SENATOR THE HON PENNY WONG

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE

SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INVESTMENT
SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
THURSDAY, 10 JULY 2014
SUBJECT/S: The Abbott Governments failure to pass its Carbon Price
Repeal Bills; FOFA.
SENATOR PENNY WONG, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE:
Thanks very much for coming. Well its been an interesting day in the Senate and
what you did see is the Labor Party putting forward a serious, responsible policy
on climate change, continuing to put our amendments to the Senate, a serious
and responsible policy on climate change.
What did you see from the overnment! "ou saw chaos and dysfunction# chaos
and dysfunction. We saw deals being literally cobbled together in the corridors,
deals that have ma$or conse%uences for &ustralian business and for the
&ustralian economy, and deals that the overnment couldnt even e'plain.
Lets remember that Tony &bbott promised strong and stable government. What
&ustralians got today was a shambolic and chaotic overnment. Thats what
&ustralians got today. (appy to take %uestions.
JOURNALIST: Was your reading of the amendment that there are very, very
tough penalties on companies, much harder than the original amendment!
WONG: Well look, which of the three amendments moved by the Palmer )nited
Party is the overnment supporting! Which of the three amendments is the
deal! * think &ustralians are entitled to know that. * think &ustralians are also
entitled to know+ does the price pass through thats been spoken of apply to all
businesses or only to electricity and gas companies! ,oes it apply to all or only
some businesses! *ve asked that %uestion of Senator &bet- twice in the Senate
today in .uestion Time and he wouldnt answer it, and * think &ustralian
businesses including small business are entitled to know whether or not these
obligations apply to them.
&s you also said there appear to be criminal o/ence provisions in at least one
version of the amendments and * think the overnment should be clear is that
going to apply to all &ustralian businesses as well.
JOURNALIST: The latest amendment also drops the term domestic 0inaudible1.
,oes that mean it apples to anything in the world!
WONG: Thats probably a very good %uestion and * suspect you should probably
ensure that the overnment answers that at some point.
JOURNALIST: ,o you think any of the versions of the amendments are
workable! Particularly the 2nal version seems to be the one the overnment is
saying it wants.
WONG: Look, we do have some concerns about the workability of the
amendments and thats why we asked %uestions in .uestion Time today. * think
the overnment does owe the &ustralian community a very clear e'planation of
what deal is being done and what that deal means for &ustralian business.
JOURNALIST: ,oes it re%uire another legislation comittee inspection of it, given
0inaudible1 3
WONG: 4ertainly we need to make sure this is properly scrutinised. 5ut * would
make this point+ you might recall we had a debate at the beginning of this week
about when we should have the vote and the Labor Party said we should bring
the carbon bills on in accordance with Senate process ne't week after the
4ommittee had reported. Well guess what! *ts now going to come on ne't week.
&nd maybe if the overnment had actually paid attention to proper process
rather than $ust trying to ram these bills through to get a political win, they might
not have been in such a chaotic and shambolic mess.
JOURNALIST: (ow are you reading the politics of this Senator! *n terms of the
relationship, between the Palmer )nited Party and the overnment!
WONG: What * would say is that the e'planation that has been given by the
overnment and by the Palmer )nited Party doesnt appear to add up. We
appear to have one version of events from 6r (unt and Senator &bet- in a rather
awkward press conference today and their comments dont appear to accord
with what was said by Senator La-arus in the 4hamber. So we still dont know
what actually happened and why it was that the overnment after guillotining
debate lost the vote, because they obviously lost the numbers during the time
that they guillotined.
JOURNALIST: This weeks Senate sitting was designed especially to pass the
4arbon Ta' 7epeal 5ill. (as this been a waste of time to do you think!
WONG: * think what it has been is an e'ample of an arrogant overnment
seeking to ram through legislation, tripping itself up because it hasnt managed
to get the outcome they want, and * think what we have seen is chaos and
dysfunction.
* mean we had this e'traordinary situation in the Senate as you might have seen,
a overnment 2libustering and guillotining the same legislation# 2libustering to
try and cut a deal as people were meeting in the corridors to talk about
amendments that have signi2cant conse%uences for the &ustralian economy.
That is not strong and stable government# that is chaotic government.
JOURNALIST: 5ased on your contact with the Palmer Senators and having been
in the Senate this morning, what sense do you have about whether they were
genuinely seeking to achieve an amended version of the legislation today or $ust
throwing grenades in order to cause problems for the overnment!
WONG: * think its probably best if * allow the Palmer )nited Senators to speak
for themselves. Whilst we have di/erent views on a number of things, carbon
being one of them, *m going to respect the privacy of private conversations that
* have with them. So *ll let them speak for themselves. 5ut what * would simply
say is the version of events8 the e'planation that 9ric &bet- has given for this
all falling apart is not the same as the e'planation that Senator La-arus gave in
the 4hamber.
JOURNALIST: &lso on this, Senator Leyonh$elm says its unreasonable# the latest
round of amendment will have on business. *s there a chance that this wont get
repealed, do you think!
WONG: * cant speak for other Senators, * can only speak for the Labor Party and
weve made our position clear+ were happy to end the 2'ed price period and
want to move to a :oating price for an emissions trading scheme. *t is the same
policy that ;ohn (oward took to the <==> election.
JOURNALIST: (ave you had any discussion with the crossbenchers about the
9TS! &nd what has been their response! Theyre essentially saying 0inaudible1
Palmer Party, and your aim is to get the 9TS up.
WONG: Weve had a number of discussions with the crossbench. *d simply say
this+ our position is very clear and we think that the policy of an emissions
trading scheme is a sound policy, a serious policy and a responsible policy which
is why Liberals such as ;ohn (oward and ;ohn (ewson have supported it.
JOURNALIST: ;ust on another issue, was the ?@?& regulations, were they $ust
tabled and will that allow you to disallow them!
WONG: * have been out of the 4hamber, which is unusual today, but * have been
out of the 4hamber for the last twenty minutes so if they have been tabled *m
not aware of it. 5ut what * would say is this+ its %uite clear from Senator
4ormanns answers in .uestion Time that the overnment has deliberately
delayed tabling these regulations. Why have they deliberately delayed it!
Senator 4ormann made clear+ because he wanted time to work the crossbench.
*s this really how we want our democracy to work, that when laws come into
e/ect the overnment withholds their tabling in the Senate which of course
would trigger the debate, which would trigger the disallowance debate, the
overnment wants to hold that back because they want to work the crossbench!
*ts not a very responsible way to run government and really * think it simply
adds to the chaos that * described earlier. Thank you.
E!"