Cotton On: Politicians crawl through the Cubbie Hole

The war of words over the future of Cubbie Station has started. The Foreign Investment Review Board has recommended to Treasurer Wayne Swan the sale of Australia’s largest cotton grower and holder of water licences to a consortium dominated by Chinese textile producer Shandong RuYi. The sale, currently in the hands of administrators, required FIRB approval as it was in excess of the $244 million takeover trigger for investigation. While the FIRB has not made its decision public, Swan has used it as a political attack to wedge the Opposition after the State Government backed the sale while local LNP senator Barnaby Joyce said it was not in the national interest.

Swan explained his reasons for the approval in an August 31 media release. Cubbie had been on the market for three years and the joint proposal by Shandong RuYi and Aussie wool company Lempriere had given him several undertakings. These included RuYi selling down its interest to 51 per cent within three years while maintaining “appropriate” board representation, having Cubbie managed by a Lempriere sub-company and offering jobs to all existing Cubbie employees.

Swan points to the National Food Plan which is in draft form and seeking public submissions until September 30. That Plan also vigorously defends the need for foreign investment in Australia which it says is critical for the agriculture and food sectors. “Foreign investment in agriculture supports production, creates jobs and contributes to the prosperity of rural communities and the broader economy,” the Plan green paper said. The paper said foreign investments undergo a rigorous national interest test and are subject to the same laws and regulations dealing with competition, tax and governance. 

So why should anyone care about the future of a company that employs only 50 people with another 120 contractors?  It was not a simple case of xenophobia against Chinese investment (though in truth, it would be hard to imagine a similar furore if it were Seattle RuYi buying Cubbie).  It is because as Senator Joyce said today it was the loss of “prime agricultural land to an overseas interest.”  As well, the sale would involve Australia’s biggest water licence going to an overseas interest and 13 per cent of the nation's cotton crop.

Barnaby lives in St George some 80km north of Cubbie so is well aware of how big a deal it is. Its massive scale and its potential to impact on the entire Murray Darling Basin, is most impressive from the satellite image. In the middle of parched brown western Queensland landscape, lies this darker patch of fertile ground following the Murray-Darling plain. Due west of Dirranbandi, (100km north of the NSW border) is Cubbie Station a patchwork quilt of storage dams, stretching along 30km of the Culgoa River. At 93,000 hectares, Cubbie is Australia’s biggest irrigator and most of the water is used to make cotton.

Cottonseed came to Australia in the first fleet and was an early cottage industry. It took the shortages of the American Civil War to set Queensland cotton up on a commercial basis but the industry ebbed and flowed according to inconsistent 20^th century demand. With the help of subsidies from the newly elected National Party government, SW Queensland got in on the act in 1960 but has been badly affected by droughts in 1995, 2004 and 2008. In 2010/11 there was a record Australian crop of 4.1 million bales showing an industry in resurgence after almost a decade of drought.

The recovery came too late for the owners of Cubbie, Australia’s biggest cotton plantation.  Cubbie had always got away with paying a pittance for its water much to the disgust of its neighbours and NSW irrigators downstream. Slack government processes allowed Cubbie to gradually suck in more of the region’s scarce water resources. As one commentator noted about other parts of the world, “water diversion on the scale of Cubbie could easily be the cause of war.”

Despite all the favourable treatment, the company still went broke in 2009. Cubbie Group chair Keith De Lacy – a former Treasurer in the Wayne Goss government - blamed the drought for the company’s woes. De Lacy said the station had only had one good season in five and the company was selling up to reduce debt and recapitalise the business to pursue other farming opportunities.  At the time SA independent senator Nick Xenophon said Cubbie going into voluntary administration proved the station was not a sustainable use of water. "What it does indicate is a failure of water policy at the Queensland Government level and it indicates even more strongly that you need to have a federal takeover of the river system," he said.

