JOURNALIST: Good morning.
WONG: Good morning.
JOURNALIST: It is an unusual, some people are saying unique, situation. What are you making of the position right now?
WONG: I’m pleased that this is going to be resolved. It’s not a satisfactory state of affairs where we have been. The Government’s got a very good policy agenda. We’ve got unemployment down at 5.1%. We’ve created 700,000 plus jobs. But we haven’t been able to get that story out to people because of these other matters, so, I’m pleased they will be resolved and they need to be resolved.
JOURNALIST: There are people coming from all directions, both Labor and Liberal voters. Here’s one, for instance, which talks about the idea that at least our country’s in order – that’s the good news. But his money’s on Bill Shorten sneaking up, because he helped to oust Rudd. So, is there a possibility of a third candidate?
WONG: I think Bill has made it very clear that he’s supporting Prime Minister Gillard, as do I. And the reason I’m supporting her is because I think she is resilient, she is strong. She listens, and she is focused very much on doing what’s right for the country.
JOURNALIST: But Kevin Rudd is appealing to the backbench. He’s appealing to everybody in the caucus, and says that he is the man who can get that popularity poll up again. As Laura Tingle calls it, it’s the ‘people power plan’ that he’ll put to caucus. Is the problem that Julia Gillard is unelectable?
WONG: I think that if we’re going to be competitive at the next election, if we’re going to do the right thing by the country, and continue to roll out the policies which are delivering low unemployment, which are spreading the benefits of the mining boom, we have to be unified. And why I think we need to resolve this issue is we have not had sufficient unity.
The only way we will be competitive at the next election is if we unify; unite behind the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Gillard, and carry forward the policies that are good for Australia. Remember, what is Tony Abbott’s first pledge? It’s to give a tax break to wealthy miners. I don’t think that’s the right thing for the country.
JOURNALIST: But one of the problems that Julia Gillard wears is that she’s backed off things, she’s turned around, she’s backflipped, she can’t be trusted.
WONG: I’ve worked in her Cabinet, and I’ve watched her – through a Parliament that is pretty difficult – deliver the carbon price. We weren’t able to deliver it in the previous Parliament, when we had more numbers. She did that. I’ve watched her deliver the mining tax, which is about making sure that ordinary Australians, working Australians, get the benefits of the boom as well –
JOURNALIST: But you haven’t seemed to deliver on the pokies.
WONG: Well, just hang on. We got the mining tax through the Lower House. That’s not something we could do in the last Parliament, and that is a result of Julia’s tenacity and willingness to negotiate.
There are other policy areas, like pokies, where obviously there were practical difficulties with what Mr Wilkie was proposing. But I don’t think that’s the key issue here, the key issue is this: who is the right person to lead the party, and the country? I believe that’s Prime Minister Gillard, and that’s the person I am supporting.
JOURNALIST: How hard was Kevin Rudd to work with?
WONG: I think everybody has their own way of dealing with this. At times it was very challenging. But can I say this – I’m not one, as you know, who gets into the personal very often in politics, and I don’t intend to here. What I will say is this – I served Kevin when he was Prime Minister in his Cabinet and I did so loyally.
I now serve Prime Minister Gillard, and I’ve come to the very clear view that the right person to lead the country and the party is Prime Minister Gillard.
JOURNALIST: What about this idea which has just come through, that they have to vote, they – you – the caucus have to vote for Kevin Rudd. If they don’t we’ll have an election in three months, and Tony Abbott will smash them.
WONG: I go back to what I was saying. I think the way in which Labor can be competitive at the next election, and when we say competitive it is not for ourselves, it is for the people we represent, it is for working Australians and their families, the way we do that is to unite behind the Prime Minister and that is what I will keep advocating for.
JOURNALIST: Is one big fear, Senator Wong, is one big fear that if Kevin doesn’t have the numbers, and that seems to be what the pundits are saying, if he doesn’t have the numbers he resigns. Does that really in effect, predicate the election that you fear most?
WONG: That’s a hypothetical. But I would say this, I hope whatever disputes we may have, we are members of a Labor Party. It’s a party that delivered Medicare, that delivered the superannuation guarantee, that’s helped deliver over 700,000 jobs since we were elected. Ultimately what is right for the party and the country should come first.
JOURNALIST: Is it unfair, Doug Cameron says this, is it unfair to call the spill next Monday, or should it, as he says, to be fair, and we’re a fair party, Kevin Rudd should be given at least a week to make sure the numbers are there?
WONG: I think what’s fair is that we resolve this in the interests of the nation. I don’t think anybody watching this has thought this has been a good thing for not, just the Labor Party and the Labor Government, but the country, we need to resolve this, and I welcome the Prime Minister’s indication that she intends to.
JOURNALIST: Senator, is there a chance that this won’t be resolved, or that the votes will be not emphatic enough either way, and that it will just fester on?
WONG: And what I’d say is that whatever resolution there is, and obviously that’s up to the Prime Minister to speak about, people need to then buckle down and get on with the real job, which is the job of governing and the job of ensuring that we do not see Tony Abbott become Prime Minister. That’s what people should do.
JOURNALIST: Senator Penny Wong, you’ve got a vote. Penny for PM –
WONG: (laughs) No, no.
JOURNALIST: Thanks for coming in this morning.
WONG: (laughs) One of my friends has texted in there.
JOURNALIST: (laughs) Yeah.
WONG: Thank you whichever person out in Adelaide did that, but no.
JOURNALIST: Thanks for calling in.
ENDS
