Julie Bishop - Member for Curtin

MTR 1377, Mornings with Steve Vizard

Friday, 23 July 2010

Subjects: Labor’s climate change policy; population; mining tax; Kevin Rudd; Labor’s East Timor border protection policy; Hey, Hey it’s Saturday

E&OE…

STEVE VIZARD    The election is in absolute full swing although it doesn’t seem to be getting that much traction. Joining me in the studio to discuss it we have Julie Bishop. If the votes fall her way she is going to be the new Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Welcome Julie.

JULIE BISHOP    Good morning Steve. In fact if things go our way, I end up as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and the National Party leader becomes the Deputy Prime Minister under our Coalition.

STEVE VIZARD    That’s right.

JULIE BISHOP    But I’d be very proud to be the first female Foreign Minister of this country.

STEVE VIZARD    This is exactly right. So you’d be doing a bit of travelling if you get up.

JULIE BISHOP    Indeed.

STEVE VIZARD    Passport taken out? Oh you get a Diplomatic Passport in that event.

JULIE BISHOP    I have one anyway, not that it makes much difference, it has just got a different cover.

STEVE VIZARD    It is a different colour. Let’s turn to the election. Prime Minister Julia Gillard reportedly going to announce a citizen’s assembly to test community support for an emissions trading scheme. Who is running the Government?

JULIE BISHOP    Oh Steve, seriously this is laughable. The Labor Government had a 2020 Summit to come up with ideas and got their last climate change policy from the 2020 Summit. So what she has announced today is a sub-committee of the 2020 Summit to come up with another climate change policy. I mean seriously?

I think there is a lot of dishonesty going on here. Labor have done a preference deal with the Greens before the Greens had even seen the Labor Party climate change policy. Julia Gillard believes in a carbon price. Bob Brown of the Greens believes in a carbon tax. Don’t tell me that this isn’t code for a carbon tax. Julia Gillard just doesn’t have the courage to tell the Australian people before the election so she has got this idea of a citizen’s assembly of 150 people. I thought we had a citizen’s assembly of 150 people. It is called the House of Representatives.

STEVE VIZARD    And we’ve actually got a citizen’s assembly right now. It is called an election. Its 22 million people and we get a right to vote on it and both parties should put out their policies and we vote on the policies we believe in. Not, oh we’ll tell you what the policy is going to be after the election, after this so called citizen’s assembly.

JULIE BISHOP    It is just a giant focus group. I mean this Government is so poll driven, so focus group driven that they can’t even come up with a climate change policy.

Now you remember last year, Julia Gillard said that to delay action on climate change, not to pass an emissions trading scheme, was to deny climate change. Well she is delaying so is she a denier?

STEVE VIZARD    This was the most important issue of our generation. This, of all issues for Labor, should be the one that – forget the citizen’s assembly, we should have this locked down, it should be mapped out a detailed – it being the most important issue of our generation.

JULIE BISHOP    “The greatest moral challenge of our age” if you recall.

STEVE VIZARD    Yes. Let’s talk about population. The PM’s shift from a large Australia under KRudd to a small population under her leadership two weeks ago and then the advertisements - a “sustainable Australia”. There is an awful lot movement going on here isn’t there? And in fact we are seeing today the RBA director saying this is unacceptable, we need a bigger Australia, we need Australia invested in. This again is an issue that should be put on the table for the electorate to decide on isn’t it?

JULIE BISHOP    Well what exactly is Julia Gillard talking about? She said she doesn’t want a big Australia, she presumably wants a smaller Australia. She says that it has got to be sustainable but it is not about immigration. Well is she saying it is about birth rate or death rate? Of course it is about immigration. So if she is trying to do the nudge, nudge, wink, wink “I want a smaller Australia but I don’t want to talk about immigration”. She’s not being honest with the Australian people. She should set out what she actually means by this. There is no policy here. She is just floating an idea to appeal to a particular section of the community.

STEVE VIZARD    It has been a failure of policy for successive Governments though to articulate what the size of Australia should be and therefore to plan properly for it in the future. And the growth of pressure we are seeing in the big capital cities is really a result of successive Governments having failed to plan properly for the size of Australia looking not five years forward, 20, 30, 40 years forward.

JULIE BISHOP    After World War 2 there was a population policy of sorts. They wanted the country to grow by about 1 percent and that was done through immigration and the birth rate. Our population is growing at a greater rate, over 2 percent, and that is a debate we should have of course. Can Australia sustain a population growth of about 2 percent? And there should be a policy around that. I agree completely. But it is too simplistic to say “We don’t want a big Australia we want a small Australia”.

I come from the West. In Western Australia we need more workers, we need more population centres up the coast of Western Australia. I’d love to see a large population centre in the north of the state. We’ve got plenty of water up there. Our most strategic energy assets are up there. We should have a defence base up in the north west of Australia. We need an expanding population in the West.

