected ahead of Arthur Sinodinos.
ALY: Ah yes.
SINODINOS: (Laughs) thanks.
LEIGH: We’re definitely preferring him over her.
ALY: That’s wonderful. It’s almost schmaltzy. Hey Arthur, why would you be third on the Liberal Party’s Senate ticket? I cannot understand that.
SINODINOS: Oh well, I took over from Helen Coonan, I’m the junior Senator and seniority dictates the line up on the Senate Ticket and I was quite happy with that and it aligns my interests with the party’s interests, which is to maximise the vote.
ALY: Well, hang on, but you’re the prospective Finance Minister
SINODINOS: Well look, what happens after the election is a matter for Tony. Let’s get there and we can worry about all that afterwards.
ALY: Andrew, if Arthur were to lose his seat, would you be happy to be paired with Pauline Hanson in debates in future?
LEIGH: That’s a truly terrifying prospect I think Waleed, but look, the real pity is that the Coalition doesn’t have Arthur as Finance Spokesperson right now. I mean that then would’ve had them I’m sure in a position where months ago they’d brought out all of their costings and where we’re now talking about two properly costed visions of the future rather than this sort of spectacle where Mr Hockey seems to be saying to, the argument Mr Robb’s seems to be saying to people ‘well look, we’d like to sell you this used car but you can’t take it for a test drive and you can’t look under the bonnet because you know, well just trust us that the coat of paint on the outside is tip top and it’ll drive just fine’.
ALY: Alright, I’ll get to a response from Arthur in a moment, but Andrew Leigh, I’m not sure that your costings are out there really are they?
LEIGH: Policy by policy they are, Waleed.
ALY: Yeah but you want them in the one place where you can actually examine them, that’s the point.
LEIGH: Well, this is an important point because it’s one of the subtleties which I think has been lost in the hurly burly of the costings debate. In all previous elections, as Oppositions have brought out policies, they’ve shown on each occasion how they’re going to pay for them. The Coalitions’ departed from that strategy this time around. You even see the difference on the same policies. So you look at Paid Parental Leave that they released in 2010 and the one they’ve released now. In 2010 it was accompanied by a table of costings and savings, this time it’s not. We’ve shown very clearly how we’re paying for everything. The Coalition I think are raising the spectre I think of pretty savage austerity being imposed on the economy.
ALY: Well they’re not really. I mean, this is the bone I have to pick with the way the Labor Party has run their campaign, Andrew, and that is that it seems to have been a phantom campaign against things that nobody’s proposing. You had the GST, then you had cuts in health and education, all of which have been completely ruled out. It’s one thing to say the numbers don’t add up, it’s another thing to say oh this stuff is going to happen when actually it’s been flatly rejected.
LEIGH: But Waleed, I disagree with you there. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that the Coalition’s policies are in many cases unfunded. So it’s fine if Mr Abbott wants to spend $22 billion on an unfair Parental Leave Scheme or to give a tax cut to big miners or to give a tax cut to companies, but he can’t make all of those bold claims and not say where the money’s coming from.
ALY: Yeah, that’s fine, but that’s a different thing from you then saying: where’s the money coming from and that there will be certain cuts when they’ve specifically said there won’t be.
LEIGH: Well, I don’t think it’s unfair to speculate Waleed, I mean...
ALY: Oh no, you are, see that’s the point, you are speculating exactly on things they’ve already ruled out.
LEIGH: Certainly what is mathematically true is that the Coalition can’t pay down debt faster, spend more and tax less.
ALY: Arthur, I might get your response on this and you could perhaps work into your answer why it is that you just won’t come out with actual costings, I mean what we saw last week was not even costings it was savings and it was really a pretend document because there was no detail.
SINODINOS: No, no, no I don’t think it was a pretend document. What was put out last week was something like $31.6 billion worth of savings and that will go towards helping to pay for promises and this week you’ll have the full sonata, the full symphony if you like in terms of the spends, the saves and the contribution to the budget bottom line because all the commitments will be out by then. The point Tony Abbott was making on Sunday is there’ve been promises made including some additional promises today on defence for example and veterans and therefore, you know, until all of that is complete you can’t put out the final document.
ALY: Andrew let’s talk about the campaign launch that Kevin Rudd did mysteriously late into the election campaign, yesterday. He’s focused really on specific kinds of jobs, trade type jobs or vocational education. This was the theme. We haven’t really seen much of that before this last week and then when we did his message on TAFEs seemed really strange to me, that if State Governments cut our funding to TAFEs then the Commonwealth is just going to ramp up its funding. Why wouldn’t every State in the country just say alright, fine, you carry the can and we’ll just cut our funding and we won’t be any worse off.
