FRAN KELLY: And we did invite the Opposition leader onto the program this morning to discuss the comments on the 7.30 Report last night but he declined that - that invitation.
Not surprisingly the Government was happy to take it up because they've leapt on these comments by Tony Abbott. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says Tony Abbott's comments mean his word can't be trusted. I spoke with Lindsay Tanner a short time ago. He was at Melbourne Airport.
LINDSAY TANNER: Good morning, Fran.
FRAN KELLY: Lindsay Tanner, what's Tony Abbott's crime here, telling us the truth?
LINDSAY TANNER: No, he's basically saying don't bother listening to me when I'm on the TV or the radio because you mightn't be able to take seriously anything I say because I might later declare that it was in the heat of the moment. Now, this is complete absurdity. We all are put to the test on a daily basis with what we say in the public domain and he's now saying he shouldn't have that same test applied to every - that everybody else has to meet.
FRAN KELLY: But don't we already know this? We already know that politicians don't always tell us the truth or sometimes over-egg the truth, don't always mean exactly what they say?
LINDSAY TANNER: Fran, I'm a bloke who once said that everybody in politics exaggerates everything all the time so I have some sympathy with your observation but the bottom line is we still are accountable for what we say and in response to the rather obvious point that within a month or so of saying under him there'd be no new taxes he has promised a great big new tax on larger businesses, his answer is to say, well, heat of the moment, who cares? Don't treat me seriously, get it in writing. Now, this is an extraordinary way for a would-be prime minister to carry on.
FRAN KELLY: Well, talking about would-be prime ministers saying one thing and doing another is exactly the criticism of your government. You know, reneging on building more child care centres, on revamped insulation program, on the emissions trading scheme which is now put on hold, how can you be critical of Tony Abbott on issues of truth and accuracy?
LINDSAY TANNER: First, Fran, I'm not being critical of him on issues of truth and accuracy, I'm being critical of him on issues of accountability, of just saying anything I say you can discount, you don't have to take any notice of, who cares, because I'll subsequently walk away from it so it's kind of like the fine print on the bottom of the packet saying use this product but, by the way, it might kill you. And secondly, some of the examples you mentioned, well, with the carbon pollution reduction scheme, the emissions trading scheme, all that's happened is the Government's changed its timetable in response to two key realities, one, the fact that it's been blocked by the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate and secondly the fact that global circumstances have changed dramatically. Now, I'm not quite sure how that's comparable to Tony Abbott announcing that nobody should treat anything he says seriously.
FRAN KELLY: Well, he doesn't say you shouldn't treat anything he says seriously, he says you shouldn't treat anything that's not in a pre-prepared speech as necessarily gospel. I suppose you could argue that the Prime Minister's given us lots of pre-prepared speeches and promised things and then not delivered.
LINDSAY TANNER: This is the same bloke who, in Question Time only last week, was quoting a single word from a speech by Kevin Rudd when he was Opposition leader, something like implosion or imploding in reference to China and, of course, hanging a whole political attack on this one word that Kevin Rudd has said at some point several years ago. So the nature of the game of politics is we're all accountable for what we say, whether it's verbal or written, and that's fair enough. He's now trying to get out of this and say, well, look, I can get on the TV and radio all the time, and I can fill the airwaves with my political propaganda but just in case the going gets tough or I get in a tight corner I can just forget about it and say, well, no, I didn't really mean it or it was in the heat of the moment. Well, I think people should be very nervous about that.
FRAN KELLY: Is this another version of Graham Richardson's whatever it takes?
LINDSAY TANNER: Look, to be honest, I'm not sure, Fran. I find it just frankly bizarre. It is an extraordinary behaviour from a would-be leader of a government that, yes, occasionally politicians break promises, often driven by wider circumstances and responsibility, where it is the responsible thing to do, to change tack. Yes, people get tangled up with sometimes contradictory statements or comments, that's just the nature of politics, but to suggest that somehow any of us should be immune from responsibility for things we say when the vast bulk of political communication is verbal, whether on radio or whether on TV, I think is astonishing.
FRAN KELLY: This has come at a good time for Labor, I think you could say, with three polls out yesterday or in the last few days, putting Labor and the Opposition basically at 50-50, largely because the PM has said one thing and done another. This is Labor's credibility gap, isn't it?
LINDSAY TANNER: Oh, we've had a tough period and the opinion polls are now showing that the election contest at this point is pretty much line ball. Again, that sort of thing happens in politics. It's pretty common for governments to go through bad patches and it's very common for governments in the lead-up to elections to be in a position where there's every chance they might get beaten. So I just take that on the chin, it's just the nature of the game, again. But we've got to improve our performance, we've got to just keep pushing on all the key themes that are central to what we're trying to do to improve Australia, to invest for long-term sustainable growth and I'm confident that we'll do that successfully and that we will win the election but there's no guarantees in this life. It is a two-horse race. Tony Abbott could win and whatever weird bloopers he makes, it's always a competitive race.
FRAN KELLY: Will you give this pledge to the voters now, that they can believe everything you say?
LINDSAY TANNER: Fran, as far I'm concerned, I stand by all my public comments. I'm accountable for them. If I make a mistake I deserve to be criticised or attacked for it, or marked down. If I say something that I ultimately contradict then people are entitled to form a view about that and to punish me accordingly if they wish to do so and of course there is one simple straightforward mechanism of punishment in this game and it's at the ballot box.
FRAN KELLY: Lindsay Tanner, thanks very much for joining us.
LINDSAY TANNER: Thank you very much, Fran.
FRAN KELLY: Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner, speaking to us from Melbourne Airport a little earlier this morning and, as I mentioned, we did invite Tony Abbott onto the program but he was unavailable for comment.
-ends-
| Media Contact: | Website: |
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| Nardia Dazkiw - 0418 144 690 | www.financeminister.gov.au |
