E&OE….
Topics: Entitlements, Newspoll, Penalty Rates, Great Barrier Reef
TOM ELLIOTT:
Right, joining us now, the Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt.
Mr Hunt, good afternoon.
GREG HUNT:
And g’day Tom.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Now, can I just ask you – I gave your leader, Tony Abbott, and the Treasurer a bit of a whack today for confusing public with private business when using taxpayer-funded flights around Australia. What are the guidelines about politicians flying, whether it’s a charter flight or a commercial jet, about public versus private affairs?
GREG HUNT:
Look, it’s very simple, that the purpose of a trip has to be for a public purpose. My understanding is that in each case, people will do one thing, they might have a meeting or a series of meetings and at the same time, they might do something outside of their portfolio. But frankly, whether you’re the Prime Minister or the Treasurer, there is virtually no event, no encounter which isn’t some way related to the portfolio and the job, because every moment they are meeting with people.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Okay, so you’re saying…
GREG HUNT:
So the net impact here is that there’s no additional cost to taxpayers because they would have had to have been in those cities at that time in any event, on the advice that I have.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Okay, but I have read about – and I’m struggling to recall the exact circumstances where, but where politicians – I believe there was one who somehow flew up to inspect a rental property in Cairns and managed to manufacture a public trip to get up there and so forth. I mean, are you saying though that when the Prime Minister’s at a private birthday party, he’s still actually on official business? Is that your point?
GREG HUNT:
No, what I’m saying is that my understanding is that the Prime Minister has, in any event, public duties, professional duties that he was doing, as well as – and I don’t know the circumstances of the particular event, other than what I’ve read in the paper.
You go to something like that and of course he’s talking business. But irrespective, if that private engagement had not occurred, he would have been in Melbourne, he would have had to have been in Melbourne and similarly, those are the rules and if people break it, as has occurred, then they should repay. But in this case, there were very clear public duties in addition to – which would have had to necessitated him being there…
TOM ELLIOTT:
Okay…
GREG HUNT:
So no additional cost to the taxpayer. And remember this, this is somebody who is so obsessive that he came into office, discovered a large, sort of mansion had been potentially rented on behalf of – as the acting residence, or temporary residence for the Prime Minister and instead he lives in a police college in a very small, modest accommodation…
TOM ELLIOTT:
Well, yeah, but…
GREG HUNT:
…he’s somebody who’s…
TOM ELLIOTT:
…but I’m not sure that saved us money, because…
GREG HUNT:
…the last person in the country to be (inaudible)…
TOM ELLIOTT:
Mr Hunt, I’m sorry, but my understanding is that because the lease had been signed on that mansion in Canberra, in fact the Government had to pay for it anyway, it was the same cost. So in fact, staying in the police academy didn’t save us any money, because the mansion already… I mean, I agree…
GREG HUNT:
I think you’ll find that there was an arrangement made which ended up saving the taxpayer very, very considerable amounts compared to what would have been the case.
TOM ELLIOTT:
I suppose my issue is that when I was in business and I used to travel a lot for work, I had to document everything that was private versus everything that was business and if we did not, the Tax Office would come after us with Fringe Benefits Tax like a tonne of bricks. It just seems to me that the rules that apply to business are far stricter, thanks to the Tax Office, than the rules that apply to politicians.
GREG HUNT:
I think it’s actually the opposite, because…
TOM ELLIOTT:
Oh, really?
GREG HUNT:
…every single trip is documented, is recorded and by the way, for somebody who travels enormously, the last thing you want to be doing is travelling. The thing that you would want to be doing is having a rare, you know, once in a month evening at home with your wife, some time like that.
Everything that we do is rightfully available and published and that is – we have one of the highest, if not the highest standards of probity anywhere in the world. And remember, this Prime Minister is living in a police college. He was offered a mansion, he chose to make sure the taxpayer, as I understand it, got out of the lease.
He lives in the most frugal, modest conditions of his own choice, of his own volition, when nobody would have begrudged a different circumstance for the Prime Minister. He goes on holidays to a very modest sort of caravanning area, very committed. Same thing about living in Indigenous Australia for a week every year, long before he was PM. Same thing about working with the CFA and the Surf Lifesaving Club. So, you couldn’t be more down to earth than that approach.
TOM ELLIOTT:
We’ll have more from the Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, in a moment. Your calls as well – 9690 0693.