STEVE VIZARD    So that is Western Australia. Melbourne and Sydney are different. But accumulatively…

JULIE BISHOP    But Melbourne and Sydney that is a question of infrastructure and lack of services.

STEVE VIZARD    Absolutely.

JULIE BISHOP    And State Labor Governments have a lot to answer for. Failing to plan their cities for the infrastructure and for the delivery of services.

STEVE VIZARD    But accumulatively you put all of these different regions together, you’ve got your own needs in the West, we’ve got our own needs here. You put it together and you come up with one picture for the whole of Australia, or be it with contributing components. That gives you a size. How big does the Coalition say Australia should be?

JULIE BISHOP    Well Steve when we were in Government we had a net migration of about 180,000 people a year and I believe that that size was able to be absorbed into the Australian population, because we didn’t have debates about immigration or whether there were too many or not enough. Because 180,000 people was a pretty fair increase. It is now up to about 300,000. That is why Labor is trying to have this debate but not actually talk about immigration.

On an immigration increase of about 180,000 we were on track to be a country of about 29-30 million, something around that, and with this explosion in immigration it is now up to about 36-37 million, something like that. So there are these parameters we can talk about.

What the Coalition is suggesting is that the Productivity Commission be charged with the responsibility of setting a band of population growth much like the Reserve Bank has a band for inflation. And within that band we would take advice on how the population could grow and in what areas and then if were it were 1 percent, 2 percent we’d be able to plan in advance. So I think that is the kind of population policy Australians want to hear about.

STEVE VIZARD    The mining tax was put to bed in the Prime Minister’s first week of office.

JULIE BISHOP    No way.

STEVE VIZARD    Dealt with, but we now see at least some of the big miners including Twiggy Forrest saying, we weren’t in on that deal, we’re not happy with it and we’re even thinking of advertising against the Government in the election we are in the middle of.

JULIE BISHOP    You recall Julia Gillard said in her first press conference after Kevin Rudd had been removed from office, she told the miners to open their minds and she would open her door. Well she only opened the door to three mining companies. Over 3,000 were excluded from those consultations and they are not happy. And now that there has been this secret preference deal with the Greens the mining companies want to know what has Labor promised the Greens in order to get their preferences.

Now Bob Brown is on record as opposing major mining developments in this country. He is on record as saying that he thinks the additional mining tax should be 50 percent and he also thinks that there should be a lot more money taken out of the mining sector. So the Australian people and the mining sector in particular are entitled to ask, what did Labor promise the Greens in order to get their preferences in relation to mining?

STEVE VIZARD    He also, I think, believes in a succession tax or a death tax as well interestingly enough. So it would be interesting to know whether that was part of the bundle of things promised as well.

We’ve got callers lined up to talk to Julie Bishop. Julie if you don’t mind we’ve got Martin on the line. Martin a question for Julie.

CALLER: MARTIN    Steve and Julie, thank you for taking my call. I’m a massive fan of Tony Abbott. I think Tony’s done a brilliant job since he took over. I just want to talk about the dreadful election campaign that is being conducted by the Liberal Party at the moment. I think it is a shocker. I think Loughnane, or whatever his name is, should be sacked. I will give you some examples.

STEVE VIZARD    Make them quick because we’ve got callers lined up.

CALLER: MARTIN    There is no mention of the Gillard failures, there is no mention of their stupidity like FuelWatch and GroceryWatch. And the main point is they keep saying, Gillard and Swan keep saying, that they got us through the financial crisis. They did not. The only thing that got us through the financial GFC was a strong economy left by the Liberal Party. And if that sort of strategy is going to be used and advice given to Tony for his debate over the weekend he is going to be slaughter.

STEVE VIZARD    Alright thanks Martin, I’ll get Julie’s reaction to that.

JULIE BISHOP    It is early days in the campaign. All of those issues will be part of our campaign. Tony will certainly make those points on Sunday night. I think that in the lead up to Election Day the Australian people will be reminded of what a disaster the Rudd-and-Gillard Government, the Rudd-now-Gillard Government, have been for this country - the waste, the mismanagement, the taxes, not being able to protect our borders - all that will be part of our campaign.

STEVE VIZARD    Georgie from Chelton, you’ve got a question for Julie Bishop.

CALLER: GEORGIE    Yes Julie. With this summit, number one, doesn’t it prove that Julia Gillard has not the courage of her convictions? If she’s been espousing the ETS for four years and now she is saying we need some sort of a consensus is she saying that she doesn’t want to rule under her conviction all she wants to do it play populus? That’s number one.

But number two, in conjunction with the mining tax which nobody has yet told me how much that is going to increase my electricity, my bauxite, my aluminium, anything like this. Then if we get an ETS you have the flow on effect. Everyone saying, oh our power bills will go up by whatever. Our power bills might go up but every single service will also go up.

