Subjects: Getting The NDIS Back On Track Bill; Paul Keating’s AUKUS comments; international relations; Coalition call for tax cuts in regional Australia
FIONA WILLAN, HOST: Well. Federal Parliament returns on Monday after the five-week winter break and with the election due by May, the clock is ticking for the Government to pass some of its key reforms, including a bill to rein in the eye watering cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. And joining me now is NDIS Minister Bill Shorten. Minister, thanks for being here. Your NDIS reforms are currently stuck in the Senate, which is only sitting for another seven weeks this year. Are you confident that this bill will pass in its current form?
BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FOR THE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: I believe that the sensible thinkers in the opposition realise that we've got to make the NDIS sustainable for future generations. The NDIS is changing hundreds of thousands of lives for the better. We are a world leader in disability. We've been congratulating ourselves for winning 18 gold medals at the Olympics, but we're also doing a really good job in disability. We've just got to make sure the scheme doesn't grow faster than was intended, and that it's true to its original purpose. I am positive, without being 100% certain, that the opposition will work with us to try and get this legislation through.
WILLAN: Do you think it can happen in the next fortnight?
SHORTEN: I don't see why not. I mean, our measures are about restraining some unnecessary expenditure. I hoped that it would have been done eight and ten weeks ago, the Coalition teamed up with the Greens. But I hope that common sense and sanity prevail, and I think it will. So, I mean, obviously the Senate is a guardian, master of its own destiny. If it makes amendments, then they'll have to come back to the Reps. But if we all focus on the best interests of participants and getting rid of the rorts, then I think we will get there, which would be great, great news for everyone.
WILLAN: Now it is, it's your job to bring the cost of the NDIS under control, and this bill is about cutting $14.4 billion in growth over five years. What happens if it doesn't pass?
SHORTEN: Oh, Fi, you know me, I am one of nature's optimists. I'm a political optimist, I think if you've got the right arguments, if you're doing it in the best interests of the people of Australia, people with disability, their families, the workforces, the providers, if the legislation is in the best interests of the Australian people. I don't think our system is so broken that the best interests, the national interests, can't prevail.
WILLAN: In other news, today, former Prime Minister Paul Keating has launched a fresh attack on AUKUS and some of your colleagues as well. Now, he argues Australia is in danger of becoming another US state and a target of aggression by aligning itself with the US. What do you make of his comments?
SHORTEN: Well, he's a great Australian and he's entitled to his views. I don't share his views about the ANZUS alliance though. It's a matter of record that, you know, in about 1951 I must check the exact year so don't hold me precisely to it, but for the best part of 75 years, we've been in a formal alliance with the United States. We reserve the right to disagree in our national interest. We always have. But I think acquiring very capable submarine technology is in the national defence interest in the long term, and the world is a really troubling, concerning place at the moment. We almost see a sort of axis of malign influence from Russia to Iran, China certainly talks to these nations a lot, liberal democracies, like it or not, have to improve their defences, and we are making the necessary investments.
WILLAN: Has Paul Keating become a problem for the government?
SHORTEN: No, the challenge for Australia is our cost-of-living battles, making sure that we're helping people make ends meet. We've got to have strong defence. That's what we're working on. People are - it's still a democracy. People are entitled to make their comments, but we don't have to agree with what everyone says just because they're of the same party.
The truth of the matter is that wherever you travel through the world at the moment, there is an important fault line emerging. Do we respect international boundaries and borders? What we saw with Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine is the rise of a doctrine which we'd hoped had ended at the end of the Second World War, which is big countries feel that they don't have to, can ignore legal borders of other countries, and they can just have ‘might is right.’ And in this world, we do have to be stronger. I wish it wasn't so, but it is. And so, there is a view, I think, of likeminded nations that we need to respect the right of countries to exist within legally recognized borders.
And this is, I think, at the core of, a big part of Australia's commitment. The American alliance is important. Our deepening engagement in our region, the Indo-Pacific, with Asian nations is important, and our commitment to multilateral institutions. But this principle that countries have a right to exist securely within internationally recognized borders is not a principle we can say is not our problem, because if it's not our problem in Ukraine, or if it's not our problem in Asia, then who's going to be there if one day someone says they don't think they should recognize Australia's current borders?
WILLAN: Sky News has revealed today that the Coalition is considering tax breaks for regional Australians as part of a plan to take to the next election. What do you think of the idea of tax breaks specifically for regional Aussies?
SHORTEN: I think people have kicked the tires on that in the past. There are some small financial incentives now. I think the opposition - I think this is classic opposition Thought Bubble 101 stuff from the Thought Bubble Factory of Peter Dutton. I wait to see how many - what's he defining as regional Australia? I mean, does he mean remote Australia? Does he mean the Cape York Peninsula or Arnhem Land, does he mean the Kimberley or the Pilbara, or does he mean everything west of the Blue Mountains? Does he mean the Latrobe Valley and Geelong and Ballarat? Does he mean Kalgoorlie? Does he mean the southwest of Western Australia? So, you're going to have to define who is included. And then of course, does he mean 2 million Australians, 3 million Australians, 4 million Australians?
And once he spells out where his sort of imaginary zone or propositions are going to be, and the imaginary number of people who are going to get these benefits, what is the actual benefit and where is he going to find the money to do it? I'm not saying there's not a cost-of-living challenge. People are doing it really hard, and some of the prices which people in remote Australia pay are just eye watering and really difficult. But you've got to also make sure that you just don't make promises with no substance.
That's why I think our tax cut measures going on people's income, that's solid, that's real. You know, that's where the real money is. Our support for childcare workers, early childhood educators, that's real. I think Mr. Dutton's got to move away from the thought bubble factory into the world of the real and tell us what he's actually going to do.
WILLAN: Bill Shorten, there's a lot more I'd like to ask you about, but we have run out of time. Thank you so much for joining me.
SHORTEN: Good afternoon. Have a nice weekend.
