|
ISSUES: Alcopops, Fair Work Bill.
KIEREN GILBERT: Joining me here in the Canberra studio our panel, the Shadow Health Minister, Peter Dutton and the Employment Participation Minister, Brendan O’Connor. Gentlemen, good morning.
O’CONNOR AND DUTTON: Good morning.
KIEREN GILBERT: Peter I want to come to you first as Shadow Health Minister. The Government says you are on the side of distillers. That’s going to be their refrain if this tax is blocked. What’s your response to that?
PETER DUTTON: Well Kieran its nonsense. What we’ve seen from the Health Minister is a complete debacle. I mean this is a huge embarrassment for Nicola Roxon because she’s had 12 months to sort this mess out. It was a tax grab from day one. It was never about a health measure or designed to address binge drinking; it was a binge on tax and we’re at the 11th hour. They’ve got two days to negotiate this with the independents, and all of a sudden the Government’s found themselves over a barrel because they haven’t put forward proper measures to address binge drinking and it’s why all the Greens, the independents last night in the Senate, supported our position that the money collected should go to proper measures, including alcohol abuse, prevention programs, to education. We have talked about a national program similar to the drink driving program where we should change the culture, in this country, of drinking until you get hammered. They need that from this Government.
KIEREN GILBERT: Nicola Roxon argued that they are spending money on preventative health. You heard that in the interview on the program just a few minutes ago, that they’re spending a lot through preventative health measures in the COAG agreements.
PETER DUTTON: But go back to that announcement last year, Kieran, that $872 million does go toward preventative health measures. The important point to make is that the Minister at the time didn’t relate, or say, that this measure was going to fund that COAG measure. It’s a completely separate measure. So don’t be fooled by that particular stunt that the Government’s rolling out at the moment. This was a stand alone measure, and what we’re saying is that they’ve collected $290 million in tax over the last 12 months; that money should be spent on proper programs, specifically addressing binge drinking.
KIEREN GILBERT: Well, Brendan O’Connor, why does the Government find itself in this position again, at the last minute trying to get something across the line and it’s a substantial measure. I mean its $400 million a year in revenue and yet, Nicola Roxon is trying to piece this together in the last week?
BRENDAN O’CONNOR: Kieran, I think we’re tackling a very important and growing problem amongst young women in particular. What we know is, over the last decade or so, there’s been an escalation in consumption of alcopops by young women, particularly between the ages of 15 and 17. Now, we know from our own advice that, and indeed through a survey undertaken between the years 2000 to 2004, that there was a massive spike in the increase in female drinkers’ consumption of alcopops and the Government knew it had to tackle this problem. Now, the Minister for Health, quite rightly says, this Government is doing more in attacking binge drinking amongst the young than any other Government previously.
KIEREN GILBERT: Why hasn’t she been able to reach a compromise? It is the 11th hour.
BRENDAN O’CONNOR: She’s made it very clear that she’ll continue to talk to the Senators and she’s also made clear that the independent Senators have, of course, been very genuine in their consultations. Unfortunately, the Liberal Party, the Opposition, has not been at all consultative, has not been willing to negotiate and indeed, has taken more than one position on this matter. Indeed, you have a situation now where the Liberal Party will support the measure to date, but oppose it for the future; that is, taking two positions on this measure. If indeed this is an important measure, as the Government believes, then we consider that the Opposition must support the Government in tackling this problem. Families across Australia know that this is a problem amongst young women.
KIEREN GILBERT: The thing is, Peter Dutton, let’s put aside the health issues that are involved which are, obviously, enormous in this country, but the revenue now, in this economic climate, are you seriously going to say to the Government $1.6 billion over the forward estimates, sorry, you’re going to have to find it elsewhere?
PETER DUTTON: Well, just put it into perspective what they’ve actually done here, Kieran. It would be like going out and saying okay, on a can of Coke we’re going to put a 70 per cent tax, but on a can of Fanta we won’t put any tax. On a bottle of Four X the 70 per cent tax goes on, but not on a bottle of Foster’s. That’s essentially what the Government has done. They’ve just applied a tax ad hoc to one particular product, and if they were serious about binge drinking then they would look at tax arrangements otherwise, or they would come up with some other measure. Now, if they want tax and they’re desperate for revenue because they’re spending like crazy then they could apply a tax to anything, so that logic that just because they’ve whacked the tax on something with no justification and dressed it up as a health measure and that we should race to the party to support it, is nonsense.
KIEREN GILBERT: But you’ve been criticised, and Brendan O’Connor again this morning has done so, for not consulting enough and just being obstructionist from the outset. Why wouldn’t it hurt to just sit down and actually try to come up with a compromise with your opposite number?
