Mark Butler :: TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE

Mark Butler MP

Federal Member for Port Adelaide

TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE

Date: 02 May 2014

ANTHONY ALBANESE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND TOURISM:
Today we want to talk about the commission cuts that released its
recommendations yesterday. What this is is a blueprint for to jobs, for
lower growth and economy, for trashing the national economy. Far North
Queenslanders should brace for cuts to education, cuts to health, cuts
to jobs, cuts to support for the tourism sector either in the Budget in a
week's time, or whenever Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey have the chance,
because we now know that they went to the election based upon a series
of lies.

They
had a plan to get into government, but they don't have a plan to
govern, except for vicious cuts and a redistribution of wealth from
those who can least afford it to those who least need assistance. At the
same time as they're talking about massive cuts, every time you go to a
doctor, every time you want your kid to get a decent education, they
are implementing a more than $5 billion paid parental leave scheme. The
fact is this: They inherited a strong economy, an economy with strong
employment and economic growth, with inflation, with low interest rates,
and with, importantly, a Triple A credit rating. Ever since they came
into government, they have been attempting to create a case for massive
cuts so they can put their conservative ideological agenda into
practice.

What
that means is privatisation of essential services, cuts particularly to
regional Australia. Here in Cairns we can see what happens when you
have a Commission of Audit made up of people from the top end of town in
Sydney and Melbourne. They come up with recommendations that suit the
top end of town in Sydney and Melbourne and ignore regional Australia.
The commission says there should be no funding for regional support in
Australia, that that should be left to states and local government. It
comes up with the bizarre recommendation of states implementing their
own income tax, and in my area of tourism, they come up with devastating
recommendations.

Firstly,
an end to all regional tourism grants, an end to the T-Qual scheme
which has been cut by the incoming government, and a halving of funding
for Tourism Australia.

Tourism
Australia is the body out there promoting Cairns and Far North
Queensland in India, in China, in Indonesia, and in the US, promoting
tourism jobs and economic activity here in Far North Queensland. We know
that are 4,000 small businesses here in Far North Queensland relating
to the tourism sector. We know that tourism creates some 250,000 jobs in
Queensland, 900,000 jobs nationally, 60,000 jobs directly created as a
result of the Great Barrier Reef here, one of the world's great iconic
sites. And yet we have a proposition of cutting tourism funding in half,
putting it back into the departments so that they lose the expertise
and essentially have just a few bureaucrats running tourism agenda for
Australia. This is an example of the short-sightedness of the
Government's approach, a short-sighted approach that would lead to cuts
now, but much lower economic growth and therefore less jobs in the
future. I might ask colleagues to comment.

MARK BUTLER, SHADOW MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER:
Thanks, everyone, for coming along. As Anthony has said, this
Commission of Audit report is nothing short of a blueprint for a budget
of broken promises and twisted priorities, whether you are an aged
pensioner, a working family, a student or even a victim of natural
disasters; no-one will be spared from the cuts that flowed from this
devastating report yesterday.

In
my portfolio of climate change and environment, the Commission of Audit
has backed in the Government’s decision to get rid of all programs that
seek to respond to the threat climate change and to abolish all
independent agencies that are set up to provide governments and the
community with good, independent scientifically based advice about
climate change. Now, no-one knows more about the impact of climate
change than communities in Far North Queensland because the Bureau of
Meteorology, the CSIRO, NASA and countless other expert scientific
agencies have told us that extreme weather events will be, and are
already becoming, more frequent and more intense as a result of climate
change.

Yet
this Commission of Audit set up by Tony Abbott has recommended that the
disaster recovery allowance, an income support payment for families and
individuals who are not able to work as a result of the devastation of
natural disasters, be abolished. This allowance is already, for example,
being paid in the Hope Vale area as a result of Cyclone Ita, and this
Commission of Audit has said that people, the victims of natural
disasters are not deserving of government support. It’s hard to know
where the end would be if aged pensioners are going to be attacked, if
students are going to have to pay more to get an education to set up
their future, or even victims of natural disasters, overwhelmingly here
in Far North Queensland, will not be spared the cuts that flow from this
Commission of Audit report. Jan?

JAN McLUCAS, SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND:
Thank you. Here in Cairns in Far North Queensland, we will be
incredibly hurt by the recommendations of this Commission of Audit. As
Anthony as described, cutting tourism funding for promotion of our
assets would be devastating. We rely on tourism in this town and not
being able to promote our product to the world will really affect our
economy. We're still suffering from the effects of the global financial
crisis and any further cut will affect our economy dreadfully.

To
add to that, to not be able to respond to climate change, as Mark has
indicated, will leave us very vulnerable into the future. And
particularly the point that Mark made about natural disaster and relief
and recovery arrangements not being able to be used by our community,
unfortunately a community that is most reliant on those services, will
affect our economy. In my portfolio area of housing and homelessness, we
see the recommendations from the Commission of Audit exactly mirroring
the view of the current government, and that is to vacate the space, to
move out of support for housing programs, and for homelessness programs.
That will mean across the country that that responsibility will then
rest with states and territories and we know that they are not capable
and they're not able with the income that they have, to be able to
deliver these programs. These recommendations, if put into effect by the
Government, will mean that the costs to the economy, the costs to
vulnerable people, will be very difficult to bear.