This week Xenophon spoke out again on Cubbie opposing the decision to approve the sale. “These important environmental assets shouldn't be flogged off to a foreign company that has no connection to Australia, and no obligation to act in our interests,” he said. “There’s also a concern the impact this could have on the entire Murray Darling Basin.” He also called on FIRB to make its report public so that the general public could be confident in its decision to approve the sale. “There must be a much lower trigger point for investigation,” he said. “We need much more transparency in terms of why applications are approved or rejected and we need a national register which lists foreign owned properties so that we know who owns what.”

Wayne Swan delivers frugal budget in his own image

Wayne Swan launched his third budget as Federal Treasurer with a self-congratulatory speech that trumpeted “the highest standards of responsible economic management”. Aided by the continued economic growth of China and India, Swan was able to spend much of his budget speech talking up a speedy return to surplus and the government’s fiscal discipline before going through the spending highlights at the end. The highlight, unusually for an election year, is a focus on stability rather than a grab-bag of handouts. Labour has seized the mantle of economically responsible managers from the Libs and will push this agenda all the way to polling day. (photo: Glen McCurtayne)

Swan had some justification for his budget day pride pointing out how far the country had come since this time last year. In May 2009 Australia teetered on the verge of recession and had lost $60 billion in export earnings. Without a budget stimulus the economy would have contracted by 0.7 percent in 2009 but instead grew by 1.4 percent. The forecast contraction of 0.2 percent in 2009-2010 proved pessimistic and instead the economy grew by 2 percent. Unemployment peaked at 5.8 percent and is now falling. As a result the government is now predicting a budget deficit of $40.8 billion for 2010-2011 ($16.3b less than forecast last year and $5.5b lower than the midyear forecast) and a return to surplus in 2012-2013 three years ahead of last year’s schedule.

Swan said those looking for a big-spending pre-election Budget won’t find one. The levers for a return, according to the budget papers (pdf) to surplus were the natural recovery of tax receipts plus the reigning in of spending growth to 2 percent a year. The biggest tax initiative was the well-flagged Resource Super Profits Tax due to start on 1 July 2012. The RSPT is expected to raise $700m in 2012-2013 and will be used to create a new infrastructure fund and fund a one percent drop in company tax to 29 per cent in 2013-14 and again to 28 per cent in 2014-15. Swan said the measures would boost our competitiveness, expand investment and job opportunities. Small business would go direct to the 28 percent rate in 2012-2013 with write-off for assets costing less than $5,000 and a depreciation pool for other assets.

In the environment there will be a new $652 million Renewable Energy Future Fund. Funding will support the development of renewable energy projects including wind, solar and biomass. The Fund will engage with households, businesses and communities to achieve energy efficiency. The small amount of money saved in deferring the unlamented dogs dinner of a CPRS until 2013 will be used to support the Fund. The Ethanol Production Grants Program will not be continued after 2011.

There is also a $661 million a new Skills for Sustainable Growth strategy aimed at creating 39,000 training places and 22,500 apprentices with a guaranteed entitlement to a training place for all Australians under the age of 25 years. In infrastructure, the Government announced a $1 billion equity investment in the Australian Rail Track Corporation to fund rail freight works and lift capacity along the Brisbane to Melbourne, Melbourne to Adelaide and Sydney to Perth rail corridors. There is $71 million towards an intermodal terminal precinct at Moorebank to alleviate congestion at Port Botany in Sydney.

The Government is also spending $2.2 billion on Health over four years. $772 million will fund better after-hours access to GPs, upgrades to around 425 primary care clinics and 23 new GP Super Clinics. There is also a $523 million nursing training program, $532m over five years for extra capacity in aged care and a $467 million project to provide personally controlled electronic health records called the Individual Electronic Health Record system. The Federal Government said it will fund its increased responsibilities of the Australian public hospital system through a combination of the national Healthcare Specific Purpose Payment and an agreed amount of GST. $5 billion in funding will come from the 25 percent increase in cigarette excise.