STEVE VIZARD    Alright Georgie, we’ve got plenty of other people wanting to ask questions, thanks for that.

JULIE BISHOP    Georgie this is clearly a smoke screen by Labor. They had an emissions trading scheme as their policy. They said that climate change was the greatest moral challenge of our age. They should put forward the policy they actually believe in. And you are right, an emissions trading scheme would increase the cost of living in this country. It would drive up the cost of electricity, that is why the Liberal Party oppose a tax on everything.

And yet Julia Gillard is now trying to distract attention, put up a smoke screen and she doesn’t have the courage of her convictions to be honest with the Australian people and say what their policy is.

Now clearly she did a deal with the Greens before they saw the formal climate change policy. I believe she is not being honest with the Australian people about what they actually intend to do.

STEVE VIZARD    Julie Bishop taking calls. Richard from Richmond, question for Julie Bishop.

CALLER: RICHARD    Good morning Julie. Julia obviously got rid of Kevin Rudd because presumably she thought that he was doing a bad job. How can somebody that gets rid of somebody for doing a bad job then offer him a front seat job in a Government? I just don’t get that.

STEVE VIZARD    Okay, thanks Richard. Good question.

JULIE BISHOP    That is a very good question. Clearly Kevin Rudd doesn’t trust Julia Gillard to keep her word about giving him a frontbench job because he is out looking for a part-time position in the United Nations.

STEVE VIZARD    Can he do both?

JULIE BISHOP    No of course he can’t. If he were to be given a job as Foreign Minister, and I have a question as to whether he is fit for that role given the revelations on ABC overnight, but if he is to be given a position as Foreign Minister he should focus all his efforts on Australia’s national interest not be gallivanting around the world looking for a part-time job on the UN.

But the point that Richard made is absolutely right. Kevin Rudd could not trust Julia Gillard’s word. She said she wouldn’t challenge him and she knifed him in the back. Why should the Australian people trust her?

STEVE VIZARD    The East Timorese say they know nothing about those discussions that were occurring in relation to asylum seeker processing. This is another major challenge for the Government going forward isn’t it?

JULIE BISHOP    Well Julia Gillard said she was going to fix the mining tax. She hasn’t fixed the mining tax. She said she was going to fix the people smuggling problem by doing a deal with East Timor to put a processing centre in East Timor. Now apart from ringing the wrong person to discuss it, you will recall she called the President not the Prime Minister which was an embarrassing diplomatic gaffe, she’s said they are negotiating with the East Timorese. Well if the Deputy Prime Minister says no one is negotiating with them, if President Ramos Horta was in China, apparently, when the Australian negotiators turned up and he was charged with the responsibility of negotiating, who are they talking to? This is just another example of a failed policy. There is no border protection policy on Labor’s part.

STEVE VIZARD    If you were Tony Abbott would you have gone on Hey, Hey it’s Saturday? And how did you think he went on Hey, Hey it’s Saturday?

JULIE BISHOP    I didn’t actually see it. I was out in regional Victoria campaigning but I did get a lot of feedback that they thought it was pretty funny. Look remember when Kevin Rudd went on Rove and people thought that was a stroke of political genius to have Kevin out on Rove? Well Tony’s a great guy, he is very easy going, he’s pretty informal and it is not a bad thing for people to see that human side of Tony Abbott. And I’ve had feedback that people thought it was pretty funny. In fact I’ve been told that the audience warm up guy got half the audience to boo and half the audience to cheer, so it was… [laugh]

STEVE VIZARD    Oh that was lovely wasn’t it?

JULIE BISHOP    Yeah, charming! Hmmm anyway. Politicians are expected to be accessible, people want to know more about them and these programs are available for us. I thought he was pretty good.

STEVE VIZARD    We’ve got a big round of footy coming up. Hawthorn is about to demolish St Kilda tonight at Etihad Stadium. Who do you go for?

JULIE BISHOP    I am going for the Eagles tomorrow night against Carlton at Subiaco. I am on the board of the West Coast Eagles. I declare an interest.

STEVE VIZARD    I think I knew that.

JULIE BISHOP    And I always tip the Eagles. I think I am the only one that does.

STEVE VIZARD    But how is your tipping going generally Julie?

JULIE BISHOP    I’m just doing fine. When we won last week I was the only one who tipped the Eagles. Now when you are on the bottom of the ladder you’ve only got one way to go and that is up.

STEVE VIZARD    Good on you. Julie Bishop thanks for coming in. Really appreciate it.  Julie Bishop, Deputy Opposition Leader, right in the middle of a campaign and if we can we’ll talk to Julie all the way through the campaign. Thanks for your time this morning.