Topics: Rate cut; energy rebates

  

E&OE    

 

PETER STEFANOVIC

After so long carrying a heavy load, homeowners were given some relief yesterday. Joining us live is the Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor. Angus, thanks for your time this morning. So, it was and is much needed relief with more time for you to consider the cut and what it means. Where have you settled this morning.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR

Well, it’s obviously welcome relief Pete, but I have to say for many Australian families this will be too little, too late. We’ve seen the biggest hit to Australians’ standard of living in our history, it’s been unprecedented, unparalleled too. Worse than any other of our peer countries around the world and the journey back to the standard of living Australians had when Labor came to power is a long one and it's very clear from what the Reserve Bank said yesterday they're going to be very, very cautious and they're not going to be rushing to further cuts so the only other point I'd make about this up front Pete is that the hard work has been done here by Australian families not by the government and the Reserve Bank made this point in its statement that we've seen government spending growing fast, getting to record levels so household spending has had to do the work and Australian families have had to take on to cut back on their spending take on extra jobs in some cases extra hours to make ends meet it's the hard work being done by households when the hard work should be done by the government.

 

PETER STEFANOVIC

Yeah, and look that is true but when it comes to that collapse in living standards that the RBA has referred to yesterday does that match with the few points that work in the government's favour of them at the moment particularly lower inflation, low unemployment, wage increases and at the end of the day no official recession.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR

Well, I have to say Pete that when people ask themselves when they go to the ballot box whether they're poorer or not than when Labor came to power the answer is clear most Australians are worse off than they were when Labor came to power and I think Australians increasingly have the view they can't afford another three years of this. We know the key to beating, sustainably beating a cost of living crisis, sustainably bringing down inflation and interest rates is good economic management and we've seen the exact opposite of that from Labor. They've been on a spending spree, they're adding red tape to every industry, making it a harder to invest and to create that prosperity that all Australians rely on.

 

PETER STEFANOVIC

What does that mean though I mean you mentioned yesterday that Australia needs to accelerate its journey back to where it was. How do you do that? What is good economic management?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR

Well good economic management hasn't changed Pete, it's what it always has been.

 

PETER STEFANOVIC

But what are you proposing?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR

So, it includes making sure that you're not growing government to record levels. I mean we've added 36 000 Canberra-based bureaucrats. We haven't, the government has since they came to power that is not how you beat a cost of living crisis. They've wrapped industry after industry in red tape we've seen that in the resources sector for instance we're getting approvals through has become diabolically difficult. We're seeing a construction industry where we have had a lawless union, a union that has deep links to the criminal underworld, that is taking control of the industry and raising the cost of construction for every major project in Australia. Look this this is a diabolical outcome we've seen and the result of that is a record collapse in our standard of living and as I say unrivalled by any other country in the world. We normally expect to be at the top of the table, that's a good table. This is the top of the table that's a very bad one - a collapse in our standard of living.

 

PETER STEFANOVIC

The majority of respondents said in news poll this week that they doubted the Coalition government could have done any better. So, does that show that folks aren't buying your message?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR

Well can I say Pete, I understand people are pretty cynical about what they've seen over the last couple of years because it has been disastrous for them and they've had to pay the price for a government that hasn't been able to manage the economy, but let's look at the track record of Labor versus the last Liberal government. We averaged in our time just over two percent inflation it's been well over four percent since Labor has come to power. I mean that is the difference and at the end of the day you cannot manage your cost of living crisis if you can't manage the economy. You've got to get back to basics to get back on track. This government has failed, and this is the big question as we come to the next election.

 

PETER STEFANOVIC

Okay speaking of management if you win the election will you extend energy rebates.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR

Well, we haven't seen a proposal from the government, but I'll tell you what we will do, I'll tell you what…

 

PETER STEFANOVIC

Yeah, but you might be in government.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR

Well let me tell you that the solution to this problem is to get the underlying energy prices down. The government failed to do that, so it had to. It had to provide this relief, but the answer is to get the underlying electricity and gas prices down. Now the way to do that is straightforward. We know how you do it. You get more supply into the system. So, whilst Labor has been making it difficult to get gas approvals at both state and federal levels, we need to get that supply moving. That is always the answer and to open it up to the full range of technologies…We'll see what Labor comes up with over the next little while and how disastrous the electricity price situation is as we go into this election, but at the end of the day the answer is to get electricity prices down. Go to the source of the problem, not just dealing with the symptoms. This government has been putting a band-aid on a bullet wound since they came, since they saw their huge acceleration in electricity prices and putting a band-aid on a bullet wound is not the answer. The answer is to get to the underlying source of the problem, get more supply into the system, get prices down and that way taxpayers don't have to pay for subsidies but that's the situation we've got right now.

 

PETER STEFANOVIC

We'll leave it there, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor in Sydney thank you so much.

 

ENDS.