Topics: Federal Budget, Indonesia, Chaplaincy Program
E&OE…
Chris Hammer
We’re joined now by Liberal Senator Scott Ryan from Victoria. We’ve been having a few troubles, interestingly, with Skype, we’ve changed devices and that’s looking much better. Welcome Senator.
Scott Ryan
G’day Chris, technology’s a wonderful thing.
Hammer
Yes it is. Now, the OECD is warning against too a tough Federal Budget. They’re saying that the Government should avoid too much fiscal consolidation at this part in the economic cycle. Is that something that the Government has to be careful of, that it doesn’t kind of, be over-tough with the Budget?
Ryan
Well I think Treasurer Joe Hockey’s made clear on a number of occasions leading up to the Budget that he understands our core priority is to bring the Budget back into balance and to make it sustainable. It’s not in a sustainable position at the moment. We’ve had the third fastest increase in debt in the OECD. But he’s also made clear the Government’s policies, such as recycling state privatisations into infrastructure, are there to support economic growth as the composition of investment in the economy changes.
Hammer
Tony Shepherd made the same point the other day, very tough recommendations in that report and you wouldn’t expect the Government to implement all of them, but he was also saying “look, we shouldn’t be too tough to quickly, because the economy’s fragile.”
Ryan
Well the objective of that report to the Government, and that’s important to highlight, it wasn’t a report from the Government, it was a report to the Government. It was independent in order to give advice to the Government on making the Budget sustainable in the medium and longer term. We know that we can’t bring it back into balance in one year, the mess we’ve been left with is simply too great. The Commission of Audit report was about the longer term and it highlighted just how unsustainable the Budget is in a longer term, that we’d end with sixteen years of deficits in a row.
Hammer
So there’s been a lot of speculation about exactly how tough the Budget’s going to be, and of course that is impacting on consumer sentiments, small business sentiment. So what comfort can you give, say to a small business person, who’s worried the Budget’s going to be tough, it’s going to impact consumer confidence, if you like, is it going to be offset with infrastructure spending for example?
Ryan
Well that was my old portfolio before the election in opposition Chris, so in terms of small business, we’ve made a commitment that we will bring the Budget back into balance and we’ll do it over the medium term. That’s a critical commitment and it’s a commitment that small business knows we can deliver because the previous Coalition government did deliver. There are a couple of measures we’ve done specifically for small business as well. One of the most annoying things that small business faced were increases in paperwork and red tape, so we’ve made it clear under our Paid Parental Leave policy, that Centrelink won’t make the small business do the paperwork for Centrelink, then the paperwork for the person accessing parental leave. We’ll just take that all back to Centrelink and take the small businessperson out of it. So at the broader level it’s about supporting the economy, and we’ve seen some of these announcements even in the Victorian State Budget yesterday. At the micro level, it’s about making the job of a small business person that little bit easier by taking off some of the burdens that were put on them in recent years.
Hammer
So although we’re being kind of warmed up for a horror budget, it might not be so tough after all.
Ryan
I think the Budget’s going to be very difficult Chris. We have a budget deficit of over $40 billion, that is just not sustainable. There were holes in the Budget left for us, such as there being a billion dollars stripped out of school funding by the previous government. So unless people thought that kids in Queensland were going to get less support for education than kids in Victoria, that’s a hole we had to fill. There was a billion dollars in unfunded costs for our border protection regime and we have to actually pay for these facilities overseas because that’s where people are at the moment. Labor didn’t fund these, so it is going to be a difficult budget and there are going to be sacrifices that all Australians have to make to bring the Budget back into balance.
Hammer
Ok, do you personally support a deficit levy?
Ryan
Well, I think we all need to take a deep breath Chris. I did a quick count before, it’s 153 hours, or just under, and Joe Hockey will be on his feet in the House of Representatives delivering his first Budget as Treasurer, so let’s just all just take a breath and actually wait and see what Joe and the Prime Minister present to the House of Representatives and the Australian people, it’s not long to wait now, but it is a very important moment for the new government.
Hammer
Well, say there is a deficit levy, how do you sell it?
Ryan
Without commenting specifically, because I’m not going to comment on what might or might not be in the Budget, Chris, but you do ask an important question, which is we do need to sell the concept and we do need to sell Australians with us on the point that this budget situation is unsustainable. And it’s going to require all Australians to contribute and that’s why I said to you earlier, I think it will be a difficult Budget because when you ask people to make sacrifices it’s not easy, but I think as long as people believe that it’s fairly shared, that in the past Australians have always showed a willingness to make that sacrifice.
