Full transcript: Tony Abbott promises to end deficit

17 Jul 2010, 3:54 pm   -   Source: Liberal Party of Australia
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Tony Abbott has urged Australians to change the government, saying only the coalition would end the spin. Read the Full transcript here.

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TONY ABBOTT:

This election is about giving a great people a better government.

We are a great country but we have been let down by our government at least for the last three years.

Australia will be at its best when all of our people are empowered to be at their best. But, the only way to change for the better is to change the government. I want to repeat that, the only way to change for the better is to change the government.

Only a Coalition government can end the spin and incompetence which marked the Rudd/Gillard Government and which has just got worse over the three weeks since the faceless men of the Labor Party executed an elected Prime Minister.  Three weeks ago the government had lost its way and since then it’s just got worse.

Why should people trust Labor’s 2010 promises when you couldn’t trust their 2007 promises; why should people trust a new Prime Minister who said she’d fix the messes that her own Government had created – who failed to do so – and has now rushed to the polls before she’s established her credentials to govern; why should people trust Julia Gillard when even Kevin Rudd couldn’t?

Why should people trust a Government that can’t say who would be the Foreign Minister, who would be the Defence Minister and who would be the Finance Minister if the Government is re-elected; and why should people trust a Prime Minister who can’t guarantee that she would serve a full term because she can’t be sure that the factions would let her?

There is a better way. The Coalition will stand up for real action. 

A Coalition government will respect the taxpayers’ dollar. We know that households and businesses have had to tighten their belts and we’ll make government tighten its belt too.

A government which is borrowing $100 million every single day is taking away $100 million that would otherwise be available to small business and that’s hurting every family’s budget.

We’ll respect people’s judgment. The Government trusts parents enough to help them buy school uniforms but not enough to let them decide the classrooms, the canteens and the halls that their schools need. So, we’ll give local communities a real say over the schools and hospitals that they so rely on.

The Coalition will respect the environment because we only have one planet to live on. But, you don’t help the environment by damaging the economy. We’ll reduce emissions in ways that help our farmers and we’ll establish a standing Green Army, 15,000 strong, to care for our country.

Now, there is a real risk in this election. It’s that a bad government will get the second chance that it doesn’t deserve and that Australia can’t afford.

This election isn’t about glib slogans. It is not about glib slogans. It’s about competent government that works for everyday Australians and that only the Coalition stands ready to deliver.

The Prime Minister wants to move forward because the recent past is so littered with her own failures. If we stay with Labor we’ll be moving forward to more debt, more taxes, more spending and more boats. That’s why Labor needs to move out for our country to move on.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott…

TONY ABBOTT:

Let me just make one final comment. The Coalition will stand up for Australia. We’ll stand up for real action. We’ll end the waste, we’ll repay the debt, we’ll stop the new taxes and we’ll stop the boats.

QUESTION:
You’ve said that WorkChoices is buried and you’ve said you’ve cremated it. Your side said similar things about the GST. Why shouldn’t we think that WorkChoices couldn’t be resurrected and you’re not speaking the gospel truth?

TONY ABBOTT:
Well, what I’ve said and I’ve said it both in my speech this morning and in a formal written statement, what I’ve said is that the Coalition won’t change the Fair Work Act, at least for the duration of the next Parliament, at least for the three year life of the next Parliament.

QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, Senator Abetz this morning has said the workplace regulations will be tweaked, his words. Do the tweaks involve after school work hours, he said they would, weekend penalty rates, especially in the hospitality sector and uniform dismissal regulations for small business [inaudible].

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, we certainly think that it is a problem when willing workers who are full time students and part time workers and willing employers aren’t able to make the best possible arrangements with each other. But, the way to tackle this is going to the independent umpire, Fair Work Australia, and that’s what we’ll do.

QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, Senator Abetz has said that the regulations will be tweaked, ministerial directions could be issued to bring about change in areas like weekend penalty rates and after school work.

TONY ABBOTT:
I want to stress we will keep the legislation. We will work within the legislation and if we want to change things we will go to Fair Work Australia, the independent umpire, to try to ensure that the existing legislation works as well as it possibly can.

QUESTION:
So, you won’t tweak the regulations…

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m saying that we will work with the independent umpire.

QUESTION:
Could WorkChoices come back after the first term?

TONY ABBOTT:
Look, we’ve got an election to win and I am making commitments for this election but my absolute clear commitment is that the legislation will not change in the first term of a Coalition government.

QUESTION:
And all bets are off after that?

TONY ABBOTT:

No, no, look, you know, this election is not going to be allowed to degenerate into a scare campaign. My clear commitment….

QUESTION:
[inaudible].

TONY ABBOTT:
My clear commitment is to keep the existing legislation.

QUESTION:
Which of your promises can we believe and not believe given you’ve already said just weeks ago on the 7:30 Report that some of your, questioning when you tell the truth and when you don’t tell the truth.

