KIERAN GILBERT: … I’m joined from Adelaide by Liberal frontbencher Senator Simon Birmingham. Senator Birmingham, on this announcement by Kevin Rudd today committing in the long term to a lot of money to the automotive industry, pivotal in your state, is this potentially a risk to your Liberal counterparts in a number of those seats there?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Far from it, Kieran, good afternoon, and I think that the situation is well and truly seen by voters as another case of policy on the run by Kevin Rudd and, frankly, a case of Kevin Rudd once again trying to fix up a problem very much of his own making. Kevin Rudd was the one who just a few weeks ago announced a new $1.8 billion tax slug on the car industry. He then came out with a $200 million fix two weeks ago. Clearly, he doesn’t think that’s enough because today he’s come out with a $500 million fix. Well, I’ll tell you what we’re doing: we’re getting rid of the $1.8 billion tax hit and that’s the way to try to help the car industry…
KIERAN GILBERT: But you’re already about 500 million less than what the Government is offering, legislated money that’s going to the automotive industry, so you’re starting from about half a billion behind and now you’re not going to commit to this additional support either. You can see why automotive workers would be… would see that as potentially persuasive, can’t you?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Well, Kieran, I’m confident that our policy mix is the best equation because what we’ll be doing is, on the one hand, making it cheaper to build cars in Australia by getting rid of the carbon tax, by slashing red tape by $1 billion a year; on the other hand, we’ll be making it cheaper to buy cars in Australia by not having this new fringe benefits tax hit; we’ll also be providing the incentive to invest in Australia by having the 1½ per cent cut to the company tax rate. This is the suite of policies that sets it up for long term sustainability. A cash handout…
KIERAN GILBERT: But Holden’s made it clear that they are going to reassess after the election, so it sounds to me like they’re… well, they’re putting you on notice that you’d better stump up more, otherwise they’re going to relook at their ongoing presence here as well, doesn’t it? Isn’t that the message they’re sending to the Coalition?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Well, voters should know and be very clear: there’s $2 billion in the future $1 billion to 2016, another $1 billion past 2016 that is committed by the Coalition to the Automotive Transformation Scheme. That is still a lot of money. What Kevin Rudd is doing is essentially signing a blank cheque. Now, the people in Detroit need to know that they have a government who will work with them to provide a long term, sustainable car industry in Australia but who will do that by getting the policy fundamentals right. Rather than having this money-go-round of Kevin Rudd’s…
KIERAN GILBERT: But with… yeah, with less money…
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: … let’s actually tax them less so we give them less. Kevin Rudd’s problem…
KIERAN GILBERT: … so you’re telling Detroit you’re going to get it right but with less money that’s the message?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: That’s absolutely the message, Kieran. We’re going to tax the industry less so they don’t need so much in taxpayer handouts. Kevin Rudd has created this ridiculous situation where you slug them with ever more taxes and higher costs and then you compensate them with more taxpayer money. It’s a giant money-go-round and it’s taxpayers who are losing out, it’s the car industry who’s losing out. We would be far better to go back to the fundamentals and the fundamentals are: let’s make it cheaper to build cars in Australia, let’s make it cheaper to buy cars in Australia and then you don’t have to give the industry all of this cash.
KIERAN GILBERT: On the costings issue, the Opposition’s released the details of your process three eminent Australians to validate the numbers, including the former head of [the Department of the] Prime Minister and Cabinet, Peter Shergold. Is this just a fig leaf of credibility, as the Government says it is?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Well, these are three very eminent Australians a former Auditor-General from Queensland, a former head of the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, a senior economist and adviser to numerous governments of different persuasions. We have a situation here where these people will not put their credibility on the line to sign off on something unless it stacks up but on top of that, of course, we’ve worked all of our policies through the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, so you have a multi-layered approach to guarantee that the Coalition’s costings will stack up. Contrast that with today’s announcement from Kevin Rudd where, of course, he’s plucked more sums out of thin air, said he’s going to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars more to an industry with no cost-benefit study to back it up and, of course, he’s promising it all way beyond the budget. Most of the money Kevin Rudd’s talking about giving away today… he’d have to win another three elections to actually be in a position to be handing it over. Now, frankly, Australians have seen this type of foolery and, frankly, lies from Kevin Rudd before and I’m sure they won’t fall for this sort of promise on the ‘never never’ yet again.
KIERAN GILBERT: Liberal frontbencher Senator Simon Birmingham, joining me from Adelaide… appreciate your time this Saturday afternoon. Thanks very much for that.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: A pleasure, Kieran. Thanks so much.
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