Hammer
Yeah, I wonder if the Government has painted itself into a corner on this one, because Labor are saying “look, if the Government introduces a deficit levy, that’s a tax hike, it’s a broken promise” and they’ll persecute you over that. On the other hand if you don’t introduce a deficit levy, Labor’s going to say “hang on, it’s low and middle income earners who are feeling the pain and the rich are getting off scot-free.” I mean, it’s a bit of a lose-lose situation for the Government, isn’t it?
Ryan
Well I saw part of your interview with Ed there before, Labor’s living in a world of denial. According to Labor there’s no budget problem. I saw Tony Burke basically talk about a confected crisis yesterday. We have a very real budget problem, the third fastest increasing debt in the developed world and we’re borrowing $40 billion a year with, in the forward estimates, no foreseeable budget balance in the short term. So we know it’s going to be difficult, we never hid that from the Australian people, we always made it clear through policies such as trying to repeal the School Kids Bonus, that did require sacrifice from all Australians. So we’re under no illusions that it will be easy, but we think, just as what has happened with the previous Coalition Government, that people will understand that if we take them into our trust and the burden is fairly shared that they understand that for the benefit of their kids, we need to balance the Budget. Labor can go off on frolics and scare campaigns, and go into hysterics about inconsistent messages as we’re seeing from people like Ed, but it is an absolute commitment of this Government that the Budget needs to be balanced.
Hammer
So if there’s a budget crisis, why is the OECD saying “hey, take it easy guys,” are they in denial as well?
Ryan
Well I’d say a lot of the countries of the OECD are in denial, Chris. The OECD’s also the organisation that said we didn’t need to balance budgets in Europe as quickly. Well Europe’s debt position is utterly unsustainable, and the burden of that debt is causing things like 55% youth unemployment in Spain. Quite frankly, the record of Australia stands up very well against the record of OECD advice over the past 20 years.
Hammer
Now, you are Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, will the Government be honouring its pre-election commitment to maintain spending levels in education?
Ryan
Well, in education we promised to deliver the first years of the Better Schools funding which we’ve redirected and taken off the red tape burdens and called the Students First funding package, and we will deliver on that. This is a Government that will deliver its promises and we’ll do that right across the government, including in education.
Hammer
And I believe one of the promises is to maintain the School Chaplaincy Program, to refund that, that’s a commitment that’s going to be honoured?
Ryan
Well when it comes to specific measures, I’ve got to urge people to wait for announcements Tuesday night. With School Chaplaincy, it was created under the Howard Government and we’ve indicated over all those years that we are very strong supporters of it.
Hammer
Ok, over to a different subject, Indonesia. The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, is saying the turn back the boats policy isn’t working because they keep coming, we keep turning them back, is he wrong?
Ryan
Well I think the suite of policies introduced by the new Government are working. We have not had an unlawful arrival in Australia now for over four months. In the same period last year we had well over 5,000. That is a real achievement, and that from our measure, and from the commitments this Government made, is a sign that the policy is working, but it requires constant vigilance.
Hammer
So the Indonesian Foreign Minister is wrong?
Ryan
Well I’m not going to comment on the comments of the Indonesian Foreign Minister, that’s not my place. But we made a commitment that the boats had to be stopped. Thousands of people were coming to Australian shores, we know that over a thousand people drowned in trying to do so. Turning them around was an issue of our sovereignty and a humanitarian issue and the polices that Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison have introduced are clearly working.
Hammer
Just finally Senator, you’ve seen from afar what’s been happening in New South Wales, with ICAC, both sides of politics, Labor and Liberal, caught up in that. Do you believe we need a federal version of ICAC?
Ryan
No I don’t Chris, and I’ve thought about this issue before, there have been a number of Senate inquiries into this sort of area, and there’s a few reasons. Firstly, the nature of the decisions made by the Federal Government don’t tend to have the same impact on direct business operations or direct operations of companies as can happen at a state and local government level. Secondly, we have a very strong Parliamentary oversight process, we have Senate Estimates Committees which meet three times a year, for many days and many nights, and bureaucrats and politicians are subject to exhaustive questioning there. That isn’t done in many parts of the world and it’s not done at our state level. The other thing I’d say is we have a couple hundred journalists on the second floor of the building, a much larger press gallery than exists at our state level and I think very strong institutions that have access to that media, such as the Ombudsman, such as the National Audit Office. I think all those institutions, that also reinforce the very importance of the free media and investigative media, I think they work very well at the Commonwealth level in Australia.
Hammer
Ok. Senator Scott Ryan, thank you so much for your participation today.
Ryan
Thanks Chris, lovely to catch up.
(Ends)