TONY ABBOTT:

All of the commitments that we make in this campaign will be fully costed and fully funded and we will deliver on them.

QUESTION:
[inaudible]

TONY ABBOTT:

And we will deliver on them.

QUESTION:
The Prime Minister says she won’t be spending much this campaign. Do you believe her and will you be?

TONY ABBOTT:
Look, this is a Government which has been addicted to spending and that’s why they’re addicted to taxing and I don’t believe that you can take seriously a government which one day says they’re introducing a $12 billion great big new tax on our most successful industry and then a few weeks later says, ‘oops, sorry, got it wrong, it was a $24 billion tax’.

QUESTION:
What will be your Achilles heel in this campaign?

TONY ABBOTT:

I am determined to win the election. It’ll be tough, very, very tough indeed. It’s hard to beat a first term government, particularly a first term government which has demonstrated the utter ruthlessness that we’ve come to expect of the New South Wales and Queensland Labor Party machines.

QUESTION:
Do you expect Labor to target your previous errors?

TONY ABBOTT:
Look, I expect Labor to throw the kitchen sink at the Coalition. I expect this to be a filthy campaign from the Labor Party but as far as I’m concerned it will be hard but it will be fair and it will be clean.

QUESTION:
How crucial is Queensland going to be? You’re in Brisbane today.

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, every electorate is important and I’ll be happy to pick up seats wherever I can.

QUESTION:
You had some big blunders yourself during the last campaign, the Press Club, the asbestos issue. How as leader are you approaching it differently, how have you learnt from the last campaign?

TONY ABBOTT:
Look, as I said today in respect of the I guess the errors of the previous Government, I have well and truly assimilated the mistakes that were made by the previous Government just as I have well and truly learnt from the mistakes that have been made by the current Government. We are ready to govern. We will be different and better than the current Government.

QUESTION:
How are you going to be different from the Howard Government? How will an Abbott government be different to a Howard Government?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, in all sorts of ways but as you know we will have a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme. We will have a standing Green Army, 15,000 strong. These are just two emblematic policies which indicate that I am a different person to previous Coalition leaders and that any government that I lead will be a compassionate government, it will be a liberal government, it will be a conservative government and it will be my government.

QUESTION:
The standing Green Army, did that idea come from Anna Bligh’s green army that she announced in the State election [inaudible] picking up one of their policies?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, look, as a very junior assistant minister in the former Government, we had an extremely successful programme called the Green Corps. It was a great programme. The only problem was that it wasn’t big enough and it didn’t allow people to have an ongoing involvement in it. So, I’ve learnt from that and I’m building on that and the Green Army will be bigger and better and more effective than the former Green Corps was.

QUESTION:
What did you make of the Prime Minister’s speech?

TONY ABBOTT:
Look, I just think that the Australian people deserve better than endless repetition of a clichéd slogan and obviously ‘moving forward’ is going to be to this coming election what ‘working families’ was to the last one. But, at least ‘working families’ had some content. ‘Moving forward’ is utterly content free and the reason why she’s desperate to talk about the future is because Julia Gillard’s recent past is so littered with failures, including the political corpse of an elected Prime Minister. 

QUESTION:
What’s your slogan then?

TONY ABBOTT:

I will tell people what I am going to do and what I am going to do is stand up for real action. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to stand up for Australia. I’m going to stand up for real action. I’m going to end the waste. I’m going to repay the debt. I’m going to stop the new taxes and I’m going to stop the boats. That’s what you’ll get from me.

QUESTION:
And you think you can win?

TONY ABBOTT:
It’s going to be very tough. There is no such thing as an election which is there for the taking but I think that while we go into this election as underdogs we go in as credible and effective underdogs.

QUESTION:
Do you think you have a tougher chance of beating Julia Gillard than you did Kevin Rudd?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, the interesting thing is that what we’ve seen over the last three weeks is a transition from incompetence to incompetence, from bungling to bungling, from failure to consult to failure to consult, from lack of due process to lack due process. Now, I think a lot of people may have thought three weeks ago that Labor was going from bad to better, but I don’t think anyone can be confident that that is now the situation because, if anything, the last three weeks have been by far the most bungling and chaotic three weeks of the Rudd/Gillard Government.

QUESTION:
Will you be making any new announcements on climate change in this campaign?

TONY ABBOTT:
The interesting thing about climate change is that the Coalition and only the Coalition has a clear policy to deal with it. Julia Gillard will talk to you about a carbon price but she won’t actually establish how she’ll get it, what it will be and how much it’s going to raise the cost of every day living. But, one thing is for sure, if this Government is re-elected there will be a carbon price. It will be a high one and it will impact on everyone’s standard of living.

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Your Comments

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pat garrett - from bendigo, 2 years ago

How is tony abbott going to stop the boats. He's all talk but has not said how he is actually going to do it.

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