EO&E..............................................................................................................................................................

 

 

It’s terrific to be here at Ertech. This is a great local business. I want to thank Jim Giumelli and the team for making Julie Bishop, the Shadow Foreign Minister and Luke Simpkins, the local Member of Parliament, so welcome today.

 

This is one of the hundreds of decent Australian businesses that I have visited since the carbon tax was first announced in February of last year and I challenge the Prime Minister: stop hiding from Australian business this week. You should not be avoiding small business in particular, the way you are. The Prime Minister should front up to business and explain to them why she is hitting them with this unnecessary new tax, the carbon tax; why she is hitting them with the carbon tax and not giving them any compensation whatsoever. There are no tax cuts for business, there are no pension increases for business. All businesses got is a great big new tax that will go up and up and up and the Prime Minister should stop hiding from business, she should go and justify herself to business. If this carbon tax is as important and as necessary as she says it is, A) she should have told us about it before the election and B) she shouldn’t now be hiding from the business people of Australia as she goes around the countryside justifying her government’s actions.

 

So, I think it’s very, very important that the Prime Minister face up to the business people of Australia, face up to the workers employed by the businesses of Australia and explain to them exactly why she is putting all these new taxes on them; exactly why she is hitting them with a carbon tax in particular, now in its eighth day of operation, which will act as a reverse tariff - making Australian jobs less competitive, making foreign jobs more competitive.

 

I’m going to ask Julie to say a few words, as the Shadow Foreign Minister and then I’m going to ask Luke, the local member, to say a few words about this great Australian business here.

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m delighted to have Tony Abbott here in Western Australia again. He comes here regularly because Tony Abbott understands the importance of the Western Australian economy to our national economy and Tony appreciates the importance of the mining and resource sector and what it does for Australia. He celebrates the success of our mining and resource sector, he doesn’t attack it. He celebrates the successes of our mining entrepreneurs and our entrepreneurial companies like the one we’re visiting today, he doesn’t undermine them and attack them.

 

In relation to the carbon tax and the mining tax, it’s a double whammy for Western Australia. The carbon tax will cost jobs, will drive investment away from this great state and the cruel hoax is that it won’t reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, they are set to rise under this carbon tax. So, it’s a hit on our economy, the tax cascades through the economy and it does nothing for the environment. The mining tax is a direct assault on Western Australia. The mining tax will harm the emerging magnetite industry in this state. I’ve been told by many people that if a tax like this mining tax had been in place in the 1970s and the 1980s, the Pilbara would not have taken off as it did.

 

I’ve also been to Africa recently and I’ve been told by many people in Africa that they are seeking investment for mining and resource work in Africa because Australia is no longer the attractive investment destination that it once was and they cite specifically the mining tax and the carbon tax. So, sovereign risk is now being mentioned in the same phrase as Australia, and that is a deep concern. So, that’s why we’re committed to repealing both the carbon tax and the mining tax, because they’ll be bad for Western Australia and that will be bad for the national economy.

 

I also just want to address some comments attributed to the Prime Minister today about the Coalition’s handling of our relationship with Indonesia. Should we be honoured by the Australian people to be voted in as the next government at the next election, we will conduct our relationship with Indonesia by building mutual respect. We will do it quietly and diligently behind the scenes. We will not have a running commentary through the media about our negotiations and our discussions. They will be held in private and we will handle the relationship as the Howard Government did - based on mutual respect. The Coalition does not intend to be lectured by a Prime Minister who has damaged our relationship with Indonesia because of her inept and incompetent bungling of the live cattle export issue. That has caused enormous damage to our industry and Western Australians particularly feel the impact of the Government’s bungled actions in relation to the live cattle ban that has damaged our relationship with Indonesia. So, we don’t intend to take lectures from a Prime Minister on how to handle relations with our near neighbour, Indonesia.

 

 

Thanks, Tony. It’s always good to have Tony back in Cowan - there have been many occasions since even the last election, and Julie as well; a frequent visitor. It is good to come to places like Ertech, great employers of my constituents and people within Perth and it’s a terrible thing when you see the future of the state and the future of our nation undermined with the uncertainty created by things like the carbon tax and mining tax. What we need to do and what a future government under Tony will do will be getting these impediments out of the way for our businesses so that West Australians and Australians can work hard, get the rewards for their efforts and keep this country driving forward. We need more employment, we need more positive government and that’s what the future will bring.