LEIGH: Well Waleed, you’ve raised an important point and this is certainly something that we’ve been talking about in the context of schools, about the importance of ensuring that as the Federal Government invests more in schools through the Better Schools Plan, that State Governments don’t take money out. But we’ve also got a responsibility to make sure that TAFE training continues and you know this issue has a pretty long lineage, we had the former Howard Government investigate trade centres, which ended up not working out. What we’ve done as a Federal Government is to expand trades training in schools and I’ve got a work experience student with me this week who has a trade training centre in his school, St Francis Xavier, and then we’ve also looked to investing in apprenticeships, boosting their completion bonuses and we want to be ready as a back stop for the TAFE system because you’ve got to invest in skills right across the board as a way of building prosperity.
ALY: That’s fine but what Kevin Rudd’s saying is that we’ll pump money into it in 2015, so some time into the future, we’ll pump money into it if the States decide to rip out their money which is an incentive for them just to rip out money.
LEIGH: I don’t think it’s as straight forward as all of that. I think what Mr Rudd is saying is that it’s important that we maintain a strong TAFE system and that we will commit to making sure the trades training is strong. We’ve done that through investment in apprenticeships, through providing larger completion bonuses and providing more to apprentices to get their tools. The Labor story of productivity, which I know is an issue Arthur and I both care about, is that it is centrally underpinned by great education at all those three levels, schools, TAFEs and universities.
ALY: Alright, I’ll get Arthur to respond on the point in a moment, but before I do that, the campaign launch, why so late really? I mean there’s been some positive reviews about it in the press, some but, there seems to be a consensus that it’s too late to make any kind of difference now, why wouldn’t you launch earlier and get some momentum?
LEIGH Yeah I know, in the past that there’s been differences in the timing of the launch, sometimes they’ve been two weeks out, sometimes they’ve been on week out. I don’t think there’s any great science about these things.
ALY: Oh there’s science over everything, come on Andrew.
LEIGH: Haha, I think the only science is you probably don’t want to launch on the same day, I think that’s a loss all round.
ALY: Arthur let’s hear what the Coalition has planned for that sort of skilled manufacture, that skilled work, you know that stuff that TAFEs produce, that kind of labour that hasn’t been the focus really over the last decade while the mining boom’s been in trend. Does the Coalition actually have a focus on that? What’s its policy?
SINODINOS: Can I just begin on this point about the lateness of Labor’s launch. I think that was partly driven by that fact that, you know you maintain, I think, access to entitlements up until the actual launch of your party’s actual campaign, that may have played a role in their thinking. But I think you’re right to say a week out is a bit odd and may not have left Kevin enough time to do the sort of sell job he needs to do. That said, the policy announced around TAFEs and apprenticeships and the like sound like going back to the future in the 1990s. In fact I think Kevin worked on this stuff when he was in Queensland and the National Training Authority was set up, I think it was in 1993, trying to do something similar to what’s been talked about here. What we’ve tried to do with the TAFE system over a number of years is to actually make it more contestable, more market oriented and that’s been the theme of reform under a couple of Governments, including when Julia Gillard was Prime Minister, stemming from her time as Education and Training Minister. I mean what we’ve said on education and training is for example, we want to give loans to apprentices to help them with the expenses of getting through their apprenticeships, right, and that would supplement the other assistance we’ve been giving for employment or have suggested we’re going to give for employment and training. And importantly also taking the burden off employers, including through lower Company Tax and the like so we can actually increase the number of jobs that are potentially available for apprentices.
It was a bit tragic that when Rudd came to power in 2007, he decided to dismantle the technical colleges which we were putting into place, re-badged them and tried to replace them with trade training centres when I think it would’ve been better for the sake of continuity of policy in this area if we just refined and improved on whatever were the deficiencies of the technical college concept and got that sort of fully, if you like, implemented. Because the point John Howard made, which we should all, I think, should always have conscious of, is that not everybody is going to be interested or able to go to university and we have to have adequate alternatives for people and the proper sort of trade training system can help in that regard.
ALY: Sure but those centres need money…
SINODINOS: Sure.
ALY: …and it’s been States that have been ripping that money out, not least of which have been Liberal Party States so Victoria and WA that have been ripping money out. Now you’ve got Kevin Rudd saying that we’ll put that money back if it goes because it’s that important. Will you come out with any sort of commitment on funding? Will you match that?
SINODINOS: Well Susan Ley’s going to have a bit more to say on this in the next day or so…
ALY: I look forward to that…
SINODINOS: …at a conference in I think Brisbane and speaking on all of that.
