TONY BURKE MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE

MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS
MEMBER FOR WATSON

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS FIRST EDITION
THURSDAY, 26 JUNE 2014
SUBJECT/S: CLIVE PALMER; CLIMATE CHANGE; TONY ABBOTTS BUDGET OF
BROKEN PROMISES.
KIERAN GILBERT And with me on First Edition this morning, the Manager of
Opposition Business, Tony Burke. Mr Burke, thanks for your time.
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE, TONY BURKE Morning Kieran.
GILBERT We look a!k at the week and it was a remarkale duo, "almer and #ore.
$id you e%er think you&d see that'
BURKE( Well ) think we started the week with the "rime Minister wanting to talk aout
anything ut the Budget and last night he got that. *egardless of the detail of anything
that was announ!ed last night, the one thing that Tony Aott will e %ery happy aout
at the moment, is right at the moment people aren&t talking aout his Budget.
GILBERT And well they&ll e happy as well that they&ll get to repeal the +aron Ta,
e!ause despite all of the fanfare and ha%ing the en%ironmental !rusader ne,t to him, Al
#ore, +li%e "almer said he&s going to support the repeal of the +aron Ta,, that&s the
ottom line, so that&s a win for Mr Aott.
BURKE Oh in terms of, and we&%e always said when the new -enate !ame in, that sort
of out!ome was what we e,pe!ted would happen. From .aor&s perspe!ti%e the ills will
e efore the "arliament again today and we&ll do what we did last time, whi!h was to
mo%e to aolish it as a ta, and implement an emissions trading s!heme in its pla!e. We
did that last time it went to the -enate, it&ll e efore the *eps today, we&ll %ote the same
way when it goes to the -enate again.
GILBERT -o does that mean that .aor would e open to this idea of a doormat
emissions trading s!heme as put forward y Mr "almer'
BURKE ) don&t think anyone /uite understands what that part of the proposal means.
.et&s 0 for e,ample, how do you a!tually ha%e a limit and a trading system with a 1ero
%alue' ) don&t think anyone /uite understands what that in fa!t means, so let&s see what
it means. But our position hasn&t !hanged. 2ou !an only aolish it as a ta, if you put
something !redile in its pla!e and what we&%e always supported is you ha%e a limit on
the amount of pollution and then you ha%e a market me!hanism underneath that. 2ou
allow the trading to happen and the pri!e signal to happen under that, ut your first point
is that you ha%e a limit on pollution and sin!e 3453 that&s worked. 2ou know, you look at
your ele!tri!ity emissions going down against usiness as usual in the order of 6 per
!ent, at the e,a!t same time that you&%e got e!onomi! growth running at the moment at
7.8. 2ou know this is something where what we&%e put in pla!e has een redu!ing
emissions and has een, you&%e seen an e!onomy growing, that&s why we support it. )f
you&re going to get rid of it as a ta, the /uestion is what do you put in its pla!e'
GILBERT Well at the moment there is going to e nothing in its pla!e really e!ause
you&%e +li%e "almer saying he&s going to line up with the #reens and .aor in lo!king
the $ire!t A!tion "lan so the #o%ernment isn&t ale to put in its !aron aatement plan
in pla!e. 2et the +aron Ta, is going to e repealed, so it, you know, for all intents and
purposes, Australia has no +aron aatement plan eyond the repeal.
BURKE There&s a presumption here that e%erything that was announ!ed last night is
what will now happen. ) don&t know whether Tony Aott wants to do a deal with +li%e
"almer or not and !hange his position on a range of issues, ) don&t know. But we&ll e
%oting in the "arliament today and in the -enate the same way as we ha%e and our
position hasn&t !hanged.
GILBERT There was some good news ) guess for the .aor approa!h with the +lean
)n%estment -!heme and also the *enewale Energy Target guaranteed at least for the
foreseeale future e!ause +li%e "almer says he&s not going to support the their repeal
or the aolishment of the +limate +hange Authority.
BURKE ) think the starting point prolem that Tony Aott has in this entire deate is if
your starting point is you ha%e the %iew of the s!ien!e that he has, then e%erything else
unfolds as a series of ad poli!y de!isions when you don&t a!!ept what the s!ien!e is
telling you. 2ou know e,amples like that where they&%e ended up in a world where they
ha%en&t wanted to support renewales, if we end up with !ontinuing to support
renewales that&s a good thing. But on ea!h issue the frame and what&s really important
for us here, is the frame of what .aor elie%es and what .aor stands for doesn&t shift
and if Tony Aott goes off and does a deal to lo!k in things that are the opposite of