JOURNALIST:
Do you think UNESCO's assertion that the Great Barrier Reef be declared
a World Heritage area would better affect tourism to this area?

BUTLER:
Well, there is no question. As Anthony said, there are 60,000 tourism
jobs that are directly dependent on the Great Barrier Reef, about $6
billion in economic turnover, much of it for Far North Queensland, but
going right down the Queensland coast. So the health of the reef is
obviously, from an environmental point of view, a very important thing
for Australia. But from an economic point of view, particularly with
tourism jobs, it is critical we do everything possible to maintain the
health of the Great Barrier Reef. Now, UNESCO has released a draft
report this week about a meeting in June that will consider whether or
not to place the reef on the endangered list, and we know, and Anthony
and Jan and I are talking to tourism operators later today here in
Cairns, that if the Reef were placed on the Endangered List, there would
be devastating consequences for the tourism industry, devastating
consequences for the attractiveness of this part of Queensland, to Reef
tourism in the eyes of people all across the world. So this report is a
wake-up call to Campbell Newman and to Greg Hunt to get serious about
looking after the health of the Reef.

There
are three points that this report makes, very point important points.
The first point it makes is that it does not support Tony Abbott handing
over all of the environmental powers that the Commonwealth has had for
decades, going back to the Franklin Dam campaign, to Campbell Newman.
Tony Abbott wants to give Campbell Newman entire power to determine what
developments take place that will impact on World Heritage areas,
including the Great Barrier Reef. UNESCO has said they're very concerned
about that. UNESCO has also sounded a note of caution about Campbell
Newman's decision to reverse a decade of fantastic reforms around land
clearing, particularly here in Queensland, and UNESCO has said that that
has the potential to have very serious consequences for the Reef. Now,
we are happy that UNESCO is not going to place the Reef this year on the
endangered list, but Campbell Newman and Greg Hunt should be under no
illusion; we are not out of the woods on this. This is just a stay until
next year when UNESCO will again revisit the whether the Reef should be
put on the Endangered List. It’s time that Tony Abbott got serious
about protecting the Reef and reverses his decision to hand over
environmental powers from the Commonwealth to Campbell Newman because
Campbell Newman has shown he is just not up to the job in protecting
Queensland’s environment.

JOURNALIST:
UNESCO also criticised the Government's decision to approve the
dredging at Abbot Point. Would you have approved that, given that they
have now criticised that and it could possibly lead to the Reef being
put on the endangered list?

BUTLER:
You're right, UNESCO has criticised the Government for approving the
dredging and dumping of 3 million cubic metres of dredge spoil in the
marine park area and they’ve done that because we're still in the
process of preparing a Strategic Assessment of the reef, the
Commonwealth and the state governments, to go to UNESCO. I wasn’t at the
point as Environment Minister in the last government of making a
decision about Abbot Point, but just before the election I had released a
number of reports that had been prepared as part of the Strategic
Assessment that were very concerning to me about the dredging and
dumping of spoil in the Marine Park area. In particular, there was a
scientific report that cast doubt on the existing advice that I had
received about how far the dredge spoil would move after it was dumped
and the length of time during which the spoil will continue to move
around the Reef and cover up grass and coral.

So
I put a halt to consideration of Abbot Point. I asked for advice about
that report. That advice obviously hasn't come to me; it has gone to
Greg Hunt because of the change of government. I think it's important
that Greg Hunt is open with the community, particularly the community in
Queensland, about what advice he received on that very concerning
scientific report. Greg Hunt has said there were no alternatives to the
Abbot Point decision. It is very clear, and I was discussing with the
proponents before the election, that there was an alternative to have a
longer jetty, a longer trestle that would not have required dredging of 3
million cubic metres of dredge spoil in the Abbot Point area. Greg Hunt
has not told the Queensland community whether he considered that
alternative, and if he did, why he rejected it in place of dredging that
much spoil and dumping it into the Marine Park area.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, are you saying you don't have enough information to say whether you’d approve it or not?

BUTLER:
That's right. I put those reports out for submissions. Those
submissions ended up being made to Greg Hunt. A number of us in
the community, the Parliament, and in the organisations and tourism
operators have been asking for Greg Hunt to come clean about what advice
he received about that report, and other reports, about the impact that
dredging and dumping from Abbot Point would have on the Reef.

JOURNALIST:
[Shadow] Minister Albanese, the report is very clear, though, that
massive budget cuts are needed to save the Budget. What do you believe
should be done to save the budget?

ALBANESE:
Well, the report isn't clear about that. What is clear is that
Australia has a AAA credit rating. What you always need to do with
budgets, is reflect the government's priorities. This government's
priority is hitting pensioners, abolishing the universality of Medicare,
making education less affordable - at the same time as they look after
those who least need support through their expensive, unaffordable paid
parental leave scheme. That's what this Government's priorities are.
That's why they're wrong. And if you have a series of cuts, such as the
cuts to tourism, that will lower future economic growth and therefore
lower future revenues to government. Then you are essentially cutting
off your nose to spite your face. You are having a negative impact on
the long-term of the budget.