ALY: Tony Abbott has said that if he wins the election he will repeal the carbon price. He’ll be able to do that because Labor will have to be acquiesce because of the walloping it gets at the polls which means that it wouldn’t dare block the repeal of the Carbon Price. So will Labor, ultimately, if they are in Opposition in the Senate, let that amendment pass given that Tony Abbott would have to be held to have a mandate for that.
LEIGH: I will fight for a carbon price with every fibre of my being
ALY: Even though there’s a clear mandate for the Coalition if they win government?
LEIGH: I don’t believe that the Coalition are as lay down as they are to win.
ALY: Yeah but if they do, this is the only circumstance in which this becomes relevant, if they do it clearly becomes a mandate.
LEIGH: If the Coalition wins, they will have a majority in the Parliament but that doesn’t tell me as a Member elected in, were I fortunate enough to be in that Parliament, which is the hypothetical that you’re giving, I would then be elected by an electorate which feels very strongly about pricing carbon, which respects the science and respects the economics of an ETS as being the lowest cost approach.
ALY: Gentlemen, I’m going to extend this just briefly because I do just want to get your reflections as we wind our way to the end of the campaign, Arthur I’ll start with you. Has this been a good campaign? What are the highs and lows that you’ve seen so far?
SINODINOS: Ah look, I’ll believe it’s a good campaign if we win. That’s the only test of a good campaign. If you’re asking me highs and lows, the highs are when you’re out there actually talking to real people as it were, on the street, and trying to respond to their questions, trying to come up with proper responses, and the thing that always strikes you is how interested people are in what’s going on and the outcome and how well informed they are. The lows of the campaign, is when there’s misinformation about what your party’s going to do and I’ll be fighting that until election day.
ALY: Not the James Diaz controversy earlier on? I’ve had that as a suggestion for a low in the campaign you might have nominated, Arthur.
SINODINOS: Well, I suppose Labor would nominate that as a high in the campaign, I’m not sure.
ALY: (Laughs) and I’ve always wanted to know what a real person is, am I not real, Arthur? Is that what you mean?
SINODINOS: Waleed, you are one of the most real people I’ve ever met. I’m talking about those I meet in the flesh.
ALY: Alright, OK, nicely handled, still offended. Andrew? Your highs and lows?
LEIGH: Well I think Arthur put it nicely there in terms of the importance of the ideas that you wrote something a while back, Waleed, where you talked about poisonous politics being the politics of teams, not the politics of ideas. And I really enjoy the conversation on the street, the couple that came up to me and said: “so tell me why Labor’s going to be the best choice for my three year old daughter”, or the woman I spoke to yesterday from Florey in my electorate who’s a part time public servant who’s worried not just about the quality of our public services, but also about her future employment. If you were going to nominate a low, I think I’d go with the politifact wisdom and nominate the boat buy back as being that. But it’s been just a tremendously invigorating campaign for me on the ground in North Canberra. I’ve got nearly 140,000 electors, biggest electorate in Australia, so getting to as many mobile offices, community forums and hitting the phones and door knocking has been wonderfully invigorating.
ALY: But Andrew maybe if you bought all those boats we could relocate them to a naval base in Brisbane.
LEIGH: (Laughs) Three quarters of a million boats in South East Asia, Waleed, I think we’ll need a significant sum of money particularly as they can probably build boats faster than Mr Abbott could buy them.
ALY: I don’t know, that’d be a hell of a Navy, that would be an amazing Navy, that many boats. Oh well we’ll just have to go and think about whether or not this can be bipartisan.
LEIGH: A flotilla rather than an armada?
ALY: Arthur, Andrew, it’s been one of the genuine highlights for me in this election campaign having the chance to speak to you, I hope we get an opportunity to do it again. Thank you so much for your time and I’ll let you get back to campaigning.
LEIGH: Thanks Waleed.
SINODINOS: Thanks Andrew, thanks Waleed.
ALY: Arthur Sinodinos, perhaps threatened NSW Senator. Pauline Hanson may be in the frame to take his seat, but perhaps not, he’ll be Finance Minister if the Coalition wins, and Andrew Leigh, who’s the Member for Fraser in the Lower House for the Labour Party.
ENDS
Polling Places for Fraser
Below is a list of the polling places in the Fraser electorate, courtesy of the AEC website (which has volumes of useful information, if only you know where to find it).
