Transcript: Viewpoint Sky News 19 June 2015

CHRIS KENNY: Let’s catch up with Coalition frontbencher Paul Fletcher who joins us, Minister for Major Projects and Local Government. Thanks for joining us Paul.

PAUL FLETCHER: Good to be with you, Chris.

CHRIS KENNY: Look we know the election is close, the polling tells us it’s close. After all the trauma and tragedy of Labor’s time in government from 2007 to 2013, how could it possibly be a close election?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well I think what Labor’s launch showed us today is that we really do need to be reminding ourselves of same old Labor, Rudd Gillard Rudd, all the chaos of those years, because what we saw from Mr Shorten today was he put another 3 billion dollars on the spendometre. He does not have an economic plan. He barely mentioned the economy, he didn’t mention border security, or border protection at all… Probably because he wasn’t confident he could mention it without being jeered at by his own candidates in the room. Because when he says Labor’s plan for border protection is the same as the Coalition’s we all know that’s nonsense. But, he doesn’t have an economic plan and that’s really what came out today. It’s just about more spending, whatever they really can come up with to try and attract votes, but there is no plan and that’s the real contrast in this election and we’ve seen that underlined today.

CHRIS KENNY: Well that’s my point really. This is my point that these factors have been so clear for so long. Labor were in government only three years ago, everyone in this country knows what they did in regards to the federal budget, everyone knows when it came to border security and the tragedy and chaos we saw there, everybody knows about the carbon tax and Labor’s leadership instability and knifings, yet here you are at the end of the first term and the election is neck and neck. It shows that the Coalition has failed politically.

PAUL FLETCHER: Well, I’ll leave it to others to make an assessment. What I’d say is we’ve got two weeks to go, and we are very focussed on continuing to make the case for our plan for jobs and growth, our plan for a transition to a strong new economy. That’s what we’re talking about, policies such as the Innovation Statement, such as spending on defence, such as spending opportunities from the Free Trade Agreement, sustainable tax relief for business in particular, for small business, which is so important when it comes to generating growth.

CHRIS KENNY: We’re talking about an election that’s basically in the balance of all these problems that we’re talking about with Labor, I would put to you that the Coalition has been completely ineffective when it comes to pointing out Labor’s failings, and the risks of going back to Labor.

PAUL FLETCHER: Well I think those risks are absolutely manifest, and we just saw it again today, because Mr Shorten wants to put another 3 billion dollars on the spendometre, and he revealed that he doesn’t have an economic plan. So what we are doing is just getting on with the job of saying to the Australian people here is the clear distinction. We are also making the case that we have sustainable spending, guaranteed spending, on health, on schools, on roads, and the reason that we have... We are in a position to guarantee that spending, is because we do have an economic plan. And I do make the point, despite Mr Shorten’s scare campaign, under the Coalition, spending is increasing on schools, on hospitals, but we’re doing it within the context of (inaud.)

CHRIS KENNY: (inaud.) But this gets back again to the point I’m trying to push here and that is that the Coalition, you’re talking about your economic plan, you’re saying you’re just going to get back on with the job about talking about the economic plan. But six weeks into the campaign we can see that hasn’t shifted the polls, its neck and neck, Labor within striking distance, and a lot of people will be sitting back and saying when are the Coalition actually going to go on the front foot and attack the Labor alternative.

PAUL FLETCHER: Well, we are taking every opportunity to make the point that what Mr Shorten is doing is continuing to put money on the spendometer. He doesn’t have a plan to pay for it, and if you just look at some of the announcements he made today in the infrastructure place, some were just playing catch up with the Coalition. So, he announced the money for Melbourne Metro, but that’s something we’ve already committed 857 billion dollars to under the Asset Recycling Plan. But he also announced 400 million dollars for Western Sydney Rail. Now the first thing we need to get is the plan. Where is the rail line going to be? That’s why there is a joint rail scoping study on the needs of Western Sydney between the Commonwealth and the NSW government. There will be a consultation paper issued within a month or two and that will lay out a series of potential routes. We need to work out what’s the right route first before you can talk about spending money, we need to know what’s the right route, how much will it cost, and yet Mr Shorten is here committing another 400 million dollars for a rail line without the planning work having been done. So on a portfolio by portfolio basis, we’re making the point about the nature of what we’re seeing from Mr Shorten and Labor.

