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Transcript: To the Point – 13 July 2015

KRISTINA KENEALLY: Welcome back to To the Point, Ash Gillon, we’re going to be joined by Paul Fletcher now. You know, I had a look at the AEC website – I mean – his seat is on a knife-edge, with only 82 per cent of the vote counted, he’s just on 61 per cent of first preference primaries. I mean, it must be excruciating for you Paul Fletcher, waiting for that vote to come in?

PAUL FLETCHER: Kristina, Ashleigh, good to be with you and, you know, obviously I’m honoured to have once again secured a majority in Bradfield. It’s a community that I feel privileged to represent and clearly, more importantly than the outcome in Bradfield, is the fact that we now have 76 seats and so that’s very important. Majority government and we’re looking forward to getting on with it.

KRISTINA KENEALLY: A genuine congratulations to you Paul Fletcher.

PAUL FLETCHER: Thank you.

KRISTINA KENEALLY: A bit of teasing there as we open up. But, great to have you with us. Ash and I have been talking about a range of issues this morning and superannuation just keeps popping up. You’ve got to expect that this going to be a live issue right up through to your first party room meeting. Is the Prime Minister likely to prevail here? Is her likely to be able to implement, through the party room the policy that was laid out in the budget?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well look, let’s be clear, we took to the election a very detailed policy in relation to superannuation – a policy that over the forward estimates period will improve tax revenues by about $6 billion, but importantly about $3 billion of that immediately gets reinvested in improving accessibility to superannuation. Things like allowing the contribution limit to be rolled over for a period of five years – that’s very important for people with broken work patterns and particularly women for example, who might be returning to the workforce after a period out of the workforce looking after children, and other people with broken work patterns. So this is a package, there’s a whole range of measure that we took in our superannuation policy. Of course, the budget impacted that very carefully worked out – sharp contrast with Labor, who claim the savings but don’t actually have a superannuation plan. So, this is one area where we’ve done the detailed policy work – Labor didn’t – one of the more embarrassing gaps, frankly, in their budgetary position. We have taken this position to the people – we’ve clearly secured a mandate for it. But obviously there’ll be discussion of this measure in the party room, as there is routinely discussion of measures as they work through the legislative process.

ASHLEIGH GILLON: And probably pretty robust discussion, Paul Fletcher, I would imagine. I mean, we’d all love to be flies on the wall when you all do get together, we expect next Monday, to go through some of these issues. What is your analysis about how the super issue did play out though the election campaign, because we keep hearing “well, Julie Bishop increased her vote in the seat of Curtin in Western Australia and if super really was biting, well, perhaps we would have seen some blowback there, in her seat for example”? But along with that we seem more anecdotal evidence that perhaps it was the base, the grass roots support that wasn’t there for you as a result. So perhaps, people weren’t out there in force, handing out how to vote cards and that sort of thing, because they were disaffected by that super policy. What’s your analysis of how that did affect the base and voting as a result?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well look, I think the first thing we’ll be discussing in the party room next Monday is congratulating the Prime Minister and the leadership team, and indeed everybody in the party room on the fact that a Liberal-National Coalition has formed government. We’ll be discussing all the policies priorities that we have for Australia and Australia’s future, and naturally a range of issues will come up – of course I expect there will be some discussion of superannuation. I have to say, my own experience in the seat of Bradfield, where similarly there was a swing to the Coalition, as there was Curtin and a number of other seats around the country – Kooyong – and other seats where, if superannuation were a significant vote changer in the Liberal base, you would have expect to have seen that played out in the results. But quite a number of seats where, in fact, there was a positive swing to the Coalition. Look of course there were people who were raising concerns with me, and other members, about superannuation – you expect that with any measure. But the job of government is to provide economic leadership and what we have sought to do with these superannuation changes is to allow superannuation to do the job it is supposed to do – which is to supplement or substitute for pension. And we’ve made some changes, announced in the budget, extensively discussed during the campaign, and key amongst them as I have mentioned, are some changes to improve accessibility to superannuation, for example people with interrupted work patterns – so this new capacity to roll over the contribution limit for up to five years, which will be very important for people with interrupted work patterns. We’ve improved the superannuation arrangements for people on low incomes and yes, there have been some changes that will affect people towards the top end, the $1.6 million cap for example. So below $1.6 million if you’re in the retirement phase you’re in a position where all of the income that is generated on capital amount $1.6 million or less, is tax free, above $1.6 million taxed at 15 per cent. That remains a very concessional arrangement, as the Prime Minister made the point during the election campaign – you’re being taxed considerably more concessionally than someone earning wage and salary income.

ASHLEIGH GILLON: I’m glad that you’ve stayed up on those finer points of the policy Paul Fletcher, unlike some of your colleagues that got caught out with some of those finer details during campaign when they were asked to…

PAUL FLETCHER: Look, it is a complex policy area and that is one of the issues – it does take time to explain the details of the changes that we’ve made. And I certainly spent of time on railway station platforms and in shopping centres explaining it to my constituents, as did all of my colleagues. And I generally found that once I had explained it, some of the mystery around it disappeared. But look, I understand that there are people who are unhappy with those changes, but can I make the point that is in the nature of providing economic leadership and that is the job of the national government, of the Turnbull Government, that’s a responsibility we take very seriously and we made some quite detailed changes, we sought to explain the reason for that and, no doubt, that process of explanation will continue.

