Mon, 30th June 2008
Nelson Doorstop - Sydney
The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP
Leader of the Opposition
E&OE
DR NELSON:
Well Mr Rudd said that he would put a computer on the desk of every senior secondary student in the country. We now know that it’s a computer on every second desk. But why can’t Mr Rudd simply admit that he got it wrong, that he hasn’t properly costed putting those computers on the desks of senior secondary students? And most disturbingly we now learn that the way that this Government operates is actually doing side deals with people such as Mr Costa in order to so-called ‘end the blame game’.
Why should the Australian taxpayer have to pay $245 million in a secret side deal with a Labor mate in the state of New South Wales because Mr Rudd won’t admit that he got it wrong, that he hadn’t costed putting these computers into schools? Everybody knows that you can’t just deliver a computer to a school, you have actually got to plug it in, you have got to train the teachers, and you have got to maintain those computers. Ending the so-called blame game doesn’t mean a conspiracy of concealment. It doesn’t mean keeping taxpayers in the dark. And, most importantly, Mr Rudd should admit that he got it wrong and he should guarantee Australian parents that they are not going to pay a tax to actually get these computers working in Australian schools. Why should parents run cake stalls and raffles because Mr Rudd won’t admit that he got it wrong, that he hasn’t costed this and now he is trying to hide that with secret deals with arguably one of the worst governments in Australia – and that’s the Iemma Government.
QUESTION:
What do you think the total cost of this policy will be?
DR NELSON:
Well the Western Australian Premier a couple of months ago – Mr Carpenter – he said that for every dollar that Mr Rudd was spending on these computers, another three dollars would have to be spent at a state level. It stands to reason that if you simply deliver the computers to the school without providing the funding to plug them in, connect to broadband, to train teachers and maintain them, then parents are going to have to pay an additional tax. And what is very disturbing about all of this is that Mr Rudd has now got into the pattern of not coming clean about his mistakes. He didn’t even know what his own Budget forecast was for inflation, but instead of admitting that he had to do all kinds of things to deny it. Now he is trying to deny the fact that he hasn’t properly costed this and I think one thing that Mr Wayne Swan should do is release the full costings on the computers in schools commitment so Australian taxpayers and particularly Australian parents can actually see what we’re up for.
QUESTION:
In short you are saying that during the campaign Mr Rudd was writing cheques that he’s now asking the states and territories to cash?
DR NELSON:
Well Mr Rudd has been writing cheques that he can’t cash. He is expecting the states and parents to cash them with taxes that they didn’t know were coming down the line. Further to that, he told every young Australian that they would get a computer on their desk in their school. Now it’s a computer for every second desk, and again Mr Rudd is all spin, no substance. All backswing, no follow through and refusing to come clean with the Australian people about his so-called commitment which is uncosted and at this stage looks like it won’t be delivered.
QUESTION:
Do you think it is a good policy?
DR NELSON:
Look no-one can deny that making sure that all of our kids get access to a computer is the right direction in which to go. But the real revolution in education is making sure that we have teachers that are well trained, know how to teach our kids effectively with proven methods of education and national standards in literacy and numeracy. What Mr Rudd is now trying to do is to write cheques to incompetent state governments because Mr Rudd himself has not fully costed his own policy and his own commitment.
QUESTION:
Given the WA Premier did raise these concerns a couple of months ago, does that go against the conspiracy theory if you like that if we keep New South Wales happy, do this on the QT, the other states and territories won’t jump up?
DR NELSON:
Well it’s interesting that Mr Carpenter has been not so vocal about this in the last few months which makes us wonder are there any other side deals that are being done with the taxpayer’s cheque book with Labor states in order to keep them quiet. Mr Rudd needs to reassure Australians that there isn’t hush money being paid out to state Labor governments in order to make sure that it looks like Mr Rudd is delivering on a promise which has already been broken because it is not a computer for every desk, it is one for every second desk.
If I could make some comments about a couple of other issues. I strongly support a push for a national child protection standard and one of the many issues that needs to be faced at the COAG meeting this week is the under-funding of community service departments by state governments around Australia. We cannot expect our departments of community services in each of the jurisdictions to actually deliver on protection of children if they’re not sufficiently resourced, if they don’t have enough staff, and most importantly if there isn’t sufficient political will to see that they do the job that they must.
