TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR

JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH RUSSELL MATHESON MHR,

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MACARTHUR,

APPIN, NEW SOUTH WALES

Subjects: Julia Gillard’s carbon tax; visit to Macarthur; poker machine reform; car industry.

E&OE……………………….……………………………………………………………

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s good to be here at Tech Engineering. I want to thank the Golding family and others associated with th... is business for making me and Russell Matheson so welcome. I’m pleased to be here at a dynamic Australian manufacturing centre to start off, for me, the political year of 2012.

I just want to say at the outset that the fundamental dishonesty which haunted the Gillard Government in 2011, that pall of dishonesty that haunted the Government last year, will continue to haunt it this year. This is a government based on a lie – the lie that the Prime Minister told five days before the last election, when she said “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead”. And of course, as we know, this is a government which wants to hit businesses like this, and every Australian household, with a carbon tax which is just going to cause businesses to suffer, families to suffer and employment to suffer.

This is a good, honest Australian family business. It is an innovative Australian family business. You see here in this factory tilt tip trucks, an Australian innovation being made here in Australia. You see here innovative concrete installations for the water industry, for the sewerage industry. These are Australian businesses which are going to be badly hurt by this unnecessary carbon tax, a bad tax based on a lie. Here in this business you’ve got an electricity bill of $35,000 a year that’s just going to go up and up and up under the carbon tax. You’ve got a fuel bill of $25,000 a year. It’s going to go up and up and up under the carbon tax to 2014. So the best thing that I can do for this country of ours is to fight the carbon tax in opposition and to rescind it in government and that is what I will be doing every day of my political life.

Just before I throw to Russell, I know there’s been a lot of interest in yet another Gillard Government double-cross and that is the double-cross which is almost certain to be inflicted on Andrew Wilkie. This is a prime minister on the verge of dudding Andrew Wilkie the same way she dudded the Australian people. She’s going to dud Andrew Wilkie on mandatory pre-commitment, just as she dudded the Australian people over the carbon tax and what that just goes to show is this is a government and a Prime Minister which is fundamentally untrustworthy.

Russell?

RUSSELL MATHESON:

Thanks Tony. I’d just like to thank Tony for being in the Macarthur region today. He’s keeping in touch with the local residents and the local businesses, businesses that are doing it tough in the Macarthur region. We’ve got a tax that’s based on a lie. It’s going to affect our local businesses. It’s bad for business. It’s going to affect local jobs. When you look at the unemployment in the Macarthur region, unemployment is always well above the national average. So the loss of jobs locally is really going to impact upon the community which I live in. My community is starting to voice their opinions and Tony is here to listen to them today. When we look at the impact upon families in the Macarthur region, the loss of jobs, how do you compensate loss of jobs and loss of income for struggling families in Macarthur? Forgotten families, Tony’s here today. He’s addressing the issues and I thank him for being here today. Thank you, Tony.

TONY ABBOTT:

Okay mate. Any questions?

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, this is your second visit to the Illawarra. Last time you were here, you went down the Helensburgh mine. I mean, why is it such a concern? Why is the Illawarra such a concern for you with this carbon tax?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, the Illawarra is a very important mining area. It was the home of the Australian coal industry a couple of hundred years ago and it’s a very, very important manufacturing centre. The mining tax and the carbon tax are double blows to the Illawarra and if people want to be true friends to the Illawarra region you’ve got to be against the carbon tax and against the mining tax and that’s the Coalition that I lead.

QUESTION:

And with what happened at BlueScope last year, you know, we lost 1,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector. I mean, this company, you know, is that affected in the same kind of way if this carbon tax comes in?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, the interesting thing about the steel industry is that Australia should be a natural leader in steel. We have an inbuilt comparative economic advantage when it comes to steel. We have abundant coal, we have abundant iron ore and we should have affordable energy – all of the essential ingredients in the making of steel. So we should be expanding our steel industry, not contracting it. We should be exporting steel to the world, not just making it for a shrinking proportion of the local market and as we all know, rather than expanding its export operations, BlueScope is closing down its export blast furnace. Now, this is a disaster for our country and it would be so much easier for the steel industry to expand without the carbon tax. The best thing any government can do for manufacturing, for steel, for the motor industry of this country: don’t go ahead with the carbon tax. The carbon tax is a dagger aimed at the heart of manufacturing, particularly the steel industry, particularly the motor industry. Every car in this country will cost $400 a year more thanks to the carbon tax. We don’t need to give our manufacturing industries more hurdles, more obstacles, more burdens, and that’s what the carbon tax is.

QUESTION:

The Government says that the steel transformation plan that comes with the carbon tax will actually support the Illawarra and its transformation towards greener energy. I mean, what do you say on that?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, they give with one hand but they take with the other and I’m saying they should stop the taking. They should stop putting additional burdens on the manufacturing sector which is so vital for Australia’s continuance as a first world economy. You cannot be a first world economy without a dynamic manufacturing sector. Notwithstanding all the economic changes of the last couple of decades, Australia still has a dynamic manufacturing sector. We want it to expand, not shrink, and the best way to keep it going, to keep it going strong, is get rid of the carbon tax.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, how long would it take the Coalition, if it’s elected, to rescind the carbon tax?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, we would begin the process from day one and we would rescind it as quickly as we humanly could. The first legislative act of an incoming Coalition government, should the carbon tax be finally in place, would be its repeal.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, what are your thoughts on Mr Wilkie’s decision overnight to delay his poker machine reforms to after the next election?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I’m not sure that that is necessarily Mr Wilkie’s position. It’s really up to Mr Wilkie to clarify his position. But my point is that no one can trust the Gillard Government. The Australian people can’t trust the Gillard Government, Andrew Wilkie can’t trust the Gillard Government, the pubs and clubs can’t trust the Gillard Government, no one can trust the Gillard Government because the only thing that you can count on from this Prime Minister is that she will do anything, anything at all, break any commitment, turn any promise on its head if it’s necessary for her survival.

