Tue, 1st July 2008
Nelson Doorstop - Sydney
The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP
Leader of the Opposition
E&OE
DR NELSON:
Today the last round of Coalition tax cuts delivered by Mr Swan in his Budget this year come into effect. And despite all the spin that Mr Rudd and Mr Swan will put on it, every Australian should know that the average Australian family is now $30 a week worse off than they were in November last year even after the last round of Coalition tax cuts because Mr Rudd, who is full of spin and lacks substance, who just keeps watching petrol prices, keeps watching child care and grocery prices and won’t make any decisions about it, has allowed these things to increase. Last year he told Australians that he would do something about petrol, that he would do something about grocery prices. Now we know that even after the last round of Coalition tax cuts, the average Australian family is still $30 a week worse off than they were in November last year.
Mr Alexander Downer is likely to make a formal announcement about his future later this week. He has been in London. He’s attending a family funeral. Every Australian should reflect on the enormous service given by Mr Downer to the people of Mayo – his electorate in Adelaide, South Australia – and of course in the Australian Parliament, not only as a former leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party but importantly as Australia’s longest serving foreign minister. I think certainly every Liberal Party member and supporter across Australia owes Mr Downer a great debt for the service he has given our party, but so too every Australian.
Mr Downer over eleven and a half years as Australia’s foreign minister did an enormous amount to elevate Australia’s profile in the world in foreign policy, the independence of the nation of East Timor, standing up to terrorism after September 11 and the attacks in Bali, and the many things that Mr Downer did including getting Australia’s alliance with the United States to the best level that it has ever been in Australia’s history.
In relation to Belinda Neal, if Mr Rudd is able to send Ms Neal to counselling why can’t he prompt her to talk to the police or leave his Government? The average Australian would be asking themselves: why after this period of time we still haven’t had Mr Della Bosca nor Belinda Neal speak to the police according to media reports? It’s very important that Mr Rudd actually make a decision. If he can send Ms Neal to counselling then surely he can prompt Belinda Neal to speak to the police or indeed leave his Government.
QUESTION:
Given what has happened in Gippsland, do you think Mr Rudd has legitimate fears about a disendorsement resulting in her resignation and a disastrous by-election on the New South Wales central coast?
DR NELSON:
Well I would be very surprised if Belinda Neal could be elected to anything at the moment, and Mr Rudd is obviously thinking about his own Government because he is not standing up to Belinda Neal. Every Australian, particularly the people in Robertson, they know that if you’re in trouble with the police and the police want to talk to you, you front up, you talk to them. And one thing that we don’t like is not only the bullying that we saw at Iguana Joe’s but we don’t like people in positions of influence appearing not to abide by the rules that the rest of us live by.
QUESTION:
Is that a plausible scenario though? He disendorses her from the Labor Party, she refuses to sit there as an independent, quits politics altogether, by-election, disaster? Is that playing out in Kevin Rudd’s mind?
DR NELSON:
Well what Mr Rudd should do, having sent Belinda Neal to counselling, is actually prompt her to go to the police and speak to the police or leave his Government. But I suspect it would take an Abrams tank to get Belinda Neal out of the federal parliament. I mean she has worked very, very hard to get into it. She is a part of Mr Rudd’s Government. Belinda Neal is one of the people that sent Mr Rudd into the Prime Ministership of Australia, and I think Mr Rudd now needs to not only send her to counselling, he needs to get her to front up and speak to the police.
QUESTION:
On the issue of the Mayo by-election [inaudible]
DR NELSON:
Well assuming that Mr Downer does retire then the decision for the by-election will obviously be one taken by the Speaker in consultation with both the major political parties. We will choose an outstanding candidate for the electorate of Mayo, for the people of Mayo to consider. But that will be a matter for the Speaker in consultation with the Prime Minister and myself that I would expect.
QUESTION:
Are you hoping for sooner rather than later?
DR NELSON:
Well, again, it’s entirely a matter for the Speaker in consultation with the key political parties.