In personal taxation, the effective tax free threshold has been increased from $11,000 in 2007-08 to $16,000 in 2010-11 through increases in the Low Income Tax Offset. The 30 per cent tax threshold will be lifted from $35,000 to $37,000 and the 38 per cent tax rate will be reduced by 1 percent for taxpayers with incomes between $80,000 and $180,000. Simpler tax returns are also on the agenda. There will be a standard deduction pack to replace the tax return from 1 July 2012 with an optional $500 in work expenses rising to $1,000 in 2013.

Wayne Swan finished his budget speech by saying the Government’s job now was to convert the economic achievements of the past year into enduring gains for our economy and our people. “We have great advantages, and a spring in our step,” he said. “We face the future with confidence, but not with complacency.” Swan need not worry on the score of complacency; a hostile media and resurgent opposition will see to that. But having got the bad news out of the way before the Budget, the coast is now clear for a Labor election campaign on economic credentials and this is a debate the Government will win.

Rudd Government issues Intergenerational Report

The Rudd Federal Government has issued its first Intergenerational Report since taking power in 2007. The report assesses the fiscal and economic challenges of an ageing population as well as discussing associated environmental challenges and social sustainability. The tone of the document is set by its first sentence “Australia faces significant intergenerational challenges”. Bernard Keane called it a political document in an election year showing Labor's long-term economic reform agenda and how much of a threat the Coalition is to Australia.

Treasurer Wayne Swan launched the report today with a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra. Swan said the government was deliberately beginning “a big national conversation” on the topic of ageing. “When you're a baby boomer like me – and like many of you in this room – you never read a document with the year 2050 in it without some sober reflection on your own place (more likely, your lack of a place) in it,” Swan said. But Swan would not be alone in his swansong. By 2050 23 percent of all Australians will be over 65 – doubled the current number and 6 percent will be over 85 –quadruple the current number. The author of this blog is chastened to note he will just about fall into the latter category if still alive in 2050.

One in four over 65 means fewer workers to support retirees and young dependants with obvious effects to economic growth and increased demand for government services. The report overview says that a growing population will help manage this problem but at the cost of pressure on our infrastructure, services and environment. It also acknowledges climate change is one of the most significant challenges to long-term economic sustainability and says Australia's ability to meet these future challenges depends on “adjustments” taken now. These include increasing productivity and participation in the workforce, restraining unsustainable spending growth, planning for demographic change and tackling climate change.

The key mantra of the report is “responsible economic management” which at first glance is one of those terribly meaningless statements. After all, who would admit to following irresponsible economic management? But this particular version is informed by the three Ps: productivity, participation and population. Productivity is a walking Labor election platform based on “nation building infrastructure, skills and education” but it is astutely complemented by the traditional Liberal values of “sound monetary and fiscal policies and the microeconomic reform agenda”.

Fiscally that means capping real growth in spending to 2 per cent until the budget returns to surplus. The last budget estimated that it would be at least 2016 before surplus returned so it effectively caps real growth for the foreseeable future. The document blithely says this will “bring structural improvements to the budget, reducing the fiscal pressures of ageing and escalating health costs.” What the document does not say is what will happen to spending if the economy does not grow or there is another recession.

Health Reform and the CPRS were another two key planks of the report. The government said it has set up the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission to assist with reforming the health and hospitals system. However the NHHRC recommendations have not yet been taken to COAG and there is some doubt they will fix the problems of public hospitals if a large central agency continues to tell hospitals how to treat their patients. The CPRS is also problematic not least because the Rudd Government is no closer to getting its legislation through the parliament.

The document forecasts a total population of 36 million in 2050 (currently 22 million). While the increased numbers will benefit the economy, it puts pressure on infrastructure, services and the environment. The report cites the CPRS and water reform as critical success factors in managing this problem. It says that without climate change action there will be an increase in extreme weather events, irrigated agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin would cease, water supplies will decrease to dangerous levels and national icons such as the Great Barrier Reef will probably be destroyed. This is all true, but it is difficult to see how the Government’s weak CPRS will have much affect despite the backup of the Renewable Energy Target and the $4.5 billion Clean Energy Initiative.

