Subjects: 2016 campaign launch.
EO&E………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
KIERAN GILBERT:
Good morning and welcome back to the Sky News coverage of the Coalition campaign launch. With me, David Speers. We’re at the Novotel in Homebush Bay in the seat of Reid, the marginal, liberal-held seat of Reid, and with us to discuss the launch and the political prospects of the government, now six days out from election day, is liberal frontbench senator Scott Ryan. Senator Ryan, it’s good to see you.
SENATOR RYAN:
Thanks for having me.
KIERAN GILBERT:
We’ve been discussing and previewing today’s speech, and really, if you had to put it into a word, it’s stability. Isn’t it? That’s the thing?
SENATOR RYAN:
Stability. Reliability. That’s an important part of the Coalition’s plan. We are in uncertain global economic times, and what the Australian people are looking for is a government that can give them certainty and predictability, as well as stability, implementing an economic agenda that will actually see their households, their small businesses, their communities, all have the economic opportunities that Australians rightly expect for them and their children.
KIERAN GILBERT:
So the Brexit was a boost for the Turnbull campaign?
SENATOR RYAN:
I wouldn’t make it a judgment like that. I think what Brexit emphasises, and what the referendum result in the UK emphasises, is that there is a lot of economic uncertainty. The other parts of Europe are still suffering through the consequences of the financial crisis, and the risks have gotten them dept. You’ve got higher unemployment. What that means is people are denied opportunities, businesses are denied opportunities to grow, young people denied opportunities for their first job, they’re denied opportunities to build a home and a family. What Australia needs is a government that’s got a plan, that has been honest with the Australian people about what needs to be done to implement it, and that isn’t running dishonest scare campaigns based on nothing less than a lie.
DAVID SPEERS:
We’re here in the seat of Reid. Why? Is there any concern about losing the seat of Reid?
SENATOR RYAN:
Oh, look, I think you’ve got to have a campaign launch somewhere. Craig Laundy is a very popular local member. He won the seat of Reid last time, and, as we know, Craig is a very strong personality, and I think I’d be quite confident in Craig’s ability to persuade the voters of Reid to send him back to Canberra again. It’s part of western Sydney. You’ve got to have a campaign launch somewhere. Sydney is the country’s largest city, and I think this is a great place to have it.
DAVID SPEERS:
We’ve seen campaign launches for many years now in Brisbane, for both major parties, both now back in Sydney. I suppose it’s not a coincidence, is it? The focus is here on, particularly, western Sydney.
SENATOR RYAN:
Well, I’m from Melbourne. It has been a while since there has been one in Melbourne.
DAVID SPEERS:
An even longer time.
SENATOR RYAN:
I think before I voted. Look, Sydney’s Australia’s largest city. Western Sydney is similar in many ways to parts of Brisbane. Australia’s a relatively homogeneous country in that sense. The issue’s that drive voters out here are similar to the issues that drive voters in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Hobart, or a regional centre. It’s about, how do I feel confident about my job prospects? How do I feel confident about the prospects for education for jobs for my children? This is as good a slice of Australia to put our pitch to the Australian people with a week to go.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Now I’m told today’s speech is going to be less the standard political partisan fiery sort of speech, maybe I guess like we saw three years ago from the then-opposition leader, this is going to be more a conversation. Is it designed to be the message of stability, but also the tone today? Is that the theory here?
SENATOR RYAN:
Malcolm Turnbull has brought a tone to this campaign. He’s been honest with the Australian people and the electorate about the challenges the country faces. He’s been clear about having a ten-year enterprise tax plan that will fund long-term investment, that will support economic growth, and I think, in the end, it reflects the style of a leader. Now Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Malcolm Turnbull, everyone’s a different person, so every campaign launch, to a certain extent, reflects both the mood of the country and the style of… (Interrupted)
KIERAN GILBERT:
The morning is as well, as David and I were discussing, is to those voters in the fifteen, seventeen key seats, to not experiment on the crossbenchers, the Independents and the Greens, because that could end up in a minority government once again.
SENATOR RYAN:
Well, you know, we saw after the 2010 election, as a friend of mine once said to me, he woke up and he didn’t know what the government was going to do that day, because it all depended upon the chaotic negotiations with multiple crossbenchers, and then the radical influence of the Greens. The truth is, the Australian people don’t want that. They want a government that listens to them, they want a government that’s got a plan, but the idea that what the government does every day should be subject to the whims of a handful of people holding the government to ransom, as happens with Labor and the Greens, that hurts economic confidence, that hurts jobs prospects, that hurts…(Interrupted)
DAVID SPEERS:
Just on this theme of stability though, Bill Shorten made the point that you guys haven’t been stable, and there is something in that. You’re on to your third Defence Minister, your second Health Minister, you’ve got a new Deputy Prime Minister, you’ve replaced your Prime Minister and put in Malcolm Turnbull back in September. It hasn’t been entirely stable the last three years.