In relation to Zimbabwe, we understand Mr Rudd has spoken to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. And I was very disappointed, in fact I was extremely disappointed that the United Nations Security Council could only muster a resolution expressing regret in relation to Robert Mugabe’s so-called sham re-election as the President of Zimbabwe. When Mr Rudd was in opposition he said that Zimbabwe should be in the top five foreign policy priorities for Australia. He also said that he thought that Mr Mugabe should be taken to the International Criminal Court.
One of the things that Mr Rudd should do at the moment is speak directly to the Chinese. China is a very important player in the United Nations Security Council. It has a very strong and mature relationship with Australia and it also has a significant interest in Zimbabwe. Morgan Tsvangirai has himself recognised the role of China in this and one thing that Australia could do, one thing Mr Rudd could do on our behalf but more importantly the people of Zimbabwe, is actually speak to the Chinese leadership about this.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible] Morgan Tsvangirai, do you think we should be recognising Morgan Tsvangirai as the leader as your opposition spokesman said yesterday?
DR NELSON:
Well there is no question from our perspective Morgan Tsvangirai is indeed the legitimate leader of Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe has overseen some of the most brutal and heinous acts within his country; the starvation, torture and indeed murder of Zimbabweans. He has completely devastated the Zimbabwean economy. It has been the food basket of Africa. And for humanitarian reasons in particular apart from plain, decent common sense it is obvious that Morgan Tsvangirai indeed should be the legitimate President of Zimbabwe. And the one thing that Mr Rudd I think can do from Australia’s perspective, apart from everything else the Government is doing which we do support, but the one further thing he can do is speak to the Chinese leadership.
QUESTION:
Do you think his silence on this issue though perhaps reflects a lesson he has taken out of that by-election that he is perceived by people as a globe-trotting prime minister surrounding himself with celebrities at summits and did waste time in getting his hands on local issues from day one? Do you think he is taking a lesson out of that election?
DR NELSON:
Well look Mr Rudd threw in the towel a month or so ago in Adelaide when he said that he had done everything he physically could to assist the family budget and basically wiped his hands of doing any more for Australians. It seems that after seven months that Mr Rudd is out of touch and out of ideas. Everyday Australians who are struggling with groceries, with petrol, with home interest rates, child care – pensioners especially, living on $273 a week – do wonder what Mr Rudd’s priorities are.
I mean it is very hard for the everyday Australian to really understand what are Mr Rudd’s priorities. He seems at times to be focused on things that are not of primary concern to the everyday Aussie but I do strongly believe that everyday Australians are equally concerned about the plight of people in Zimbabwe. Every night on our television screens we are seeing further evidence of the appalling and dreadful way in which Zimbabweans are suffering under President Mugabe. And one of the things that Mr Rudd can do, he seems to have time to do a whole lot of things that Aussies wouldn’t think would get the highest priority, I think he should have the time to be able to speak to the Chinese leadership about Zimbabwe.
QUESTION:
On Alexander Downer, are you glad that he seems to have finally made a decision to move on?
DR NELSON:
Well he will make an announcement when he returns to Australia later in the week and if his decision is to go then that’s one that I respect and one that I think Australians will respect.
QUESTION:
Have you spoken to Mr Costello recently about his timetable?
DR NELSON:
I speak to Peter Costello and all of my colleagues quite frequently. Peter will make a decision about his own future in due course.
QUESTION:
Do you expect him to go this year?
DR NELSON:
Well I’m not going to comment on that. He will make a decision in due course about his future.
QUESTION:
The Newspoll figures, is this a sign of a Coalition fightback?
DR NELSON:
Well look I won’t comment on the polls. As you know as I don’t comment on them when they’re published.
Mr Rudd has certainly changed since he became the Prime Minister of Australia. Last year he was leading all of us to believe that he was concerned about petrol, that he was concerned about groceries. He led Australians to believe that he would do something about it. And Mr Rudd after seven months is all backswing and no follow through, all blow and no torch.
He seems incapable of making decisions and I noticed that yesterday in one press conference he said that the reason why he had suffered a seven per cent swing against his Government in Gippsland was because of the tough decisions. So eleven times in one single press conference Mr Rudd told Australians he had made tough decisions. Again this is evidence of spin over substance, trying to make people think that he has made tough decisions when in fact he has made very few decisions and certainly not very many tough ones. The Budget increased taxes and it increased spending. And I might also point out to Mr Rudd that John Howard after a really, really tough if not a horror Budget in 1996 to deal with Labor’s debt, had a five per cent swing to him in the Lindsay by-election late in 1996.