JOURNALIST: Do you support any of the recommendations in the audit?

ALBANESE:
Look, I'm sure there are some recommendations that I would support.
What I've seen so far, though, is a series of privatisation cuts, a
series of privatisations of organisations such as Australia Post, which
provide services to regional Australia. People in Far North Queensland,
indeed wherever they are in regional Australia will know, that if
Australia Post is privatised, they will lose. They won't get the same
service that they get today. Just as tourism operators know that if you
have a halving of funding for Tourism Australia, then what you will have
is less paid jobs created, less income tax paid by those people who
work in the tourism sector, and a downward spiral in terms of growth.

That’s
the problem with this report. This report is essentially just an
ideological playbook from the conservatives. In the tourism sector, they
shouldn’t be surprised because we don't even have a Tourism Minister.
The Abbott Government showed their hand on Day One that they don't
understand how important tourism is for the national economy when they
failed to appoint anyone to be the Tourism Minister. It’s no wonder when
tourism doesn't have an advocate around the Cabinet table.

JOURNALIST: Do you think any cuts need to be made and if they do, where?

ALBANESE:
Governments always need to look at their priorities, but what they need
to look at is not cuts for people that can least afford it, not cuts
which will hinder Australia's performance in the long-term. If you cut
education, for example, and this report recommends stopping the Gonski
reforms, if you stop providing that reform, then what you will have is
worse education, less opportunity, less ability for people to lift
themselves up and to create economic growth in the future. This is a
very short-sighted approach from a mean-spirited government that is out
of touch with average Australians.

We
have seen in terms of the recommendations, in terms of pensions that
they’re going to change - they want to change the asset test to tax the
family home, they want to introduce a new tax and they're calling it a
levy. I mean, does anyone actually believe that Tony Abbott doesn't
understand that a tax is a tax, and that is exactly what they are
proposing. This is essentially a book of broken promises to be
implemented by the Abbott Government over a period of time. I'm sure
that when the Budget comes out, they will say, "Look, we only
implemented half of the cuts or a third of the cuts.” But what people
know from this day on is that these are the cuts that are coming if they
get a mandate to do it. They've already broken so many promises in such
a short period of time. No government in Australia's history has broken
cuts across every single one of the portfolios in the first six months.
That's what they've done - walking away from all of the promises that
they made.

JOURNALIST:
[Shadow] Minister, there was evidence in the ICAC hearing yesterday
relating to Joe Tripodi and Eric Roozendaal, relating to allegations of
smear campaigns and bribery. What's your response to that?

ALBANESE:
My response is the ICAC is doing its job. They will continue to do
their job and they should do it free from political interference.

JOURNALIST:
Just regarding the link between business and tourism here in the Far
North and obviously our links with Asia, two other audit things that
came up in the audit were the axing of the Asian business engagement
plan and also the axing of industry support for exporters right in the
middle of trying to get our cattle export market off the ground. Can you
comment?

ALBANESE:
This is extraordinary. Here we have recommendations to cut exports, the
abolition of all of the export grants, the-abolition of other support
that is there for Australian businesses engaging with Asia in our
region. This is a a contractionary narrow-minded approach that they have
right across the board, and it's particularly damaging for regional
Australia and particularly damaging here in Far North Queensland.

JOURNALIST: Shouldn't Labor put forward a clear plan of what should be cut, though, in order for it to be a credible Opposition?

ALBANESE:
We certainly will be putting forward our positive plans. We've done
that. Our plan is to not cut pensions. Our plan is to support the Gonski
reforms and support opportunity. We support Medicare being universal so
that everyone in Australia gets the health assistance that they need.
That's our plan and it's a plan for economic growth and job creation.
Our plan is to support the tourism and the export sector. The
Government’s plan is completely devastating, and it is completely in
contradiction of everything that Tony Abbott said prior to his won't
election.

JOURNALIST: So you won't say what you would cut then, other than, for instance, the paid parental leave?

ALBANESE:
Well, we've put forward our plans and our views are there for all to
see; on education, tourism, on the environment, and on housing. We don't
support this cut-to-the-bone approach, which will lead to lower
economic growth. This is a very short-sighted approach that the
Government has and it is counter-productive because it will lead to less
growth with less jobs.

JOURNALIST:
Senator McLucas, just a couple more questions if I can specific to Far
North Queensland, and the problems faced in certain areas. One is this
idea of a leaner dole forcing those who aren't in work to move to areas
of work. Up in the Cape, obviously, this isn’t necessarily an option.
Can you speak about how this would affect our Far North Queensland young
people, for instance?

McLUCAS:
Well, we know that our unemployment rate particularly for young people
is over 25 per cent. If you were to take the proposal to its fruition,
that would mean that young people in Cairns are forced to move out of
our city. Is that a good answer for the economy of Cairns? I don't think
so. But for areas further afield, particularly in Cape York Peninsula,
that would mean the decimation of many of the communities on Cape York.

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