Intermission
TOM ELLIOTT:
Thirteen to five, Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt is with us. Mr Hunt, didn’t South Australia – what looks like quite a transformative deal has been done by Business SA and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Association, basically to trade off penalty rates for shop workers, versus an increase in base pay. Now, it’s only for small businesses, but do you think this will set a precedent for the rest of Australia?
GREG HUNT:
Look, I do think that it will cause some unions and some employer organisations to wonder whether they might be able to strike a similar agreement. It’s not something that the Federal Government will do. We’ve made our commitments that we’re not going to abolish or change penalty rates.
But it is something that can be negotiated under the current arrangements, between the Fair Work Commission, employers and their employees. And so this is a very interesting arrangement. I know that the ALP hasn’t stood in the way of it.
TOM ELLIOTT:
No, no, they haven’t – in fact, Mark Butler of the ALP has praised it and said it’s the sort of thing that Paul Keating would have liked to have seen. And the SDA, of course, is a national union. So if they’ve done this deal in one State, there’s no reason they couldn’t do it in others.
GREG HUNT:
I was actually, in fact, a member of its predecessor, I think, the Storemen and Packers, during my university years…
TOM ELLIOTT:
So was – so was I, so was I once. There you go. Okay, another thing now, polls…
GREG HUNT:
Comrade.
TOM ELLIOTT:
Yes, comrade, we’ll all go out and sing the Communist Internationale together.
GREG HUNT:
I always knew.
TOM ELLIOTT:
At Trades Hall. Actually I have been there when they sang that song once. That’s a separate issue – now, the latest Newspoll is, I guess, good news for you. Now, the Liberal Party or the Government was trailing quite badly in the polls, however Newspoll says that Labor is only leading 51-49, which is pretty close to 50-50. Is that something that makes you feel better about life? Or do you not really care?
GREG HUNT:
Look, I am always cautious, because if you get a bad result, people ask you and my approach is generally to be pretty calm and know that we’ll be judged on the job we’ve done. And so if things are significantly better, you similarly want to be calm. Having said that, what do I think is underlying this?
Firstly, I think there’s an increasing realisation that there’s a deep, profound duty we have not to be borrowing a hundred million dollars a day and leaving that debt for our children and our grandchildren. There’s no easy way out of it, but there are responsible ways.
And I think similarly, you can see that the public are beginning to realise that perhaps the Opposition leader, Bill Shorten, doesn’t have any contribution to make on this and doesn’t have any solutions and would just make the problem worse.
Particularly given, particularly given that they’re blocking $5 billion of savings which would help reduce the borrowing for our children and grandchildren, which they themselves proposed when they were in government.
TOM ELLIOT:
Yeah, now just on this issue of the Budget, though – the Age is reporting that Joe Hockey unveiled a target back to surplus during a PowerPoint presentation at a meeting of Coalition MPs in Canberra today. Where you there? And when did he say you were getting back to surplus?
GREG HUNT:
No, the story isn’t actually correct or accurate. And normally I wouldn’t speak on the Party Room, but he very specifically said he wouldn’t set a date. He did set a pathway which is already in the – what are called the published forward estimates or the published Budget documents. But specifically, didn’t set a date, and said that he would be releasing the PowerPoint to the media.
So in a couple of respects I think the paper in question may have got the details wrong. And the whole point is being completely transparent about the challenge, bringing the public with us, so as we become one of those generations that saves for the future rather than leaves the bill of $100 million a day for our descendants.
TOM ELLIOT:
Finally, very quickly, speaking of $100 million, last time you and I spoke, I think you were up in Japan convincing the Japanese that we were doing good things to the Great Barrier Reef. I have in front of me a press release from you and the Prime Minister, saying you’re going to spend an extra $100 million on the Barrier Reef, what are you going to do to it?
GREG HUNT:
So it’s about water quality. And what’s the number one thing that you can do to help the Great Barrier Reef? All the science says it’s reduce the farm runoff in terms of sediment. Nitrogen, pesticides. We’re already seeing significant turnarounds in those. The plan that we put out – a Reef 2050 Plan – sees much greater reductions by working on a voluntary basis with farmers and communities and landholders.
But we’ve got incentives to reduce the sediment, reduce the nitrogen, reduce the pesticides, to attack the crown of thorns directly with a new single-shot treatment . So these are things which are going to improve water quality and provide protection for the coral.
TOM ELLIOT:
Greg Hunt, thank you for your time.
GREG HUNT:
Thanks very much, Tom.
TOM ELLIOT:
Greg Hunt there, Federal Environment Minister. He’ll join us again in about two week’s time.
(ENDS)