Personal Income Tax Cuts
May 10, 2005Labor’s Budget Reply – Doorstop Interview, Parliament House, Canberra
May 12, 2005Interview with Ross Stevenson & John Burns
3AW
Wednesday, 11 May 2005
8.05 am
SUBJECTS: Budget
JOURNALIST:
We are joined in Canberra by the Treasurer Peter Costello. Good morning, Treasurer.
TREASURER:
Good morning, Ross. Good morning, John.
JOURNALIST:
I guess your overwhelming feeling this morning must be well, thank goodness
I don’t have to do that again.
TREASURER:
Look, it’s a lot of work and it’s a big day and today is a lot
of work of course in explaining the budget. But I think as people look at it
they’ll think that it’s a budget that set Australia up for some
great opportunities in the decades to come.
JOURNALIST:
I suppose it’s a bit like studying for an exam and you’ve certainly
had a very, very good pass on this one judging by all the critics, but how much
assistance did you get from John Howard?
TREASURER:
Well the Treasurer is responsible for the budget. It’s my obligation
to bring it together and to make decisions and announce it, but the Government
as a whole has to sign off on the budget. It’s got to look not just for
today but for the future. It’s a $200 billion budget so it’s a large
sum of money and a lot of work.
JOURNALIST:
How did that relate to the question what did the Prime Minister have to do
with it?
TREASURER:
I’m not sure what the question was.
JOURNALIST:
I just want to know whether or not John Howard made sure that you didn’t
deliver a budget that makes you look like a very good future leader.
TREASURER:
Look, you deliver the budget which you think is right for the times and I think
this is right. It cuts tax, it saves for the future and it will encourage I
hope more people to get into work.
JOURNALIST:
Sequestered as we are in Melbourne, Treasurer, we don’t get to hear the
bulk of the interviews that you would have no doubt already have conducted.
Are they all going slightly like this?
TREASURER:
I’ve got to say, you guys are one-off.
JOURNALIST:
I want to ask a question about, a serious question about economics and the
budget now if I may. Are the changes you’ve made to superannuation designed
to provide wealthy 65 year old men with a greater incentive to retire?
TREASURER:
How old are you, Ross?
JOURNALIST:
47. The same age as you, I think.
TREASURER:
It’s pitched right at 47 year olds.
JOURNALIST:
It’s not pitched at blokes that have been in a job for a while, aged
65 and might sweep the pot for them in order to cash it in and retire.
TREASURER:
How old is John?
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) A bit older than that, I’m in my late 50s.
TREASURER:
Oh, we could do something for him too.
JOURNALIST:
Terry McCrann in the Herald Sun this morning and no doubt replicated in the
Telegraph has said it is easily the best budget we’ve had in 30 or so
years. Is that right?
TREASURER:
I’ve always thought that…
JOURNALIST:
I thought we going to start with modesty …
TREASURER:
No, no. Have you seen that program on the TV called ‘Grumpy Old Men’?
JOURNALIST:
Yes, I have.
TREASURER:
I think they could have Terry as part of the set, don’t you?
JOURNALIST:
The Australian version.
TREASURER:
A high praise from him.
JOURNALIST:
While we’re casting the Australian version of ‘Grumpy Old Men’
and we’ve got Terry McCrann in it. Anyone else leap to mind?
TREASURER:
What about your mate John there?
JOURNALIST:
Oh, cut it out. Alright, I will get grumpy. What about..
TREASURER:
You don’t have to John. I take it back.
JOURNALIST:
What about the sickness benefits business? Now what you’ve said is, that
6.5 per cent of the workforce etcetera etcetera are on sickness benefits and
they’ve only, most of them have only got bad backs. And it says here,
they may be capable of part-time work. Does that mean that you’re going
to remove the benefits from someone who is deemed capable of part-time work
but who hasn’t got it?
TREASURER:
In the future, if you want to qualify for the Disability Support Pension, the
qualification will be that you can’t work. You can’t work full-time
or part-time. If you’re capable of part-time work, you’ll still
be entitled to unemployment benefits but you will have to be looking for work.
JOURNALIST:
Who should be the Treasurer in a Costello Government?
TREASURER:
Well, we’re not going there fellas.
JOURNALIST:
And why’s that? Who told you you can make up the rules? Hey. Who should
be the Treasurer in a Costello Government?
TREASURER:
I was going to say to you, fella’s looking for part-time work on sickness
benefits might be able to apply for radio host jobs.
