Subjects: $100 million Australian Business Growth Fund; Labor Party’s $387 billion in extra taxes

EO&E…………………………………………………………

JOURNALIST:

Senator Birmingham with us in the FIVEaa breakfast studio, Senator, good morning.

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

G’day, great to be with you.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister in town, are you going to make an economic announcement today?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

PM is in town, were looking at small businesses today, we’ve already promised this election campaign to create a further 1.25 million jobs over the next 5 years, that’s about building on the 1.3 million jobs we’ve created since we’ve been in office, so how do you create those extra jobs, we’re wanting to grow small and medium size businesses, ensure there is a further 250,000 small businesses generated over the next few years, to fuel that jobs growth and were going to do that through a new $100 million investment fund, that’s really going to help businesses who struggle to get equity, to get capital to be able to grow and to make sure they’ve got a better source of patient capital they can rely upon, really built upon a model that exists in the UK, Canada and elsewhere and has proven itself to be quite successful.

JOURNALIST:

Birmo, we’re almost a fortnight in to the election campaign proper now, you guys went in to it as pretty serious underdogs, you’ve been behind in pretty much all the polls since Scott Morrison become Prime Minister and for a very long time before that when his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull was holding the reigns, what’s your assessment of how the Liberals are travelling in terms of trying to win a first term for Scott Morrison in his own right?

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

I think this will be a close election, and it will be a close election because people are clearly looking now at the issues, and there have been things that they haven’t liked about the last couple of years, we all acknowledge that in terms of the politics of things, but they realise now that it’s a choice for the future, and it’s a very sharp choice between Scott Morrison lower taxes, a stronger economy or Bill Shorten and $387 billion of higher taxes and that message is starting to resinate, many Australians are starting to say, well am I one of the retirees who will face higher taxes, am I somebody who’s saving or trying to secure my future retirement who’ll face higher taxes, am I a homeowner who might lose equity or value in my home as a result of Bill Shorten’s tax change.

JOURNALIST:

He’s going to change the narrative from the Labor perspective this week by saying, all good and well for you guys to talk about the economy but what you haven’t been able to achieve despite all the indicators being positive, is wage growth and he says in the absence of a plan, there all great statistics but they’re not really helping actual people.

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

But have  you seen what Bill Shorten’s plan for wage growth is, he says he is going to hire the best lawyers in the country to take the case to the Fair Work Commission, I mean come on, you’re not going to achieve wage growth for ordinary Australians by paying lawyers more, you get wages growth by having a stronger economy, by continuing to create more jobs, and doing that you put more pressure in the labour market and that forces business to pay more, you don’t do it by simply forcing some businesses to pay more, that will just drive others to employ fewer people, ultimately you need a stronger economy to drive wages growth.

JOURNALIST:

Isn’t that your Achilles heel? We’ve had a strong economy in Australia for a very long time, a lot of our listeners, the texts we get from working class suburban people go, that’s all well and good however how many quarters of interrupted growth, what’s in it for me? That’s your weakness.

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

But you’re not going to get it by the type of measures that Bill Shorten is proposing, hiring lawyers doesn’t drive up the wages of anybody accept those lawyers, now what you need to do is keep that pressure on by generating and creating more jobs, the more jobs you’ve got than greater the pressure there is in the labour market the more employers have to compete for the people they’re employing, the more they will actually have to pay to be able to keep good staff on board, that’s really the plan that we’re focused on continuing to drive, as well as easing cost of living pressures through billions of dollars in tax relief, that hardworking Australians will get to see they keep more of what they earn.

JOURNALIST:

Senator Birmingham, thanks for coming in, appreciate your time.

SIMON BIRMINGHAM:

Thanks guys.