Interview with Roisin McCann, Statewide Mornings, 936 ABC Radio Hobart

Subjects: Election 2010; Labor waste and mismanagement; health; forestry; broadband; Midland Highway; renewable energy targets; same-sex marriage; immigration.


E&OE 

ROISIN MCCANN:

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

TONY ABBOTT:

Good morning Roisin, how are you?

ROISIN MCCANN:

I’m fine thanks. Your absence from this state has been noticed during this campaign. Normally Tasmania is front and centre of an election and you’re only in the north and the north-west, we understand, today. Does that mean you’ve given up on the seats in the south?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, we don’t give up on any seats and I was in Tasmania just a few weeks ago. I visited the Savage River iron ore mine and of course that’s still a mine that is very much under the gun with the mining tax, which the Gillard Government wants to hit northern Tasmania with. So look, I have been in northern Tasmania, I’m pleased to be here today and we don’t give up on any seats.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Will they see you in the south before the end of the campaign, though?

TONY ABBOTT:

I hope so, Roisin, you know what campaign schedules are like, they are liable to be adjusted at short notice, but I’m campaigning to be the Prime Minister of this nation and that means that I try to get around the nation as much as I possibly can.

ROISIN MCCANN:

In the north-west this morning, what’s your focus going to be?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, essentially, we are looking at two issues, I guess. The first, a general issue, waste and mismanagement by the Rudd-Gillard Government and Senator Guy Barnett, who is the Chair of our Waste Watch Committee and I will be launching his annual report on just how appalling the economic management of this Government has been. Right now, I’m about to be talking about the Government’s broken promise on radiation services and cancer services in the north-west. In 2007, the Government, the then Opposition, the now Government promised to deliver integrated cancer care in Burnie and have simply failed to do that. So that’s the issue I’ll be talking about, Roisin, today, the Government’s failures on health.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Can I presume then that that means your going to announce funding for a linear accelerator?

TONY ABBOTT:

I will be making an announcement. You are safe in assuming that.

ROISIN MCCANN:

So I got the announcement bit right, you’re just not going to give the details, I think we’ll make some presumptions here, but you were Health Minister up until 2007 in a Federal Government. Why didn’t you set up better cancer services for the north-west coast when you were in that position?

TONY ABBOTT:

Because I was doing other good things for the north-west and for Tasmania more generally. You might remember I was a very vigorous campaigner to preserve services at the Mersey Hospital and I think we had a very good record in terms of trying to deliver health services to the people of northern Tasmania. The Government came in over the top, tried to trump us with the promise of a linear accelerator in Burnie, but they haven’t delivered and this is so typical of this Government, Roisin. They’ve made promises, they just haven’t delivered. This is a government that has been all talk and no action. Six weeks ago, Kevin Rudd was a pariah. Now, they’re in so much trouble that apparently he’s the messiah that’s going to have to save them.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Tony Abbott, one of these issues that hasn’t been raised in this campaign and is an issue that’s very close to, well, gets a lot of attention in Tasmania particularly, is forestry. Why at a time critical to this industry are there no discussion or policy announcements on the industry?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, you know Roisin, from the Coalition’s record that we support sustainable forestry. We support the forestry industry in Tasmania, always have and always will, but we’ve been in Opposition and talks that have been going on haven’t included us.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Does, would you endorse, though, the process that is happening in terms of the round table or tables that we understand are going on? Are you endorsing that process and whatever outcomes they come up with?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I think that we need to maintain forestry jobs in Tasmania. That’s the important thing. Yes, it’s all got to be done in the set environmental way. Tasmania is a beautiful place and the last thing we want to do is compromise the environmental values of Tasmania, but we can’t sacrifice forestry industry on the alter of the environment because lets face it, Roisin, foresters appreciate the need to preserve the asset that they make the most of, for everyone’s benefit.

ROISIN MCCANN:

The forest industry itself is saying it needs millions of dollars for not only transitional packages but for future training and various other things within the industry. How much money would you, if you were in, if you were successful on August the 21st, be prepared to put towards this industry for a package such as that?

TONY ABBOTT:

Roisin, obviously were we to be elected, I’d be only too happy to engage with the industry but we as the Opposition, we haven’t been part of these discussion and so I really can’t comment on what might’ve been coming out of them because the Opposition hasn’t been part of them and as far as I’m aware, the Government hasn’t made a commitment in this area either.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Even if you’re not in part of the talks, Tony Abbott, surely you can have a policy that we can know about prior to making a decision on who to vote for?

TONY ABBOTT:

As I said, you know from our record that we will support the forest industry. That is our position. Always has been, always will be. We support jobs in the forest industry.

ROISIN MCCANN:

As well as job losses in the forest industry, there’s been quite a few job losses in this state, you’re in the north west coast where there’s been quite a few. One of the newer industries that might provide job growth that has been put up is the NBN, but you say that you’ll scrap that. Where are new jobs going to come from?

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m in favour of better broadband services. I just think that competition is more likely to provide them than some kind of new nationalised infrastructure entity. So, I’m not against, by any means, a better broadband but I just don’t trust this Government to deliver. Let’s face it Roisin, this was the Government that couldn’t put pink batts in people’s roofs successfully. It couldn’t build school halls without rip-off after rip-off. How do we expect it to manage such an extraordinarily complex and technologically sophisticated process without similar waste and mismanagement?

