E&OE TRANSCRIPT

RADIO INTERVIEW

TRIPLE M HOT BREAKFAST

THURSDAY, 14 MAY 2015

 

Subject/s: Budget 2015

 

EDDIE MCGUIRE: Joining us on the line this morning to talk about the Federal Budget on Triple M’s Hot Breakfast as we come up to 7 minutes to 8 is the Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten, good morning Bill.

 

BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Good morning Eddie, good morning gentlemen.

 

MCGUIRE: Hey Bill I’ll give you a free hit here okay, what’s the one thing in the Budget that you look at and go ‘you’ve got to be kidding?’

 

SHORTEN: They’ve got no plan for the future, no plan for the future, couldn’t see anything which was more than just next week or next month.

 

LUKE DARCY: What do you think of the small business incentive that seems to ringing true to a lot of people, a big boost to the economy Bill and $20,000 for small business, that seems to be something positive, are you supporting that?

 

SHORTEN: Yeah, in the short term I can’t say that’s a bad thing, I think it’s a good thing so there won’t be daylight between Labor and Liberal on that one. Of course, not that people worry about what happened last week or last month, when Labor proposed a similar measure, when Tony Abbott was Opposition Leader opposed it. But I’m just not going to run the opposition the way he did. Not everything is wrong in the Budget but in the long term what I think people expect from a Budget is what’s the plan for the future, not next week, people have pretty much got their arrangements sorted out or next month, but what’s the plan for 2020, 2025, 2030. Where will the jobs come from for our kids? And I just didn’t hear that on Tuesday night.

 

MCGUIRE: It’s amazing isn’t it Bill, because in a lot of ways you’re echoing what Andrew Bolt wrote yesterday in the Herald Sun, who would have thought?

 

SHORTEN: Who would have thought?

 

MCGUIRE: But that is, if there is a criticism of this Budget, is that it is a Budget for an election as opposed to a Budget, as you say, for a future.

 

SHORTEN: The real change that’s going on in Australia is that mining’s been delivering even, you know, we live in Melbourne and Sydney or wherever, it’s delivered the biggest investment in economic terms up to about 2012 that we’ve ever seen. But it has tanked. It doesn’t mean there won’t be mining in Australia in the future but it’s gone from historic highs back to what’s it’s always been and this change has seen literally tens and tens, hundreds of billions of dollars not there in investment and mining and we need something to replace it for the next five and 10 years, that’s the question which I don’t think the Government answered. They introduced such a bad Budget last year, it broke all records for being unpopular, it was a shocker.

 

This year’s Budget’s all about, you know, remember that guy, Men in Black who holds up that amazing wand and makes you forget what’s just happened in the past? That was Tommy Lee Jones, that’s what they’ve tried to do, make us forget last year’s Budget. But the truth of the matter is the economy’s changing around us, we need to do more to help our cities, more to engage with the rise of Asia and the future where are the jobs are going to come from? You know, the last career manager our kids are going to have will be their last teacher at school and after that they’re going to sort of be pretty adaptable and that’s what matters in the future isn’t?

 

MICK MOLLOY: Bill there’s some suggestion that this is an easier Budget, a more palatable Budget because there’s an outside chance he’ll consider going to the election prior to the finish of his term, do you have a read on this?

 

SHORTEN: Well, I actually think the debate about an earlier election should end. If the Government want to have an election, tell us. But the last thing that Australia needs is 12 months of early election speculation. I think the other thing which matters here is people want to know, people get there are elections, it’s fundamental to a democracy. But I think they like to think that the people they are electing to the national parliament, in between elections focus on the future not just on the next opinion poll. So I get to give a budget reply speech that’s sort of, everyone focuses on Tuesday night and Joe Hockey, but tonight I get to talk and give a response. I think the nation’s hungry to hear that there are people in politics thinking not about the next opinion poll or will Joe Hockey keep his job, whatever, but who’s thinking about what are the issues in five, 10, 15 years’ time and how do we get there?

 

DARCY: Well Bill what is the industry of the future for Australians if mining is, you know, not going to be the thing that we’re going to hang our hat on? What do you create, what’s the industry we’re going to look forward to?

 

SHORTEN: Well, we’ll still keep some jobs in mining, the volume of its production is, you know, up and improved which is great, you know, there’s always going to be work on the land and in food. But services, services, you know, the middle-class of Asia in the next number of decades is going to rise to 3 billion people. Aussie’s are good at doing things, we’re good at, just think this morning about all over Melbourne we’ve got people working in the emergency wards of our hospitals, we’ve got people making sure that we’ve got clean drinking water, we’ve got trained engineers unblocking all the harm and, you know, mess caused by flooding and bad weather. We’ve got financial service brokers who are managing millions of dollars of peoples retirement funds. We’ve got people on radio entertaining the masses, you know, we’re good at living in cities and towns and I think there’s a lot we can sell the rest of world so long as we’ve got our infrastructure working, so long as our people have got the right skills, this is what matters.

 

MCGUIRE: Schools, schools, schools, is the answers to all that, we’ve got to get people TAFE-d up and going and giving them the new skills. Mick you wanted to finish?

 

MOLLOY: I just wanted to ask how much of what was put down in this Budget do you see getting freely through the Senate and is there anything in particular he’s going to have a hard time with?

 

SHORTEN: Well some of it will get through. The mark of whether or not a Budget can deal with the deficit, is is the plan adoptable by the Parliament and you know, the first couple of days after last year’s Budget we took a pretty strong line and said this is unfair and initially I think some in the media turned on us and the conservatives turned on us and but I think times proven we we’re right to stick up for the pensioners and to stick up for families and the GPs. I think though a couple of their propositions which are really tough to swallow is that they’re proposing $2 billion in hidden cuts in health. I don’t think they’re right to be mucking around with the dental care of children and veterans  -

 

MOLLOY: Yep.

 

SHORTEN: I think there’s some hidden cuts here and they’re still perpetuating cuts to families. There’s been a lot of important discussion about child care and trying to improve the deal for parents of children who are three and four but the Government’s plan to do that is to take money off family payments up to several thousand dollars, for families who might only earn $60,000 whose children between six and 16. We need to generate growth and confidence in the future, not always get the microscope out and try and make sure the only way one group get ahead is by flogging another group.

 

MCGUIRE: Good on you Bill, good luck tonight with your speech, we’ll listen to it with interest.

 

SHORTEN: I know I was very serious but thanks gentleman.

 

ENDS

 

MEDIA CONTACT: LEADER’S OFFICE MEDIA UNIT 02 6277 4053