 

 

Thanks mate. Ok, do we have any questions?

 

 

Mr Abbott, will Ertech lose a single job as a result of the carbon tax?

 

 

Look, the carbon tax is going to make life more difficult and the mining tax is going to make life more difficult for companies like Ertech and the first responsibility of government is to do no harm and don’t make difficult situations worse and that’s the problem with the carbon tax, that’s the problem with the mining tax. It makes it harder for Australian business to compete, to invest and to employ.

 

 

So, do you welcome the Queensland Government intervention in the High Court challenge to the mining tax?

 

 

I think that Australians, be they individuals, corporates or states, are entitled to assert their legal rights and I’m going to get rid of the mining tax in the Parliament should the Coalition form a government and I think states are perfectly entitled to bring actions in the High Court, if that’s what they want.

 

 

Do you think that’s a good use of Queensland’s resources and money?

 

 

There is no doubt that the mining tax is bad for the Australian states. There is no doubt that the mining tax particularly targets the resource rich states and if the states in question wish to challenge it in court, that’s a perfectly reasonable thing for them to do.

 

The Queensland Government says they don’t understand why WA won’t join the challenge. Do you understand the West Australian Government’s position?

 

 

Look, it’s really a matter for individual states to make their own decision based on the legal advice they’ve got.

 

 

You’ve set a target previously under the direct action policy of a million solar energy roofs by 2020. Is that still achievable given you’d have to install 400 a day between now and then?

 

 

Look, obviously there is a time that’s elapsed since the direct action policy was first announced but, yes, we think it would be a very good thing if we could get a million solar roofs by 2020 and believe you me, the construction pace that we need to achieve that is not nearly as great as the construction pace which the Government needs to achieve its NBN targets.

 

 

Stephen Smith says that your proposal to turn back the boats is so dangerous and unworkable that if you’re elected you’ll end up abandoning that.

 

 

We keep our commitments. The only people around here who say one thing before an election and do the opposite afterwards are the Labor Party. We keep our commitments. Now, two points to make. The first is that what has been done before can be done again and the Navy has successfully and professionally turned boats around in the past. There’s no reason with the right support from the Government in Canberra they couldn’t do it again. The second point I make is that both Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd are on the record supporting the policy of turning boats around. Back in 2002, Julia Gillard enthusiastically supported the then practice of turning boats around and if it was right then, it can be right again in the future.

 

 

The Howard Government turned back boats with the support in principle of the Indonesian Government at the time under certain conditions. You don’t have that agreement at this present time do you?

 

 

Well that’s not actually correct. That’s not actually correct. The Howard Government turned boats around. They just turned boats around. They had the relationship with Indonesia that enabled that to be done without unduly upsetting the relationship, but that was a decision of the Australian Government, not of any other government.

 

 

You would presumably plan to have that relationship in place before you start turning boats around or is this something you’re going to do from day one?

 

Look, we are building from opposition a strong and constructive relationship with the Indonesian Government and the best thing we can do to ensure that that happens is not to conduct megaphone diplomacy, not to blab in public about conversations which should rightly be private.

 

On the radio this morning, you said that it was un-Christian for asylum seekers to come in through the back door rather than the front door. Were you suggesting that asylum seekers are bad people?

 

 

The point I’ve made is that if you want to run a decent and compassionate policy, you should be encouraging people to come in the front door, not the back door and that’s exactly what the Coalition wants to do. We support a strong and compassionate refugee and humanitarian intake - always have, always will -but the way to get that to work properly is to ensure that the right way to come is the way people do in fact come.

 

 

Do you have a plan to turn back boats that originate from other countries besides Indonesia, say from Sri Lanka?

 

 

Look, the overwhelming majority of the boats that come to Australia come from Indonesia.

 

 

But what about the boats from Sri Lanka? Will you turn them back?

 

 

Well, the Sri Lankan Navy is in fact doing a pretty good job of turning boats around that are coming from Sri Lanka.

 

Thanks so much.

 

[ends]