Tax reform is another intriguing aspect of the report. The government plans to release the Australia's Future Tax System Review (commonly known as the Henry Review) early this year which it says “will lay out further steps for reforming the tax and transfer system to make it fairer, simpler and more competitive.” It says tax reform will be a 10-year project “likely to come in waves and will be conducted with extensive consultation.” It also notes drily “reform will not be easy.” Especially with a watching media determined to extract maximum value from judging winners and losers.

The report serves many sometimes conflicting ambitions. On the one side there is the need to continue economic growth but there is no acceptance that economic growth is a leading indicator of global warning. Similarly the difficulties of a rapidly growing population are touched on but it never really explains how the infrastructure challenges are going to be met – again without acknowledging the likely environmental impact. This is not to denigrate the report too much, it is a worthy document demanding of some respect and debate. Writing at the ABC, Stephen Long quoted one economist saying the report was “Thomas Malthus meets John Maynard Keynes.” But perhaps they both should meet James Hansen. Neither Malthus nor Keynes had to worry about living in a world where carbon dioxide emissions are rapidly approaching 400 ppm. That fact is the elephant in the Intergenerational Report.

Wayne Swan hands down the recession budget

Wayne Swan has handed down his so-called “horror” second budget in the middle of a global economic crisis that has wiped $210 billion from budget revenues. There is some confusion as to the exact size of the budget deficit as the Treasurer deliberately did not mention in his budget speech to avoid giving the opposition a free sound byte. But whether it is $57.6 billion according to The Australian or $53 billion according to Crikey it is still less than what most analysts predicted. However it is also big enough to mean that Australia will remain in the red until 2016 - at best. The budget itself produced few surprises in the details as almost all of the key announcements were strategically leaked in advance (apart from the surprise announcement to raise the retirement age to 67).

Swan called it a nation building budget for recovery and he set the scene in his economic background statement. Because of the recession, the global economy will contract by 1.5 percent this year and Australia’s will contract by 0.5 percent which will impact the unemployment rate. However, Swan claimed that without the two stimulus packages in December and April, Australia would have faced a 2 percent contraction and an additional 210,000 people on the dole queue.

The centrepiece of the budget is the $22 billion investment in infrastructure. $4.6b will be spent on improvements in the metropolitan rail systems with another $3.4b on roads. The Clean Energy initiative will get $4.5b for carbon capture projects from fossil fuel emissions, $1.5b for solar, and almost half a billion for a new research and development body called Renewables Australia. There will also be $5.8b for health and education infrastructure. This is on top of $5.7b for higher education reforms.

As flagged in advance, the aged pension is increasing by $32 a week at a cost of $14.2 billion over four years. But the pension age will gradually be increased to 67, at a rate of 6 months every two years beginning in 2017. Self-funded retirees will get access to a senior’s supplement. Meanwhile, the $731m paid parental leave scheme comes in 2011 with 18 weeks of paid leave for primary carers who earn less than $150,000. The first home owner’s grant has been extended to October.

On the down side, private health insurance will be more expensive. The rebate will be means tested on a sliding scale cutting out completely at $120,000. The government is also temporarily reducing its superannuation contribution in order to save $1.4 billion. The matching rate to employee contributions will drop from 150 per cent to 100 per cent for the next three years and will revert 125 per cent for 2012 13 and 2013 14 before returning to 150 percent in 2014-2015.

The government is also looking to save $880 million from 11,000 people by closing a loophole that allows people earning over $250,000 to claim back tax on loss making hobby businesses. Another $200 million will be saved by removing inconsistencies in taxing new employee share schemes.

Swan has also ended the exemption on overseas earnings in an attempt to save $675 million. Australians working overseas for over 90 consecutive days are no longer eligible for a general exemption which exempted them from paying any Australian income tax on their foreign employment income. This means that this income will now be taxed twice however Swan defends this on the grounds that “many foreign countries are lower tax jurisdictions”. However aid workers and some government employees (defence and police) will continue to enjoy the exemption.

