Subjects: Election, Bill Shorten, South Australia,
EO&E…………………………………………………………
Annelise Nielsen: Senator Simon Birmingham thanks for joining us
Simon Birmingham: Great to be with you
Annelise Nielsen: It’s nice to know that I’m not completely banned from talking to MP’s on the bus.
Simon Birmingham: Here we are on the bus touring around suburban Adelaide.
Annelise Nielsen: So why did you decide to join the bus today?
Simon Birmingham: Well SA is my home state, and as the Coalition campaign spokesperson I thought it was a good chance to hop on the bus, have an informal chat to everybody today.
Annelise Nielsen: I saw the Premier Steven Marshall was a bit unimpressed when I said SA is a predominantly Labor state, at least at the Federal electoral level, you certainly have a fight on your hands majority of the electorates here are held by Labor by quite a comfortable margin.
Simon Birmingham: Well Labor hold 5 electorates, we hold 4 that’s hardly a great imbalance were working hard to try to make sure that we hold all those 4, ideally win back Mayo which historically we’ve held, our candidates in seats like Hindmarsh and Adelaide are taking the fight up to those Labor candidates as well and giving it their all.
Annelise Nielsen: Those seats you hold at least 2 of them are quite marginal, do you think you can keep Boothby and Sturt?
Simon Birmingham: SA has really come to understand the jobs message of the Government, the naval ship building investment that’s occurred over the years has been a key part of turning around this state’s economy, that’s what’s really driving the jobs growth here and contributing to what we’re seeing nationally overall with 1.3 million plus jobs grown and really the focus the PM is putting here today is about showing that we have clear plans to continue that jobs growth in the future, investing in small business that’s going to drive the 1.25 million jobs were planning on over the next 5 years
Annelise Nielsen: Now you’ve done a few of these before, how do you think this election compares to last time around?
Simon Birmingham: Every election is about a choice and I think this time around the choice is about as stark as I can recall in any recent campaign, we have to go back a long, long, long way to see an opposition with so many additional new higher taxes that are out there very clear for all to see, so Australians do face a stark, stark choice when it comes to Scott Morrison lower taxes, balanced budgets, jobs growth or Bill Shorten and an option that is going to be $387 billion worth of higher taxes and what that means is people have less money in their pockets to spend and employers will have less money in their businesses to employ
Annelise Nielsen: It’s interesting when we’ve been out on the ground it seems like a lot of the work Scott Morrison has to do is just that kind of recognition a lot of people don’t live in the Canberra bubble like we do and don’t follow politics, it is an issue for him isn’t it that he doesn’t quite have the profile that Bill Shorten has been able to work on for years.
Simon Birmingham: I’m not sure that Bill Shortens profile has exactly worked for him, people are seeing that Bill Shorten is somebody who isn’t across the detail of his policies, is evasive when it comes to talking about his new taxes and I think that feeds in to a lot of disenchantment people have in that alternative. Now Scott Morrison is somebody where well and truly what you see is what you get, you’ve seen him out there today on the sports fields playing with the kids engaging with small businesses as well, talking about what it is their doing to grow their businesses, the challenge of running a small family businesses and that really is somebody who is at his heart committed to working in local communities which Scott has done for most of his life and helping people to grow and flourish in those communities
Annelise Nielsen: Do you think there is any lingering resentment over the leadership spill or is it just Canberra bubble?
Simon Birmingham: Well I’d encourage voters as you’d expect to look to the future, in the end this election will determine who governs the country for the next 3 years, so it really is a stark choice between Bill Shorten or Scott Morrison,
Annelise Nielsen: So what do you reckon, are you going to be back on the bus again this election campaign, we haven’t turned you off?
Simon Birmingham: This bus is a great place to be, good to see how you guys beaver away in between campaign stops to keep file and keep everyone up to date and we’ll make sure we’ll keep feeding you the info and the polices this campaign.
Annelise Nielsen: Thanks for joining us.
Simon Birmingham: My pleasure.