Tony Abbott Press Conference, Canberra

24/08/10

Subjects: Election 2010; parliamentary reform.

E&OE 

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s good to be here and it’s good to see all of you and good to see that you’re all looking so refreshed now that the campaign is over. Look, obviously, counting is continuing and the advice I have is that it could be some time before counting is concluded. That means that it’s going to be some time before a government emerges because the one thing that is pretty obvious is that we are not going to have either a political party in a majority situation. I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that I will do everything I reasonably can to ensure that we emerge from this election with a competent and stable government. I think that is what the people expect and I think that's what Australia needs.

I want to make the point that a government which was incompetent and unstable before an election, when it had a majority, is highly unlikely to be stable and competent after an election when it doesn't have a majority, particularly given the civil war which has now broken out inside the Labor Party. Just in last 24 hours we have had Premier Bligh say that the Gillard experiment has been a miserable failure and attack the revolving door style of leadership associated with the New South Wales Labor Party. We have had former premier Morris Iemma attack the national secretary of the Labor Party. We have had numerous people inside the Labor Party criticise the role of the former prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and yet Kevin Rudd is apparently going to be a senior minister in any continuing Labor Government.

I want to reiterate the point that half a million more people voted for the Coalition than voted for the Labor Party in the election on Saturday and I believe that only the Coalition can offer Australia the stable and competent government that it now needs. Only the Coalition can offer the country a reformed parliament. Only the Coalition can offer the country a fair go for our regions. Only the Coalition is capable of offering the country a consultative and collegial political culture, because this is very much in our political DNA. I do understand the desire of the independents for a new style of politics. I do understand that, and I simply make the point that you will not get a new politics from an old government, particularly from an old government as riven with factionalism, as controlled by the faceless men as the current government so obviously is.

Finally, I want to make the point that I think the Coalition can deliver the kind of government that Australians would be proud of. I think it should be our objective to try to deliver the kind of government that Australians would be proud of and that’s the spirit with which I will be entering any discussions with the independents over the next few days, but I do want to stress that no one should expect that this will be a speedy process. The counting itself still has a long way to go and I imagine the independents will want to be thoroughly satisfied that they have got the best possible government for Australia and I’m certainly prepared to exercise patience and forbearance and generosity of spirit in the days ahead.

QUESTION:

Yesterday Julia Gillard said that, she seemed to be indicating that she could offer a greater prospect of stability because the Greens were more likely to pass her programme than yours – the indication being that you have spending cuts you proposed, would you be able to deliver all that. What do you say to that argument and what would be your message to the Greens as they consider their position?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I guess I make two points Matthew, in response. The first point I make is any continuing Labor government that emerges from this election will effectively be a Labor/Green alliance and I think that would be very bad for regional Australia. Very, very bad for regional Australia. It will mean an increased mining tax. It will mean very significant restrictions for what people can do on the ocean and it will almost certainly mean a carbon tax, which, again, will be bad for regional Australia. So that’s the first point I make. The second point I make is that the Coalition has demonstrated in government a capacity to work with senates of a different political persuasion and I have a cordial personal relationship with Senator Brown. I obviously don’t agree with him on lots of things, but I would expect to be able to work constructively with the Senate, regardless of its persuasion.

QUESTION:

You mention the mining tax and the carbon tax, yet two of the independents agree with both of those things and yet they represent regional Australia, so you say they’re not something regional Australia wants, but these popular independents think that they are.

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I think what the independents want above all else is stable and competent government. Now, that’s what I want to talk to them about. How stable and competent government is best delivered and how we can have a new spirit in Australian politics and I make the point that even in the cut and thrust of the election campaign, already on the table were some of the key things that some of the independents want, namely parliamentary reform – I put that on the table during the campaign – and a parliamentary budget office, I put that on the table during the campaign as things that the Coalition was committed to.

QUESTION:

How can you offer a new spirit beyond just some parliamentary reforms? Is this practical and what would you be proposing to the independents in the way of a new consensus model?

