Topics: Treasurer’s politicisation of the public service 

 

E&OE   

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we now know why this Treasurer wanted to add 36,000 public servants. It's very clear one of those reasons is to politicise the public service in this country. We have a long-standing custom in this country of not politicising the public service. But it is very clear today, the Treasurer is intent on doing exactly that. He has worked with Treasury to come up with figures that we think and know are absolute nonsense from the work we've been doing over an extended period of time with the Parliamentary Budget Office. We are offering a modest tax cut to Australian small businesses at a time where they're seeing record levels of insolvencies. Record levels of insolvencies, where small business is struggling in this country and the Labor Party is more focused on looking after its union mates and politicising the public service than it is in solving the underlying problem we have in this country with a collapse of standard of living, skyrocketing cost of doing business, red tape everywhere we look and small businesses going backwards at a rate we've never seen before. I'll be writing to the Treasury Secretary Stephen Kennedy today, asking him for an explanation as to how this has come about. The public service is not there to make political attacks on the opposition. That's not the purpose of a public service, but that is how it is being used by this Treasurer, who is out of his depth, he's out of ideas and frankly, he has never been on top of the real issues that are facing Australians, where we've seen the biggest collapse in our standard of living, in our history, in our history, presided over by this Treasurer who has never run a business and frankly, won't stop until there's no small businesses left in this country. Happy to take questions.

 

JOURNALIST:

Treasury estimates show that your policy around tax concessions for lunches and entertainment for businesses is going to cost $1.6 billion. Is that a reasonable amount of money for businesses to be going out and getting free lunches?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well it's nonsense. It's just straight nonsense. We've been working with the Parliamentary Budget Office over an extended period of time. We'll put out those costings in advance of the next election. They're under $250 million. We've been clear about that before, and we'll continue to work with the Parliamentary Budget Office as we do. I mean, you know, who knows what parameters the Labor Party has put in their analysis and asked the public service to do. This is not what a public service is for. Only Jim Chalmers could think that the public service is his own plaything for his political purposes because this guy is politician first, and everything else after that. He is absolutely focused on one thing and one thing alone, which is politics. Not the economics of what's going on in the Australian households, in Australian businesses, businesses falling over at a rate we have never seen before. The biggest hit to our standard of living in our history. This Treasurer wants to play games. He's a Treasurer who's never run a business. He hasn't got a clue when it comes to what's really going on in the economy, and frankly, he's completely out of his depth.

 

JOURNALIST:

Is this something that you invited by withholding those PBO costings?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

We’ll put out our costings ahead of the election, as is the convention, as Labor Party did at the last election. If you’re going to have a go at us for that, then have a go at the Labor Party, because that's what they've always done. Come on. This is, this is standard stuff. We fully understand this is standard stuff. We've been clear about the sort of range we expect that we'll be putting out in advance of the election. We've been working closely with the Parliamentary Budget Office, but the politicisation of Treasury is unacceptable. The Treasury Secretary will need to explain how this has come about, and the Treasurer needs to stop using Treasury as his plaything and if this Treasurer is adding public servants, and it's 36,000 additional public servants to play politics, he needs to front up to the Australian people, because they're struggling to pay their bills.

 

JOURNALIST:

Just to the timing. This policy was announced only about two weeks ago. What do you make of the fact that it's only taken about two weeks for government to go and get it costed by Treasury?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, when you add 36,000 public servants, there's a lot of people to do work for you on political attacks, aren’t there. I mean, this is how this Treasurer thinks. He’s politics first, and Australians’ standard of living is everything else. He doesn't worry about that. This is a Treasurer who is focused on his own job. This is a Prime Minister who is focused on his own job, not on Australians and the plight of Australians right now. You know, I was out in  Queanbeyan yesterday at a food bank seeing Australians suffering in a way we've never seen before. We have never seen a hit to our standard of living that we have seen under this government and they want to add public servants to play games. It's completely unacceptable. We won't stand for it. We'll be asking the Treasury for an explanation as to how this has come about.

 

JOURNALIST:

The biggest increases to the public service under Labor have been to Defence and then to service delivery agencies like the NDIA and the Tax Office. So how does the Coalition Government cut potentially thousands of public service jobs without impacting those frontline areas and sending outsourced labour bills through the roof?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we know they've been adding public servants to do things like what we’ve seen today. I mean, this is waste. This is waste, and this is a government that’s intent on waste. I mean, it wasted half a billion dollars or thereabouts of taxpayers’ money on a divisive referendum, and wasted the time and energy and effort of Australians and this place on a failed referendum. I mean, there's waste everywhere you look with this government. Everywhere you look. I mean, this is a Treasurer who set up his own $40 million spin unit because he decided he couldn't actually solve the underlying problems of our standard of living so he thought he try to spin his way out of it. I mean, look, he’s a media advisor, really. That's his background. He's a Doctor of Spin, not a Doctor of Economics, and so you'd expect him to focus this way but the Australian people pay a price for that and they are paying the price for that.

 

JOURNALIST:

Why don’t you release your own costings to clear it up?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

We will release them ahead of the next election, as is customary, as Labor did. But I've already said very clearly, and we've said in the past, it'll be under $250 million. Nothing like what the Treasury is trying to claim that they are and we'll be asking for a full explanation as to how this egregious politicisation of the public service has come about. One more question and then I’m going to have to go. 

 

JOURNALIST:

So you questioned how Treasury reached that conclusion of $1.6 billion. My understanding is that they assumed that all businesses would be claiming the full $20,000. Your number is obviously a lot lower than that. So why would …

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Our number is the Parliamentary Budget Office number. That's what we'll be using. That's what we have been …

 

JOURNALIST:

But why would businesses not claim the maximum tax benefits?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

We’ve worked with the Parliamentary Budget Office. We’ll be putting the numbers out in advance. They're reasonable estimates. That's the convention and the convention, I should say, too, is when the Parliamentary Budget Office does a costing, that becomes the underlying costing. It's not duplicated by Treasury. Treasury knows that. This is egregious politicisation. The Treasurer needs to answer questions on it. The Treasury Secretary needs to answer questions on it. I need to go. Thank you very much. Cheers.

 

ENDS.