TRANSCRIPT
of
THE HON PETER COSTELLO MP
Treasurer

Interview with Paul Bongiorno

Network 10
Pre-record
Tuesday, 14 May 2002
8:35 pm

SUBJECTS: Budget

BONGIORNO:

Welcome to the show Treasurer. Well the $1.2 billion dollar deficit for the current financial year just seven months ago you and Prime Minister assured us that the War on Terror and that the Pacific solution were factored into the Budget and you were talking surplus before the election, were you misleading us?

TREASURER:

No, we made additional expenditures when the Parliament came back this year to support the War on Terror. Additional expenditures over and above what had been allocated at last years Budgets and we also have engaged in additional spending the wake of the September 11^th bombing of the World Trade Centre, we think that would be a responsible policy. Paul, we have been through a great economical slow down. We have troops in the field, we have had the worst terrorist attack in memory, probably ever and to see this done and the economy still growing and to be in such sound shape I think is something that all Australians will welcome, and the fact that it involved heavier expenditure than otherwise would have been the case, well that’s what terrorism and global slow-downs do.

BONGIORNO:

Well the $600 million cost of the Pacific solution to keep a couple of thousand asylum seekers out, is a high price to pay then isn’t it?

TREASURER:

It’s quite expensive, but if you had had unauthorised boat arrivals continuing into Australia at the rate they were in the latter part of last year, we had two thousand I think in a month, if you would have had twenty thousand a year or even ten thousand in a year, imagine what the cost would have been. That’s the cost for two thousand or so. And so the Government’s investment of $1.2 billion dollars in border protection which is, seems to be showing results, there has been no unauthorised boat arrivals since December last year, I actually think is saving the taxpayer a lot of money.

BONGIORNO:

Well the wisdom is deficits put upward pressure on interest rates, that would have to be a worry now, wouldn’t it?

TREASURER:

Oh look, this is a strong fiscal position. We have now paid $62 billion dollars of Labor’s debt back. We’ve had a small deficit in 2001/02 and a large surplus 2002/03. There wouldn’t be a comparable country in the world, not America, not the United Kingdom, not Europe that is anywhere in such a strong position, they are forecasting large deficits you have to say this is a very supportive fiscal policy.

BONGIORNO:

Well, the social welfare lobby tonight is saying that the increase in the co-payments for pensioners and concessional card holders for prescriptions is the equivalent of a rise in the GST rate, they say hits the poor hard, but also lower income families.

TREASURER:

Well, there is no GST on pharmaceuticals. So it has got nothing to do with GST. Pharmaceuticals are GST-free. It has nothing to do with that. This is a one dollar increase in the concessional rate of a pharmaceutical. You are going to pay one dollar more and after you have fifty two prescriptions you get them free. Under this program you can be getting medicines that cost $200, $300 sometimes $1000 for $4.60. So, it is still a very concessional rate but if you want to keep bringing new medicines and new treatments onto the scheme year after year, you are going to have to have a way of funding that.

BONGIORNO:

Treasurer Costello, thanks for joining us.

TREASURER:

Thanks very much Paul.