TONY ABBOTT:

Michelle, again I would point to my record. As Leader of the House. I changed the way the Matter of Public Importance debate worked to ensure the independents had a say in the MPI. As Leader of the House, I introduced interventions into the Main Committee, I introduced Members’ Statements into the Main Committee. I’m sorry that the former government wasn’t able to do more and certainly any government that I lead will be serious about parliamentary reform.

QUESTION:

But Mr Oakeshott is talking about something much more radical. He’s talking about someone going into the other side. What do you think about all of that?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well I think that is, as you say Michelle, very radical, but I make the point that I think we can have a kinder, gentler polity. I think we can be a more collegial polity than we’ve been. I think that the spirit of Parliament has been needlessly confrontational, especially over the last three years and I make the point examples of bad government that Rob Oakeshott has cited are all examples of bad government which have occurred under the current government.

QUESTION:

...when you became Opposition Leader, you made a point of opposing; not to give the government anything, but making them earn it. How can you now say – and that style is credited with bringing the government to its knees. How can you now say you can advocate a more collegial style?

TONY ABBOTT:

But Phil, as Rob Oakeshott has said, over the last six months or so the Government has been chaotic and why shouldn’t I and why wouldn’t I have opposed a chaotic government?

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, can you set out, can you promise or set out any fundamental reforms you’d make to the parliamentary process, including Question Time, if you are willing to offer new politics today like you say?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, Latika, during the campaign, I proposed time limits on ministerial answers. I proposed time limits on questions, and I’ve got to say that I’ve been on the record over the years supporting a speaker who is independent of governments, so these are commitments that I feel very deeply. I think it is very important that our parliament be a place for genuine questions and genuine answers and genuine debate and I regret the fact that particularly over the last three years that hasn’t been the case?

QUESITON:

[Inaudible] parliamentary reform, which you have put out during the campaign, which areas of policy would you be prepared to give ground on, you’ve mentioned the mining tax, the carbon tax. Where would you be prepared to give ground on policy to the independents?

TONY ABBOTT:

Dennis, what I’m trying to indicate today is the spirit with which I would enter into discussions and discussions, I hasten to add, have not started. So I’m taking about the spirit with which I would enter discussions. Now, I’m not going to conduct negotiations in public, in the media. I will leave that to those discussions when they start, but I would point you to the fact that since I became the Leader of the Opposition, the Coalition has been an effective, collegial operation and I think that I have demonstrated in my time as leader of the Liberal Party, a capacity to reach out to people who might otherwise have felt excluded.

QUESTION:

Since we are in caretaker mode, the Prime Minister yesterday said that there would be briefings made available to the Opposition to discuss any policy decisions. Can I ask: have there been any briefings about any decisions that need to be made? Have you had any briefings from the public service, for instance, on policy or on the state of the budget? Would that be any information that you could then share with the independents to negotiate or to discuss how you would form a government?

TONY ABBOTT:

Ok, look I have had briefings, caretaker briefings from the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and from the head of the Treasury. I’m not going to disclose the contents of those briefings other than to say I was very grateful to have them and the assurance has been given to me that as long as the Government is in caretaker mode and, as I said, this could be for quite some time, there will be no significant decisions made without appropriate consultation with the Opposition, as provided for under the caretaker convention.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, if your deal or agreement with the independents involved new spending or different spending priorities, would you want the budget to add up to the same? Would you want to come back to the surplus in the same year, you’d pay off the debt by the same timetable as you set out in the election campaign?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I’m going, Lenore, to keep our commitments and one of our most fundamental commitments was to bring the budget back to surplus in 2012-13 and to bring it back to surplus quite significantly stronger than the Government had planned. Now, my understanding from some very, very preliminary discussions, informal discussions, with the three independents is that what they want is a prudent, responsible government. They want a government which is competent and effective and I think the last thing that the independents want to engage in is some kind of crude auction.

QUESTION:

Have you written Adam Bandt off as someone who’s not going to be able to work with you?

TONY ABBOTT:

I did call Adam Bandt and I congratulated him on his election. I was only able to congratulate him by way of a message on his voicemail and thus far I haven’t had the chance to have a viva voce conversation with him. Look, I don’t rule out working with anyone but he’s already indicated that it would be his strong preference to support a Labor government. Now, I’m not sure why because, quite frankly, we’ve got a more effective climate change policy than the Government but nevertheless that’s the indication that he’s publicly given and so I’ll wait for him to return my call.