CHRIS KENNY: He’s getting away with it though, you might need to make it stronger, if that’s the case. Let’s stick with infrastructure then, in an area where you’ve got some professional background in and that’s the NBN. Now the NBN to the observers like me, that’s a classic example of Labor mismanagement, because it’s a massive new government monopoly that was scribbled on the back of a napkin between Steven Conroy and Kevin Rudd, there was no cost benefit analysis, it was going to be a disaster, now you’ve had three years to knock it into shape. It’s been a struggle, people are still complaining about the slowness about the roll out, to the extent that Labor are now campaigning on the NBN again as a positive. They are on the front foot saying vote for us and we’ll go back to a bigger, better, faster, more expensive NBN.

PAUL FLETCHER: What Labor has announced is completely implausible. What Labor has said is for not one more dollar of public money they can take 2 million, fibre to the node premises and turn them into fibre to the premises connection. Now fibre to the premises connection costs about twice as much as fibre to the node and Labor is saying not one dollar. It’s a miracle! Why didn’t we think of it? The reason we didn’t think of it is because it doesn’t work, it’s a con. But the key point is this, Labor’s performance on NBN in their six years in government was chaotic, it was hopeless. By the time they left government, barely 300,000 premises were able to connect around the country. Today, the number is 2.6 million, in less than three years. It’s going up by 30,000 a week, and if we turn from premises able to connect, to those actually connected, we are connecting about 60,000 a month. Labor managed to connect a total of just over 50,000 in just over 6 years. So the performance is chalk and cheese, Malcolm Turnbull’s Communications Minister delivered an extraordinary turn around and anybody who says we want the NBN sooner, there’s only one party to vote for, that’s the Coalition, because we will get it done by 2020. By late 2018, three quarters of the premises will have it, by 2020, it will be done and we have a track record to back that up because for eight quarters in a row, NBN Co has met its stated target. It never once met its targets under Labor.

CHRIS KENNY: Now, I’m not going to contest that for the sake of contesting it, I think that the story is roughly as you’ve outlined it because the original NBN was a disaster and it was un-costed, but it gets back to my central point again, is that you don’t seem to be able to prosecute this argument in the political world, to the extent that Labor are actually on the front foot over the NBN. This must be a deep worry two weeks out from the election campaign.

PAUL FLETCHER: Well I don’t think anybody seriously believes Labor’s claims. When Labor claimed that the start of this week that they could deliver more fibre to the premises and it wasn’t going to cost anymore, that immediately failed the credibility test. It was like the week before when they claimed, when they admitted, that they were going to have deeper deficits for four years in a row, and then they said they were going to get back to balance at the same time as the Coalition. Again, failed the credibility test. So Labor is claiming things that just simply to do not stack up. They have admitted themselves under their own plans for the NBN it will not get built, even if you believe their timetable, it won’t get completed until 2022. If you look at their chaotic record last time, very likely it will take longer than that, because one of the reasons we’ve gone for a higher mix of fibre to the node is because you can the network rolled out more quickly. And that’s something Labor appears to have missed the point of, when they’ve suggested changing the mixes they have.

CHRIS KENNY: Okay let’s talk about Labor’s other big focus today, and that was Medicare. A scare campaign over the Coalition privatising Medicare. Is there any kind of Coalition Government Medicare privatisation task force in place?

PAUL FLETCHER: No, absolutely not. The Prime Minister has made this absolutely clear. There will be no change to Medicare, Medicare will stay in Government hands.

CHRIS KENNY: Up until today, there was a plan to look at possible outsourcing of Medicare payments. Presumably, that is the fig leaf on which Labor has been hanging this claim.

PAUL FLETCHER: It’s been a complete beat up. An absolutely baseless beat up. A cynical scare campaign by the Labor Party. Why? Because they don’t have much else. They really don’t have much else to campaign on. So what we saw from Mr Shorten today, was him saying ‘I will defend you against something the Coalition is going to do’. Only problem , is the Coalition is not going to do it. Malcolm Turnbull has made that clear repeatedly. This is an empty, cynical, baseless, scare campaign, because they’ve got nothing else.