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| Opening times | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AINSLIE |
Ainslie Pre-school Baker Gdns |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| AINSLIE |
North Ainslie Primary School Sherbrooke St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| AMAROO |
Amaroo School Katherine Ave |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| ARANDA |
Aranda Primary School Banambila St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| BELCONNEN |
Lake Ginninderra College Emu Bank |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| BONNER |
Neville Bonner Primary School Mabo Blvd |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| BRADDON |
Ainslie School Donaldson St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| BRUCE |
Calvary Hospital Haydon Dr |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| CAMPBELL |
Campbell Primary School Chauvel St |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| CANBERRA CITY |
Pilgrim House 69 Northbourne Ave |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| CHARNWOOD |
St Thomas Aquinas Primary School Lhotsky St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| DICKSON |
Daramalan College Cowper St |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| DOWNER |
Downer Community Centre Frencham Pl |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| EVATT |
Evatt Primary School Heydon Cres |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| EVATT |
Miles Franklin Primary School Alderman St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| FLOREY |
St Francis Xavier College Barnard Crct |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| FORDE |
Burgmann Anglican School Forde Francis Forde Blvd, |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| FRASER |
Fraser Primary School Tillyard Drive |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| GIRALANG |
Giralang Primary School Canopus Cres |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| GUNGAHLIN |
Burgmann Anglican School The Valley Ave |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| HALL |
Hall Pavillion Gladstone St |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| HARRISON |
Harrison School Wimmera St |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| HOLT |
Kingsford Smith School Starke St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| JERVIS BAY |
Assembly Hall Dykes Ave |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| KALEEN |
Kaleen Primary School Ashburton St |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| KALEEN |
Maribyrnong Primary School Alberga St |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| LATHAM |
Latham Primary School O'Loghlen St |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| LYNEHAM |
Lyneham Primary School Hall St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| MACGREGOR |
Macgregor Primary School Hirschfeld Cres |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| MACQUARIE |
Macquarie Primary School Bennelong Cres |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| MELBA |
Mt Rogers Primary School Alfred Hill Dr |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| NGUNNAWAL |
Ngunnawal Neighbourhood Centre Yarrawonga Street |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| NGUNNAWAL |
Ngunnawal Primary School Unaipon Ave |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| NICHOLLS |
Nicholls Joint Facility Kelleway Ave |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| O'CONNOR |
St Joseph's Primary School 62 Boronia Dr |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| PAGE |
St Matthew's School Stutchbury St |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| PALMERSTON |
Palmerston Primary School Kosciuszko Ave |
8am - 6pm | Yes |
| PARKES |
Old Parliament House 18 King George Tce |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| REID |
Reid Preschool Dirrawan Gdns |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| SCULLIN |
Salvation Army Hall Cnr Ross Smith Cres & McIntosh St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| TURNER |
Turner School Condamine St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| WATSON |
Majura Primary School Irvine St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| WEETANGERA |
Weetangera Primary School Southwell St |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
| WRECK BAY |
Community Office Wreck Bay Rd |
8am - 6pm | Assisted access |
ABC666 with Ross Solly - 2 September 2013
I joined ABC666's outside broadcast from Urban Roast cafe in Belconnen at 7.10am this morning, and spoke with Ross Solly about the campaign trail, the risks Coalition cuts pose to public and private sector jobs in Canberra, and what the parties' policies say about their core values. Here's a podcast.
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ABC Lateline - 30 August 2013
I appeared on ABC Lateline with host Emma Alberici and Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne to discuss the Coalition's hide-and-seek game with their policies, how their announced policies will disproportionately benefit the top 1%, naval bases and Labor's plan to invest in productivity through infrastructure and education.
A transcript (thanks to Lateline) is over the fold.
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A transcript (thanks to Lateline) is over the fold.
Transcript
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Back to the election campaign and our Friday Forum. Joining me from Canberra is Labor MP Andrew Leigh, Opposition spokesman for education Christopher Pyne is in our Adelaide studio.
Welcome to you both, gentlemen.
ANDREW LEIGH, LABOR MP: G'day Emma.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE, OPPN EDUCATION SPOKESMAN: Good evening Emma, good evening Andrew.
EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh, let me start with you. You're an economist by background. Shouldn't you have known better than to be releasing Parliamentary Budget Office advice you knew to be out-dated and not an accurate reflection of current Coalition intentions?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, Emma, all costings are based on assumptions behind them. You can change those assumptions and you get different costing results. What I used in having one of the Opposition policies costed - a policy that would do tremendous damage to my own electors - was what I thought was the most reasonable set of assumptions based on what was out there in the public domain.
Now of course you can make the results differ if you use unreasonable assumptions, for example, it now looks as though in the case of raising superannuation taxes on low-income workers, the Coalition want to, rather than using the reasonable assumption that that starts on the first of July next year, make the much more unreasonable assumption that it's retrospective. But if they're using these unreasonable assumptions then we need to see the detail.
If you go to the Parliamentary Budget Office website you'll see requests for 46 Labor costings, you'll see a bunch of Greens costings there, you'll see no Liberal party costings.
It's almost as though what the Coalition are doing in this campaign is trying to make the Greens party look respectable in terms of their economic management and their willingness to stand up to public scrutiny.
EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne, reasonable, these costing analyses by Labor? Of your policies?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Emma, what we've seen and no amount of trying to gild the Lily by Andrew Leigh will detract from the fact that what we've seen is Labor tried to get away with one lie too many in this election campaign by claiming yesterday a $10 billion black hole in the Coalition's savings measures that were announced on Wednesday.
And tried to cloak that lie in the clothes of the department of finance, Treasury and the Parliamentary Budget Office and in the most unprecedented action that I've ever seen in eight elections that I've been running for Sturt, the heads of the Treasury, Finance and the Parliamentary Budget Office specifically repudiated and humiliated the Prime Minister and said that they would not be used for base political reasons with one of Labor's scare campaigns and lies in this campaign.
And all day today Labor's been trying to create a smokescreen about how this is something to do with the Coalition's costings. This issue is about the credibility of a Prime Minister who has lied and scared the electorate for the last four weeks. It's about credibility, it's about trust. That is the only issue that we're discussing in terms of this complete fiasco in which Kevin Rudd now has egg on both his faces.
EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh, first Kevin Rudd continued to repeat the $70 billion figure when it's been fact-checked exhaustively and found to be comprehensively wrong. Now this so-called $10 billion black hole has been entirely discounted by three of the country's most senior members of the public service. This does present a credibility problem for Labor, doesn't it?
ANDREW LEIGH: I disagree with that statement, Emma. What the heads of Treasury and Finance have said is no more and no less than the exercise of costings depends on its assumptions.
EMMA ALBERICI: No, they actually did say it was in appropriate for the Government to have claimed that the Parliamentary Budget Office had costed the policy of any other political party.
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, certainly what we have done is done our best attempt at letting the Australian people know what the Coalition's policies will cost.
EMMA ALBERICI: But it wasn't what you purported it to be, you'd have to admit.
ANDREW LEIGH: We have used the best information that's out there and the most reasonable assumptions to have a go at working out what the Coalition's policies will cost. If they're making unreasonable assumptions, if they're thinking about retrospective taxation, if they're thinking about getting into firing public servants within weeks, then they need to come clear and say that, Emma.
I don't want to be having this costing debate. I would rather be discussing the kind of future that Christopher and I want to build for our kids. This is an anodyne debate, not one we should be having but we're forced into this position because the Coalition has a massive black hole.
Whether it's the $30 billion that Saul Eslake says or the $70 billion Andrew Robb and Joe Hockey were saying...
EMMA ALBERICI: That was quite some time ago and as I just pointed out, it's been exhaustively fact-checked.
Mr Pyne, Joe Hockey has said publicly that the Coalition has 200 policies fully costed. If that's the case, why won't you reveal that information to the public? Already we know half a million Australians have already cast their votes and they weren't privy to information that would have helped them make that very critical decision.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's a perfectly fair question, Emma. The truth is that by mid next week, all of our policies will have been released. Now, as you would know in every election campaign there are upwards of over 200 policies released and we have over the last four weeks, with our policies, released savings measures and on Wednesday brought that together at the National Press Club and Joe Hockey released $31 billion worth of savings, but by mid to late next week of course all our policies will have been published...
EMMA ALBERICI: Excuse me for interrupting but when you say "mid to late next week", is it going to be Wednesday, Thursday or Friday?
EMMA ALBERICI: Tony Abbott said today that by mid next week you could expect all of the Coalition's policies to be announced and therefore you could get a Budget bottom line.
EMMA ALBERICI: Can you tell us which day?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, of course I can't tell you which day because I'm not privy to that particular piece of information but I can tell you that all the policies will be released by mid next week and you can then expect a Budget bottom line.
But we won't do what Labor did in 2007 under Kevin Rudd and 2010 under Julia Gillard and that is release our entire costings document at 5pm the night before the election.
And honestly, with Kevin Rudd having hit the wall so badly today over this humiliating issue to do with the there are $10 billion, I'm starting to wonder whether the Labor party wished they'd kept Julia Gillard as the Prime Minister.
They might have actually had a better run in the election rather than the faintly hysterical Kevin Rudd that we witnessed today at his press conference in Perth where even one of the people the fainted after having to leave his press conference because it was so hysterical and long-winded and faintly boring.
EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh, I'll give you a chance to respond.
ANDREW LEIGH: This isn't a game. We're not playing hide the costing. This isn't a pea and thimble trick in which the Labor Party says, "We've done our best to cost your policy based on reasonable assumptions," and you say, "Ah ha. No, we've made other assumptions. We won't tell you what the assumptions are but we come up to a different answer."
