E & O E SUBJECTS: Climate Change, Barnaby Joyce, Boxing Kangaroo flag WILSON: Joining us know for the first time this year, for our regular political Friday update are Federal Housing Minister, Tanya Plibersek, in Sydney and from Canberra, Shadow Communications Minister, Tony Smith.
Good morning, welcome both of you, Happy New Year. PLIBERSEK: Happy New Year. SMITH: Good morning. PLIBERSEK: Hi, Tony. SMITH: Good morning to your viewers. WILSON: Thank you. Minister firstly to you, Tony Abbott has come out of the box running as Opposition Leader. He has tweaked up the poll results a little bit. Has he got you guys on the rails? PLIBERSEK: Well I wouldn’t say that. I think people have been examining Tony Abbott’s scheme for Climate Change this week and they have found it very lacking. What they have found is a scheme that costs more than Labor’s scheme but does less, that actually sees carbon emission increase by 13 per cent instead of falling by 5 per cent and is completely unfunded. So it can come out of taxes or it can come out of services. SMITH: Tanya, come on. WILSON: He had a very good point though, it took you 24 hours to assess his climate change policy but we still haven’t got the result of yours? PLIBERSEK: That’s not right. There is an enormous amount of information released about Labor’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and at the bottom of the difference between the two schemes is in one scheme, big polluters pay tax payers and in the other scheme tax payers pay big polluters. SMITH: Well Tanya, if that is the case you can tell us how much a family on $80,000 a year will pay in increased electricity? PLIBERSEK: Well we know Tony that the costs will increase between 1.1 and 1.9 per cent. We have been clear and upfront about that the whole time. SMITH: Tanya. PILBERSEK: The other thing we have been clear and upfront about is that families will be compensated. Almost every Australia household will receive compensation and that compensation comes from big polluters who are paying to clean up some of the damage that they are doing to our environment. SMITH: Come on Tanya. All week we have seen the Prime Minister refuse to reveal the cost to families of his great big new tax. PLIBERSEK: That’s not true Tony. SMITH: What Ron said at the start, now come on you have had a go, what Ron said at the start is dead right. The public welcome a practical, tangible policy like what we have put forward. Solar panels, improving our soils, it’s a practical costed policy that the public welcome and all week you have been desperately trying to discredit it. And the figures you mentioned, trying to discredit it, contained in a note from one of your departments, it was so rushed, it was full of grammatical errors and incomplete sentences, I mean that just said it all. PLIBERSEK: Well Tony the Frontier Economics that the Leader of Opposition is saying backs your scheme, helped designed your scheme, they’re backing away from it. They’re not backing the scheme, they’re backing away from it. We have said all along the costs will increased between 1.1 and 1.9 per cent. Protecting our environment is not cost free but almost every Australian household will receive compensation to help with those costs and that compensation comes from the big polluters. WILSON: Tony, I have got to ask you this question, now your Finance Spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, has had a few things to say in recent days, one of them on your plans to cut the public service and the other to cut foreign aid. Now they make big headlines, but you are left to explain this sort of thing. SMITH: Look I mean, Tony Abbott explained clearly yesterday that we haven’t got any plans to alter our commitment to foreign aid. WILSON: Where did Mr. Joyce get his idea from then? SMITH: Well look, Barnaby is authentic, he is a very good Shadow Finance Spokesman, but occasionally, like all of us Ron, will make a slip up and when you make a slip up, of course you admit that. Now Kevin Rudd is making lots of slip ups and it is costing tax payers lots of money. I mean this week we seen an Auditor General reporting on Broadband, that saw $30 million down the drain, $17 million of Government money done the drain over a 17 month period, a million a month in incompetence. The point I would make Ron is the more the Labor party personally vilify Barnaby Joyce the more they confirm their desperation to conceal the effects of their great big new tax on Australian families. PLIBERSEK: Ron, I don’t think it is fair to say anyone is personally vilifying Barnaby, I think… SMITH: We have seen it all week in Parliament. PLIBERSEK: …lots of people think he is a very colourful character and very personable. The question here is whether he is a little out of his depth as Finance Shadow Spokesperson. WILSON: He is an accountant he would have some idea surely? PLIBERSEK: Well, I don’t know, mostly accountants can tell the difference between a billion and a trillion and Senator Joyce proved the other day at the Press Club that he didn’t know the difference. I think it is probably not important that every person is able to talk billions and trillions in their day to day life but if you are running the economy of this nation it is quite important to be able to know the size of the economy. Nobody is saying that he is not a colourful character, that he is quite personable but it is very very important to know the detail of the Australians economy and have sensible solutions to the challenges that face us. WILSON: I have got a question that we might get a little bit of agreement from both of you know, the International Olympic Authorities in Vancouver are telling the Australian’s to rip down their huge big flag of the boxing kangaroo. Tony what is your reaction to that? SMITH: Well I have seen this morning on your news that they are refusing to do and I welcome that and I hope with some traditional Aussie defiance there will be a second flag up there within the next 24 hours. PLIBERSEK: Tanya I trust you are going to come out boxing too on this issue? PLIBERSEK: Absolutely, I am proud of our flag, I am proud of the Eureka flag, I am proud of our Aboriginal flag and the boxing Kangaroo that is another favourite. WILSON: Well Julia Gillard was about to jump down the screen and tell them really where to go so I was all behind her on this one. PLIBERSEK: Oh absolutely, absolutely, what a silly thing to suggest to our athletes that they wouldn’t show their national pride. WILSON: I love your our (inaudible) outlook. Thank you very much to both of you and welcome back to the New Year and we will see you next Friday hopefully. Thank you very much indeed. PLIBERSEK: Thank Ron. SMITH: Ok. Have a good weekend.
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