Every person in this country that suspects there is any kind of child abuse or child neglect being perpetrated on a child has a responsibility to report that. I think Australian governments, federal and state, equally have a responsibility to make sure the resources are there to protect children when it’s brought to our collective attention. With more than 56,000 cases of reported child abuse and neglect last year alone and 30,000 kids being removed, this is one of the critical measures of a caring society.
This week we will see the delivery of the last round of Peter Costello’s tax cuts. It is also important that on the 1st of July a lot of businesses realise that the Coalition’s excise rebate for fuel users in business will also come into play and that means that a lot of businesses in Australia will be able to claim about 19 cents a litre on the fuel that they use. The Coalition believes in lower taxes. We believe in lower petrol and fuel prices, that’s why we believe in cutting petrol excise for Australians generally and that’s why on the 1st of July there will also be delivered business fuel excise rebates for many businesses in Australia who currently don’t get access to it.
After Mr Swan’s talk and the delivery of what he has got in his Budget, the average Australian, even after Peter Costello’s last round of tax cuts, will be $30 a week worse off than they were at the time of the election last year. Australians need Mr Rudd to start governing Australia, to have a sense of priority, to be in touch with the concerns that Australians feel with petrol and groceries and interest rates and rents. Mr Swan mentioned pensioners only once in his 30 minute Budget speech, and it is time now for Mr Rudd to actually take some decisions, to make some decisions in relation to everyday Australians and the pressures that they are feeling.
QUESTION:
Brendan Nelson, did you know about the defence helicopter crash in East Timor in June last year?
DR NELSON:
It was reported to me when I was Defence Minister – as is frequently the case when we’re on deployments – that there had been an incident involving a Black Hawk helicopter in East Timor. I was advised that no-one had been injured in that and that the matter was being investigated. I would expect that the report on the final outcome of that incident involving a Black Hawk and indeed the outcome of the Board of Inquiry will be released by the Chief of Defence when he has got all of the details and is prepared to do so.
QUESTION:
Should it have been made public though given that at the time there was sensitivity over other [inaudible]
DR NELSON:
Well, again, that is a matter for Defence itself and, on the basis of the information provided to me at the time, I think Defence made the right decision. You need to understand that when you’ve got troops and equipment deployed into many theatres throughout the world it is a very common, very frequent occurrence for incidents involving equipment to be reported to the Chief of Defence and therein to the Minister. Not all of them are released into the media for good operational reasons. But certainly on the basis of what was reported to me at the time, it was reported to me as an incident involving a heavy landing of a Black Hawk helicopter. The Defence people themselves were investigating it and I expect that the outcome of that investigation will be released by the Chief of Defence when he is satisfied that it is complete.
QUESTION:
Was it deliberately kept under wraps because it was politically sensitive?
DR NELSON:
No, of course not.
QUESTION:
Did you have any contact with Defence? Did your office say that you didn’t want it made public?
DR NELSON:
No, of course not. Of course not. Again, I have got to say to you, look, whether it is Iraq or East Timor, the Solomon Islands, Afghanistan, the Defence Minister of the day and the Chief of Defence will be getting reports about all sorts of incidents involving all sorts of equipment. And that in itself is not unusual. What was reported to the Chief of Defence at the time, and as I recall to me also, was such that there had been a heavy landing involving a Black Hawk helicopter in East Timor. Defence would, as it always does, investigate it and the Chief of Defence would release a report when he felt it was appropriate.
QUESTION:
But given it was so sensitive at the time, given the other helicopter incidents, don’t you think the public had a right to know?
DR NELSON:
Well again the Chief of Defence will make that decision and, on the basis of what was reported to me, it was consistent with the sort of incidents that we have in Defence when our people are deployed as they are throughout the world in the sort of activities that they do. There was not in itself anything other than that in it at the time.
QUESTION:
But it was very convenient to keep it under wraps wasn’t it, politically, in the five months out from the election?
DR NELSON:
Look that is an outrageous assertion. I mean, really, that is outrageous and what was…
QUESTION:
Why is that outrageous?