JOURNALIST:
I don’t think it would be sufficient hours. I was rather hoping that
when I asked you who would be the Treasurer in the Costello Government, that
you don’t answer hypothetical questions. Which would have in turn allowed
me to say, well your budget meetings with Treasury must go very short then.
TREASURER:
Do you need me for this interview? Or could you blokes just do it between the
two of you?
JOURNALIST:
You’ve got to promise that you won’t change the goal posts of super
like Government’s have been doing ever since I can remember.
TREASURER:
Well, we abolished the superannuation surcharge last night.
JOURNALIST:
Why didn’t you do that before now?
TREASURER:
Well, we were trying to reduce it in the past and the Senate kept blocking
the reductions and so we decided that rather than keep mucking around and trying
to reduce it and being held up by the Senate we would propose its abolition.
The Labor Party apparently is going to vote against it. They want to keep the
surcharge but I hope that once the Labor Party’s blocking majority moves
in the Senate after 1 July that we’ll be able to get that through.
JOURNALIST:
Have you got any plans to talk about your desire to be the Prime Minister of
the country? I mean, some would say that it’s self evident that he owes
you the job and he has the moral obligation to hand over to you in a winning
position. Are you ever going to talk about that?
TREASURER:
No, because I’m focussing on the budget. The budget only came down last
night fellas and we’ve got to enact it. It takes from now until 30 June
to enact it. So there is still a lot of work to be done. That’s what I’m
focussed on.
JOURNALIST:
There’s a photo in the paper of after you’ve delivered the budget
of John Howard shaking hands and looking intensely into your face. Are you,
was he in fact happy with the budget and your performance in it? And secondly,
are you good mates?
TREASURER:
Yes. Yes.
JOURNALIST:
Good. Getting shorter and shorter. Will you take a couple of questions from
the folks?
TREASURER:
Sure.
JOURNALIST:
Geoff, please try and make the question as quick as you can.
CALLER:
Look, I was wanting to know why you couldn’t give the tax break, reverse
it around and give the low-income workers more money and the higher income,
less money? Wouldn’t that give the incentive too, for the part-time workers
etc?
TREASURER:
Well, in fact the percentage tax cut is greatest for the low-income workers.
It doesn’t sound as large in dollar terms, but that is because low-income
workers pay a lot less tax. So, when you cut their rate, although it doesn’t
sound as huge in dollar terms, as a percentage it’s actually greater.
JOURNALIST:
Let’s have June ask a quick question.
CALLER:
Hi, Mr Costello.
TREASURER:
Hi, June.
CALLER:
I’m a senior, retired and I’m just wondering why you never give
the seniors anything, the people that have worked all their lives, paid taxes.
We haven’t even got the $100 Mr Howard promised us last year. So, what’s
wrong with us seniors getting something?
JOURNALIST:
Thanks, June.
TREASURER:
Well, you have if you are a self-funded retiree, you are entitled to the utilities
allowance. And if you are a pensioner, $100 as well. And if you haven’t
received it for some reason, if you are on a pension, I’d contact Centrelink
and if you are a self-funded retiree you would have received the form in the
mail. I know thousands of Australians who have.
JOURNALIST:
Treasurer, I should say we won’t take the calls from Joyce and Sandy,
but there was echo with that last call with Joyce saying why is there no rise
with the pension, and Sandy saying what is happening for older people.
TREASURER:
Well there is a rise, can I say there is a rise in the pension. The pension
is indexed twice a year and rising faster than consumer prices. That’s
something that our Government put in place. There is a rise in the pension and
she would know that twice a year it actually goes up and goes up faster than
prices. It’s actually tracking, tracking wages at the moment which grow
faster than prices.
JOURNALIST:
It is sixteen after eight. Here’s an interesting question posed from
left field. Who will do all the volunteer work at schools if all the mothers
go back to work?
TREASURER:
Well, in relation to mothers, we say that single mothers who are on the single
mothers’ pension are not required to do any work until their youngest
child gets to the age when they can go to school. And then we want to encourage
them to do part-time work. School’s five days a week, and if the children
are at school five days a week between say 9 and 3, the opportunity to do some
part-time work between those hours, I think, is quite open. And we would encourage
people to do it.
JOURNALIST:
A challenge by Christmas?
TREASURER:
Am I challenged by Christmas? No, I’m looking forward to Christmas very
much, Ross.
JOURNALIST:
An early Santa Claus as you have been. Are you going to challenge by Christmas?
TREASURER:
We are not going into any speculation, Ross.
JOURNALIST:
Good on you. Many thanks for your time this morning.
TREASURER:
Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST:
Treasurer, Peter Costello.