TRANSCRIPT
THE HON PETER COSTELLO MP
TREASURER

Interview with Paul Bongiorno

Channel 10

Tuesday, 11 May 2004
(Pre-record)

SUBJECTS: Budget

BONGIORNO:

Thanks for joining us Treasurer.

TREASURER:

Thanks Paul.

BONGIORNO:

Well have you done enough to win the election for the Howard Government?

TREASURER:

I think this is an important Budget because it helps families. Families front,

families square, families centre, and they’ll be receiving additional

payments, and there will be better tests in relation to family assistance. There

will be help for mothers as they come out of the workforce to have children,

and there will be help to get them back into the workforce with more outside

school hours care. We also increase the incentive in the tax system, so that

people on middle incomes don’t have to pay tax rates which are as high.

BONGIORNO:

People earning under $52,000 don’t get a cent in tax relief. How do

you justify that?

TREASURER:

They get big family benefits. Many of those people, there are some families

that pay no income tax at all, so if you just cut taxes, you won’t help

them. If you don’t pay any tax, you can’t be helped by tax cuts.

So rather than do that, we decided to target assistance to every family including

those that don’t pay tax and they will all get at least $600 per child.

BONGIORNO:

It’s a very tightly targetted Budget. It’s been suggested tonight

it’s targetted precisely at the sort of swinging voters that you need,

but it leaves out 6 million families without children, single people and also

leaves out people who don’t have children who are on that $52,000.

TREASURER:

Well it doesn’t leave out single people because they can take advantage

of our retirement savings initiatives. This has got to be the best deal for

retirement savings – you put in a dollar, the Government’s going

to match it with 150, $1.50. It’s going to match it 150 per cent. And

that’s available to people up to $58,000, so that’s a pretty big

incentive.

BONGIORNO:

Is there a risk that Labor can top you, do you think?

TREASURER:

What Labor can’t do, is it can’t do economic management. None

of this comes out of thin air. It doesn’t just happen. This is the result

of strong economic management over a long period of time. We’ve got Australia

back to the forefront of the economies of the developed world, and now we can

start doing things to improve the situation for families.

BONGIORNO:

You’ve left a surplus of $2.4 billion, some would see that as an election

war chest. Do you have something else up your sleeve, ahead of the election?

TREASURER:

I think it’s important to keep the Budget in surplus. When we were elected,

Labor had a $10billion deficit, as you know, and we fought to get the Budget

back into surplus and we want to keep it there.

BONGIORNO:

Just finally, with rising oil prices and the falling dollar, is there a risk

that some of the assumptions for growth that you have in your Budget may not

be realised?

TREASURER:

I don’t think so, but the rising oil price will hit people at the petrol

pump. It’s not something that’s related to anything here in Australia.

BONGIORNO:

I know, but it impacts here.

TREASURER:

Yes, it can impact, of course it does, but there’s not much we can do

about it. It’s related to events in Iraq, as you know, and until things

are stabilised there, I think that will be a difficulty.

BONGIORNO:

Treasurer, thank you.

TREASURER:

Great to be with you Paul.