Interview with Russell Woolf, ABC Radio, Perth

Subjects: Election 2010; border protection; Labor’s mining tax.

E&OE

RUSSELL WOOLF:

Mr Abbott has found a few minutes to join me on Drive this afternoon. Welcome to you.

TONY ABBOTT:

Nice to be with you.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

We just heard Tony Jones talking about your upcoming performance in the studios of the ABC for Q&A. The Prime Minister did well this time last week. Have you been practicing hard? Have you had your people throwing questions at you? What was the curliest one they’ve got you to practice so far?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I have my very diligent staff throwing questions at me all the time but so far there hasn’t been any specific practice for Q&A. Look, it’s a good forum and I’m looking forward to the discussion.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

It seems that you’ve done alright when standing up in front of a large live crowd, Mr Abbott, and yet when offered the opportunity to debate the economy you’re still saying no which seems strange because you’ve made a point over the weekend of highlighting your degree in economics. You’re always telling us that 11 years of John Howard and Peter Costello led to the strong financial position that the country found itself in before the ALP took government. With all of those credentials why not debate the Prime Minister on the economy?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I’m happy to talk about the economy and I’m doing it all the time, but what I would specifically like the Prime Minister to do is to give the people of Queensland the same opportunity that she gave the people of western Sydney: to ask questions unmediated of the two candidates for the prime ministership and I think that we have lots of debates between politicians. We’ve got lots of debates between politicians and journalists. But let’s have a fair dinkum Q and A session between undecided voters and the Prime Minister and the alternative prime minister.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

A la Rooty Hill is what you’re asking for?

TONY ABBOTT:

Exactly right.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

But the judges scored that a victory to you so it doesn’t seem all that strange that you’re trying to set up the same sort of environment to take on the Prime Minister again. I’m guessing you’ll think you’ll do well.

TONY ABBOTT:

Oh, look, let’s see who does best but I think that’s probably the most authentic forum that we’ve had so far and I really hope that those sorts of community forums become a regular part of future election campaigns. As I said I don’t see why the Prime Minister is running away from the people of Queensland. I know she’s embarrassed about her role in the downfall of Kevin Rudd. I know she’s sensitive about the role of the faceless men in the Labor Party but I think she’s got to face up to this.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

Well, I mean I think you’ve just said why she’s probably unlikely wanting to meet you in Queensland. I mean it would be stupid for her to do it.

TONY ABBOTT:

But the people of Queensland are entitled to put their questions to the Prime Minister.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

They may be, but I mean, it would be foolish of her. I mean, in a sporting parlance it’s like saying we’re into the finals but I want you to meet me at my home ground, which is more or less what it would be for you. ALP is not going to be tracking well in Queensland. So she’d be foolish. If the reverse applied there is no way in the world that you would debate her in Queensland.

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I think that it’s important for people to face up to the voters and if Prime Ministers or alternative prime ministers won’t field questions from the voters and the voters want to ask questions, well I think the voters are entitled to judge them harshly and I think that Queensland voters in particular don’t like the Labor brand. They don’t like the treatment of Kevin Rudd. They’re scared as West Australian voters are about Labor’s great big new tax on mining and let’s face it even in its revised form the new tax on mining will give Australian mining the highest tax rates in the world. That’s going to be very bad for investment and very bad for jobs and this is why the Prime Minister cannot claim to have any great credentials as an economic manager because a sensible economic manager wouldn’t clobber the most productive part of the economy.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

We have to move on from this topic. But I mean with you just saying that I think it highlights the point that it seems bizarre that you’re not willing to debate her on economics. But we must move on because we’ve got other things to talk about.

TONY ABBOTT:

Sure.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

You’ve said the ALP’s advertising is based on lies and exclusively negative. Yet, I mean, you’ve run ads already, Rudd’s a lemon, Gillard’s a lemon. What assurances can you give us as the polling day bears down on us that you won’t do the obvious which is yourself unleash a negative advertising campaign against the ALP?

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m not saying that we won’t run negative ads. Of course we’ll run some negative ads, but that’s not the whole basis of our campaign, it never has been, never will be. What I want to do is address the problems which are currently facing the Australian people. That’s why I’ll end the waste, I’ll pay back the debt, I’ll stop the big new taxes and I’ll stop the boats and I think this is precisely what the people want. These are the messes that the Labor Party has created and this is what a Coalition government will have to fix.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

Now, stop the boats. You’ve also said, this has been well-documented in the last couple of days, you will take, you’ll personally make the call on which individual boat can proceed and which one can be turned away. How do you think that will work?