That is a crazy game do be engaging in and what it means is that ultimately there are cuts being hidden from the Australian people. We know the Coalition has a set of policies which are disproportionately going to advantage the top one per cent.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You don't really believe this rubbish!
ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely, Christopher. Let me talk you through some of the rubbish you're proposing.
You're proposing to give the private health insurance rebate back to millionaires and billionaires to pay them $75,000 when they have a child and to get rid of the mining tax and you're paying for that by raising the superannuation taxes on low-income workers, by taking away the school kids bonus from kids in their first day of school and by potentially driving the country into a downturn as we've seen in the UK and in Queensland when you cut too hard you cost jobs.
So you're going to benefit the top one per cent with your policies but the bottom 99 per cent are going to pay for it. It would just be nice if you were clear with the Australian people about exactly how it's going to add up.
EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne...
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think it's sad Andrew, honestly I think it's sad that you genuinely - if you genuinely believe that complete tripe you're spouting on national television, I think it's particularly sad and you really need to get out in the real world and actually read what's going on in the real world rather than tell bald-faced lies on national television about somebody else's policies.
ANDREW LEIGH: Which of those was a lie, Christopher? Where did I mischaracterise one of your policies? The top one per cent have done very well over the last 30 years. Their income share has doubled. They don't need $75,000 to have a baby. We don't need to restore the private health insurance rebate to billionaires and we certainly don't need a huge tax cut for Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer paid for by taking my money from kids on their first day of school.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You've been caught red-handed lying about the Coalition's costings in the last two days and you're still doing it. If you wanted to be honest you'd remind the audience that 1.7 per cent of women in the workforce earn more than $100,000 a year so in fact 98 per cent of women earn less than $100,000 a year in the workforce and as a consequence, they are the biggest winners from a paid parental leave scheme that treats them like adults and says if you're on holiday you should be paid your full wage, if you're on long service leave you get your full wage and if you go and have a baby you'll get your full wage for 26 weeks so that you can spend that time nurturing your child and knowing you can still pay your bills.
It is remarkable to me that Labor is opposed to one of the most significant social and economic reforms that has been proposed in this country. I actually think you would like to propose it yourself but now embarrassed that the Coalition's proposed it, have to diss it when your heart's not really in it.
EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne, I'm interested to know your view on The Economist magazine's editorial coming up this weekend. They're barracking for Kevin Rudd in this election. How big a blow is that for the Coalition?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's not a blow at all. In a free country, in a democracy like ours, newspaper editorials or magazine editorials can plumb for which ever political party they want and if The Economist wants to support Kevin Rudd, well, good luck to them.
ANDREW LEIGH: The Economist certainly noted the use of market-based mechanism to deal with carbon pollution and quickly poo-pooed Direct Action and, as you'd expect from a magazine with that title...
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Obviously the Economist doesn't care about people lying before elections.
ANDREW LEIGH: They noted the benefits to Australia of the rapid fiscal stimulus which saw us avoid recession. The alternative to that fiscal stimulus would have been the kind of sluggish growth that we've seen elsewhere in the world. That's what we would have got if we had a Coalition Government in place when the global downturn hit.
So it's appropriate that The Economist magazine recognises our strong economic policies and of course it would be remiss of me not to mention that internationally it's been Labor Treasurers who've gotten the Euro Money magazine award for world's best Finance Minister.
EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh...
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I'm sure that the average voter in Australia is really sitting there in their lounge room tonight thinking how important it is that the Euro Money magazine gives awards to Australian treasurers or the view of the Economist.
EMMA ALBERICI: I know you'd like to talk amongst yourselves but I would like to get a couple of questions in here.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Of course Emma.
EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh, a number of announcements from Labor this week did seem like policy on the run at a time when Defence spending is being cut, tell us how does it make sense to spend six billion dollars on moving the Garden Island naval base from Sydney to Brisbane? How is that a priority given the current state of the Budget?
ANDREW LEIGH: Emma, we know Garden Island faces some challenges and there's - in terms of our strategic posture, the Government's view is that it makes sense to have a look at options based out of Queensland.
EMMA ALBERICI: But the Defence White Paper in May thought it was too expensive. What's changed?
ANDREW LEIGH: We're certainly looking at various options here and recognising that Australia's Defence posture always has to be adjusting. There's going to be a variety of views on these sorts of issues but exactly where we structure our naval bases is absolutely vital.
I think if you look at the strategic situation for Australia, our naval forces are probably the most important part of our military posture and so having them located in the right bases is really vital. We want to be able to help out in the region. We've been doing a good deal of stabilising operations in places like the Solomon Islands and then we also want to have the capacity to respond to international challenges. For those reasons, the Government thinks that these - the basing out of Queensland makes some sense.
