Joint Doorstop Interview with Tony Abbott MHR, Leader of the Opposition, Hopevale QLD
17-October-2011
Subjects: Cabinet leaks; Julia Gillard’s border protection mess; Julia Gillard’s carbon tax; poker machine reform; same-sex marriage; visit to Cape York.
E&OE……………………….……………………………………………………………
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, there’s plenty of work to do in this country but while the Prime Minister is watching her back she’s not getting on with government. The Government is paralysed while the faceless men try to work out who should be the next prime minister. Meanwhile, bad things are happening.
Rio Tinto announced this morning that four major plants with 4,400 jobs are being put on the market. They’re all aluminium smelters, obviously the aluminium industry is going to be very badly hit by the carbon tax and of course the Government still has no policy to control our borders. If you can’t control our borders, you can’t govern the country. The Coalition, our policy has been clear for a decade. It’s Nauru, temporary protection visas and turning boats around where it’s safe to do so. So there is a better way, and as far as the Coalition’s concerned, we are ready, willing and able to give our country a better way forward.
QUESTION:
Do you think that Rio Tinto decision is a direct result?
TONY ABBOTT:
Just before we get onto questions, Tudgey, do you want to say a bit about what we’re doing here today?
ALAN TUDGE:
Yep, sure. We all know the problems with housing in remote indigenous communities, but more welfare housing is not the answer. What we need to be able to give is the opportunities for individual families to build and own their own homes and behind us is an example of just that occurring. We’ve been helping the local family build this magnificent home over the last couple of days. This home has been built by timber which has been grown here, it’s been milled here and the sweat equity of the families has gone into it over the last several months. There’s pride and ownership in this house that you will never see in welfare housing.
QUESTION:
You mentioned the Rio Tinto aluminium smelters on the market. Is that a direct result of the carbon tax, as you see it?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well certainly the carbon tax has had an impact here. Aluminium is going to be very badly impacted by the carbon tax. We should be world leaders in the smelting of aluminium because we’ve got the alumina, we’ve got the energy. Unfortunately, we are going to price ourselves out of the smelting market by putting the carbon tax on [inaudible].
QUESTION:
The Prime Minister is reading the Riot Act to Cabinet this afternoon. Do you think she will pull the powerbrokers into line? Do you think that will work?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well look, if you can’t govern yourselves, you can’t govern the country. This is a cabinet which is leaking like a sieve. You’ve got various contenders for the prime ministership competing against each other in the public arena. I think the problem is that when the Prime Minister is watching her back she’s not getting on with government and instead of reading the Riot Act to the Cabinet she should be getting on with what she told us was going to be a year of decision and delivery.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, there’s been a new or slightly new model for problem gambling reform proposed over the last week or so. Is that model any more attractive to you than the proposal being put by Andrew Wilkie in terms of mandatory pre-commitment?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well I’m happy to look at all new proposals. I’m not aware that there is anything that’s much more significant than the mandatory pre-commitment proposal that’s been on the table and the problem with that is that it’s going to be very, very expensive but I don’t think it’s actually going to stop the problem gamblers. As some of my colleagues have colourfully put it, it’s like telling an alcoholic that you can’t drink beer but you can still drink other things.
QUESTION:
The Prime Minister is addressing the shoppies union today which helped to install her into power. Do you believe she’s paying the piper with her speech which is being done privately in Brisbane?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, I think it’s always a problem when Labor prime ministers have closed door meetings with powerful unions. I’ve got nothing against unions. I was a union member myself when I was a journalist but I don’t think the unions should run the country and I don’t think a union should be pulling the strings. I think the people should choose the prime minister, not the unions.
QUESTION:
The Treasurer is at the G20 in Paris. He says businesses should follow the law of the land on carbon permits. So doesn’t this mean the Coalition would be legally liable to pay compensation to businesses that choose to buy international permits?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, I’ve dealt with the whole compensation issue yesterday.
QUESTION:
But you acknowledged yesterday that there would be a cost to taxpayers in your answer. There’s some estimates around that suggest that cost might be as high as $1 billion. Do you acknowledge that there is some risk to the Budget in terms of your advice to business?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, the carbon tax package is going to cost over $4 billion over the forward estimates period. So repealing the carbon tax, at least in the forward estimates period, is all upside for the Budget.