CHRIS KENNY: Although, Malcolm Turnbull did today rule out this outsourcing of Medicare payments. So in effect he’s made a policy call to get rid of the possibility of privatisation or outsourcing of that function. So in a way, he’s justified Labor’s campaign by shifting that policy ground.

PAUL FLETCHER: There was no basis at all for Labor’s campaign. It was a complete beat up, but the Prime Minister as you say, has made it clear that this study in relation to outsourcing of payments is off the table. But that is a very different… I want to make it totally clear that that is a very different thing. A totally different thing from any suggestion that Medicare should be privatised. But it really does show how breathed the Labor Party is of a plan. They do not have a plan for Australia’s economic future, when they are campaigning on a completely baseless and empty scare campaign. That’s what all Australians should be worried about, as they think about which party to vote for, and they’ve got to make that choice in two weeks, and pre poll people are already voting. They need to choose the party that has a plan for Australia’s future, for the transition to a strong new economy. Because, our economy is transitioning; we need to become more diversified, and that’s why we’ve got such a strong plan with our renovation plan, with thousands of well payed defence jobs. Capitalising on the opportunities of the free trade agreements with China, with Korea, with Japan. Our small business tax cuts. Because small business is key to jobs, and we believe in small business, we support small business, and Labor frankly doesn’t understand small business, they don’t like small business.

CHRIS KENNY: Labor’s slogan put out there today, ‘putting people first’, you know it’s pretty obvious, but I think pretty well chosen. They do talk about people in every portfolio area, every policy area, they talk about. Are they not capitalising on a weakness there, that you on the Coalition side has failed to explain? Exactly for instance, the company tax cuts, what they will do for workers, for families, what the people, what the human dividend of all that is.

PAUL FLETCHER: The plan that we have, the well-specified plan across many areas of government activity, is designed to stimulate jobs, stimulate growth, and get Australians into jobs, keep Australians in jobs, back Australians, back Australian business. That’s what we’re about. Labor is about the agenda of frankly union officials. I mean you can… As the Prime Minister made the point today, you can look at what Labor is trying to do as save (face?), save (face?) putting 30,000 self-employed truckies out of work. So you know, when you scratch what Labor is on about, very often it’s giving effect to the agenda of union bosses. And that’s really no surprise when you look at where most Labor politicians come from.

CHRIS KENNY: Alright I’m going to show you some vision; you can see it on that screen. It’s some footage from today’s Labor launch that you might enjoy. It’s Bill Shorten showing the former Labor leaders at the launch today. Bill Shorten introducing Bob Hawke, and Julia Gillard, and Paul Keating. Here we go, ask and it will eventually come. There’s Bob Hawke’s wife, there’s Bob Hawke, now Bill Shorten’s introducing Paul Keating. Now of course Bill Shorten knifed Julia Gillard, Paul Keating knifed Bob Hawke. There’s sort of ugly personal recriminations in all of that, Paul Fletcher, which is why I want to ask you, do you believe that Tony Abbott should be at your own Coalition Party launch next Sunday, and will he be honoured by Malcolm Turnbull?

PAUL FLETCHER: Look, Tony Abbott is an eminent Australia. He has obviously served us, served our nation extraordinarily well, as a senior politician, as prime minister and as he himself has said, continuing to serve the people of Warringah.

CHRIS KENNY: He should be at that launch and honoured as the most recent Prime Minister?

PAUL FLETCHER: I will leave the mechanics of that to the National campaign director, can I say I’m a great admirer of Tony Abbott. He’s given our nation great service, and he continues to give our nation service and he continues to give the people of Warringah great service. I think it’s really admirable when you see a former Prime Minister out there every day campaigning to hold his seat and helping others, in other seats around the country. Tony Abbott is taking nothing for granted about this election outcome, the coalition is taking nothing for granted. What we’re on about is demonstrating to the Australian people that we’ve got a plan for the future of Australia, for a transition to a stronger economy.

CHRIS KENNY: So having said all that, he should be honoured at the Coalition campaign launch shouldn’t he?

PAUL FLETCHER: Look, decisions about the campaign launch are a matter for the national, the federal director, Tony Nutt, and for the Prime Minister. I will leave it to them and I will support the decision that they make.

CHRIS KENNY: No doubt you will. Thanks very much Paul Fletcher, really appreciate your time. Paul Fletcher there, Minister for Major Projects and Local Government.