ASHLEIGH GILLON: Okay, well we look forward to seeing how that plays out in the party room next week. Some of your colleague obviously hold very different views from you for the future of that policy and whether or not Malcolm Turnbull should be sticking with that it, but he seems to thin he has a mandate and doesn’t seem to be looking to make any changes at this point. Looking at what Mr Turnbull is doing today, Paul Fletcher, he’s meeting of course with Barnaby Joyce, threshing out this new deal with the Nationals, which happens every time after an election with this coalition agreement. Bill Shorten, we had him live on Sky just a few moments ago, demanding that this deal is laid out, laid bare for all to see. Why is it such a secret? Why don’t we know the finer details of what this deal entails and would you expect that we will be seeing more Nationals in the ministry, taking on more prominent roles as a result of the election result?

PAUL FLETCHER: And what a nakedly transparent political gambit from Bill Shorten? This mock indignation over the fact that the working arrangements between the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister are not in the form of a public document? Well thank you Bill, we appreciate your advice and we’ll ignoring it on this occasion.

KRISTINA KENEALLY: Oh look, come on here Paul Fletcher, Bill Shorten has said that he heard a good argument for keeping it secret. This isn’t backroom days any longer; the Australian people want to know what he says, what’s in the agreement. I mean, why keep it secret? Why does it have to be a secret? Why can’t it be out there in the public realm? Give us the good reason.

PAUL FLETCHER: Every parliamentary term, the Liberal Party and the National Party sit down in the person of the parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party and the person of the parliamentary leader of the National Party and have a discussion on the basis on which the two parties will work together – a very successful coalition. It’s worked very well for many years. It will work very well again in this term and our two parties work together very, very well. We’ve campaigned effectively together, we will work together well in government and we will arrive at arrangements, and they’ll be arrived at by the Prime Minister and by the Deputy Prime Minister – and that is as it should be.

KRISTINA KENEALLY: Okay, I’m not sure we heard a good reason. Over to you Ash.

ASHLEIGH GILLON: Transparency, you know, this is a new era of transparency in politics. Surely there’s a better answer than it’s always been done like that – so that’s how it’s going to continue into the future? I think Kristina’s right, I think you haven’t made the case for actually for what the reason is, apart from it just being always the way it’s been in the past.

PAUL FLETCHER: I don’t think it is a shocking or surprising revelation that all kinds of matters are regularly discussed between very senior political leaders within the Liberal and National parties which are not disclosed publically – and that is for good reasons. Bill Shorten is raising this issue for purely and transparently political reasons. We thank him for his advice and the Liberal and National parties will sort out our coalition arrangements as we deem fit, in the interests of the two parliamentary parties, but most importantly, in the interest in providing good and stable government – and pleasingly, we will be able to good and stable government with 76 seats in the House of Representatives and the Liberal and National parties will work very effectively, as they always have done. Now there’s a lot to get on with an it really is quite instructive the way that Mr Shorten always seems go inside the beltway, internal political issues. He’s quite fascinated with these kind of internal machinations and issues, but what we’re focussed on, is governing for the Australian people.

KRISTINA KENEALLY: Oh, well let me ask you a question about that, Paul Fletcher, you’re the Minister for Major Projects – it remains to be seen if you’re going to continue on in that role – going into this election campaign the coalition promised a city deal, one of their new city deals for Townsville – which included that $100 million for the Townsville Stadium. Should Cathy O’Toole, Labor’s candidate, prevail in that seat will the re-elected Turnbull Government honour that commitment?

PAUL FLETCHER: Yes it will. The commitment we have made, are commitments that are made to the Australian people through the electoral process. They don’t depend on upon particular outcomes in particular seats. Of course, I’m very strongly hoping that my friend and colleague Ewen Jones gets over the line in Herbert. He’s been a terrific representative for his seat and particularly for the city of Townsville over six years. He’s got a great deal more to contribute and I certainly very much hope that Ewen Jones succeeds. But whether or not Ewen is in the next parliament, we have made a commitment in relation to a city deal in Townsville. Now let’s just make the point that the Turnbull Government has a strong commitment to cities policy and what we want to do is draw on the successful experience in the UK where multiple levels of government come together to agree on a set of objectives in relation to a particular urban area – different governments obviously contributing in different ways. We think this is an important way forward in terms of policy for our major urban areas, including of course Townsville, and certainly we made a commitment during the election campaign and we will be honouring that. It’s my fervent hope that Ewen will be back and will be a strong advocate, but even if Ewen is not back we will certainly be honouring that commitment and delivering on a city deal in Townsville.

KRISTINA KENEALLY: Alright Paul Fletcher, sounds like the people of Townsville win no matter what happens there. But we will have to leave it there with you. Thanks very much for joining us this afternoon on To the Point

PAUL FLETCHER: Thanks very much.