QUESTION:

Has he allowed the Prime Minister to essentially get away with murder here, in a way, by not standing his ground like he promised pre-election?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think all of these squalid manoeuvres – and we’ve seen so many of them from the Gillard Government – are causing the Australian public more and more to yearn for an election. The one way to restore honest government to this country, the one way to restore political integrity is to have an election and let the people pass judgement on this fundamentally incompetent and untrustworthy Government.

QUESTION:

Given Mr Wilkie’s commitment to side with the Labor Government after the election was premised upon his support – their support for poker machine reform – do you think he should then be withdrawing his formal support for the Labor Government?

TONY ABBOTT:

My quarrel is not with any independent member of parliament. My quarrel is with a government which has let down everyone. I mean no-one can trust this government. The people can’t trust the Government, Andrew Wilkie can’t trust this government. This is a government which will double-cross anyone and everyone if it suits its political purposes and really it’s up to independents who have been let down by this government to then decide what is the appropriate course of action, but the best thing that we could have in this country right now, to restore political integrity, to restore trust in government, is an election.

QUESTION:

Would you support a trial of pre-commitment technology?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, we have always said that the way forward to deal with problem gambling is voluntary pre-commitment, more counselling and a serious attack on online gambling. Online gambling is the dark solitary cave into which problem gamblers will fall should the Government’s mandatory pre-commitment policy be implemented, and the tragedy of online gambling is that you can lose your house without ever leaving home.

QUESTION:

And what about a trial of mandatory pre-commitment technology in the ACT?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, we are happy to look at trials. What we have said is an unacceptable exercise of the nanny state is the mandatory pre-commitment which this government has been committed to. Now, as I said before, it looks like the Prime Minister is about to double-cross Andrew Wilkie on this, just like she’s double-crossed the Australian people over the carbon tax, but let’s wait and see what happens.

QUESTION:

So are you still awaiting the results from your inquiry into pokie laws to decide on your policy?

TONY ABBOTT:

We’ve said right upfront that mandatory pre-commitment is a bad idea. It is a bad idea. It won’t help the problem gambler but it will seriously damage clubs which are an important part of the social fabric, particularly in areas like this, in outer-metropolitan Sydney. So we’ve been very consistent. We don’t support mandatory pre-commitment. We’re happy to see voluntary pre-commitment. We’re happy to see trials, but the fact is mandatory pre-commitment won’t help the problem gambler but it certainly will do a lot of damage to important community institutions.

QUESTION:

Back on the carbon tax, what are your thoughts that the 500 companies that are so-called, you know, affected by this are still yet to be named?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well it’s typical of the duplicity of this government. There are all sorts of companies out there, which are going to be impacted by this carbon tax and the Gillard Government won’t even tell us who they are and I think if there is one thing which is guaranteed to breed uncertainty and anxiety amongst workers of this country, it is the uncertainty that the Gillard Government is creating about the impact of the carbon tax and where it will precisely fall.

QUESTION:

The car industry has been subject to some focus in the manufacturing sector. What level of support is appropriate to maintain in that industry?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well I want to make three points about the car industry. The first is that if you are a true friend of the car industry, dump the carbon tax. The carbon tax will add $400 to the price of every single car made in Australia – a cost penalty, which will not be applied to our foreign competitors. Second point I want to make is that the only political party to renege on a clear commitment to the car industry is the Labor Party. The Gillard Government has abandoned $1.4 billion worth of funding pledges to the car industry. The final point I want to make is that the Coalition has been absolutely consistent here. We said last February that we thought the quantum of support for the car industry should be that committed by the Howard Government and that remains our policy.

QUESTION:

Andrew Wilkie is holding meetings in Sydney today. Do you know who with?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, that’s a matter for Andrew.

QUESTION:

It’s not with Coalition MPs?

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s a matter for Andrew.

QUESTION:

ANZ has announced 130 jobs are about to go. Is it time the Government actually stepped in to shore up the banking sector? We saw a report out a couple of days ago some 7,000 jobs could go in the next couple of years.

TONY ABBOTT:

What we want from this Government is the best possible economic management, particularly with a worsening international economic situation. Now, every day that this Government is borrowing a hundred million dollars, is a day when the jobs of Australian workers are put at unnecessary risk. Every day that Australian industries and businesses are threatened by carbon taxes and mining taxes is a day when the jobs of workers are put at unnecessary risk. The best thing we could do to secure the jobs of Australian workers is to get government spending under control, because if government spending is under control, there’s less borrowing, less pressure on interest rates, there’s less pressure for new and increased taxes. So that’s the best thing that the Government can do for jobs in this country and that obviously is an absolute priority for the next Coalition government.

QUESTION:

Are you concerned about reports of mining companies being forced to buy Chinese equipment?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I think Australian businesses need to compete on a level playing field. Here today, we have seen a very good example of an innovative Australian business that is manufacturing for the mining industry. Now we want Australian businesses to get a fair go and if they get a fair go I am confident that they can compete with the best in the world and beat them. You only have to look at what this business is doing with the tilt tip technology to see what’s possible from innovative, flexible, nimble Australian manufacturers and I think we can succeed, I think we can flourish, but what we’ve got to do is take off the unnecessary burdens like the carbon tax.

Thanks so much, thank you.