E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
MELBOURNE
TUESDAY, 16 APRIL 2019

SUBJECT/S: Notre Dame, Liberals’ $40 billion secret cuts

BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITON: [Audio cuts in] I imagine we would feel if Sydney – if the Opera House was to catch fire or Sydney Harbour Bridge. It's devastating for the world. 

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]
 
SHORTEN: I've been there, I remember when I first was a young backpacker it was one of the – in the time before GPS, Notre Dame was one of the ways you would navigate around Paris, on the island in the middle of the Seine. More recently, I remember running through the early morning streets, doing a run through Paris, and you run past the brooding, gothic cathedral that is Notre Dame. 

It's devastating. I would like to echo something that Malcolm Turnbull has just said. I think Australia should contribute to a restoration fund. Notre Dame doesn't just belong to Paris or France, it belongs to the world. I think we, all of us who've enjoyed that architecture, that history, we too should perhaps rally around and help Paris and Notre Dame. 
 
JOURNALIST: So if restoration were a decision for a Shorten Government to take, what would you do?
 
SHORTEN: I think it's worth Australia investing in the restoration of Notre Dame. Notre Dame doesn't just belong to Paris or France, it belongs to the world. 
 
JOURNALIST: Before we let you go this morning, there is a report that the Government's numbers, as such,a Grattan Institute examination suggests that it could be $40 billion a year short on its surplus unless it picks – or cuts in harder with taxes or something, or spending cuts to pay the difference, your response?
 
SHORTEN: The whistle has been blown on the Government's secret cuts to spending in the Budget. This Government is promising tax cuts in five years’ time for some people, but it's doing it on the basis of $40 billion worth of cuts. The secret’s out, this is a government with secret cuts to spending in its Budget to fund its promises on the never-never, for tax cuts.
 
JOURNALIST: Finally, were you surprised by that? Did that shock you or were those numbers you'd seen in the Budget and expected? 
 
SHORTEN: This government has form. They've never seen an education or health profile that they didn't want to cut the spending to. What this means for every day Australians is that the problems we've seen with increasing costs of healthcare, longer waiting lists, underfunded schools – the Liberals have form.
 
When it comes to a choice between looking after the top end of town and looking after schools and hospitals, sadly, they always look after the top end of town first. 

ENDS