Topics: The new Senate
E&OE…
Mark Simkin
So the new Senate could be quite a minefield. One of the people who’ll have to negotiate it is government frontbencher, Scott Ryan. I spoke to him a short time ago and asked him if thought the Senate represents a giant headache or a major opportunity.
Scott Ryan
I think this Senate represents an opportunity for the Government to implement the agenda we took to the Australian people before the last election. Labor and the Greens have been doing their absolute utmost to frustrate that. We promised to get rid of the carbon tax, and we’ve been trying to abolish it. Labor said they terminated it, yet today the carbon tax increases under the laws passed by Labor and the Greens.
Simkin
It’s not going to be easy, though. We’ve just heard from one of the new senators, Jacqui Lambie, and she’s criticised Tony Abbott saying he’s not a very good leader, he’s disrespectful and declaring there’ll be no avoiding Jacqui Lambie full stop. Not a very good start, is it?
Ryan
Well today’s a very special day for all the incoming senators, particularly those elected for the first time, and as the Prime Minister has made clear, we’ll be dealing with all the crossbench senators with the respect that their election deserves. We ask them to respect the mandate from the last election, which is to fix the mess Labor left the budget in, to stop the boats and to abolish the carbon and mining taxes which are doing so much damage to our economy. And might I say even in Tasmania and I believe that will be of interest to Senator Lambie.
Simkin
How difficult will it be for you to deal with this very complicated crossbench? Is it going to be like herding cats?
Ryan
Well I wouldn’t use that term, Mark. I’d say it’s more often the norm for the Government to have to negotiate with crossbenchers to get through the Senate. In fact the alliance Labor and the Greens had, where they do deals outside the Senate and then just ram the legislation through, is, in fact, uncommon in recent history in Australia. We’ve made it clear that we will negotiate with the senators. We took very clear promises to the last election, particularly clear around the carbon tax, the mining tax and stopping the boats, and we hope the crossbenchers will negotiate in good faith and respect the mandate we have been given from the Australian people.
Simkin
What sort of tactics are you going to use? Flattery? Pressure? Are you going to try and split the Palmer United Party? There are even questions asked about how rusted-on Ricky Muir may be. Jacqui Lambie is already talking about crossing the floor. What is the approach going to be from the Government?
Ryan
We’re going to approach the senators on the crossbench in good faith. We’re going to put to them the same case that we put to the Australian people, and ask them to support the result at the last election on those particularly key measures. But let’s keep this in mind: that the crossbenchers have an important role to play, as all senators do, but it’s the Labor Party and the Greens who are refusing to accept the result of the last election. I mean, if the Labor Party and the Greens accepted the wishes of the people with respect to the carbon tax, it wouldn’t be increasing today and we would’ve been able to abolish it before today.
Simkin
Well how confident are you that you will win that crossbench support to abolish the carbon tax?
Ryan
Well I think what we’ve seen is that the crossbenchers do understand that the last election was an important mandate for the Government to get rid of the carbon tax. There really was no more central issue to the economic debate in Australia over the last few years, other than the broken promise Julia Gillard took and then doing a deal with the Greens to implement a carbon tax despite promising not to. And we hope that the crossbench senators will actually respect that result.
Simkin
Scott Ryan, this morning the Prime Minister told his cabinet in terms of the first nine months of the Government, it certainly hasn’t been easy. What sort of grade would you give the Government on its first nine months in office?
Ryan
Well I’ll leave other people to grade and commentate, but I think the Prime Minister was pointing out that we knew we had a very big mess to clean up. It became apparent after the election that not only did Labor leave a massive deficit that we knew about, we had a lot of land mines and a lot of policy holes that Labor had left unfunded. We had to put a billion dollars back into education that Labor took off students in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. We had to put in nearly a billion dollars back into the border security regime because Labor had left that unfunded so we didn’t have the resources necessary to stop the boats. It was always going to be very difficult and I think that’s the point the Prime Minister was outlining today.
Simkin
Scott Ryan, we will have to leave it there. Thanks for your time.
Ryan
Thanks, Mark.
(Ends)