JOURNALIST: Thanks for your time Minister.
WONG: Good to be with you.
JOURNALIST: Do you feel the resistance? I mean, thats one poll. But I can quote from three or four others.
WONG: Look, I understand if people are reluctant to have a levy. But what I would say to them is this. Weve got an unprecedented natural disaster in Queensland. We have got a lot of rebuilding to occur. And I think everybody would want to help in making that rebuilding of Queensland occur.
What weve put in place is a $5.6 billion package. Two-thirds of which is delivered through government spending cuts. So the majority of the money thats been spent is through spending cuts that the Government has taken off the federal budget.
Weve designed a modest levy. And I would ask people to consider just how modest it is. If youre earning $50,000 or less you dont have to pay a levy. If youre on $60,000 a year, youre paying less than $1 a week. Less than $1 a week. And on $100,000 a year, youre paying less than $5 a week.
So we have worked very hard to try and reduce government spending to fund most of the package. And the levy is only to fund about a third of it. But it is an important third because this is, as I said, one of the most costly natural disasters the country has seen.
JOURNALIST: Ill get to the irony in a moment that these spending cuts have all been made in green schemes and were raising a levy to pay for a flood. I think thats rather ironic. But the message that Im getting from taxpayers this morning, Minister, is that theyre not concerned necessarily, as you say, about the small amount in one year that they need to put their hand in their pocket for. But theres an underlying distrust of this Governments ability to manage money. People are saying to me, well, if they hadnt wasted money on pink batts and if they hadnt wasted money on $900 cheques and if they hadnt wasted money on rorted BER schemes then we would have the money in the bank to pay for the reconstruction of Queensland.
WONG: What I would say to them is there are a lot of natural disasters such as the Victorian bushfires where the Commonwealth can fund things on the budget. This is of a different order. This is probably going to be the most costly, the most expensive leaving aside of course the dreadful human cost but just in terms of the economic cost, the most expensive natural disaster the country has seen. We understand that people want to ensure that the money is spent well. Part of the reason why were funding so much through spending cuts is because we do understand the importance of applying discipline to the Commonwealth budget.
JOURNALIST: But how are you going to rebuild that trust? I mean, who is in charge of this money as it comes out of Australians pockets and back into Canberra? Who is the Minister responsible for the money being spent in the right places? I mean, are we going to guarantee that people who have lost everything are not themselves caught up in this? I mean, can we be guaranteed that those people wont be slugged themselves? How do we guarantee that SES volunteers who have been up to their hips in mud helping out fellow Australians are not going to get slugged?
WONG: Well a number of questions there, Steve. The first one about what are the arrangements to ensure this money is spent well. Queensland has set up a statutory authority, the Reconstruction Authority. Thats headed by Major General Mick Slater who is well known to many Australians.
JOURNALIST: Hes very impressive.
WONG: A very impressive man who obviously was responsible for much of the work that was done in East Timor. So he has a lot of experience and we were very pleased that he made himself available to do this work. So there is a statutory body set up of which he is in charge. The Commonwealth will have membership on that and the Queensland Government obviously has oversight of that as well.
In terms of the arrangements for the money, we will have whats called a National Partnerships Agreement. Thats a formal agreement between us and Queensland where we hand over the money that will be very transparent and that will ensure Australians can see how this money is being spent. The vast majority of this will go to infrastructure; community infrastructure thats been destroyed. So the roads and the railways and the bridges that we saw were destroyed by these floods.
JOURNALIST: Its ironic the bigger amount of money, the $2.8 billion you found in spending cuts comes at the cost of a lot of green schemes that you personally would have been in favour of.
WONG: Weve had to take a pretty hard look at the Commonwealth budget. And there have been $2.8 billion worth of cuts. $1 billion worth of infrastructure being re-phased, so that we can make room for
JOURNALIST: But dont you find it ironic that a lot of those green schemes were in place because we were worried, when they were invented, that we were not going to get enough rain. There were people going around saying that the Murray River was going to dry up and that we never were going to have our dams full again. But now weve got to cut all these green schemes because weve had too much water.
WONG: Weve had a hard look at the budget and weve had to make decisions. And some people will oppose those decisions in terms of what we cut, and other people will find it ironic, and others will support it.
JOURNALIST: But doesnt it make the whole scare tactics over climate change and the carbon tax rather ironic?
WONG: Look Steve, our focus has been on making sure we find the money to rebuild Queensland. Weve done this in a responsible way. It is regrettable that, for example, Mr Abbott continues to oppose. Simply doing what he always does which is to oppose and to fight. I have to say, if we could put a levy on Mr Abbotts three word slogan opposing everything, wed probably raise a lot of money.
JOURNALIST: Well you raise a good point there - youve got to get this through the Parliament. The Independents are not convinced. Weve had Nick Xenophon, one of your colleagues in the Senate. Hes saying he wants to perhaps have a look at a fund into the future where we pay for these things and not just have levies. Are you confident you can get this through both houses of Parliament?
WONG: Given that Mr Abbott is opposing it, that means we do have to negotiate. Certainly in the Senate with the crossbenchers including Nick Xenophon, and in the House with Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott and Mr Katter and Mr Bandt. So thats the position the Government is in, and is always in and Mr Abbott continues simply to oppose. We think weve put together a very sensible package, a package that is responsible and is about helping Queensland in what is one of their hardest of times.
JOURNALIST: Did you ever consider slicing into your NBN scheme to pay for this rather than put a new tax on Australians?
WONG: Lets remember Steve what the NBN is and why cancelling it doesnt make sense in terms of the Commonwealth budget, nor in economic terms.
JOURNALIST: I didnt say cancel. I mean, modify would be my description.
WONG: Well in terms of the NBN, that money is an investment into this nations nation-building project on which taxpayers
JOURNALIST: Id like to invest in a Ferrari though Minister, I cant afford one.
WONG: No but you dont get the money back on the Ferrari. Well you might when you sell it. Thats the point here the NBN you invest the money and youll get a return. Even if we cancel it, as Mr Abbott said, that would not help. That investment doesnt count in terms of the budget bottom line. So leaving aside the economic argument, which is Australians have been waiting a very long time for high speed affordable broadband, were still lagging many comparable countries because there hasnt been this sort of project put in place. Leaving aside all of that. Mr Abbott again has got his numbers wrong because cancelling the NBN wont help the budget in the way that he says.
JOURNALIST: Thanks for your time as usual, appreciate it.
WONG: Good to speak with you.
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