Subjects: The Coalition's deregulation agenda; small business; Julia Gillard’s carbon tax; the Government's failed border protection policies; Budget; GST; US election; St. John's College; Galaxy poll.
EO&E...........................................................................................................................................
TONY ABBOTT:
It’s terrific to be here at Robbo’s. This is an iconic Canberra business and it’s typical of the small businesses which are doing it tougher than they ought because of the policies of the current government. There is too much regulation. There is too much tax and there is a general failure to understand what it takes to run a small business. Just about every small business in our country is only funded because the owner has put his or her house on the line and that's why we've got to be particularly respectful of small business if we are going to have in our economy the confidence that we need if there's going to be investment, if there’s going to be employment, if there's going to be growth.
Now, what we see from this government day in day out is that you can't trust them with economic management and you can't trust them with your cost of living. There's further evidence today from Access Economics that this government is never ever going to deliver even a dishonest surplus – let alone the honest surplus that the Australian public deserve – and the trouble with a government which cannot get the Budget back into surplus is that it keeps putting more pressure on households because a government which is out there borrowing, in this case, $20 million a day, is always putting unnecessary upward pressure on interest rates and then, of course, there's the carbon tax. Now, the carbon tax is emblematic of this government's failure to understand the real world of small business and the real world of households. Robbo's power bill has gone up by 50 per cent from June to July – that's certainly not all the carbon tax, but the carbon tax is making a bad situation worse and if this government got it when it comes to families’ cost of living and when it comes to the pressure on small business, they would never have gone ahead with the world's biggest carbon tax at the worst possible time.
Finally, if I may on another subject, we've seen five boats in 48 hours. This government has completely lost control of our borders. A bad situation is getting worse all the time. This government’s heart is just not in it. The fact is less than seven per cent of illegal boat arrivals have ended up in Nauru since the Government made the announcement that people were going to go there. Now, the people smugglers know that this government is not serious and as long as the people smugglers think that the Government is not serious, the boats will just keep coming and if you can't control our borders you can't govern the country.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, given that you say the Government can't deliver a surplus, are you still committed to your promise to have a surplus in each of your first three budgets?
TONY ABBOTT:
Yes. We will do better – significantly better – than the Government.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, you just said that government debt is putting upward pressure on interest rates but interest rates are at historical lows. It's a fair bet that the Reserve will ease again tomorrow. Won't that be good for small businesses like this and mortgage holders?
TONY ABBOTT:
If the Reserve Bank cuts, that won’t be a sign of Australia’s economic strength; that will be a sign of general economic weakness. Cutting interests rates at the moment, sure, would be helpful but it would be a sign of the Reserve Bank's fundamental angst about the state of the local and international economy.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, where is the evidence of this upward pressure on interest rates?
TONY ABBOTT:
A government which is paying $20 million a day in interest on what it’s already borrowed is inevitably putting pressure on interest rates.
QUESTION:
What do you say to the Treasury analysis that your policies – three of your policies alone – will cost business $4.57 billion in the first year?
TONY ABBOTT:
I don't think that the Government should be misusing Treasury analysis in this way and this analysis, which is being misused by the Government, doesn't take into account the fact that the carbon tax has gone, the mining tax has gone and there will be a modest company tax cut.
QUESTION:
So, you're saying that your policies won't be a net cost on business over the first year given the 1.5 per cent levy and so on?
TONY ABBOTT:
I'm saying that taxes on business will be less under the Coalition than under Labor because the carbon tax will be gone, the mining tax will be gone and there will be a modest company tax cut.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, if global circumstances warranted a deficit this year and next in the Budget, would you support the current government in producing that deficit or would you keep prosecuting it on its alleged promise for a surplus?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, it's not an alleged promise. It's an absolute commitment. On at least 150 separate occasions, Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard have promised a surplus: "No ifs, no buts" said Julia Gillard. "There will be a surplus come hell or high water" said Wayne Swan. Now, these people have got to deliver on their commitments and I know they've got a record of breaking the most solemn pledge and, frankly, if they break their solemn pledges, they should be criticised and they should be judged by us and the electorate.