QUESTION:
On the Cape there’s a push by both state and federal Labor governments to world heritage list parts of Cape York. Do you in principle support that?
TONY ABBOTT:
I certainly think that there are significant parts of the Cape which are of unique environmental value but I’m dead against world heritage listing for the whole of the Cape because that will be yet another obstacle to economic development. As we are seeing here today the Aboriginal people of Cape York want to have an economic future. They want to provide for themselves. They don’t want to be on welfare forever and I think that so many of these environmental measures, well intentioned though many of them are, are just going to trap Aboriginal people in a cycle of welfare and poverty and are going to prevent Aboriginal people from using what is their land for their benefit.
QUESTION:
All sides say that there’s no intention to blanket list the Cape and you couldn’t because there’s already, you know, significant mines there and each side says they’ll wait for aboriginal consent before they do put forward a nomination. So do you support that?
TONY ABBOTT:
I think Aboriginal people are rightly sceptical of the current federal and state governments because, let’s face it, it’s the state Labor Government which put the Wild Rivers legislation in place which has effectively locked up the Cape against economic development and it’s the current federal Labor Government which has prevented my private members bill to undo the Wild Rivers legislation from going forward.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, if the Prime Minister moves to allow her party a conscience vote on the issue of gay marriage ahead of the Labor conference later this year will you allow your parliamentarians a conscience vote on this issue?
TONY ABBOTT:
It’s been Coalition policy since 2004 that marriage is between a man and a woman. Now, that’s our policy, I have no intention for that policy to change and on policy questions we don’t allow conscience votes.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible] personal conscience issues, the parliament allows conscience votes. Why not on gay marriage?
TONY ABBOTT:
I accept that a lot of people have strong feelings about this but it wasn’t a conscience issue in 2004 and I don’t think that it will be a conscience issue if it comes up again.
QUESTION:
Yesterday when you did talk about compensation, can I just clarify, you said that you don’t think the Coalition would be legally liable to pay compensation to businesses should they buy permits now?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, the point I made – it’s the point I’ve been making since last week – is that businesses should not buy carbon permits that they don’t need now. That’s the point.
QUESTION:
But essentially, I think if I understand what you’ve said today, your argument is that the benefit to the budget of scrapping the scheme outweighs any compensation your government may have to pay business. Is that your argument?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, the point I make is that the whole carbon tax package is going to cost more than $4 billion over the forward estimates period. So getting rid of the carbon tax is going to be all upside as far as the budget is concerned.
QUESTION:
So apparently Cougar Energy is suing the Queensland Government and the Department of Environment and Resource Management personally over, or officials from DERM personally, over their orders to halt the development of the Kingaroy power plant project. Do you have thoughts about this?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, I just think that’s it’s very important that Labor governments treat business fairly and the problem is that Labor governments have a long history now of making decisions which impact on business which they haven’t discussed with business beforehand and which end up giving Australia a reputation for being a sovereign risk. Now, that’s a very bad thing and I think that really the problem is that Labor governments generally just don’t get it when it comes to a good relationship with business.
QUESTION:
Can I just ask one about [inaudible] who you sat next to at lunch. I asked her, she was very impressed that you continued to do work once the cameras stopped rolling and I asked her if there was any message, if there was any one message that she wanted you to take back to Canberra with you and she said that as well as, they want to own this house but they also want to be able to legally own the land that they’re standing on. I know we spoke about that yesterday but is that something, you know, is that a message you will take back?
TONY ABBOTT:
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Look, under Mal Brough the Coalition was very, very keen to try to ensure that Aboriginal people owned their own homes. I know that it’s proving very difficult to get the existing title systems to provide for Aboriginal home ownership. We’ve got to do better, we will do better and I am absolutely determined to ensure that you never have a situation where people build a beautiful home like this without actually having title to the land on which the home rests. Now, if we want people to have real pride of place, if we want people to really enter the economic mainstream we’ve got to tackle this problem and we’ve got to deal with it satisfactorily.
Thank you.
[ends]