ABC 891

E&OE TRANSCRIPT Interview - 891 ABC Adelaide 11 December 2013 8:15am CST SUBJECT/S: Australian Car Industry and Childcare workers COMPERE: Is your government going to be known as the government which saw the demise of the car industry? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I certainly hope not. The Coalition Government in Canberra has put a billion dollars on the table for the car industry, which was to previously be shared between three car makers, Toyota, Ford and Holden. But of course, Ford, under the previous government have already announced that they’re exiting Australia, because they can’t make it work. So the amount of money is now divided between Holden and Toyota. So Holden has a tremendous amount of money available to it. I don’t think money is the issue for Holden. I think the issue for Holden is the labour costs, it’s the Australian dollar, it’s competition from overseas. But also it’s... COMPERE: So you’re blaming the workers. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No. Certainly not. I’m... COMPERE: Well, labour costs, that’s the workers. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, we’re not blaming the workers. The facts are that it costs a great deal more to employ people to build a car in Australia than it does in many other countries, like Thailand, elsewhere. But I also think Detroit has not allowed Holden to fly, as they should have. They haven’t been exporting. Detroit doesn’t seem to encourage or allow them to export. They haven’t been investing in equipment. I think it has been an extraordinary performance from Detroit over the last few years and I think it’s very sad that they’re leaving the workers hanging before Christmas, as they are, with these cute words that they haven't made a decision yet. COMPERE: Okay. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, they need to make a decision and they need to tell Holden workers that they’re staying. That’s what we want them to do. That’s what is good for South Australia and for Australia. COMPERE: It’s quite clear, though, that relations have completely broken down between Holden and the federal government, so if there was any doubt that it’s not going to get the increased support that it was asking for, that that’s completely gone and so it’s clear what will happen next. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Holden knew the government’s policies well before the election. We said that we would stop the fringe benefits tax increase for Labor and we’ve done that. We said we will abolish the carbon tax that would save the car industry money and we’ve tried to do that, but Labor is blocking it in the Senate with their friends, the Greens. We always said that we not go beyond one billion dollars, but that is a lot of money on the table for Holden. Quite frankly, Holden needs to understand that the amount of money that has been promised is there. They need to stop these cute words about we haven’t made a decision yet, because it’s not fair. It’s not fair on the families, particularly in northern Adelaide, who rely on Holden for their livelihoods, for Holden to keep saying, we haven’t made a decision yet. Well, they need to make a decision and they need to communicate that decision. I hope it is to stay in Adelaide and keep making cars for the good of our economy and our state and Jay Weatherill has known about this all along. Jay Weatherill has been part of all these discussions and for him to now turn up and pretend this has somehow got nothing to do with the Labor Government of the last twelve years, well, look at how much taxes Holden have been paying the state governments over the last twelve years. COMPERE: Mark Butler, Labor MP for Port Adelaide, what should the government do? MARK BUTLER: Well, the government should make its position clear on automotive industry assistance and reverse the $500 million cut it announced before the election campaign and which it is maintaining. I mean, Christopher talks about Jay Weatherill’s position. Can I say that the Victorian Liberal Government is in lockstep with Jay Weatherill on this. The only person not in lockstep is Steven Marshall. The Victorian Liberal Government has been echoing very, very loudly over the last several days the cause that Jay Weatherill has made for the government to make a decision to reverse that $500 million dollar cut. Holden’s has been very clear. The car industry has been very clear that that cut will have a very substantial effect on whether or not the industry has a future here in Australia. The timing is of the government’s making. It was the government that came in and established this quick Productivity Commission review. It’s underway. It was holding hearings yesterday here in Canberra, I think, where Holden’s management appeared. It is utterly reasonable for Holden to say, whether it’s in Detroit or here in Australia, we want to wait to see what the Productivity Commission recommends to the government about the future of auto assistance and then we want to see what the government’s response to that recommendation is. COMPERE: But why did... MARK BUTLER: But the government is panicking. They’re saying, well, don’t worry about this review. We want General Motors to pre-empt the review and the government’s response to the review. If that doesn’t work, shifting the blame to the company, we will shift the blame to the workers and say, well, they get paid too much. COMPERE: Well, couldn’t you also shift the blame to the former Labor Government saying, well, you left this mess for them to clean up? MARK BUTLER: No. Well, I think you can be quite clear and quite assured that if we had been re-elected, and our auto assistance plan, which would be to keep the $500 million in place between now and 2015 and extend that auto assistance beyond 2015 to match the investment that General Motors has said will take place out to 2022, with the two new models, that we would not be having the debate now that we're having about the future of Holdens. COMPERE: Well, you lost Ford... MARK BUTLER: The decision is that… COMPERE: Well, you lost Ford Mark Butler. MARK BUTLER: Well Ford's global plan was very different to Holden's. Now I've heard in Parliament Christopher and others try to compare the position that Holden is in to the position Ford and even Mitsubishi some years ago were in. That's simply not the case. We know what it would take to keep Holdens here and we have a government divided. We've got Ian Macfarlane the Industry Minister doing his best to argue the case for a future for the car industry and then all the dry economic people from Sydney and Queensland arguing against this. Ultimately, this has got to be Tony Abbott's decision. It's a government divided and only the Prime Minister is going to able to take a decision to save the car industry for the future. COMPERE: Christopher Pyne. