JOURNALIST: Good afternoon Minister.
WONG: Gday Peter, how are you?
JOURNALIST: Well, thanks. Thanks for your time. 24 hours after yesterdays announcement, and does it feel like yesterday was Sunday, Bloody Sunday?
WONG: I think that was a pretty odd thing for Greg Hunt to say, frankly, for people who remember what happened on such a day. But I think whats important is the policy we put out there. And weve had a lot of fear, a lot of scaremongering by Mr Abbott, now people can see what this is. Its about cutting pollution and its about driving investment in clean energy. And were making sure that we bring forward a whole range of tax cuts. So people get tax cuts and increases in payments, and someone up to, anyone up to, earning up to $80,000 a year is going to get a tax cut.
JOURNALIST: You, the Prime Minister, Greg Combet, and every other person whos ever been a member of the Labor Party has been out selling this today. Just first of all, your reaction to the announcement. Was it basically what you expected from the punters today, or were you surprised that its been received in such an overwhelmingly negative manner?
WONG: This is a very tough reform. And its a reform that we have to go out and explain to people. I was previously, as you said, Minister for Climate Change. And I know this is a hard reform because it means change. And its much easier to campaign against change than for change, and Tony Abbott is doing nothing except oppose.
But fundamentally, it does come down to this: do we want to reduce our pollution, do we want to shift to a cleaner energy economy? If we do, this is the most cost effective way to do it, and we think this is the fairest way to do it. Because were making sure that we give tax cuts and increases in payments such as pensions, the family tax benefit, and as well as the supplement to self-funded retirees and those such things, to help people deal with the price impact.
JOURNALIST: Youve got two years now before you go to the next election, to the next polls. If you cannot go away and change the minds of those who so vehemently oppose what was announced yesterday, do you see then that Tony Abbotts cry that some of your colleagues may then cross the floor if youre not prepared to go away and change that policy do you think theres any likelihood that that actually might happen?
WONG: Peter, I think you got it right in your introduction when you said at some point Mr Abbott has to do something more than just saying no. I mean, even his response in the last 24 hours. Lets be clear: hes opposing tax cuts, hes opposing increases in pensions and family tax benefits. And hes even talking about opposing assistance for the steel industry that we have negotiated with the industry, and the industry is seeking.
JOURNALIST: Minister, do you think that any of your mates, any of your colleagues, seriously, think that they might lose their bottle a bit? If they look like theyre going to be decimated at the next poll, do you think they might go, hang on, I dont want to be seen part of this, Im going to go cross the floor. Do you think theres any chance at all that some may even contemplate that?
WONG: I think Labor people understand very much the importance of doing something for the future. I mean were a party that has always tried to do that through our history and this is very much about Australias future. I mean if you look back at the Labor tradition of doing things like introducing superannuation opposed by the Coalition. Introducing Medicare opposed by the Coalition. Opening up our economy, so we could modernise and create new jobs in the services sector. Those were important things, some of those things were bitterly opposed. Many of those things were hard at the time and they might not have been popular. But this is about the future, and its about making sure we do the best for our children and move to a cleaner energy future for Australia.
JOURNALIST: There was amazing scenes today at a forum that Joe Hockey was attending in Queensland, where one of the questions from the floor was what would he do if the punters, the constituency, took up arms against this Government. How do you react to that sort of comment?
WONG: I think those people are entitled to put their views but were a democracy and we express things through our arguments and through our democratic processes. And what the Government is saying is that we understand that people are concerned about this. We understand this is a big reform. Weve put the detail out and I think one thing is absolutely true this issue is not going to go away.
Remember John Howard first identified the need to do this five years ago. Weve been talking about this for almost a decade; weve done an enormous amount of policy work. This previously was supported by not only John Howard and Peter Costello, but remember, by Malcolm Turnbull and in fact previously by Tony Abbott. So theres a lot of work done, its time to get on and do it.
JOURNALIST: If this becomes such a distraction now, and youre trying to run government and administer government, is there some chance you may be forced to go to the polls early? For no other reason than just to be able to go away and administer government? Because the moment where it sits as it is, there is no oxygen left for any other political debate in this country apart from the carbon tax. So you may be forced to go to the polls even though you dont wish to do so.
WONG: Well Peter, whats interesting is theres a lot of oxygen taken up by the various stunts and scaremongering that Tony Abbott engages in, but we have been governing. We have got our legislation through the Parliament. We got the structural separation of Telstra; were rolling out the National Broadband Network. We got our Budget through the Parliament. We got key reforms through.
On this one, we worked very hard to make sure we can get parliamentary support. So I think its important sometimes to just take a step back from all the noise that some people are making and look at whats happening. We are making sure we get good government through the Parliament. We get our reforms through the Parliament. And on this one we understand we have to do is what Im doing today and what the Prime Ministers doing. That is, to talk to people like you and with Australians about what this means and why it is a good thing for the country.
JOURNALIST: Now we keep hearing about 500 of Australias biggest polluters. How do I find out who are Australias 500 biggest polluters?
WONG: Thats a good question. Well I presume, I think they know who they are because theyre already -
JOURNALIST: Why dont we know who they are?
WONG: Theres a threshold. So its like any criterion -
JOURNALIST: Is Gina Rinehart one of Australias top 500 polluters?
WONG: Probably not personally but -
JOURNALIST: Is her companies, her mines ,her organisations. Its her business, shes listed as the richest woman in Australia. Is she one of those top 500 polluters?
WONG: We dont do it by wealth. We do it by the amount a particular company puts into the atmosphere.
JOURNALIST: So you know who those 500 polluters are?
WONG: We would have a fairly accurate idea because a lot of this information has already been tracked under different legislation, but obviously
JOURNALIST: Who is the biggest polluter in Australia?
WONG: I dont know that off the top of my head, Im afraid, but I can come back to you on that.
JOURNALIST: Wed love to know who are the top ten polluters in Australia because wed like to talk to them to find out whether this carbon tax will in any way cause an impost for them to change the manner in which they do their production.
WONG: Well you could do that but lets think about this intuitively from our own life experience. If something is free, we dont tend to ration it. If something is free, we dont tend to reduce it. And at the moment it is free to pollute. So the whole point of putting a price on carbon is to do two things. It is to give polluters an incentive to reduce how much they pollute and it is to give investors an incentive to invest in cleaner industry and cleaner energy rather than in dirty industry and dirty energy.
JOURNALIST: Just finally, just how much of this legislation is your legislation and how much of it is the Greens? And if it is the Greens, and as people are suggesting, if the Greens have had such power and such influence just due to the fact it allows you to govern with the aid of them as a minority party?
WONG: Weve been very clear putting this package together there are things that are very important to Labor governments and they are in the package. That is to have a very economically sensible package. A package that supports jobs. A package that provides assistance to transition industry. And all of those things that you look at in the package, including the tax cuts and increases in payments are very much in accordance with Labor values.
JOURNALIST: Finally, just out of ten how would you describe the last 24 hours? Would you give it a five out of ten, would you give it a pass, would you give it a three out of ten? Give me an honest assessment, not a political sweetener, give me an honest assessment of the last 24 hours.
WONG: I reckon were doing OK.
JOURNALIST: Youd give yourself a pass?
WONG: I think so. I know weve got a long way to go. Theres going to be a lot of opposition, weve got a lot more work to do before I think people understand what this means. But I think were out there and were arguing our case and thats what is important.
JOURNALIST: Minister, we do appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today. Penny Wong, the Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation.
-ends-