THE HON CHRIS BOWEN MP SHADOW TREASURER MEMBER FOR MCMAHON

E&OE TRANSCRIPT RADIO INTERVIEW ABC NEWSRADIO WITH MARIUS BENSON FRIDAY, 24 JANUARY 2014 Subjects: Davos conference, Australia open for business, Abbott Government destroying bilateral relationship with Indonesia. MARIUS BENSON: Chris Bowen, good morning. CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW TREASURER: Good Morning Marius. BENSON: Trade good; more trade better. Are you on a unity ticket with Tony Abbott there? BOWEN: Well everybody agrees with that - trade is good. But I think what we saw from the Prime Minister in the speech was a pretty tired recitation of glib slogans and frankly continuing attacks on the Labor Party for domestic political purposes whilst overseas, which is not how a Prime Minister would traditionally conduct himself overseas. So it appears that Tony Abbotts pretty well addicted to being Leader of the Opposition and hasnt adjusted to being Prime Minister. In a speech like this, you expect a bit of vision, you expect a bit of detail, and you expect selling Australia and selling the Australian story of success under governments of all persuasions, and Tony Abbott just appears incapable of doing something like that. BENSON: But is a speech the place for detail? Because the Trade Minister is over there as well, Andrew Robb, I was speaking to him, hes having more detailed discussions with business leaders and he says theyre telling him the major difficulty theyve found with Australia was regulation, too much regulation. BOWEN: Well you expect accommodation of detail and vision and we saw neither from Tony Abbott in this speech, we just saw slogans and electioneering, continuing an election campaign and its over. And I think Australians have a right to be pretty

cynical about what members of this Government say whilst overseas. You know, youve got Mr. Abbott saying Australias open for business, and one of their first big decisions was to knock back an investment from a business wanting to invest in Australia and grow an Australia agribusiness in Graincorp. You had Mr. Hockey in London say the age of entitlement is over, then come back to announce the biggest entitlement scheme, the most generous paid parental leave scheme in the world which is unaffordable and extravagant. So I think Mr. Abbott and his team have a track record of saying one thing overseas and acting very differently, and their rhetoric not matching the reality. And doing one thing before an election, saying one thing before an election and doing something very different afterwards. BENSON: What do you make of one of the subtexts of Davos which has been Tony Abbott in his speech was saying profit is not a dirty word, the way to get a fairer country is to get a richer country. At the same time there has been an equity argument run from the Pope down basically, saying that equity is not being delivered by greater wealth. That wealth is not serving humanitys needs was the Popes view. That Oxfam was pointing out that at the moment, the 85 richest people in the world have the same amount of money as the poorest half of the worlds population, 85 people have the same as 3.5 billion people and thats not equity. Whats your view? BOWEN: Well I think you need to do both. I think its a false argument to say its a choice between growing the pie or arguing how the pie is distributed. Of course economic growth is important and of course profits are important and we want to see all economies growing, and the Australian story over the last seven years is a remarkable one of success. When you look at the fact that our economy is 13% bigger than it was in 2007, no other country can claim, no other developed country can claim that. So I think thats a sign of success. At the same time, discussion about distribution of wealth, opportunity and equity, intergenerational mobility is not mutually exclusive with a discussion about economic growth. In fact, theyre complimentary. Countries, economies and societies miss out on a whole range of skills and abilities and productivity if people are missing out on a fair chance in their society. So I think that both arguments are legitimate ones and theyre not mutually exclusive, and the benefits of both should be clear to all and a sophisticated modern Australian nation and Government should be able to promote and contribute to both. BENSON: A non-economic issue has cropped up at Davos because Marty Natalegawa the Indonesian Foreign Minister is there. He has that that he warned last week of a slippery slope if Australia continued its line on turning back boats towards Indonesia. He says that slippery slope has been realised. Indonesia is now moving naval vessels down south to monitor whats happening on, in terms of Australian naval vessels south of Indonesia. Other military spokespeople in Jakarta are warning that the air force of Indonesia is in striking distance of the Australian mainland. What do you make of the turning up of the rhetoric?

BOWEN: Well this is very serious. And in fairness to Marty Natelegawa he didnt just warn of this last week, he didnt just warn of it last month, hes been warning of this for a long, long time. Well before the election, and Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and Julie Bishop had plenty of warning that this would be the inevitable result of their pigheaded policy. And what we are seeing is that playing out very clearly, and you got Indonesia saying we are prepared to work very cooperatively with Australia but we are not prepared for this unilateral action on Australias behalf. And I think Mr Abbott needs to really take control of this issue, this is a very important bilateral relationship. He says he has a Jakarta based foreign policy, well if that is the case, he really needs to follow that up with some action. So its not just that Indonesia warned about this, the Government was warned by multiple sources. I remember Kevin Rudd warning of this and the Liberal Party laughing that off saying, Itll be alright. The Liberal Government would ensure that they could implement this policy with full cooperation with Indonesia, and we should just trust them to implement it in office. Well that is not how it has planned out. BENSON: Chris Bowen, thank you very much. BOWEN: Good on you, thanks Marius.

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