Interview —2CC Breakfast with Stephen Cenatiempo

Topics: Prime Minister’s National Press Club address; Australian jobs; Employment in the manufacturing sector; University Research Commercialisation Action Plan; Aged Care

E&OE-------------------------------------

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Yesterday, the Prime Minister made his address at the National Press Club. It will be what's dominating the news for most of the next couple of days I imagine. Once again, the Prime Minister has decided not to come on the program. He sent one of his ministers out to talk to us about it. Joining us today is the Acting Minister for Education and Youth, and Minister for Employment, Workplace- Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business, Stuart Robert. Minister, good morning.

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

Good morning, indeed.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Now, before we get into the detail, yesterday, Anthony Albanese is out there doing every tin pot radio show in the country, towns that have got five people living in them, the Prime Minister won't talk to even people in Canberra. Why?

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

Well, I think Anthony's got a bit more time on his hand than the Prime Minister who's trying to govern the nation through a national pandemic. Having said that, the PM is pretty active out there in the media.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Yeah, but he only- he picks his darlings and, I mean, if the nation's capital isn't big enough for the Prime Minister to talk to, you got to wonder what his focus is.

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

The PM spoke in the nation's capital yesterday.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Yeah. Okay, all right. Moving right along. The focus of the speech yesterday was jobs. And I made this comment in relation to the Labor party's policy, where they suggest that they’re going to create 640,000 jobs from their new energy policy. Governments don't create jobs.

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

No, spot-on. Governments don't create jobs. Industry creates jobs. In many ways, government can get in the way, but the key is to have a policy set that allows industry to grow, to commercialise, and for industry to take advantage of opportunities. That's what creates jobs, and that's what we're seeing right now in the economy.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Well, let's talk about this $2.2 billion package focusing on the manufacturing sector. Labor is promising a similar thing, where they want to get manufacturing going again. Why are both parties so late to the party on this? I mean, the general public realised decades ago that we had let our manufacturing industry slide.

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

Well, when we took government in 2013, one in eight manufacturing jobs had been lost, fact. And that's not under dispute. Right now, we have seen manufacturing jobs grow to over a million. Again, fact. What we're talking about now, $2.2 billion in commercialisation, it's about saying to universities we’re sixth in the world for blue sky research, outstanding, but we've slipped to 26th in the world for commercialising that, i.e., taking it, turning into industry, turning into jobs. That's what we want to do now, is to really drive and empower our world-class research so we can develop more Wi-Fi, which, of course, CSIRO did, and more black boxes, which was done by Defence science.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

That's great but are we ignoring traditional manufacturing industries?

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

No, not at all. The government’s modern manufacturing initiatives go through the areas where we've got great competitive advantage, whether its food manufacturing, whether its energy, whether it's in defence, or whether it's in the burgeoning space industry. So we are very much doubling down where we've got enormous competitive strength. And how do we provide government support to get those industries firing?

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Now, the proof is always in the pudding. Anthony Albanese, when I had him on the program a couple of months ago, talked about his focus on getting government to spend money on Australian product. And there's been a lot of criticism, particularly of state governments buying trains and ferries and the like from overseas. Is the government going to follow that lead? Because I've always suggested the best way to stimulate an economy is for the government to spend our dollars on Australian product, wherever it can almost regardless of cost.

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

Well, you can't spend regardless of cost, otherwise your industries get lazy and are not competitive internationally. So you always want competition to be there. And we want government to absolutely invest unashamedly in Australia. And we're seeing that in defence industry where there's a very strong manufactured and support it in Australia and we're looking to buy wherever possible. And a good example of that, of course, is the Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle, a multibillion-dollar program with Rheinmetall, who’s a German company, but over 50 per cent of the product is made here in Australia. So that's a really good way to ensure competitive tension, but that we make things as much as possible here. And the Bushmaster and other combat vehicles are other good example that.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Minister, one area that has been under pressure for a long time, even before the pandemic, but probably more so during the last two years, is aged care. The government has announced these $800 payments to aged care workers. Nobody's going to say no to $800 but don’t we need to do something structurally to increase wages in that sector to improve the lot of our most vulnerable Australians?

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

We had called a royal commission, of course, to look at the structural issues right across aged care. The interim report came down and you saw in the budget last year, the $17.7 billion down payment, one of the biggest investments, if not the biggest investment, in Australia's history in our aged care sector. Now, wages, of course, is set by the Fair Work Commission which is an independent umpire. That independent umpire was set legislatively by the previous government. Bill Shorten was asked about this yesterday. He was asked whether Labor would intervene and he said, no, no they wouldn't. Would Labor put up the wages? No, we’ll leave it to the independent umpire, because that's the way our industrial relation systems work. And the independent umpire will set that and they will decide what the wages should be. And of course, that's what the country will respond to.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Now, a lot of people are talking yesterday about the Press Club address and the hostile nature of some of the questions from the media. Now, I don't care whether the Prime Minister knows what a loaf of bread cost, so I think it's a banal, stupid question. But obviously the inference is that he's lost touch with average Australians. How do you combat that sentiment and that mentality?

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

The only way is to get out and about amongst the Australian people. It's always difficult as a senior Minister, indeed a Prime Minister, because there's so many demands on your time, just as there is heading up a radio station, or heading up a corporation, or a school, or a university. The key is to get out with everyday Australians, press the flesh, shake hands, and connect and see how everyone's living. And the Prime Minister does that exceptionally well. And that's the way all of us connect and stay relevant right across the country.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Minister, appreciate your time this morning.

 

MINISTER ROBERT:

Great as always to talk to you. Cheers.

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

 

Stuart Robert, Acting Minister for Education and Youth. He's also the Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business.