Interview with Marius Benson, ABC Newsradio

Subjects: Victorian election; ACTU's Federal election review.

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

30 November 2010

HOST: Well, Australia's political landscape is being reshaped, with the Coalition taking power in Victoria and New South Wales, universally, expected to follow suit when it goes to the polls in March. It's a sharp contrast to the scene where Kevin Rudd led Labor to power three years ago, giving Labor a monopoly of power at Federal, State and Territory levels. That looks to be changing. To look at what the new political order might mean for the Labor Party federally, Marius Benson is speaking to the Trade Minister, Craig Emerson.

BENSON: Craig Emerson, can I just begin by getting your take on what happened in Victoria? John Brumby says basically it was the 'It's Time' factor. Do you think that's the main thing for the change of Government?

EMERSON: Undoubtedly the fact that the Government was 11 years old had a big role to play in its defeat. John Brumby was a good Premier, very much concerned with implementing policy and I think he's done great things for Victoria. But after 11 years — seeking another four — it was just a bridge too far and the people decided to vote for a change.

BENSON: The majority for Ted Baillieu is the slimmest of majorities, but it is a majority and there is a clear sense, it seems, in Victoria of a big change. It's been a long time since the last change of Government, a real anticipation of a honeymoon for Ted Baillieu, quite different from the result federally, when it was just that long agonising process and no honeymoon at the end for you.

EMERSON: Oh well, I think if a Government wins an election, whether it wins in its own right or is in minority, it deserves the right to govern. And Ted Baillieu deserves that right, he deserves stability. I'm sure that will be provided by the Opposition, but of course Labor will, as any opposition should do, hold the incoming Liberal-National Party Government to account. But the Australian political landscape is full of instances of minority governments or governments that have won by the slimmest of majorities and yet they've often turned out to be very stable. In fact, Steve Bracks won Victoria on the basis of a minority government and that was a very stable government that actually built to a majority status subsequently.

BENSON: And there are different arguments, different perspectives, on whether it's a good thing for a Federal government to have state governments of the same political colour or the opposite political colour. You don't get to choose it, so do you think life will be more complicated or in some ways easier with more Coalition governments taking the reins in the states?

EMERSON: Well, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you don't get to choose it anyway. So, in that sense, it probably doesn't matter that much. I note that John Howard was Prime Minster for a very long time when there were exclusively Labor state and territory governments and he was able to get re-elected, so I'm not sure that it matters all that much. In terms of the COAG agenda, of course, we would hope and expect that conservative state governments will work with the Federal Labor Government to implement reforms that are in the national interest including, of course, health reforms, the seamless national economy, housing reforms — there's a big program there. And we've found that, by and large, conservative governments have co-operated. There are some areas of disappointment, such as occupational health and safety, where Julia Gillard has been driving that reform. The Western Australian Government has refused to sign up, but then again, more recently so has the New South Wales government changed its position. So it's not necessarily the colour of the government, it's whether it's willing to co-operate on the national agenda or not.

BENSON: On another political front, the ACTU Executive is meeting in Canberra today and they have before them a review. They are reviewing their own election campaign in the Federal Election. They have a review of that campaign. And a broad recommendation seems to be that maybe the union should get a greater distance between themselves and the ALP. Do you think that would be good for Labor if the industrial wings and political wings were more distant?

EMERSON: Look, I think that we would want and hope that there would be a high level of co-operation, but it is true that the industrial wings and political wings are not the same thing. There'll be matters on which we have differences; other matters, such as putting an end to WorkChoices, in which we were absolutely at one. So, these things have happened over the last 25-30 years, where there have been some quite big disagreements between the ACTU and the government of the day. Certainly that was the case with Bob Hawke, it was the case with Paul Keating, in the move to enterprise bargaining. The ACTU opposed that initially. So these differences will emerge but that doesn't mean that we don't share those common values and those common values being a better life for working people, the dignity of work and opportunity for all.

BENSON: Craig Emerson, thank you very much.

EMERSON: Thanks a lot Marius. Thank you.

END

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