Topics: TPP trade deal, parliamentarians workplace expenses, renewable energy target, Fair Work Commission, Centrelink
E&OE….
TOM CONNELL:
I’m joined by Special Minister of State Scott Ryan. Scott Ryan, your reaction to this? I suppose people are saying Donald Trump been unpredictable on this though, it’s very much predictable.
SENATOR SCOTT RYAN:
I heard the Trade Minister Steven Ciobo earlier this morning on radio where he outlined that there have been a lot of gains through the negotiation process and he wants to look at opportunities for those gains to still be obtained and put in place because we know, from the last 30 years of Australian economic history, from the Hawke government, the Howard government and onwards, that trade delivers prosperity. More jobs, higher paying jobs and economic growth that all Australians share in and it is entirely appropriate that the Government look at options to keep those gains that have been negotiated, even with the announcement that’s been made in the US overnight.
CONNELL:
On to your area of responsibility, Special Minister of State. How much do you carry the can for delays in some of the reforms to expenses?
SENATOR RYAN:
There haven’t been delays. One of the challenges in this area is that there are almost a dozen different instruments – pieces of legislation, delegated authorities – that make up the regime and the architecture of how politicians are paid, how their offices are run and travel allowances, work expenses and the like. These have actually grown up over 40 years, my entire lifetime. So since I was sworn in as Special Minister of State after the election, late July last year, we have undertaken a great deal of work, with the Remuneration Tribunal – because a lot of these decisions are not decisions of government, they are the decisions of an independent tribunal – a lot are decisions of government. To try and pull together every instrument, every particular custom and practice, so that there can be legislation brought forward, to put it all – as the Prime Minister announced – into the hands and under the control of an independent authority. We have to get it right.
CONNELL:
We are going to come back to that in one second, I just want to play a bit of reaction from Donald Trump.
[VIDEO CLIP]Always outspoken – doing what he said he would. We will get a bit more reaction, as a I said, later on.
But I am joined by the Special Minister of State Scott Ryan. You mentioned that this had to go in an orderly manner and there haven’t been delays, but there are other elements to this. The Gold Pass for MPs. What’s still in effect for some MPs – retired ones from quite a while ago – is lifetime business class travel. This was in the 2014 budget, remember the same time as we had these harsh cuts, this was announced. Still no time to pass this? It has support.
SENATOR RYAN:
Late last year, I did indicate that we were going to bring that forward and that’s still the Government’s policy. I think it is fair to say that in the last week of Parliament, the last two weeks of Parliament, last year, we had a particularly tight legislative schedule. We did succeed in making some major legislative achievements in the Australian Building and Construction Commission, we got the registered organisations bill through – these were the two triggers for the election, they were the priority of the Government. But that legislation will be coming forward in the short term.
CONNELL:
You’d have to say, you talk about priorities for the Government then: 2014 budget and it has support. There is so much talk about Labor being obstinate in the Senate, the Senate crossbench also not playing ball, this is ready to go through but it hasn’t found time since the 2014 budget. Not your time the whole time, but surely this shows it hasn’t been a priority.
SENATOR RYAN:
It will be coming forward in the short term. It is a priority for me personally, as well as for the Government. As you said, I’ve been in the job six months. We have had a lot on. We’ve had the arrangements of Senators, and particular Senators, around eligibility being determined by the courts. It will be coming forward in the very near term.
CONNELL:
Is it time to put your hand up as a Government – put it this way, were you surprised when you got in and you looked in the in-tray and this was still here? Didn’t you think, ‘didn’t we get that done?’
SENATOR RYAN:
The Senate, for part of the time of the last Parliament, was a very difficult place for the Government. We did have a lot of filibustering going on and the Government did have difficulty getting our agenda through, an agenda, by the way, that we took to the election. So last year, the key priority for the Government was progressing those bills that triggered the election. The triggers for a double dissolution bill got through the Parliament. Now that hasn’t happened, as far as I’m aware, since 1974.
CONNELL:
But this particular piece of legislation, I know the difficulties you had, you had support for.
SENATOR RYAN:
I don’t know, I can only attest to the conversations I’ve had with other parties since I’ve been in this role and I don’t want to speak on behalf of them, but I’m not going to challenge what you’ve said, that’s my read of it. It will be coming forward in the near term. It is a priority for me personally.
CONNELL:
Near term? Can we put a date on it? First half of the year?
SENATOR RYAN:
I’ll tell you what, I’ll do the courtesy of talking to other parties and my colleagues before I announce it on TV.
CONNELL:
What a disappointment.
Renewable energy target, this is interesting because this was a big barney within your party and how much you could reduce it by. You got a deal in the end. When that happened for the new target by 2020, what we were talking about was, this was a compromise, this was certainty. Now some of your colleagues are pushing back. If Donald Trump, they say, walks back from the Paris Agreement, both our Paris Agreement and the RET should looked at being scrapped. What’s your take on that?
SENATOR RYAN:
Well I think as the Prime Minister said, members of the parliamentary party, in the Liberal Party and in the National Party, are free to air their views. The Government policy is to stick with the target that was legislated and the Minister Josh Frydenberg emphasised that again this morning on radio. With respect to the Paris Agreement, I think it was the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce yesterday, who said we don’t sign agreements not to fulfil them, we don’t sign agreements to break them.
