ABC 891

SUBJECTS: Coalition’s Paid Parental Leave policy; Labor’s economic mismanagement E&OE................................ Presenter: Christopher Pyne, Liberal MP for Sturt, Shadow Education Minister and Manager of Opposition business in the House, good morning Christopher Pyne. Hon Christopher Pyne MP: Good morning, David and Mathew and Mark. Presenter: Christopher Pyne, can we start with your party’s proposal for maternity paid parental leave? It’s a proposal that Tony Abbott is locked into although many in your party are very concerned about it and we know that first hand. Now Christopher Pyne, could you explain to our listeners, would it be the case where you could have two women on a bus driving into Adelaide and they’ve both got little babies, a few weeks old. One of them is on an annual salary of $150,000, the other is on an annual salary of $40,000, but they are both just looking after their babies. In every respect, right now they are doing exactly the same job. Under Tony Abbott’s scheme one women would get $75,000 over 26 weeks, the other women would get $20,000. Is that correct? Pyne: That is correct, because it is a workplace entitlement. Presenter: Well, what is fair about that? Pyne: Well, because it is a workplace entitlement, not a welfare entitlement. So woman B who’s been earning $150,000 will therefore be entitled to half of that salary on 26 weeks because that’s what she left, that is the job she left. And the other women…. Presenter: How is that not welfare? Pyne: Well, it’s not welfare because it is a workplace entitlement. Now everywhere in the world, except in Australia they treat paid parental leave as a workplace entitlement, it’s only Labor in Australia that thinks it should be treated as a welfare cheque. And so therefore, the woman who earns $40,000 or $65,000 or $100,000 or $150,000 – they get paid the wage they would have otherwise have got if they had stayed in the workplace. Presenter: How do you think the woman who’s getting $20,000 for doing exactly the same job for the next 26 weeks feels? Pyne: Well it’s a workplace entitlement – not a welfare entitlement. Presenter: So tough luck? Pyne: It’s a workplace entitlement so therefore you need to understand that more than 61% of women in the workforce earn more than the average wage, so in fact Labor’s policy is a cut to all those women’s workplace entitlements when they have a baby. So more than half of women are earning more than the average wage – Labor wants to short-change those women if they have a baby. We want to remove that choice from them by allowing them to be paid at the rate that they would have been paid if they had stayed in the workforce for 26 weeks. It’s a very good policy. Presenter: Can you explain what Tony Abbott meant when he defended the $150,000 limiters, encouraging women of calibre? Pyne: Well look, I’m not going to get into this very sort of precious over-reaction by Tanya Plibersek and Penny Wong… Presenter: Oh please do, please do. Please do Christopher Pyne… Pyne: I mean Eva Cox has belled the cat and said that of course, and she’s a noted feminist, she’s not known for her right-wing views and Eva Cox has made it very clear that this is just Labor trying to run their usual gender attack on Tony Abbott. Presenter: Please help us, I don’t understand what he meant; I don’t know if it’s a negative or a positive? Presenter: If you promise to answer the question, we will give you clear air; we will give you two minutes – no interruptions. Pyne: Oh, no no… Presenter: Just explain what women of calibre means? Pyne: if we don’t have the guests interrupted on a constant basis it wouldn’t be as fun as it normally is… Presenter: Come on then, we will give you clear air. Women of calibre, what does it mean? Pyne: Tony Abbott has the generous policy for working women. In the paid parental leave scheme space, Labor is short-changing women… Presenter: You’re not answering the question, we might interrupt. Pyne: It’s a good policy for women… Presenter: No, that wasn’t the deal Christopher Pyne. That wasn’t the deal, I’m sorry. Pyne: I’ll break the deal. Presenter: Mark Butler if Christopher Pyne won’t answer that question, what’s your view of what women of calibre mean? Butler: Well, I mean I think it was a silly thing to say and I think you can only draw one inference and that is he was talking about women on higher incomes. But, I want to address really the policy of this because Christopher says that Labor‘s cut entitlements, we introduced the first ever paid parental leave scheme to this country. We and the United States were the only two OCED not to have it and we have fixed that problem. More than 270,000 families already have started to access our scheme. It is a scheme that has the same payment from the commonwealth government irrespective of income and Chris is right, to an extent this is also a workplace entitlement around which