Interview on Sky News with Chris Kenny
Subjects: Federal Election
EO&E…………………………………………………………
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
G’day Chris it’s good to be with you. What’s important now is it’s an opportunity over the next 37 days for the Australian people to really focus on the choice and what’s at stake in this election. There’s a lot at stake. Six years of Liberal National Government has got us to the point where the budget is balanced and into surplus. We have. Strong jobs growth one point two million jobs. A strong economy that’s allowing us to invest and also to cut taxes for individual’s households and small businesses and all of that is at stake. When you compare it to what Bill Shorten is presenting to the electorate. Bill Shorten Labor party proposing higher taxes that would be paid by retirees by people caring for retirement by people working hard through their lives by small businesses and all of that will make our economy weaker lead to fewer jobs less money available for key services.
CHRIS KENNY:
We just heard from Paul Kelly in his analysis of the opening messages from the Prime Minister and the opposition leader and he made the observation that Bill Shorten pitched a much more personal message talking to people and families about the cost of living pressures and their opportunities rather than that big picture economic overview that Scott Morrison gave us. And you’ve just given us there again, Simon Birmingham is this a critical point for you in the campaign. It’s going to be about people doesn’t it individuals rather than budget surpluses or economic prospects.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Chris it is about people but the Australian people are clever they’re smart they understand the need a government in Canberra that can manage the economy so that they have a job their children have a job their grandchildren have a job and those are the fundamentals to have a job to earn an income under our government we’ve saved more than one point two million jobs created and we saw more than 100000 young Australians get a job last year the highest level ever on record. We’ve got women’s workforce participation at the highest level ever on record for Australia but more Australians getting a job. People have got more money in their pockets they’re better able to buy a home they’re better able to look after their families and themselves. That’s the fundamental there and Australians get that and they also know that when Bill Shorten is out there talking about spending more money that money’s coming from somewhere and it’s coming from the hip pockets of hard working Australians whether they’re going out and working for a living as an employee or whether they’re coming out of their pockets whenever Bill Shorten says he’s going to spend more money and people can see through that Bill Shorten can do all of the fancy press conferences he likes in lounge rooms around the country. But Australians know that they need a strong economy so that they have a job so that they can support their families. And what we’ve done with our economic management is not only balanced the budget but also legislate for tax cuts. That means more of what people earn is kept by them to spend on their families.
CHRIS KENNY:
Now Simon Birmingham if economic repair and budget repair is the strength for the Coalition your weakness of course is your record of disunity and you must be worried about how that’s going to play out in the election campaign. We heard a bit in a couple days ago from Malcolm Turnbull his son Alex is taken to twitter today in a pretty strident fashion. We can’t get it up on the screen for you. But it starts off by saying harder and more right wing and naturally national elements control the LNP in Queensland despite representing relatively few seats and they exert influence over the party nationally and this is why Victorian and South Australian members of the Liberal Party are facing defeat. He’s saying basically his hard right conservatives in Queensland are controlling the party. You and your colleagues in South Australia and Victoria are going be paying a price in this election is not very helpful to have the former prime minister’s son out there making these observations isn’t it.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Look I reject the analysis that’s there Chris. Ultimately Scott Morrison was asked at his press conference earlier today about leadership issues and as he rightly pointed out the Liberal Party when Scott became leader made a fundamental change to the way our party works and it’s set in stone the reality that if he wins this election and he’s our Prime Minister after the election he will be in office right through the next term. There is no doubt about that and that if people vote for Scott Morrison they’ll get Scott Morrison and as the PM said Australians vote for Bill Shorten they’re going to be stuck with Bill Shorten for the next three years as well and all the consequences that come with that.
CHRIS KENNY:
What happens with Malcolm Turnbull and many people were critical of him for not campaigning for Dave Sharma in the Wentworth by-election myself included. He was out campaigning for at least one candidate in the New South Wales state election in March. Do you accept that they expect that now Malcolm Turnbull will be out campaigning for Dave Sharma this time around? Do you want him out there campaigning or would it be better for the party for him to keep a completely low profile?
We will welcome every volunteer who wants to come out and campaign for us but I think the Australian people want this election campaign to be fought about their future.
We’ll obviously highlight the achievements and the track record of the government but also our plans for the future to be able to deliver one point to five million more jobs in the future to be able to eliminate bracket creep for hardworking Australians so that if you’re a low and middle income earner work a bit harder and you don’t suddenly get pushed up into a higher tax bracket these are the visions that we’ll be outlining to the Australian people and of course paying down Labor’s debt over the course of the next decade so that we can get back to a point is the Howard government did where Australia is ultimately debt free again.
So we welcome all volunteers to the table Chris but we also want to make sure the campaign is fought on the issues and on the choice and every election is a choice and this one will be Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party and the National Party delivering a stronger economy. We have a track record of that over the last six years. We’ve got plans to maintain the future or very high risk that Australians face in terms of what Bill Shorten’s higher taxes will mean for our economy their jobs and the cost of living pressures that they all face.
CHRIS KENNY:
Welcome all volunteers.
It will be very interesting to see what role Malcolm Turnbull will play throughout the campaign. I guess nobody inside the Liberal Party knows and we’re all waiting to see. I was interested to hear you talk about risk Simon Birmingham the risk that Labor might propose to the budget to the economy to our national border protection. Those comments those aspects of pointing out the risk of Labor seem to be missing in the 2016 election campaign. So you’re making a deliberate choice here now to make sure you do actually point out the risk of labor to actually run a negative campaign as well as a positive one?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
But it is I think essentially a two horse race come May this year either Scott Morrison would still be Prime Minister of Australia or Bill Shorten will be Prime Minister of Australia. It’s our job to set out our achievements as a government our vision for the future but also to highlight the contrast and the choice and that is critically important because Australians face one of the starkest choices ever in this election. Now I give the Labor Party credit and acknowledgment they have put policies out there but they are policies to tax retirees more the tax hard working Australians, more the tax small business owners more, to tax those saving for their retirement more, tax electricity more and to drive up the price of cars. There’s a range of areas where Australians are very very scared that Bill Shorten runs around the country promising to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more. But the consequence of that is he’s going to tax Australians hundreds of billions of dollars more and that doesn’t mean you’ve just got less money in your pocket it means we’re going to have a weaker economy and it means there are fewer job prospects likely to be there in the future.
CHRIS KENNY:
Does that mean we’ve got some scary TV ads on the way?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Look the campaign will be based on facts and on the genuine risk that is a very stark contrast to government that has balanced the budget that has created this jobs growth. A Labor Party whose track record was to plunge the country deep into deficit and to create the enormous debt problem that we are seeking to overcome now and that we have managed to work our way, inch by inch year by year from a position of 40 50 billion dollar deficits right back to a point now of surplus and paying down Labor’s debt. And what that means is that there’ll be more money in future available for schools and hospitals and roads. Because we won’t be paying as much in interest bills in the future. You can’t trust Labor not to simply plunge us back into that negative economic [Inaudible]. Overcome when he was elected. And that’s the problem we have had to overcome over these six years.
CHRIS KENNY:
Well Simon Birmingham lots of MP’s get to spend a lot of time in their home patch during an election campaign but you’re stuck in Canberra. I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to catching up with you throughout the campaign.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Thank you very much Chris, we look forward to speaking to you too.