TRANSCRIPT
EO&E………………………………………………………………………………..........
Question: Joining me on the line now is Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Tourism, Bob Baldwin good morning.
Bob Baldwin: G’day Pete, how are you?
Question: Not too bad. This whole issue with regards to Julia Gillard’s carbon tax, I’ve been following it closely, some of what she’s saying and some of what the Treasurer is saying sort of makes a little bit of sense, but is the problem that Julia Gillard’s got is the fact that she lied to everyone in the lead up to the last election, means that little or everything that she says now means nothing?
Bob Baldwin: Well there are two issues in relation to that. First and foremost she said, and I quote, “there will be no carbon tax under the Government I lead.” The second part of it is this lie that the Coalition don’t want to do anything to reduce emissions. Now the Coalition and the Labor Party have the same target our means of achieving it are totally different. Now I just want to turn to my tourism industry for a moment. There’s a report that’s been put out today by the Tourism Taskforce and what it says is that under Julia Gillard’s carbon tax there will be a loss of 6,400 Australian tourism jobs. Now that’s going to impact massively and on page four of the report it says and I quote, “outbound tourism expected to grow significantly due to the carbon tax.” Now Pete why is that so? That is because there will be no carbon tax to fly from Sydney to Denpasar, but there will be to fly from Sydney to Darwin. All of our tourism operators in Australia will be paying carbon tax whereas those in the international market won’t. And if, I need to go to no greater reference on this than Martin Ferguson himself who said in Hansard, “carbon tax would have us kill the Australian aviation industry, both domestically and internationally.” So why won’t Julia Gillard listen to the likes of Martin Ferguson who says this is bad news for our tourism industry? Why won’t she listen to the Australian people rather than just celebrities? Perhaps Pete, the best way to put this, and I’ve discussed this with Natasha Griggs who is doing a great job down here for local people, is to put it to the vote. If the majority of Australians give her a mandate to push ahead with this carbon tax then so be it. But I don’t believe, and the feedback I’ve had from the tourism industry as I’ve travelled Australia extensively, is that they don’t agree with this carbon tax. Now the Tourism Taskforce have put out a release today saying they agree with a tax, provided they get a number of provisions. In other words, this is yet again, another industry sector signing up for the carbon tax provided they have exemptions. Now, if everyone’s going to be exempt, there’s not much point in having it.
Question: Ok Bob, I touched on this earlier on, and it was Labor’s comment that Australia’s top 50 polluters will bear the brunt of Julia Gillard’s carbon tax. Now coming in at number 22 on that list of 50 top polluters is Qantas and at number 42 is Virgin Australia. Now both of those airlines, Qantas through the Qantas brand and also through its Jetstar brand and Virgin Australia, are big movers of tourists in and out of the Northern Territory. Tourism is a huge dollar spinner for the NT.
Bob Baldwin: Well in the Northern Territory, predominately you are serviced by airlines rather than road traffic and between the two of them, you know they carry 91 percent of the tourists around Australia. What this policy is going to do is destroy regional tourism, and that’s identified in the report. The people most impacted will be those in regional and rural areas.
Question: OK Bob while I’ve got you on the line, I’ve been watching with interest what’s been going on in the Federal Parliament. Wilkie looks as if he’s starting to waver a little bit in his support for the Gillard Labor Government. Are the cracks starting to appear in that thin veneer that’s holding this whole thing together?
Bob Baldwin: I would only just go to the example yesterday where I was named in the Parliament for demanding the Prime Minister answer the question. That question was to name one Labor Premier, and including your Chief Minister up there, who actually supports the introduction of the carbon tax because there was none. So she kept wandering around the edges but refused to answer the question. Because I raised it as an objection I was named in the Parliament, a vote was taken to remove me from the Parliament for 24 hours. This Government, the Gillard Labor Government, couldn’t even muster the numbers and administer the House to provide the support to the Speaker. They lost the vote. Now this is the first time the Speaker has lost a vote since Gough Whitlam used his own vote with his own side to get rid of his own speaker some 40 odd years ago. But we like Harry, remembering we put Harry up as the Speaker, Labor didn’t they wanted to put someone else up. We support him. Doesn’t mean we will always agree with every decision he makes but we support him we think he’s a fairly good speaker. Now this Government can’t manage the affairs of the Australian Government in the Parliament, it can’t be honest with the people, it won’t answer the questions, and I think it has a lot to answer for. See the simple way, as Tony Abbot has said, go to the people, get a mandate, let’s have a new election. But she refuses to do that.
Question: OK Bob Baldwin, it’s always good to talk to you.
Bob Baldwin: Well thankyou very much.