ROISIN MCCANN:

The point being, though, that this was put forward as an alternative industry for jobs. Where are the other jobs going to come from if you’re going to pull the plug, as the Labor Party says, on this particular infrastructure?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think that the best way to create jobs is not to burden Tasmanians with ever higher government taxes and charges. As I said, there’s about 700 jobs at the Savage River iron ore mine and they will be jeopardised if Labor gets re-elected, by Labor’s mining tax. Best thing I can do for the people of the north west at the moment is save them from Labor’s mining tax and from the 700 jobs that will be put immediately at risk by that tax.

ROISIN MCCANN:

But any economist that you talk to says that we need to find new industries and new jobs. Where are the new jobs coming from in Tasmania?

TONY ABBOTT:

The new jobs and the new industries will come from the creativity of the Tasmanian people. They won’t come because some know-it-all from Canberra turns up and says, ‘I’m going to make everything work out for the best.’ The best thing that government can do for the people of Tasmania is not be on their back to the extent that the Rudd Government has, the Gillard Government has, with all these big new taxes.

ROISIN MCCANN:

But without describing you as a know-it-all from Canberra, Tony Abbott, your own description, what, in terms of jobs such as renewable energy or other alternative industries, what sort of support would your government give in order to facilitate that sort of jobs growth and jobs expansion?

TONY ABBOTT:

Certainly on the subject of renewable energy, we’ve supported the target, we brought in the renewable energy targets and we’ve supported that process and the changes that we’ve facilitated not long ago in the Parliament have, as I understand it, enabled these new wind farm developments to continue. So, we’re in favour of doing the right thing. That’s why we don’t think whacking a great big new tax on the mining industry is going to help anyone.

ROISIN MCCANN:

During the state election, Tony Abbott, you promised $400 million to Will Hodgman for the Midland Highway if he was elected. Is that money still on the table for the Bartlett Government if you are elected?

TONY ABBOTT:

That’s something which was going to come out of the big infrastructure fund that the Howard Government created, AusLink three was going to fund that I think, from memory, starting in 2014. So obviously that’s still a project that I want to see go ahead…

TONY ABBOTT:

… So obviously that’s still a project that I want to see go ahead.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Is it a project that you commit to totally though?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, it’s a project that I think should go ahead and hopefully there will be a better government in Tasmania by that time given the fact that there was a 12 per cent swing against the incumbent government. I think the people of Tasmania are entitled to feel thoroughly ripped off by this latest Labor Green deal and I think the people of Tasmania are certainly entitled to worry about what the Labor Green preference deal might mean in Canberra.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Moving down south, your Liberal candidate for Denison, Cameron Simpkins, said that he might cross the floor on gay marriage. What do you think of his stance?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, we’ve always supported the right of MPs to exercise a conscientious decision where they feel very strongly, we’re not a bunch of Stalinists inside the Coalition, but it is our absolutely crystal clear policy that marriage is between a man and a woman.

ROISIN MCCANN:

And if he was to cross the floor on that issue would he remain in the Liberal Party?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, the short answer is yes. Floor crossing is not exactly welcomed on our side of politics, but we accept that in extremis people have a right to it.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Tony Abbott with me this morning. It’s three minutes to nine and a caller has rung in, Tony Abbott, wanting to know about your migration policy, suggesting that Tasmania’s benefited from a strong migration policy and asking how would your current policy benefit us into the future?

TONY ABBOTT:

I certainly support migration, I just think that it’s been an unsustainably high level in recent years. In 2008 there were 301,000 migrants. This is a city the size of Canberra coming in in just 12 months and does anyone think that the state and federal Labor Governments have built the infrastructure to accommodate that many people. Then last year it was 277,000. Plainly we can’t keep these numbers up and what I’ve said it that I’m in favour of migration, but we’ll put a cap on it of 170,000 a year by the end of the first term of a Coalition government.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Ok, we’ll finish up Tony Abbott with, I don’t know whether you’re aware, but it’s our 75th anniversary of regional broadcasting here in Tasmania.

TONY ABBOTT:

Happy birthday, Roisin. Happy birthday.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Well not to me, I’m not quite 75. I haven’t even got to aged care, so I’ll have to book you in for another conversation maybe with Tim Cox in the next couple of weeks. But as we celebrate what role do you see the ABC has into the future? For example, is our funding secure?

TONY ABBOTT:

Yes, it is. We’ve announced I think the list now is about $51 billion of cuts to government borrowing and government spending, but the ABC has been untouched as you’d expect it to be, Roisin, because look, the ABC does a good job. I mean, from time to time all politicians get grilled but that’s part of the accountability function which the ABC so importantly plays.

ROISIN MCCANN:

I thought you were about to say we’ve announced $51 billion in funding for the ABC. I thought it was a birthday present that we couldn’t believe.

TONY ABBOTT:

I think the ABC would be taking on the News Limited empire right around the world if that was happening.

ROISIN MCCANN:

I suspect we might. But I’m sure Mark Scott would be very pleased when he got here. Just very quickly, is this harder than a marathon running a campaign?

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s like running a marathon every day and I guess this is a mental marathon it’s not a physical marathon. Yes, look, of course, Roisin, it’s tough. But I guess by the time you’ve got to this position you’ve normally got physical and mental stamina.

ROISIN MCCANN:

Well, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks for your time.

TONY ABBOTT:

Thanks Roisin, thank you.