DR NELSON:
What was reported to the Chief of Defence and what was reported to me was that there had been a heavy landing involving a Black Hawk in East Timor, that it was being investigated, that no-one had been injured and the aircraft would be assessed in terms of what damage had been done to it. The Chief of Defence will release that report when he believes that it is appropriate to do so. There is nothing unusual about that at all.
One of the other things – in response to the by-election in Gippsland on Saturday, the Government has suffered more than a seven per cent swing against it after seven months in government. And Mr Rudd is trying to suggest that this is a result of so-called hard decisions that he has had to make. Mr Rudd has actually made very few decisions since he has been in government. He runs around the country telling people he is going to do all sorts of things. There is no clear strategic direction, no sense of priority in the Government. And I remind Mr Rudd that when John Howard was elected in 1996, after a very tough Budget to deal with Labor’s $100 billion in debt that had been left, there had been a five per cent swing to John Howard in the Lindsay by-election in western Sydney.
Mr Rudd needs to start concentrating more on the decisions that need to be made for everyday Australians rather than just trying to massage the media for his own self interest.
QUESTION:
Dr Nelson just on the Iguanas affair. A lot of [inaudible] without wanting to smear the New South Wales police have nonetheless put them on notice in terms of their expect… or the community’s expectation of a very transparent, honest investigation. Tonight four of the Iguanas workers are talking to A Current Affair. Do you think that in some way in sticking to their stories – as they have all along – does that in some way do you think relieve the pressure, any pressure the police might be feeling to meet the community’s expectations for the truth to emerge from all this?
DR NELSON:
Well the average person would ask themselves that if Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca have not yet been interviewed by the police, why is that the case? And also we should have the highest admiration for these employees at Iguana because what these people did was stand up to bullying of the worst possible kind. We had Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca abusing power to bully and intimidate those who don’t have any. These are everyday Australians standing up for their rights at work and standing up to a power couple using intimidation and bullying tactics in the worst possible way under the worst possible circumstances. And I find it extraordinary that the first person to lose her job out of this has been one of those that has come out and been honest, courageous and determined and that is Ms Batten.
QUESTION:
Would you [inaudible] the New South Wales Government to freeze – and there’s precedents for this – the money she has received in giving her interview given that she has effectively confessed to [inaudible] offence by… Her lawyers will go off and argue that it was under duress and she made her case [inaudible] last week. It would be a game New South Wales Government to freeze those funds until their guilt or otherwise is determined.
DR NELSON:
Well without knowing all of the facts I wouldn’t comment on that. I admire the courage that has obviously been shown by the employees at Iguana Joe’s who stood up to this bullying and this intimidation. And I admire Ms Batten, whatever the circumstances and the pressure that had been applied to her by Belinda Neal, for having the courage to come forward in what I found to be quite a moving and compelling interview.
And again, when this was first raised Kevin Rudd dismissed all this with humour. You’ll recall that Mr Rudd said, ‘oh what nation state does she represent?’, as if to bat this away as some sort of trivial incident. Again I ask Mr Rudd, why is it that after all this time that Belinda Neal continues to be a member of his Government, why does he continue to have her in the caucus, and, importantly, we need to know when are the police actually going to interview Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca. Every single one of us – it doesn’t matter what position we have in life – every single one of us should be equal before the law. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a minister, whether you’re a member of parliament, or you’re an everyday worker trying to do your job at Iguana Joe’s. And that’s what everyday Australians will want to see here.
QUESTION:
To that effect, would you expect to see them front and centre at Brisbane Waters Police Station like everybody else who has been interviewed in this inquiry so far?
DR NELSON:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Look this is the whole thing. I mean we’re Australians. We pride ourselves on everybody being given a fair go and also being treated equally, particularly when it comes to the law. And one of the things that makes all of us really cranky is when we see people in positions of influence and positions of power not only abusing that power but also then in some way at least the appearance being that in some way they’re not being treated like the average person. So whether it is speeding, whether it is drink driving, whether it’s bullying people and then having problems with statutory declarations, I think Australians want justice and they want to see it be done and done fairly.
Thank you very much everyone.