SENATOR RYAN:
Well, I think you’ve got to take anything from the Shorten’s with a grain of salt.
DAVID SPEERS:
Oh, I’m just saying reality.
SENATOR RYAN:
He’s basically saying whatever it takes to sort of not talk about the economy.
DAVID SPEERS:
Your side hasn’t been terribly stable for the last three years.
SENATOR RYAN:
I think since Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister, when it came to developing our tax and economic plan, he did that openly. He did that talking to the public about it.
DAVID SPEERS:
Even that went through all sorts of contortions from the GST to stating back taxes.
SENATOR RYAN:
I think that’s a different way of doing things. I think it’s important that rather than doing something in secret and then dropping it on the table, like Wayne Swan did with the Henry tax review – and that went nowhere other than a tax grab on the mining industry, which was damaging to our interests – what the Prime Minister and Scott Morrison did was actually have this debate in public, and they did talk about what taxes they were thinking about, and they then did explain why they weren’t going down that particular path. I actually think that is why we need to do serious policy these days. It’s not just about putting a group of people of so-called experts in a room, coming up with an answer, and telling the public, “This is what we’re doing.”
DAVID SPEERS:
Well, that billion-dollar company tax plan wasn’t exactly ventilated and debated, was it?
SENATOR RYAN:
No. There was a lot of talk about the need to cut the corporate tax rate. You know, when we cut our corporate tax rate last time, I think there were seven countries in the world with a lower tax rate than us, and now we’re above twenty. There was a lot of discussion about what the tax mix should be, and the Government, obviously, the number came out in the budget, but the Government was very clear that we were interested in a tax system that supported investment, because that supports jobs, that supports wages.
KIERAN GILBERT:
But if you don’t like it after three years, throw us out. This is an interesting message that we’ve heard, even in the ad with the tradie saying lets kick this mob around for a while, and Malcolm Turnbull said himself, if you don’t like it in three years, throw us out. Is this a subtle message to voters who’ve been disappointed by Malcolm Turnbull up to this point, that give me a go and I’ll prove you wrong, without saying it explicitly?
SENATOR RYAN:
Well I think it’s a statement of the obvious. Anyone that says, well, you can’t change anything out for the next ten years, the public would legitimately say, “Hang on, we have elections every three years in Australia.” I think it was, again, a sign of Malcolm Turnbull’s honesty and frankness, that it was a statement of the obvious. Yes, we have a ten-year tax plan. Over the next three years it only applies to businesses up to $50 million, and if you don’t like it, of course, in three years you have another election. I think it was a statement of the obvious.
DAVID SPEERS:
The election is a double dissolution, and the whole point of that was two industrial relation bills that the Senate refused to pass twice. If the government loses nine lower House and Senate seats this election, that still scrapes over the line. You won’t be able to pass those bills, will you, in a joint seating?
SENATOR RYAN:
It depends on the makeup of the Parliament and people are voting now, but at the same time, that will be a decision made by the public next Saturday.
DAVID SPEERS:
Is that a measure of whether this has been a successful election, whether you can pass the bills in the Senate?
SENATOR RYAN:
The key test for any election, in the end, is people are voting on who to form government and who they want as their prime minister, what agenda and of which side of politics do they actually want to support and they think is best for Australia. We put out a plan for economic growth and jobs, and we believe that the Labor plan will lead to the chaos we saw between 2010 and 2013. As to the intricacies of what might happen in the Senate or a joint seating, I think let’s wait until next Saturday night.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Has the Liberal party been vindicated in terms of the change of leader by the Galaxy poll today, which suggests that if Tony Abbott were still leader, your primary vote would be four points less, down from 42 to 38?
SENATOR RYAN:
I think those issues have been recounted enough over the last six and twelve months. What we’re talking about today, Tony Abbott is going to be joining Malcolm Turnbull and the rest of the Coalition team coming along today because, like all of us, he is committed to seeing the re-election of Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister and a Coalition government.
DAVID SPEERS:
You want to see Tony Abbott honoured today?
SENATOR RYAN:
I think we will have all the members of our Coalition who have the opportunity to come here, acknowledged as part of the team, and, obviously as the former Prime Minister, he has a particular place in the Liberal Party, and he’s coming along to support Malcolm Turnbull’s bid for re-election.
DAVID SPEERS:
Thanks, Scott Ryan. Enjoy the campaign. I want to thank you very much for joining us this day.
SENATOR RYAN:
Thanks, Kieran. Thanks, David.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Appreciate it.
(ENDS)