women can bargain through the Fair Work Act. So women across a whole range of industries are and will continue to bargain through enterprise bargaining arrangements for top up parental leave arrangements if you like. But we think the proper thing to do is ensure there’s a base entitlement for all families for the first time in Australia… Presenter: Is that a concession that the base entitlement and of course people are going to sign up to it why wouldn’t you, but is that a concession that it’s inadequate? Butler: Well no it’s not a concession that it’s in adequate. It is a properly based amount for people irrespective of their income. We think that it properly takes account… Presenter: So why would you need to bargain for more? Butler: Well if people want to, are earning more than the entitlement we have paid and they want to cover the cost of their wage during their period of leave they can bargain for that. But what we were faced with was the need for the Government to put in place an entitlement for all people. But really what we’re seeing here is Tony Abbott’s paid parental leave unravelling before our eyes. I mean if you look at the front page of the Financial Review the costings of this scheme are now all over the place. The Australian Institute is suggesting it’s actually going to require… Pyne: The Australian Institute is a Labor Party front organisation. Butler: I didn’t interrupt you Christopher. It is going to require a company tax increase of 3% not 1.5%. Presenter: We interrupted Christopher Pyne. Pyne: A lot! Butler: That’s your prerogative. You’re the announcers. Presenter: Mark Butler, it’s a bit rich is it not some might argue for you to be talking about costings when your costings were so far out that you’ve now had to can a promised family benefit for Australians? Butler: Well no our costings weren’t out. What’s happened and this has happened for a very very long period is that Treasury estimates of revenue have to be revised according to what happens around the world. Because our economy is so interconnected now with what is happening around the world, Treasury from time to time would have to revise its revenue estimates. Now during the last five years of the Howard Government it had to revise them very significantly upwards and now it is having to revise them downwards because of the pressure that the Australian Dollar is placing on company profits. So a government has to make hard decisions when that happens to cut the cloth. Pyne: Well the Government is completely incompetent and in the Financial Review today the biggest story is of course is that you are about to announce that the tax cut you were giving to average Australians will be junked in the budget. They were carbon tax compensation. So what’s happened here, Matthew’s pointed out, the Government has got rid of the increase for Family Tax Benefit Part A, that was compensation as well for the carbon tax. So the carbon tax has come in, prices have gone up as a result, the compensation is now being removed, so the public is even worse off than they would have been without the carbon tax. Presenter: Christopher Pyne, just a quick one from a listener. Two gay men raising a child. Can one of them claim the paid parental leave? Pyne: I don’t know. You would have to find out the details from the Shadow Minister responsible who is Mathias Cormann. I don’t have that answer. Presenter: You don’t know about that one? Pyne: No. Presenter: OK. Mark Butler, under your scheme? Butler: Look I can’t answer that off the top of my head gentlemen. What we have done is that we’ve changed I think several dozen pieces of Commonwealth legislation to ensure that same-sex couples are treated no differently to heterosexual couples in relation to a range of Centrelink entitlements and such like. Presenter: But the paid parental scheme isn’t dependent upon marriage? Butler: No that’s right. It is in relation to parentage. So if an entitlement relates to parentage then my first guess would be that it would because we removed all of those discriminatory provisions some years ago but I don’t have that off the top of my head. Presenter: Christopher Pyne, the same would apply to you wouldn’t it. The same would apply to the Opposition because you are not applying a marriage test to your paid parental scheme. Pyne: Well certainly not that I’m aware of no. Because the paid parental leave scheme is paid to people who aren’t in married situations. Presenter: Surely if they are men of good calibre? Pyne: I think you’re getting a bit caught up with the nomenclature here gentlemen may I say. Presenter: Christopher Pyne... Presenter: What a lovely word. Pyne: Nomenclature, yes it is a lovely word. Presenter: Christopher Pyne, thank you. Butler: Can he spell it though? Can he spell it? Pyne: Can you? That’s the bigger point. Presenter: Mark Butler, Labor MP for Port Adelaide, it is two minutes to nine. ENDS.