what he&s een saying for four years, that&s a matter for him.
GILBERT But you know .aor&s position has shifted in re!ent times from a +aron Ta,
to, you know saying you&re going to terminate the +aron Ta,. ) guess the /uestion to
.aor is with this proposal from "almer for an emissions trading s!heme that would ki!k
in when the rest of the world does, !ould this e the perfe!t plan for .aor to take to the
ne,t ele!tion' 2ou&%e still got a !ommitment to an Emissions Trading -!heme ut
without all the hip po!ket pain for people without any other international a!tion eing
taken.
BURKE 2eah well, as ) say how you ha%e a 1ero rated !aron trading s!heme is
something that ) !an&t understand how that !an happen, it&s for +li%e "almer to e,plain
the detail, it&s for Tony Aott to determine if he wants to shift position. From our
perspe!ti%e we&ll e %oting the same way that we ha%e in the past, to get rid of it as a
ta,, to shift to it as an Emissions Trading -!heme and then let&s not forget there&s going
to e a whole lot of other Budget ills and udget pain that ha%e a mu!h igger impa!t
on !ost of li%ing than anything that was eing spoken aout last night. ) mean Tony
Aott&s wanted to use this 9884 figure again and again with respe!t to impa!t of the
+aron "ri!e, at the same time that you&%e got families losing 9:444 in the udget. -o,
let&s not, e!ause this is a deate that&s een going on for a lot of years, in the !ost of
li%ing part of it, not pretend that there are issues at stake right now that are nearly 53
times higher.
GILBERT )s that what, how .aor sees this Budget, you know, deate eing framed
now, alongside the +aron Ta, as a !ost of li%ing deate' 2ou will say that the +aron
Ta, !ost of li%ing impa!t is dwarfed essentially as you&re arguing now y the Budget'
BURKE Well we&%e had Tony Aott effe!ti%ely argue in the "arliament this week that
9884 is a igger figure than 9:444, it&s ridi!ulous. The !ost of li%ing impa!t we&%e een
talking aout all week in the "arliament, we&%e een talking aout the 9:444 impa!t on
a family, we&%e een talking aout the 9;444 impa!t on a pensioner, we&%e een talking
aout self0funded retirees losing their senior supplement payments. )ssue after issue
where, and for that the supplement is in the order of 9<44. =ow these are payments, all
of whi!h are igger than what the "rime Minister&s wanting to !laim as the iggest !ost
of li%ing issue. >e&s wrong, and it&s one thing to spend years talking aout the !ost of
li%ing, it&s another thing all together, first !han!e you got, to gi%e the Australian people
and Australian families a wha!k on !ost of li%ing that ?ust e!lipses e%ery media
!onferen!e he ga%e for the last three years.
GILBERT #i%en the way Mr "almer has responded in relation to this issue it appears
his !ommitments on other fronts !ould e unpredi!tale, will e unpredi!tale, as well )
guess therefore the Budget measures and some of the more !ontro%ersial ones that
.aor opposes, still ha%e a !han!e of getting through with Mr "almer&s support'
BURKE Well there&s a Budget !hange that we deated yesterday that&s up efore the
-enate today for e,ample, as to whether there are pay !uts for !leaners employed y
the +ommonwealth when the ne,t round of tenders !ome through. =ow on Monday the
"rime Minister ga%e us a guarantee there&d e no !uts for !leaners, on Tuesday they
introdu!ed legislation that would !ut wages for !leaners, yesterday we mo%ed
amendments to !ar%e that out, the #o%ernment %oted against them, we&ll mo%e those
amendments again in the -enate today. There a people eing hurt in e%ery ill that
we&re dealing with at the moment in this Budget, and it all hits take home pay for
!leaners for e,ample, it hits !ost of li%ing for families, for pensioners, for seniors and
while the !limate !hange deate is making sure that we do the right thing y the ne,t
generation, Tony Aott has wanted to frame it purely as a !ost of li%ing issue and the
lie that&s eing shown this week is for ea!h group you look at the iggest !ost of li%ing
!hallenge that people fa!e right now is Tony Aott&s Budget.
GILBERT But when you&%e got 938 illion in a possile re%enue hole from this Budget
how mu!h is that going to hurt .aor&s e!onomi! !rediility'
BURKE Well hang on, this is a #o%ernment that as soon as they got into offi!e
douled the defi!it, added in the order of 9:< illion to Australia&s defi!it in the first few
months that they !ame in. To then talk aout something eing a hole when it&s a fra!tion
of what they added to the defi!it the moment they got in, ?ust eggars elief as an
argument, it&s got no !rediility at all.
GILBERT Tony Burke thanks for your time.
BURKE -ee you again.

ENDS