EO&E...........................................................................................................................................

 

It’s a real honour to be here at these beautiful commemorative gardens to honour our ancestors and to pay tribute to the magnificent work of the Australian Chinese community, which has been such an important part of our country for so many decades.

 

This is the second community event that I’ve been part of today. I was earlier today part of the Spring Cycle 2012 which is a great celebration of cycling and a great contribution to a cleaner environment and to a more people-friendly city.

 

It’s very important today to congratulate Zed Seselja, the Leader of the A.C.T Liberal Party, for a magnificent performance in the A.C.T elections yesterday. There was a six per cent-plus swing to the Liberal Party. The Liberals are now the largest party in the A.C.T Assembly. The people of Canberra have decisively rejected the Greens and I think the people of Canberra don’t want to see more Labor-Green coalition government. I really think that it’s important that Zed Seselja be given a chance to form a government in Canberra.

 

Finally, I want to say that we’ve got a Labor Party which is obviously at war with itself. Every day that the Labor Party is fighting internally is a day when it’s not focused on the real problems that Australians face. What we saw in Canberra was Zed Seselja talking about the real problems that people face and the best way that government can help the ordinary people, the forgotten families of Australia, is to try to take the pressure off their cost of living by getting taxes down.

 

That is my pledge to the Australian people: I will help you with your cost of living by getting taxes down. In particular, I will abolish the carbon tax which is putting so much pressure on power prices right around Australia.

 

 

Mr Abbott, do you feel upstaged by Mr Rudd delivering his speech in Mandarin today?

 

There is absolutely no doubt that Kevin Rudd has a marvellous gift – a marvellous, marvellous gift. I suppose those of us that don’t speak Mandarin feel a little bit inadequate at a gathering where Mandarin is widely spoken, in the presence of those who do, but I think this is an inadequacy that the Prime Minister has no less than I do.

 

 

You talked about Labor being at war with itself, Mr Abbott. Do you expect Julia Gillard to be in the Prime Ministership by the end of this year?

 

 

This is a matter for the Labor Party but I think what the Labor Party has got to do is resolve its leadership tensions quickly. It cannot go on at war with itself. A house divided cannot stand and yet that’s what we’ve got from the Labor Party. We’ve got constant division, we’ve got what looks to be an incipient challenge from Kevin Rudd and I think the Labor Party needs to sort itself out and it needs to get its act together because every day that the Labor Party is fighting amongst itself it is not focussing on the things that matter to the people of Australia.

 

 

Are you pleased that Maxine McKew’s book has further sparked these tensions?

 

 

I just want to see Australia have a good government and the problem right now is that we are a great country and a great people let down by a bad government. I think there is hardly an Australian who isn’t disappointed and sometimes embarrassed by the current government. We all know that our country can be better than this and being better than this starts with having a better government.

 

 

But those tensions play into your hands. You must be pleased with that?

 

 

Really, my focus is not on the Labor Party. My focus is on Australia. I want to do the right thing by the people of Australia. I think that the Australian people can do better than a divided and directionless government. That’s why I say the Labor Party needs to get its act together or get out of government.

 

 

Would Kevin Rudd be justified in launching a challenge, in your view, Mr Abbott?

 

 

Again, I’m just not going to get into the internal politics of the Labor Party except to say that the longer they are fighting amongst themselves, the less focussed they are on resolving the problems that the Australian people face and which the Australian people are entitled to have addressed by government.

 

 

Can we go back the A.C.T election result? Isn’t the reality that the Libs at this stage can’t govern in their own right and may in fact need the support of the Greens?

 

 

I think that Zed Seselja has a moral claim on the Chief Ministership. I think that the largest party in the Assembly has a moral claim on the right to form a government. Now, I think that Zed should be given a go. I think that the people of Canberra and the A.C.T can do better than the government that they’ve had. Plainly, the six per cent-plus swing to the Liberal Party is a sign that the people of the A.C.T want change. They want to see a government, locally and nationally, that addresses their real problems and gets taxes down.

 

 

But isn’t the reality that he may have to strike a deal with the Greens if they hold the balance of power?

 

 

If the Greens keep Zed Seselja and the Liberals out, this will be a sign that a vote for the Greens is a vote for Labor and a vote for Labor is a vote for the Greens. It will be a sign that the Labor Party and the Greens are essentially one political unit. Now, I think there are a lot people in the Labor Party who would be dismayed to think that their party exists to form coalition with the Greens. I think there would be a lot of Green voters who would be dismayed to think that their party is simply an adjunct to the contemporary Labor Party.

 

 

But would the Libs be prepared to do a deal with the Greens?

 

 

That’s really a matter for Zed Seselja. He has had a terrific day yesterday. It’s a great vindication for Zed Seselja and the A.C.T Liberals.

 

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, when do you expect the mid-year budget update to be released?

 

TONY ABBOTT:

That is a matter for the Government but we can be absolutely confident that it will be a mini-budget of broken promises, of higher taxes and of cooking the books because you just can’t trust the current Labor Party with public money. Their record is always the same: it’s more spending, it’s higher taxes and it’s cooking the books.

 

 

When are you going to release your policy costings?

TONY ABBOTT:

We’re the Opposition and the Australian people will know in good time before the election exactly what the fiscal situation will be under a Coalition government.

 

 

Can you explain how you would get the Budget back to surplus whilst scrapping the carbon and mining taxes?

TONY ABBOTT:

There is a lot of unnecessary spending. For instance, just to give you one example, we have seen already $5 billion worth of budget blowouts because Labor has lost control of our borders and now we see a Labor Party which wants to tax legal migrants to pay the expenses of illegal migrants. I mean, that’s the perversity of this government.

 

Now, if we can get our borders under control, if we can pause with unnecessary white elephants such as the National Broadband Network, I am confident that we can make the savings that will be needed to give the forgotten families of Australia the cost of living relief that they deserve.

 

Thank you.

 

[ends]