E&OE
SUBJECTS: Alice Springs, Prime Minister’s schedule, Voice Referendum, emissions cap and trade scheme, NDIS Fraud Taskforce
PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: Well, over to Canberra now, joining us live is the NDIS and Government Services Minister Bill Shorten. Minister, good to see you. Thanks for your time this morning. So, the Prime Minister, he is under the gun for spending three nights at the Australian Open as opposed to four hours in Alice Springs. Are his priorities misplaced?
BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FOR THE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: His priorities are to make sure that Alice Springs the community there is safe. The problems in the Northern Territory and Alice Springs in particular, I think have been 25 years in the making. What we're seeing is all of the failures of past policy and rebuilding community there’s going to take time and that's the Prime Minister's priority. But it is really pretty irrelevant of the Liberals to criticize him for being at the tennis, the reality is he's been to Alice Springs. It's a major issue for him. In terms of visiting the tennis, he goes every year. This is nothing new. And also he's one of the hardest working blokes I've ever met. He was working on Saturday, Lunar New Year celebrations in Box Hill. Sunday he was out in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, catching up with residents and small businesses. Yesterday he was in St Kilda helping launch our national arts policy. I wonder how many Liberal politicians Pete were at the tennis, and does, you know, the critics of Mr. Albanese also criticised their own side for going to the tennis and not being in Alice Springs? It's cheap politics. The main game is in fact Alice Springs and that's the Prime Minister's priority.
STEFANOVIC: Sure, I certainly don't have a problem with the PM going to the tennis. I suppose what rubs people the wrong way is the amount of time though, four hours in Alice Springs as opposed to three nights in Melbourne. Does he need to go back, do you think he needs to go back to Alice Springs, spend more time there?
SHORTEN: I know how he works. I know the priority that his government, all his Ministers are putting on, making sure we've got the right policy settings to improve the situation in Alice Springs. But the problems in Alice Springs have been 25 years in the making and we take that most seriously.
STEFANOVIC: Peter Dutton will attend the Voice Referendum Working Group. Are you pleased about that, Bill?
SHORTEN: Yeah. Good on him. Yes.
STEFANOVIC: Is that is that positive? In terms of getting something passed.
SHORTEN: Yeah, I hope it is. This process hasn't just started yesterday. I remember attending a meeting with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and you know, that's going back several Prime Ministers, with Indigenous leaders to talk about referendum change, constitutional recognition. I remember doing the same with Malcolm Turnbull. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is more than five years old, so it's good that Mr. Dutton is attending. But I think this issue has got to be above politics. It's about constitutional recognition of our first Australians. So, take all people of goodwill on board because I think the nation expects that from its political leaders.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. An exclusive in the AFR this morning that the Coalition will block your heavy emissions cap and trade scheme. Will that force you into a deal with the Greens?
SHORTEN: Poor old Coalition. They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. I mean, it's the same - they're reheating the same head in the sand attitude that's bedevilled climate policies for the last decade. The ironic thing about the Coalition's dropping hints it's going to oppose what we're doing is they're the ones who drafted what they call a safeguards mechanism, to provide some swim lanes for heavy emitters to be able to invest in change. The Business Council of Australia, the AIG, the Australian Industry Group, who represent employers in heavy industry, the major climate groups all say that our safeguards mechanism is necessary. What business needs in order to help drive down the overall trajectory of emissions in this country is certainty. And the Opposition showing that it's still grumpy about the last election and not really focused on the future is, it's playing games. In the meantime, business, which employs thousands of blue-collar workers, needs policy certainty. But the opposition aren't interested in joining the dots and providing investment certainty. They're just playing games.
STEFANOVIC: Right. Well, Adam Bandt reminded everyone yesterday that new coal and gas was a non-starter. So, what concessions will you have to make to get them on board?
SHORTEN: Oh, we've been very clear on our policies. We want to lower the overall trajectory of emissions growth in this country, but we've got to do it in such a way which allows heavy industry to make adjustments. That's why the safeguards mechanism provides certainty, provides a clear set of rules which will allow heavy industry to be able to make the necessary steps to help reduce their emissions. You know, I think we've seen this movie before, haven't we? You've got the Liberals being, you know, recalcitrant and bloody minded and you've got the Greens who are jumping up and down and demanding, you know, everything straight away. Labor will steer the mature path in politics here. We will obviously talk to all people, but we'll keep true to what we've said, which is we want to tackle climate. We'll do it in a way which encourages new jobs and preserves jobs rather than just creating uncertainty either on the far left or the far right.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, final one here on the NDIS. Task Force to catch Fraudsters, it's already picked up two Victorian companies who are charging for services that were never delivered. Is that a sign for you that it's all working?
SHORTEN: It's very early days yet. The NDIS is a great idea. It provides individual packages of support for profoundly and severely impaired Australians. But what we don't want is a whole lot of opportunists, people who might be either just directly ripping the system off in service provision or overcharging or under servicing. We are determined to make the NDIS a rort free zone, but that's a big job. Let's be really honest. My predecessors really found the NDIS too hard to manage, to run, to police, to make sure it was delivering quality investment and good outcomes. So, we want to get the balance right. We want people on the scheme to be able to have more choice and control, but we also want to make sure that money is not getting wasted and going into the wrong hands. That's what our crackdown on the criminal elements is about, making sure that taxpayer money gets to the people who deserve it. That isn't siphoned off by spivs and opportunists.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, Bill Shorten, appreciate your time, as always. Thank you. We'll talk to you soon.