EMMA ALBERICI: Christopher Pyne, this seems to have come as a surprise to the Liberal Premier, Barry O'Farrell?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Absolutely, Emma. If we just review the week very quickly, we've had five lovely Kevin Rudd slightly hysterical thought bubbles.
On Monday he announced $115 billion for a very fast train.
On Tuesday he announced he was moving Garden Island from Sydney to Brisbane without consultation with anybody.
On Wednesday he announced a crack down on foreign investment which his Minister for Agriculture said he hasn't discussed with anyone at all.
On Thursday he said he was bringing forward two naval supply vessels two years with non-existent billions of dollars.
And on Friday he was repudiated by the department of Treasury, the department of finance and Parliamentary Budget Office for telling bald-faced lies about had Coalition's costings.
So Kevin Rudd has not had a very good week and the Garden Island one was a real doozy. That's on top of the Northern Territory company tax cut to 20 cents in the dollar which was, again, not discussed with anyone so when he came back to Prime Ministership, Kevin Rudd said he was a new Kevin Rudd, he was going to be consultative and have Cabinet government and all we've seen is the old Kevin Rudd treating people poorly, whether it's the make-up artist Lily Fontana or the hostess on the VIP jets, announcing policies on the run, thought bubbles, no consultation, all money pushed out past the forward estimates.
Frankly, the Australian public are sick of it. They want adults running the Government and have their chance next Saturday to make that choice.
EMMA ALBERICI: Andrew Leigh?
ANDREW LEIGH: Certainly the two parties will be presenting very different visions to Australia on seventh September. The Coalition are clearly planning savage austerity. We know from estimates that John Quiggen has done that for every $10 billion they take out of the economy, the unemployment rate is going to rise half a per cent and we know the impact that that sort of a slump would have on the jobs and the life prospects of Australians leaving school.
Our view is that with an economy moving out of the mining investment boom, it's appropriate to invest in schools, to fund the Better Schools package for six years not four years and demand states don't withdraw money from schools. To continue investing in universities and of course to build the national broadband network.
Mr Abbott talks about being an infrastructure Prime Minister but it's Labor willing to spend on rail, it's Labor willing to take fibre to the home. Done lot of door-knocking and I'm yet to find anyone on my door-knocks who would prefer the fibre stopped in the cable down the street rather than coming all the way to their home.
Australians want the 21st century investments and want to be sure those trades training centres are going to stay in our schools. They want to be sure we're going to expand university places as the demand goes up and that we're going to continue to invest in the underpinnings of prosperity not simply regard productivity as being a case of cutting back wages and conditions and going back to the old WorkChoices model. That's not the solution for building prosperity in the 21st century. Productivity is about skills, education and infrastructure and that's what Labor will deliver.
EMMA ALBERICI: We're running out of time.
Christopher Pyne, notwithstanding a major mishap by Tony Abbott this last week of the campaign, it looks like he will be the Prime Minister in just a little over a week's time. Apart from getting rid of the carbon tax and the mining tax, tell us how will Australians notice a difference in your first 100 days in Government? What will be the most telling change?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Emma, of course we will abolish the mining tax and the carbon tax which will help reduce electricity prices and secure people's jobs. We'll immediately move to genuinely protect our borders and stop the people smugglers from filling our humanitarian intake of refugees by bringing back temporary protection visas, turning back the boats where it's safe to do so and having rigorous off-shore processing.
EMMA ALBERICI: I guess I'm asking you how it will feel different for Australians in the first 100 days rather than these things which might not necessarily reap rewards for you in the first 100 days.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think it will feel different because people are sick to death of watching the television news and seeing unauthorised boats arriving, captained by people smugglers and losing control of our borders. You might dismiss that as not very important but I actually think out in the electorate, talking to people, they want their electricity prices down, they want to get rid of the carbon tax, they want their jobs to be secured, they want to have some faith in the economic management of the country and after the debacle of the last 24 hours, with the Prime Minister verballing the departments of finance, Treasury and the PBO, I think that's the last straw and they do want our borders to be protected. You might not think that is a big change but for most mums and dads who are trying to pay their mortgages and pay their bills, just knowing they can do that and that our borders will be protected will be a very big change.
EMMA ALBERICI: Thank you both, gentlemen, for coming in this evening.
ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Emma.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It's a great pleasure.
Sky PM Agenda with David Speers - 29 August 2013
On 29 August, Andrew Leigh MP appeared on Sky PM Agenda with host David Speers and Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg. Topics included the Coalition's secrecy over releasing costings, and the situation in Syria.