You do highlight a point that it was difficult to get that compromise through the Senate, so there are two aspects here: we’ve got it settled. That settlement is something the Government will stick to as policy. It is Labor and the Greens that are seeking to break that settlement and provide further uncertainty. The uncertainty for the stable coal-fired power generators that provide our baseload power and uncertainty for businesses because they will drive power prices up.
CONNELL:
At a federal level, Labor wants to go further beyond 2020, that’s not uncertainty.
SENATOR RYAN:
At a state level you’ve got the state-based targets and I don’t see Bill Shorten criticising those at all. I haven’t seen a word of criticism from Bill Shorten about what those state-based targets are doing to power prices and energy stability. There is a certainty issue here for business. If you’re in a high energy intensive business, and you’re making an investment, you can’t just keep building into that that power prices are going to keep spiking over the next 10 years. That’s a real risk to investment.
CONNELL:
Part of the issue though, that the states are talking about, is going beyond 2020 because the clock’s really ticking on that. You talk about certainty, with some of this investment you want to go beyond 2020, so there is an onus on you to get your target sorted beyond 2020.
SENATOR RYAN:
We have states setting targets that are utterly and completely unachievable [interrupted]
CONNELL:
Yeah but a lot of them are beyond 2020, aren’t they?
SENATOR RYAN:
But they aren’t achievable on any scale, the Queensland target, for example. So they are posing a risk to stability and to price. There is no point in Australia trying to drive itself out of competitive investment by simply having the Labor Party and the Greens engaging in a bidding war for the inner-city suburbs by having targets that won’t be met and that will only have costs.
CONNELL:
But in part filling a vacuum …
SENATOR RYAN:
There is no vacuum. There is a target there that has been legislated and agreed upon by the Parliament ..
CONNELL:
Not beyond 2020.
SENATOR RYAN:
That’s an achievable target and they’re not going to disappear on January 1, 2021. These facilities, these investments, don’t disappear. The state Labor targets, which Bill Shorten basically supports, are actually going to drive power prices higher for small business, big business and households. As Josh Frydenberg and the Prime Minister have outlined, we are happy to stand against that.
CONNELL:
Just finally, the Fair Work Commission, this is of course the body that, apart from other things, sets minimum wage, talk now, after the resignation of vice president Graeme Watson, some of your colleagues say it is in crisis, it’s pro-union, it doesn’t have the right focus. Do you echo any of those sentiments?
SENATOR RYAN:
Well yesterday was my first day back at work after a short break Tom and I did read the paper and see the story about Graeme Watson. I’ll leave any specific comment about the commission to the Minister Michaelia Cash, I think that’s appropriate. I’ve observed some comments in the media from a couple of colleagues, but I think Australians understand and the Government supports, that there needs to be an umpire that is independent to make certain decisions about our industrial relations framework.
CONNELL:
Are you comfortable still with that, because that’s the key principle that some are essentially saying they’re not comfortable with, that that umpire makes that decision.
SENATOR RYAN:
I actually don’t want to make any observations supporting or challenging those particular assertions on reports in the paper, it’s not something I have a particular expertise in and it’s not my direct portfolio responsibility.
CONNELL:
Fair enough. You said you’ve just come back from holiday, what did you make of the summer period for the Turnbull Government?
SENATOR RYAN:
I had to work a bit over my short break.
CONNELL:
I know you did. I shouldn’t make it sound like you were sitting there with the umbrellas in the drinks.
SENATOR RYAN:
I tried.
CONNELL:
And you couldn’t because …
SENATOR RYAN:
Look, the truth is that Tom, when you’re involved in public service, you respond to the needs and demands of the community. The truth is, there are a lot of people who work over the summer period and people in public life are, and should be, no different.
CONNELL:
Perhaps some things to learn about Centrelink? Expenses? I know we’ve covered that already. Do you come back thinking it could have been a better period for the Government – what is usually a fairly quiet reset period?
SENATOR RYAN:
On the Centrelink issue, I actually, genuinely believe that yes, those issues are always difficult to manage, but I think most taxpayers and people who benefit from our strong social safety net expect the Government to use all its information to ensure money goes to those who need it. We do have a challenging budget situation and I think most people expect that if you’ve got tax records that say one thing and Centrelink records that say another, that you’ll actually say to people, ‘look, can you explain the discrepancy?’
CONNELL:
Sure, the sideline issue though was people saying 20 per cent of the notices were sent in error and people not always in the best position to cope with it and even the quiet change on the website, at one stage, going from ‘keep payslips for a year or two’ to ‘keep them indefinitely’. Moving the goalposts a bit?
SENATOR RYAN:
I’ll be honest, I missed some of the stories in my two weeks off so I wasn’t familiar with that. I was familiar with what was happening before that.
People talk about a downtime. I don’t think that’s the case, and to a certain extent, I don’t think that ever was the case. I think there is just more media coverage of it now.
CONNELL:
We’re all part of it and we thank you for coming on and giving us a bit more media coverage. Special Minister of State Scott Ryan, we’ll speak soon.
ENDS