Interview on ABC 891 Adelaide

EO&E…………………………………………………………

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

We have acted David, in fact the last CPI results shows that the results of reforms we have put in place in July last year, out of pocket expenses for Australian families on child care, are down around 9 per cent, now that’s down around 9 per cent and you’ve got to compare that with the last time the Labor Party tried to throw billions of dollars at the child care system and child care fees went up by about 50 per cent, so we’ve actually demonstrated that with the right carefully taken policy approach and reforms you can make a difference and that is put in the case of a family earning around $80,000 a year with a couple of children in full time child care, that puts them close to $8,000 a year better off already as a result of the reforms that we’ve put through.

DAVID BEVAN:

So are you saying that the Coalition has already tamed the child care tiger?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Well I’m certainly saying our policy which we put in place came into effect last July made a real difference, its actually driven down out of pocket costs for Australian families and you don’t have to take my word for it, the Bureau of Statistics data shows over the first nine months of that policy, out of pocket costs down around 9 per cent. It’s a meaningful difference targeted at families who work the longest hours, earn the lowest incomes so that we made sure that the best and biggest benefits flowed through to families working long hours and on low and middle incomes.

DAVID BEVAN:

Dan Tehan, you colleague in Cabinet, Education Minister, he has described Labor’s policy as if not socialist, it’s on the road to communism, can we at least agree that this is not communism and that’s a campaign hyperbole?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Well David, I think Dan was responding to the idea as to just how far governments go in paying wages across the Australian economy and not so much a question about the child care subsidies in support to Australian families, but this idea that to come out of the very big spending package of Bill Shorten yesterday, he spent around $230 million a minute in his speech yesterday, many billions of dollars and part of that was to say that government which historically pays the wages of public servants and then pays income support in the form of social security assistance, welfare assistance, is now going to start paying wages elsewhere…

DAVID BEVAN:

Labor is not promising to nationalise the means of production, they aren’t doing that are they?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Well I’m not quite sure what it is they’re doing because they can’t explain it themselves.

DAVID BEVAN:

No, you know what they’re doing, it’s quite clear, they are promising to subsidise child care now, that is not the road to communism, we can at least agree on that?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

David, they are not just promising to subsidise child care, they are promising to start paying part of the wages in private sector employee circumstances.

DAVID BEVAN:

Do you think that’s communistic?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Well I think it is certainly on the road, the type of thing you would expect socialists or other types of governments to pursue, in the idea that government goes beyond paying public service wages, goes beyond paying basic income support and starts to pay wages in the private sector as well and where does that end? Now you tried putting that question to Amanda Rishworth, she has also been asked, as has Bill Shorten, how will this wage subsidy be paid and the answer is, they don’t know, they’ll work it out after the election, they’ve been asked how they will stop child care fees from increasing as billions of extra subsidies that are poured in and they’ve said, they don’t know, they’ll work it out after the election, just as Bill Shorten has been asked how much will Australians pay in extra tax and he says, I don’t know, I won’t tell you.  Australians are starting to vote today and yet Mr Shorten was given four opportunities yesterday to outline how much the extra taxes would be under a Labor government and he refused on every single occasion, people ought to be able to know how much extra tax they’re going to pay for what is a very radical, very big spending agenda that’s coming out from the Labor Party.

ALI CLARKE:

So then, Simon Birmingham, what would you do for child care workers, some of the lowest paid workers? We heard that there is retention rates, there is a 30 per cent turnover because they just can’t stay in the, in their careers, so what would you do and your government do for them?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

So as outlined before, we’ve obviously overhauled the way in which child care subsidies are paid and we did that through a very careful process and that’s worked and worked in a cost effective way.

ALI CLARKE:

How has that worked for workers?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Now in terms of our IR system, we back the Fair Work Commission as an independent umpire to set minimum wages across the economy and that was a system put in place largely legislated by the Labor government and we haven’t changed the way in which the Fair Work Commission sets those minimum wages, we’ve backed though its independence and don’t think that this should be something where politicians start stepping in and overriding the independence of that process which takes all of the expert advice into consideration and is very much is a careful judicial process.

DAVID BEVAN:

Your party preference deal with the United Australia party will see most likely Clive Palmer elected to the Senate. Is that a small price to pay to save the Coalition government?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Look I don’t know whether or not Clive Palmer will be elected to the Senate and if he is it may well be that he is elected at the expense of another One Nation, Pauline Hanson Senator, in Queensland, you know that’s the contest for the Senate that’s happening up there in Queensland and people can form their own judgements. We have had to prepare a how to vote card as parties always do, I’ve said quite clearly that I think in many respects it’s a case of choosing the least worst option as you prepare those how to vote cards. We’ve said that we won’t be supporting One Nation or Fraser Anning or those extremes, were clearly not going to be supporting the Greens or Bill Shorten, and his $370 billion plus of higher taxes in the Labor Party.

DAVID BEVAN:

But you would rather have the United Australia Party Senator from South Australia than someone from say Centre Alliance?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Look that will be a matter for the South Australian voters.

DAVID BEVAN:

No, no no, from your preference deal. You would rather have a United Australia Party Senator from South Australia than say a Centre Alliance Party?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

I would rather have Liberal Senators.

DAVID BEVAN:

You can’t have that, this is what preferences..

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

No, No, well you can, I urge everyone of your listeners to vote one for the Liberal Party…

DAVID BEVAN:

So tear up the how to vote card, tear it up. So tear up the how to vote card, because, don’t worry about that, just vote Liberal one. You don’t want anybody to..

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

People have to do as the law requires, [inaudible] allocating preferences.

DAVID BEVAN:

As a result of that, as a result of that, voting above the line following your preferences which could get a United Party Senator elected?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

It could, I can’t tell how the votes will flow, I hope it gets us many Liberal Senators elected as possible that the best way to ensure that we get the 1.25 million extra jobs that our plan will deliver over the next five years, 50,000 of them for young Australians particularly investment in apprenticeships, as well as more investment in mental health.

ALI CLARKE:

Simon Birmingham, we know that, we will have plenty more opportunities to talk to you about that but we do need to leave it there. Thank you very much.

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Thanks guys.

[ends]

Media Contact: Coalition Campaign Headquarters: T: (07) 3557 7533 / E: media@cchq.org.au