QUESTION:

First, on stability. Do you concede that you’re behind the eight ball in so far as to get to 76, assuming you get 72 Coalition, you’d be reliant on an independent-minded WA National and three independents and that means that, as Rob Oakeshott was talking about today, you’re within one by-election of electoral ruin? Secondly, on broadband, you say you’re going to keep your policies. Are you going to tinker with your broadband to make it more appealing?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well Andrew, look just a couple of points. My understanding is that Tony Crook intends to sit in the National Party party room and while I accept that he is independently-minded I’ve got to say that most of my members are independently-minded. I mean, that’s one of the glories of the Coalition. That we don’t impose the kind of Stalinist discipline upon our members that the Labor Party historically does. On the subject of broadband, look our policy is very much designed to give a better broadband service to the regions and we have put $6.3 billion aside in our election commitments to try to ensure that we have better broadband services, in particular better broadband services to the regions. So I am confident that there is more than enough capacity in our broadband policy to deliver the kind of improved services that regional MPs would want.

QUESTION:

On broadband though, only a tenth in your $6.4 billion policy goes to regional areas in the first term. Now this is not in the same category as the Government’s NBN. If you’re going to choose or select one area where you can fiddle with it, wouldn’t that be [inaudible]?

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m not going to pre-empt what might come out of discussions but I just make the point that the Government itself was, I think, very singularly unable to say how quickly its broadband roll out would take place, particularly in regional areas, during the election campaign.

QUESTION:

Julia Gillard’s going to have the Deputy Prime Minister as the wingman, as it were, for negotiations. Will you be [inaudible] yourself, will you have someone [inaudible] you? Will the Nationals, specifically, be [inaudible]?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think these discussions should be held between me and the independents. I think I’m the person who has got to carry these discussions and I’m confident that, should these discussions come to what I think is a satisfactory conclusion, I will be backed by my Coalition colleagues because, as you’ve seen, we have a strong and united Coalition. Now, I understand that over the years there’s been a bit of bad blood between different individuals but the fact is we all want to see a stable, effective and competent government emerge from this election. The last thing that Australia wants is a swift return to the polls or a period of unstable government and I’m confident that adults and patriots are more than capable of giving us a satisfactory outcome.

QUESTION:

Two things. Can you just clarify, you’re not going to appoint a Labor MP to an Abbott ministry? Second, you’ve had a go at Labor…

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m a very magnanimous man but that might be going a little too far.

QUESTION:

You’ve had a go at Labor for the recriminations since Saturday night’s result. What about in the Liberal Party, some are pointing to the performance in New South Wales in particular. You had a swing to you of five or six per cent. You only got one seat. Were you happy with the strategy, the marginal seat strategy in New South Wales?

TONY ABBOTT:

The short answer is yes, David. Obviously, I’m always looking for ways to do better next time and, look, it would be a pretty unusual political party that didn’t have a frank and candid internal conversation about how it could do better next time. But the truth is that’s what we are going to have and, sure, inevitably from time to time, journalism being what it is and politics being what it is, a little bit of that internal conversation will come out into the public arena but there is nothing like the kind of ferocious civil war going on inside the Coalition which is now afflicting the Labor Party.

QUESTION:

[inaudible] too radical to have a Labor MP or Kevin Rudd as your Foreign Minister, but what about Mr Oakeshott or Mr Windsor or Mr Katter in your ministry or as Speaker. Is that [inaudible]?

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m not going to pre-empt what might emerge from these discussions but obviously, what I expect will emerge from the discussions is a serious role for a range of different people and different political organisations. I want to stress that there should be a better deal for regional Australia emerging from this election but this won’t be due simply to the influence of the three independents. Country Liberals and the Nationals are deeply committed to regional Australia. My Shadow Cabinet has six members who live in regional Australia. By contrast, there is not a single member of Labor’s Cabinet who lives in regional Australia so I want to make it absolutely crystal clear that if people want a better deal for regional Australia emerging from the new government, the only people who can form such a government are the Coalition.

Thank you.

[ends]