QUESTION:
Two different things. One, the GST. Again, people are out and about and saying it should be looked at; the base broadened or rate increased and what are you views on that? And, secondly, the US election tomorrow. Are you backing either side; cheering any one candidate?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, Phil, on the GST, we have no plans to change. I don't believe the Government has either. We certainly think that the existing system is the system that we should stick with. On the US election, regardless of the outcome, Australia will have the strongest possible relationships with the United States because the US is our greatest friend and greatest ally and it's going to stay that way regardless of who wins the election.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, St Johns College at Sydney University has been embroiled in controversy over some recent behaviour. That’s your old college, what do you think of those reports?
TONY ABBOTT:
I think that bad behaviour by undergraduates should be discouraged.
QUESTION:
Do you think it's any worse than what it was when you were there?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, I don't want to go into the events of 35 years ago and I don't want to make light of bad behaviour by undergraduates because if the stories in the newspapers are true, it is appalling and it needs to be dealt with and I'm sure it will be.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, can I just ask whether you think the Prime Minister should make a full parliamentary explanation about the AWU issue, one of the reasons for which being to clarify whether there was any misleading of the Parliament last week?
TONY ABBOTT:
Joe, I think the Prime Minister does have questions to answer. I think it's disappointing that she hasn't openly answered questions in the Parliament and, look, this isn't just about what might have happened in the 90s when she was a partner at a law firm; this is about whether the Prime Minister has been straight with the Australian people in the last couple of months in dealing with this issue.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, there’s a poll out today that says that the public wants a change of government, but they don’t necessarily want you as leader of the Coalition. What do you say to that?
TONY ABBOTT:
Look, I say what I always say and that is that my job is to hold a bad government to account and my job is to present a credible alternative and you only have to look at the speech I gave last Friday where I talked about the Coalition's policies to cut $1 billion a year out of business regulatory costs; to have an annual deregulatory statement in the Parliament to talk about the Government's progress in actually having less regulation rather than more. We’re going to have two days a year in order to repeal legislation and get regulations down. So, look, every day I am out there with a positive alternative as well as doing the essential job of opposition which is to hold the Government to account.
QUESTION:
Do you really believe Malcolm Turnbull is more popular than you?
TONY ABBOTT:
I think that Malcolm is doing a really good job as the Shadow Minister for Communications and the fact that more and more people are realising that the National Broadband Network is the wrong way to go about giving Australians faster and more affordable broadband is in large measure a testimony to his effectiveness in prosecuting that case.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, there’s reports of a widespread hunger strike on Nauru. Do you think the Government’s handling that appropriately?
TONY ABBOTT:
I think the only way to handle these issues is to stop the boats and the only way to stop the boats is to have rigorous offshore processing at Nauru and elsewhere for all illegal boat arrivals, certainly not for just six per cent of illegal boat arrivals. It’s to have temporary protection visas so that the people smugglers don’t have a product to sell and, very importantly, it’s the willingness to turn boats around where it’s safe to do so. Now, this government promised - Kevin Rudd promised - that boats would be turned around. Unfortunately, it just hasn’t happened and that’s why the public thinks this government doesn’t have its heart in it when it comes to border protection.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible]...increase the capacity of Nauru from 1,500-1,800 to 15,000-18,000? Are you saying you’d do that?
TONY ABBOTT:
I would say that I would do what is necessary to stop the boats because if you can’t stop the boats you can’t govern the country. You just can’t be a serious country and preside over this kind of chaotic dissolution of border protection policies and every day it just seems to be getting worse. As I said, five boats in just 48 hours. Each month seems to be bringing us record arrivals and the Government doesn’t have any answers. This is a floundering government with no answers to this fundamental challenge to its authority.
QUESTION:
If the Government can’t get a surplus, how, Mr Abbott, could you get an instant one?
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, we would get government spending under control. We would get productivity up and, in the end, you’ve got to get government spending under control and you’ve got to get productivity of our country up if you want stronger economic growth. Now, I know that the headline figures haven’t looked too bad for this government but when you actually look behind the headline figures and look at GDP per head, it’s been just a whisker over a half a per cent under this government, whereas it was about 2.25 per cent over the eleven-and-a-half years of the Howard Government. In the end, you’ve got to get productivity up. You get productivity up, you get growth up, you get growth up, you can improve government services. There can be sustainable cuts to spending, there can be sustainable cuts to tax and that’s what you will get…
QUESTION:
It takes time though.
TONY ABBOTT:
Well, of course things take time but we will do better than this government from day one.
Thank you.
Location:
Federal