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s always been in the end the government’s call on these things. All big decisions on matters of national security are rightly taken by the government. But they’re sensibly taken by the government on the expert advice of the military chiefs and obviously I’d be guided by the naval commander’s on the spot advice and you know, the interesting thing is that I’d always take expert advice and I wouldn’t be playing truant when meetings of the National Security Committee of Cabinet are on as both the former Prime Minister and the former Deputy Prime Minister now the Prime Minister apparently have done. I wouldn’t send staffers or security guards along to these meetings as my representative.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

And so literally you’ll take a phone call anywhere, any time in order to make a decision even with advice on what to do with an individual boat as it makes its way towards Australian territory?

TONY ABBOTT:

This is the kind of responsibility that Prime Ministers have to take. Obviously it’s quite important, this decision. I think nothing could send a more clear signal to the people smugglers that we were serious about protecting our borders. It would rank up there with reopening the camp in Nauru as a sign to the people smugglers that a new government was serious and wanted to put them out of business and yes, it’s quite appropriately the call that the government would make at the most senior level.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

Also, we’ve been reporting in our news today and so I trust this is correct that you have been saying that you’ve done some reading of reports into the Government’s mining tax earnings, the revenue that they are hoping to raise from the new mining tax and that there are holes in their earnings there. It’s a difficult one isn’t it, Mr Abbott, when you are get still to have your own policy scrutinised. The costings of your policies, when will we see that?

TONY ABBOTT:

In the next day or so you’ll have an independent respected third party costings of our policies, but the problem the Government’s got is that Erica Smythe, a member of its own mining consultative committee, said today that there was a lot of doubt over just how much revenue the mining tax would raise and that there’d be no actual modelling. Now, this is a Government that critically depends upon mining tax revenue to get the budget back into surplus and apparently no modelling has been done and they’re not sure about how much revenue it would raise. But this is hardly to surprise people given that the original mining tax that they originally said would raise $12 billion then the Treasurer said a few weeks later it probably would have raised $24 billion. So this is a Government which just can’t be trusted with economic management.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

Tony Abbott is my guest on Drive. We’ve got news headlines coming up shortly. It’s twenty past four on 720 ABC Perth. It’s been an interesting election in that your side has been handed a couple of free kicks with leaks coming out of the ALP, Mark Latham stepping into the debate rather weirdly. The pundits have been suggesting that the best policy, or the best way for you to move forward to quote Julia Gillard, I guess it just to keep your head low for the last couple of weeks of the election campaign. But have you got a big bang left in you? Is there something that you’re going to unleash in the next four days that has a bit of wow factor?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I think that what the public want from us is honest, competent, steady, stable government. I don’t think they want razzle dazzle promises. That’s what they got from Kevin Rudd and I think the public were incredibly disappointed by that. I think the interesting thing about the disarray and the soap opera that we’ve seen in Labor ranks is that at the 2004 election they wanted us to vote for Mark Latham. At the 2007 election they wanted us to vote for Kevin Rudd and we know what’s happened to both of them. Why should we trust the Labor Party’s judgement at this election given that their judgement has been so awry at the last two elections?

RUSSELL WOOLF:

So, but do you have something? I mean, maybe not, you know, fireworks or something that’s going to cost an enormous amount of money. But is there a trick up Tony Abbott’s sleeve?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, you won’t get tricks from me. I’ll leave the trickery to the Labor Party. I’ve run a straightforward, honest campaign where I’ve told the people what I would be doing. I’ll be ending the waste, I’ll be paying back the debt, I’ll be stopping the big new taxes, I’ll be stopping the boats and that’s what I’ll deliver if I go into government. Now, that’s not all we’ll do. But again that’s all on the record. We’ll have a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme. We’ll have an opportunity society, a participation society. The paid parental leave scheme will be good for women and their participation. The seniors’ employment incentives will be good for older people and their participation. I’ll be announcing tomorrow a visionary scheme to get young people out of long term welfare dependency and into work. That’ll be good for their participation. I want to see more popular involvement in the running of our great social institutions. More people power in our schools and hospitals. So it will be a different and better government and over time it will be a better society, a stronger society. But I don’t have magic tricks up my sleeve and I’m not going to try to bribe the Australian public the way the Labor Party is.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

And very quickly and finally, where will you be sitting on Saturday night at about 8, 9 in the evening?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I expect that I’ll be with my booth workers, I’ll be with the people who’ve worked so hard for the Coalition over the campaign, I’ll be in Sydney with them and I look forward to a satisfying night and I hope that it’s a night that the rest of the Australian people find lives up to their hopes and expectations.

RUSSELL WOOLF:

Everyone enjoys an election. Tony Abbott, I appreciate you being with us on Drive.

TONY ABBOTT:

Thanks so much for having me.

[ends]