QUESTION:
Are you holding [inaudible]?
DR NELSON:
Well as I say I don’t comment on the polls.
QUESTION:
There’s a report out of Iraq that Iraq is considering taking civil action against companies including AWB. What do you think of that?
DR NELSON:
Well John Howard commissioned the Cole Royal Commission into AWB. The Liberal Party has just supported major reforms to wheat marketing in the Australian Parliament, and those matters taken up by the Iraqi Government – democratically elected Iraqi Government thanks to the leadership of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and other nations – that’s now going before the US courts and I won’t comment on it.
QUESTION:
Without commenting on the polls Mr Nelson, Mr Rudd’s honeymoon seemed to end coldly and abruptly, at odds with a lot of talk around just after he was elected about how it was going to be a six year wait for the Coalition. Are you buoyed by an increasing amount of chatter about how close it is going to be in three years?
DR NELSON:
Well look Australians see through people pretty well. And they are becoming increasingly disappointed with Mr Rudd and the performance of his Government. In the end Mr Rudd has been elected to govern our country. It means actually making decisions. It’s not about having 135 committees, inquiries and summits and reviews. He has a community Cabinet in Mackay, the first six questions the answer to them is ‘we’re having a review’. Mr Rudd is more like the chief bureaucrat of Australia than he is Australia’s Prime Minister.
QUESTION:
So he has bitten of more than he can chew?
DR NELSON:
Well look all of us who have mortgages and small business loans and are trying to put petrol in our cars and feed, clothe and house children, all of us need the Government to govern well for Australia and so far Mr Rudd is a series of connected disappointments.
QUESTION:
He was a shadow foreign minister. Do you think that is harming him in terms of sensitivity to the domestic issues, notwithstanding the importance of places like Zimbabwe and China and Tibet? Do you think perhaps that’s a perception out there that this man is more concerned with [inaudible] talking about an EU style regional economy for the Asia Pacific? I mean, are these dots on the horizon for the average person when petrol prices and interest rates are going up?
DR NELSON:
Well I think Mr Rudd’s primary concern is his own popularity. And he does have particular pet interests which don’t seem to be the key concerns of everyday Australians. And even in the area of foreign policy I mean he managed to upset Japan, Australia’s strongest partner in Asia and north east Asia in particular. He announces from Australia that he is going to have an Asian Union and yet he has not given any detail; he hasn’t written to any of these countries.
In other words what he has done in foreign policy is in fact a bit like he is doing here in Australia. He doesn’t actually think it through. And he seems to announce a lot of things without following it through and thinking it through. And Australians really need decisive action. What we need in relation to petrol in particular is a decision from Mr Rudd and that decision should be to cut the excise, to cut the tax and give families a bit of relief.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible] the carbon trading scheme which includes petrol in it. Is the Coalition off the mark on this one?
DR NELSON:
Well the most important thing is we as Liberals believe in market solutions to the problems that we have got. And an emissions trading scheme is something that we do support. But the fundamental principle in introducing Mr Rudd’s policies to deal with climate change is we must protect motorists from any higher prices in petrol as a result of the introduction of an emissions trading scheme and we’ve also got to protect families and pensioners with their electricity bills and the key costs that will come from introducing an emissions trading scheme. That’s the fundamental.
QUESTION:
Would you support rebates for thing like petrol?
DR NELSON:
Well there are different ways of achieving this. You can either include petrol and have rebates, excise cuts, a variety of things, or you can keep petrol out which is what some other countries are doing. What the Coalition will do, as we always do, is seriously consider Professor Garnaut’s report, we will consider the green paper when it’s released and we will have a comprehensive, well-considered and costed response to climate change. Mr Rudd is at risk of doing enormous damage to our country’s economic future by getting this wrong. He is in a hurry, he is going to force something in which risks putting prices up for Australians and doing enormous damage in the process to Australia’s economic future. The most important thing all of us need to do here is put Australia first.
Thank you very much.