INTERVIEW WITH LYNDAL CURTIS, ABC AM

TONY EASTLEY: The Financial Services Minister and Labor campaign spokesman, Chris Bowen, is speaking here to Chief Political Correspondent, Lyndal Curtis 

LYNDAL CURTIS: Chris Bowen, you say the Federal Coalition has its figures wrong on the Education Tax Rebate, but the Coalition says that you have underestimated or you’ve cut the number of people who are eligible for your rebate. Who is right? 

CHRIS BOWEN: We estimate, conservatively, that this will cost double what the Opposition says it will. Two days ago they were out there trumpeting their savings, they have blown them in one day through poor and shoddy work, and poor and shoddy costings. 

CURTIS: But you are absolutely confident that the figures on your extension of the Education Tax Rebate are right? 

BOWEN: Yes, because we base this on the current number of people claiming it. We have looked at the number of people currently claiming it, and then built-in the number of people who would additionally claim it, if we extended this to other expenses. So when we expanded it to cover school uniforms, it had a not inconsiderable cost, we didn’t increase the cost of the amount of the rebate, but had a not inconsiderable cost, because we increased the number of things you could claim.  

So for the Opposition to say that ‘we will expand this to cover violin lessons and piano lessons, school fees, and school photos, but we don’t think anyone else is going to claim it, is just shoddy. They need to come clean, admit they got it wrong, send their costings down to the Department of Finance for them to go through it. 

CURTIS: Another policy area where your former leader, Mark Latham, says is a ‘con’. Is the Prime Minister saying that the debate about sustainable population is not a debate about immigration? Isn’t immigration, aren’t the migration numbers, the only lever you have to pull to control population growth? 

BOWEN: Well, it’s about a sustainable population Lyndal. It’s about where people live, it’s about productivity, it’s about infrastructure support. That’s why Julia has asked Tony Burke, who is the Sustainable Population Minister, to develop a strategy that deals with all of those things in a holistic fashion. 

CURTIS: Treasury has estimated that on current growth figures, on the birth rate and the current immigration intake, that Australia will get to a population of 36 million. Julia Gillard has says that she doesn’t want that. Don’t you therefore have to bring those immigration numbers down? 

BOWEN: Well, she said that she doesn’t want to hurtle towards a big Australia without thinking through all of the issues and having a proper strategy in place. We have never had a sustainable population strategy in Australia [inaudible], we have never had one, and she has said that it is not just about population and immigration numbers, it’s about where people live, what support we provide, it’s about how big cities work, it’s about how regional cities work, and where workers are needed. So it’s all of those things, you can’t just isolate immigration figures and say ‘that’s the answer’. You’ve got to look at them all in a holistic fashion... 

CURTIS: It’s got to be part of the answer doesn’t it? 

BOWEN: Well, of course immigration figures need to be part of the consideration, but you can’t just highlight immigration figures and say ‘that’s it, that’s all we are going to deal with’. You’ve got to look at it holistically, that’s exactly what Tony Burke is doing, and that’s exactly what Julia Gillard has asked him to do. 

CURTIS: And at some point you will have to decide that to slow the population growth, those immigration figures will have to come down. 

BOWEN: Well, Governments deal with immigration figures on a yearly basis and we continue to do that.  

CURTIS: Another former Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, is back in the news again today. There’s a story that the United Nations may be working on a job for him, pushing ahead the climate change agenda. Do you know if Kevin Rudd is likely to leave Australia sometime during the next term and take up a job with the UN? 

BOWEN: Well Lyndal, what I know is that Kevin Rudd has indicated that he wants to re-contest the seat of Griffith; he is re-contesting the seat of Griffith, and he is available to serve in a senior position after that. Julia Gillard has said that she welcomes that. That’s the situation, that’s the basis on which we are working. 

Kevin Rudd is very, internationally, well-respected. In the UN, and the United States, and elsewhere. It’s unsurprising that this speculation emerges. Kevin Rudd has said that he wants to be returned and that’s what he is working towards. 

CURTIS: And serve a full term? 

BOWEN: When he puts his name forward to serve as Member for Griffith, that’s what he is indicating that he wants to do.

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