PETER DUTTON: That’s all the spin of the Labor Party though, Kieran. Put all of the Minister’s rhetoric to one side. We’ve been negotiating with the independent Senators on this particular matter. The Greens and the independent Senators supported the Coalition position in the Senate last night. They’re negotiating with the Government at the moment. They supported us last night because the Minister was completely incapable of arriving at a settled position. And it just shows that with two days to go, at the 12 month mark, if she doesn’t get it through by this Thursday then that revenue will be gone, back to the industry. Now, we’ve said all along that we are opposed to that money going back to the industry and the Government opposed us in the Senate on that measure last night. The Greens, the independents supported us.
KIEREN GILBERT: Why is it good for the last 12 months, like Brendan said, and not for the next 12?
PETER DUTTON: Because we don’t want the money to go back to the industry.
KIEREN GILBERT: But it is going to go back for the next 12, isn’t it? I mean the money goes back in the sense that they’ll have that extra cap.
PETER DUTTON: No, it’s consumers that are paying this tax. It’s consumers that pay the tax and so this is the real furphy about this argument. The Government says because RTD sales have dropped, consumption has dropped over the last 12 months, therefore we’ve had some big impact on binge drinking. It’s rubbish. What it means for the most responsible drinkers, for men and women in their 30s or 40s who buy rum and coke, or bourbon and coke, to take to a party, or young girls who drink responsibly and have a premixed drink because they don’t want some bloke mixing their drink at a party; they’re the ones that are being slugged with this extra tax and ultimately, they’re the ones that will pay for it. What we’re saying is that going forward, don’t apply this stupid tax, have some sort of a more measured way in which you would bring the tax.
BRENDAN O’CONNOR: I think it’s fair to say that, given that the measure’s been in place for a considerable time, we’ve seen a reduction in consumption of alcohol. The Australian Drug Foundation has said it’s working, the medical journal’s have said it’s working, and I find it very surprising that of all people, the Shadow Minister for Health wouldn’t be on the side of the experts and instead be on the side of the distillers. The Government believes this is an important measure. The experts believe it’s an important measure and we believe the Opposition should do so as well.
KIEREN GILBERT: There’s one other issue that I want to get to today. Obviously alcopops is the one that’s going before the Senate this morning, so that’s dominated our chat, but I do want to ask you, Brendan O’Connor, does it look like the Government is willing to water down the unfair dismissal provisions of its IR laws to get the cross benchers across the line? In that sense, I mean, broadening the definition of a small business to 20 employees?
BRENDAN O’CONNOR: The Government’s been always willing to discuss sensible measures, sensible amendments to the Fair Work bill, but we have a mandate from the Australian people. As Malcolm Turnbull himself said in December last year, the Labor Party took this particular platform, this policy, to the people of Australia, they made a decision and we do, therefore, have a mandate to legislate and repeal Work Choices and have a fair and balanced workplace relation arrangement.
KIEREN GILBERT: The 20 employees for small business, is that something that you’d be willing to look at?
BRENDAN O’CONNOR: The Minister responsible, Julia Gillard, will continue to discuss these matters with the independents. What we do know is that the Liberal Party has been all over the place with this. They declared Work Choices dead but they are now looking of finding ways to obstruct the bill that will remove Work Choices. Now, this is a problem that has to be resolved. I cannot believe the Opposition doesn’t accept that we have a mandate to repeal the most extreme IR laws in our history.
KIEREN GILBERT: Okay. Peter Dutton, on the negotiations; if the Government reaches a compromise with the cross benchers, and the small business definition is broadened to, say, 20 employees, would that be enough do you think, in your view, to get your team across the line?
PETER DUTTON: Well, Kieran, the important point to note here is that our position is very similar to the concerns which are held by the independents, so we want to see a better deal for small business because they employ staff and in the current environment, where the Rudd Government’s seeing tens of thousands of people laid off, we don’t want an environment where it makes it more difficult for small business in particular to retain staff.
KIEREN GILBERT: Will 20 employees be enough to get across the hard liners in the party who want to stick to those ideals of deregulation?
PETER DUTTON: It’s not an issue of hard liners. It’s about making an environment where it’s easier to retain and employ new staff. And in the current environment where the Government’s taken a wrecking ball to the economy, we want to make sure that our support of small business stands because that’s going to be a big driver in the way in which we recover this economy into the future.
BRENDAN O’CONNOR: Well just that we’ve been discussing these matters with the small business community. Craig Emerson has been doing that and we wouldn’t have proposed these amendments, these elements of the bill, if we hadn’t had those discussions with our constituency.
KIEREN GILBERT: All right. Fellows, appreciate your time. Brendan O’Connor, Peter Dutton, thank you.
BRENDAN O’CONNOR: Happy St Patrick’s Day.
KIEREN GILBERT: Thank you. Cheers.
|
