TRANSCRIPT: TV INTERVIEW - SKY NEWS - APRIL 22, 2021
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS
THURSDAY, 22 APRIL 2021
SUBJECTS: Belt and road decision; climate change; visit to central Queensland.
LAURA JAYES, HOST: To Shadow Industrial Relations Minister, Tony Burke. What's Labor's view of this move by Marise Payne?
TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: Well we voted for the legislation and it is our view that the Australian Government should be able to make foreign affairs decisions for the nation. We're pleased that the Victorian government's accepted the decision but it works both ways. Not only is it the case that the federal government gets the power to cancel agreements – it also puts the obligation on the federal government clearly to be delivering trade outcomes. And we have the problem at the moment that Australia is more reliant on trade with China than we ever have been. And there is a real obligation as part of announcements like today for the government to be making sure that we are spreading our risk as a nation so that we don't find the economy is overly dependent on a single market.
JAYES: You say you're glad the Victorian Government accepted this decision. But did they really have a choice in the matter?
BURKE: I hear what you’re saying but look, we voted for the legislation at any rate. I was simply saying that the fact that they responded in that way is good.
JAYES: Should this have been done in the first place? For a state government to go outside the federal jurisdiction really? Should trade deals be struck between federal governments?
BURKE: It's not uncommon for states to be going around the world trying to get business for their state. And when they do that, that creates jobs. So the concept of states engaging with the world of itself, I think you'd find states of any political persuasion, going back decades, have always done the right thing in terms of trying to make sure that they're creating jobs. And you know, so much of our economy is dependent on exports. Where you have a situation where the Commonwealth believes that an agreement shouldn't have been brought into place, or over time, thinks that it should no longer be there, then it's right and proper that the government of Australia has the final say on a foreign affairs matter.
JAYES: Yeah, indeed. Let's look at climate. We haven't spoken about climate for a while. I think COVID put that to bed for a couple of months, but it never really went away. Now there's this Zoom summit tonight and the government has made a flurry of announcements. Do you think this is the right approach? The government seems to be getting on with reaching targets with initiatives rather than actually setting them?
BURKE: The point of having the target of net zero is to make sure that you give not just a guidance for national policy but you give a guidance to business. There's a reason why the Business Council of Australia, why the National Farmers Federation, why so many major businesses as well have themselves adopted net zero as a target. Because in the absence of government policy, they know that business works best when you have those targets set in place. So Mr Morrison needs to get there. It needs to happen. It's in the national interest. It's in the commercial interests of Australia, and it's in the environmental interests of Australia for that to happen. But you look at what he said today and one of the takeout messages that I think you do get from Mr Morrison's comments today is never believe what he says during an election campaign. Like really, when we talked about hydrogen, he said it was a snake oil policy. The carbon capture and storage flagship programs that were in place under the previous Labor government, this government abolished. So you know, what we find out is in different ways reality is catching up with them. And that's a good thing. But the standard gap between announcement and delivery that we always see from Mr Morrison is there up in lights right now. And whether he delivers on what he announces today, I guess that's a different matter. I think we're up to energy policy number 22 now.
JAYES: Well imitation is the best form of flattery and when it comes to hydrogen, perhaps we can take that approach here.
BURKE: I don't think Mr Morrison does flattery.
JAYES: What is the difference between Labor's climate policy and the coalition's climate policy at this point? Anything?
BURKE: The starting point the commitment to net zero by 2050 remains a stark difference. It's also the case that in terms of behaviour, every time there has been a vote in the parliament in favour of acting on climate change Labor has voted in favour and the government has voted against. Every single time -
JAYES: What is Labor’s 2030 target?
BURKE: I beg your pardon?
JAYES: What is Labor’s 2030 emissions reduction target?
BURKE: We've made clear that nothing along those lines has been announced. You've had Chris Bowen on the program as well, I think –
JAYES: Mmm I did, I was trying to trick you, just to make sure you’ve been watching Tony Burke, so good to know that you have. But you know, you just sat here and told me that it's important to have targets because it gives business certainty. Well, Labor has a target which is 30 years away. So what's wrong with having a 2030 target?
BURKE: Oh, importantly, when we when we set a 2030 target previously it was many years away. And in terms of business timelines, that's the way targets have to work.
JAYES: Well what about 2035?
BURKE: Well, as I say, Chris Bowen would be the one making the announcements. But don't forget, when you set a 2050 target, from that point you effect every planning decision that is made. The economy ends up stronger because those decisions were made earlier. You end up with a far more efficient pathway because the target was set. The target date for net zero becomes your critical one. And additional targets and additional information like that can be helpful. But the sort of argument that sometimes put that the further-away target is somehow less relevant? That's not how the business investment decisions work.
JAYES: Sure. But there's a lot of elections in between. If you win the next election, will you have any kind of medium term target at all?
BURKE: Well, as I've said we haven't announced the medium term issue. So I'm not going to be able to go further there. But we have been supportive of net zero 2050 and it being legislated. That makes a fundamental difference both to the policies that then come from that, it makes a fundamental difference to how business then behaves and has the capacity to plan. Every day Mr Morrison refuses to commit and just sort of inches a little bit further away, or one direction or the other depending on the politics of the day, is a another day that business was not given the chance to plan.
JAYES: But Joe Biden's just been elected. And he set a 2030 target. Like the election is, you know, just a couple months away here. Why couldn't you set a medium term target if it's good enough for the US?
BURKE: I've said a couple of times that we haven't made an announcement of that nature. It'll be an interview with Chris Bowen on an interview with Anthony Albanese that you conduct when you get that additional information.
JAYES: Well I’ll have a crack. I'll have a crack and see if I can get both of them on. Just finally you've just returned from Central Queensland, you've been going into the coal mines there. What did you tell those workers about the future of their jobs?
BURKE: Their jobs will be there, coal will be there for a very long time to come. The workers who I was meeting were miners of metallurgical coal, so steel making coal. And they know that those jobs in that industry will be there for a very long time. I will say there was a strong sense of betrayal in terms of a vote that went through the parliament a few weeks ago, where the government and One Nation voted together to make casualisation easier. Workers who I met who work side by side - the ones in permanent jobs being paid by the company, doing the exact same job are being paid more than the casual workers employed by labour hire working side by side with them. And so you've got people being paid less an hour doing the exact same job, no annual leave, no sick leave, no entitlements going along with it. And that disparity, that unfairness was confirmed in a vote in the parliament on IR, only a couple of weeks ago with that one section of the omnibus bill that went through. And a number of those workers had voted for One Nation. They felt completely betrayed. And so they know that their jobs are there in the long term either way, but they know there is a fundamental difference in their working conditions as to whether there's a Liberal government backed up by One Nation or a Labor government that would implement a “same job same pay” policy.
JAYES: We could say a bit of a litmus test in that Upper Hunter by-election in New South Wales in the coming weeks, Tony Burke we’ll have to leave it there.
ENDS