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Grants awarded to creative young people
Today in my electoral office I was delighted to meet local beneficiaries of the Creative Young Stars program. With financial support gained, Year 11 student Gabrielle Carter is heading to Glasgow to compete in an international ballet competition. Alison Plevey travels to dance festival in England and Jacob Niessl will be able to pursue his passion for music, competing in eisteddfods and community concerts with Canberra Youth Music. My congratulations to all the winners.
MEDIA RELEASE
Twelve creative and aspiring young people have received Australian Government grants of up to $3000 to help them develop their talents and chase their dreams.
The grants have been awarded under the Creative Young Stars program which provides individual grants of $500 and group grants of $3000 to assist students and young people participate in creative, cultural, academic and community based activities, events or training.
Two community groups in the electorate of Fraser are also beneficiaries of the program.
Member for Fraser, Dr Andrew Leigh, today congratulated the grant recipients and thanked all applicants, noting that the quality of young talent was outstanding.
“Our community is full of young people with many great talents. The exceptional contribution they make to our community and beyond will only increase with the chance to develop those talents further,” Dr Leigh said.
“The Creative Young Stars grants help young people of primary, secondary and tertiary school-age to participate in events such as competitions, eisteddfods, public speaking tournaments and other cultural, artistic or academic events.
“We want these young people to feel supported, and to have their talent and hard work recognised so their confidence and creativity develops.
“These grants do this but also support our young people in a practical way to make achieving their dream a little easier.”
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MEDIA RELEASE
Twelve creative and aspiring young people have received Australian Government grants of up to $3000 to help them develop their talents and chase their dreams.
The grants have been awarded under the Creative Young Stars program which provides individual grants of $500 and group grants of $3000 to assist students and young people participate in creative, cultural, academic and community based activities, events or training.
Two community groups in the electorate of Fraser are also beneficiaries of the program.
Member for Fraser, Dr Andrew Leigh, today congratulated the grant recipients and thanked all applicants, noting that the quality of young talent was outstanding.
“Our community is full of young people with many great talents. The exceptional contribution they make to our community and beyond will only increase with the chance to develop those talents further,” Dr Leigh said.
“The Creative Young Stars grants help young people of primary, secondary and tertiary school-age to participate in events such as competitions, eisteddfods, public speaking tournaments and other cultural, artistic or academic events.
“We want these young people to feel supported, and to have their talent and hard work recognised so their confidence and creativity develops.
“These grants do this but also support our young people in a practical way to make achieving their dream a little easier.”
Mix106.3 Canbera - 28 August 2013
On MixCanberra this morning, Liberal candidate Zed Seselja and I discussed optimism and talking with kids, kangaroos and roadside signs, Miley Cyrus and high-speed rail, and which Canberra agency will be forcibly relocated to the Central Coast if the Liberals win. Unfortunately, we didn't get an answer on all these issues, but here's a podcast.
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Boost for ANU to support native title anthropology - 27 August 2013
Campaign Media Release
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus
Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh
NEW GRANTS FOR NATIVE TITLE ANTHROPOLOGY
The Rudd Labor Government is providing over $1.75 million to attract a new generation of anthropologists to native title work and to encourage senior anthropologists to stay on in the field.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC and Member for Fraser Dr Andrew Leigh today visited the Australian National University to announce Native Title Anthropologist Grants for the next three years.
“I congratulate the successful recipients and welcome their contributions to the native title anthropology sector,” Mr Dreyfus said.
“These projects will provide a range of programs, including training for junior anthropologists, field work programs, an Indigenous internship and research placements.”
The successful recipients are:
- The Australian National University Centre for Native Title Anthropology
- The Aurora Project
- Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation
- James Cook University
- South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council
- A joint project between La Trobe University and Native Title Services Victoria
“These applications best addressed the program’s priority areas of need and will benefit the native title anthropology sector as a whole,” Mr Dreyfus said.
The ANU’s Centre for Native Title Anthropology will receive $677,050 over three years to expand the capacity of groups working with native title claimants around Australia.
“The funding will ensure representative bodies working on native title with Indigenous communities are more responsive,” said Dr Leigh.
“Better cultural mapping and recording ‘on country’ will help speed up the native title process.”
Since 2007, the Rudd Labor Government has invested in education and employment services across the country.
The Coalition must disclose if this funding will be one of the cuts Tony Abbott will make if he becomes Prime Minister.
A total of $1,751,000 over the financial years 2013-16 is available in this funding round and is already included in the Budget.
The priority areas of the Native Title Anthropologist Grant Program are:
- Training and development for anthropologists to smooth the transition from study to native title field work.
- Professional development and support for anthropologists working in the native title sector.
- Strengthening linkages between academic and applied anthropological work.
Details of all projects funded over the first four years of the program are available on the Attorney-General’s Department’s website under: Native Title Anthropologist Grants Program.
CANBERRA
27 AUGUST 2013