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That is a load of rubbish. On 22 March 2012 Julia Gillard announced $275 more - of tax payers' dollars for Holden. At the time Jay Weatherill and Tom Koutsantonis said - we're guaranteeing no job decline at Holden. That's what they said two days later. Six months later, Holden announce an eight per cent cut to the company's workforce in Adelaide. The problem here is that each time the taxpayers are asked to put more money into the car industry, months later the car industry comes along and says we need more of your taxpayers' dollars. Now, nobody begrudges support for the car industry, least of all me a proud south Australian. COMPERE: Well, you sound like you do. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, but eventually the taxpayers pay. COMPERE: It sounds you do begrudge it. It sounds like... CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, I don't begrudge it. COMPERE: It sounds like Christopher Pyne that you have got to the point where you begrudge it. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No. I just think that it's - we're past the time when Holden can simply turn up and say, if you don't give us more money, we will leave. MARK BUTLER: It's not more money. It's not. What they're asking for is not to cut the money. They're asking not to cut the money. COMPERE: They are asking for more money, aren't they? Mark Butler, they are asking for more money. MARK BUTLER: The $500 million is the first and most important issue. The $500 million that the government wants to cut from the existing plan... COMPERE: Then they want on top of that... MARK BUTLER: ...only to be lost in the fact that our car industry… COMPERE: Your colleague in the Opposition has made it quite clear they want another one-hundred-and-thirty million on top of that. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That's right and we... COMPERE: They do want more money. MARK BUTLER: ...but that's beyond the 2015 - into the 2015, 2021 period. What the critical thing is, is that they want - the government wants to cut $500 million from an existing plan that's already been factored in by the car industry. Now there's no - in this immediate sense, the government is trying to pretend that the company is coming to ask for more money in the existing plan. They're asking for the existing money to be maintained. COMPERE: Yeah and then some. Christopher Pyne, have you gone into Cabinet and said, give them half a billion? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I don't discuss what is discussed in Cabinet and Mark Butler would understand that as a former cabinet minister. I can say as a South Australian, I have worked tirelessly to support the car industry... COMPERE: Well, which camp do you fall in? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: ...not just in the Cabinet, but for the last twenty years. COMPERE: Do you fall into the Joe Hockey, Jamie Briggs camp or do you fall into the Ian Macfarlane camp? Which one is it? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, first of all I don't accept the premise of the question, because there aren't two camps. But I want Holden to stay in Adelaide, but I want them to stay sustainably. Now Labor threw money at Mitsubishi; they lost it. They threw money at Ford; they lost it. Jay Weatherill lost the expansion of Olympic Dam. What has Labor been doing in South Australia for the last twelve years to diversify our economy away from manufacturing so that we don't have this argument every few years when a car industry turns up and says if you don't give us more money we're going to leave? I think the taxpayers of South Australia and around the country are thoroughly sick of that. Holden said two years ago that they were now in a position to be sustainably profitable. Two years ago. Now they turn up and say, if you don't give us more money, we have to go. Now, quite frankly I think that is not a reasonable position. COMPERE: Gentlemen, before you go, can you explain what's happening in terms of funding for childcare because there was a big bag of money about $300 million that was going to be set aside to help pay for pay increases to - for childcare workers. Yesterday the Government said, well no, we're not going to do that. Christopher Pyne. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We have $300 million set aside for the professional development of all childcare workers. Labor had a $300 million pot of money for the members of Long Day Child Care who were members of the United Voice Union which Mark Butler of course, used to be the head of or was a member of. The truth is that there was a report handed down yesterday by PriceWaterhouseCoopers that found that the Early Years Quality Fund was just a slush fund essentially for increasing union membership. It went to a very small number of childcare workers and was completely unsustainable for the future. What we have done is put that on a sustainable footing by saying we'll honour the contracts that were signed by the previous government but for the future we want a professional development fund that supports the whole childcare industry, not just those members of United Voice. MARK BUTLER: Well, that's simply not the case. The wage increases apply to people in relevant centres like say, the big Goodstart Centres whether they're union members or not. Yes, there's disagreement about how to spend this $300 million, but before the election campaign the Liberal Party said very clearly that they would honour all funds contracted from this $300 million fund. So, where there'd been a contract between the centre CHRISTOPHER PYNE: And we will, and we will. MARK BUTLER: ...and the government. And the Prime Minister repeated it last week. Then we had the Minister for Childcare or whatever she's called - the Assistant Minister for Education, I think - yesterday say, well we'll honour it, but we'd like you to actually give back the money. We'd like you... COMPERE: Well, I don't think that's going to happen, is it? MARK BUTLER: ...to give back the money. I mean it's just a joke. This has some of the lowest paid workers in the community doing some of the most important work you could possibly imagine. Finally, we had a way of trying to lift their wages to something that the community would recognise as close to meritorious and we have this flip-flopping by the government. It's just - it's an insult to these workers just before Christmas. COMPERE: Mark Butler, thank you for your time. Labor MP for Port Adelaide and Opposition Environment and Climate Change spokesman and Christopher Pyne Liberal MP for Sturt, Federal Education Minister, Leader of the House. Thank you for your time this year gentlemen. We'll do it all again next year. Merry Christmas. MARK BUTLER: Thank you very much. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Merry Christmas to you too and to your listeners. Ends