TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON MALCOLM TURNBULL MP
INTERVIEW WITH MARIUS BENSON
ABC NEWSRADIO
Subjects: National Broadband Network, Paid Parental Leave
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MARIUS BENSON:
Malcolm Turnbull, Stephen Conroy concedes that the Government is not running to its original plan in rolling out the NBN but there’s progress – it’s reached Sydney now.
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Well I suppose it has but that’s very scant progress. They set a target at the end of 2010 – when the company was up and running and the corporate plan was published and so forth – to pass 1.3 million houses by June 30 this year. They will be doing very well – they will be very lucky, I should say – to reach 15 per cent of that. Now hitting 15 per cent of your target is appalling.
MARIUS BENSON:
Despite your criticisms, the evidence of the polls is that people prefer Labor’s – they’re not impressed with your plan, that they accept Labor’s criticism of your plan which is essentially that it’s the 21st century taken to an unsightly box on the street corner and then it’s strapped to the old copper world. They don’t like that.
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Well I can assure you there’ll be just as many boxes on the street corner under Labor’s plan than there are under ours. So you’re going to get boxes on street corners under either plan. The problem with Labor’s plan is that it costs too much and takes too long to deliver. And while fibre to the premise does offer the very high speeds – and keep in mind that under our plan we’d expect to have over 20 per cent of the wireline footprint covered by fibre to the premise – it delivers speeds that are well in excess of what residential customers need, will value or will pay for.
MARIUS BENSON:
Can I ask about another issue in the news today that is paid parental leave because that is a signature policy for Tony Abbott. It’s fairly costly, it costs $3 or $4 billion and it’s being paid with an impost on the biggest companies in Australia. There has been criticism reported in Liberal ranks for some time but today Alex Hawke MP, one of your parliamentary colleagues, has publicly criticised the paid parental leave scheme. Do you believe that Tony Abbott should shelve it?
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Well look this is a key policy of Tony Abbott’s and it is something we have as part of our policy and I don’t see any probability to likelihood of that policy being shelved. Tony is very committed to it.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think it should be shelved yourself?
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
No it’s part of our policy. I said that. It’s part of our policy, we are committed to it as a party, there will be different views, there are different views about every policy no doubt. But it is a very important policy and of course it does mean that women who take time off after they’ve had their baby will get paid parental leave which is commensurate to their salary.
JOURNALIST:
This is a very particular party policy though because it was a leader’s call when Tony Abbott announced it. He said it was a leader’s call he hadn’t consulted others and people have been critical of it within party ranks of it since then. Do you believe it should be reviewed?
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
No I’ve said again. I’m not going to comment on whether it should be reviewed or not. I don’t believe there is any need to review it. It’s been very carefully costed by Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb so it’s certainly within the policy budget envelope but any further deliberations we have on that or any other policy is obviously something we’ll do within the four walls of the shadow cabinet.
MARIUS BENSON:
Can I finally ask you about another issue which is Melbourne University has conducted a survey of public attitudes towards politicians and finds a lower estimate of politicians even than the traditionally low Australian estimate. Do you think that politicians deserve that lower estimate now?
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Well, I’ve got a vested interest haven’t I? I’m not a very objective observer. I think the nature of the political debate has been pretty unedifying over the last three years. There have been just so many backflips on the part of the government. There is a sense of despair – now that comes out in the poll – with 70 per cent of people saying they have no confidence in the government. That is extraordinary given that half of Labor voters say that. I think that the failure of the government to honour its promises to show any kind of consistency has really undermined confidence not just in the government but in the political system overall.
MARIUS BENSON:
Malcolm Turnbull thanks very much.
MALCOLM TURNBULL:
Thanks Marius.
ENDS