Predictably the budget did not impress the Opposition. Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said the projections for a return to budget surpluses were misleading and called it “casino economics”. Meanwhile the Australian Medical Association were unhappy with the private health rebate changes saying many Australians will pay more for health adding to their anxiety when they are already stressed about job security and the future.

Elsewhere, Annette Sampson at the Sydney Morning Herald says the superannuation tax concessions in the budget will also affect lower income earners. Ben Eltham at New Matilda says the budget is sound but politically risky and calls it "a gamble posing as prudence". Bernard Keane at Crikey called the budget “a flat affair” and says Swan was given an easy ride by the media. The Australian’s Samantha Maiden says the budget documents chart a path to recovery that is more upbeat than international forecasts. Economist John Quiggin also calls it an optimistic scenario. “Although complete collapse now seems unlikely, the prospect of a long period of depressed growth, similar to Japan in the 1990s, cannot yet be dismissed,” he said.

Leaks and lockups: a media anatomy of Federal Budget Day

Treasurer Wayne Swan hands down the long anticipated 2009 Federal Budget in parliament tomorrow night. Part of the ritual of the budget is the ritual of advance “leaks” usually by direct authority of the government to either soften the blow of cutbacks or provide good news on an otherwise slow part of the news cycle. And so despite Swan’s constant mantra about “not speculating” on specific budget measures, he chose Mother’s Day to announce 18 weeks parental leave would be introduced from January 2011 for those earning less that $150,000 a year. Meanwhile there have been a litany of advance warnings that items such as health insurance, health rebates, family payments and superannuation are all set for brutal cuts due to “the revenue hole”.

Apart from the stage-management of leaks, the other strange ritual is the infamous budget lock-up. For six hours tomorrow, the country’s finest journalistic minds will have the umbilical link to their mobile phones cut off so they can be holed up in a parliamentary chamber alongside opposition parliamentarians where they will be forced to read the mountains of budget materials cover to cover. While most journalists describe the lock-up as an expensive waste of time, no self-respecting member of the Canberra Press Gallery will be anywhere else tomorrow. And fringe outlets such as Crikey fought long and hard before finally gaining admittance to the lock-up last year.

In order to be involved in the lock-up, media organisations had to submit the names and positions of those requiring access to the Treasury by Friday 1 May. Treasury directions were that space was limited and media should restrict their own numbers “to a minimum” and they were also required to bear their own costs of participation and attendance. Whether News Ltd is adhering to the numbers is a moot point, as they are sending 90 people inside.

Access to the lock-up area begins tomorrow morning when media organisations are allowed to set up their equipment until 11.30am. An hour later, the journalists are allowed in. Every attendee must provide proof of employment and has signed the sinister sounding Form of Undertaking which is witnessed by a Treasury official. They will then pass through metal detectors to check for mobile telephones, pagers, handsets, computers and personal data assistants (PDAs) which must all be deposited outside the room. The doors are then hammered shut at 1.30pm and the journalists are kept inside for the next six hours.

No one is allowed to contact anyone on the outside until the start of the Treasurer's Budget Speech which doesn’t begin until 7.30pm (although a security guard will apparently escort people to the toilet if needed). The reporters have six hours to make sense of tonnes of budget books, press releases and analytics. No budgetary information is allowed to be made publicly available until it is publicly announced in the speech. Inside the lockup, the temporary prisoners are given access to the entire set of budget information in hard copy and the data is then loaded online at 7.30pm.

Because 7.30pm is late notice for the following morning’s newspapers, Treasury also has the concept of the secure sub-lock-up which applies to the print organisations only. Sub-editors can establish and use secure encrypted landlines located within their own headquarters for sub-editorial purposes. Here production staff, subs, layout designers and editors all re-engineer their Canberra reporters’ copy for the front pages under the watchful eyes of Treasury officials. Curiously, “journalists are not permitted” inside the sub-lock-ups though the edict does not take into account that most sub-editors and editors are also journalists.

Of course none of this expensive secrecy is at all necessary. The primary purpose is to enable the Government gain control of the initial news cycle. Writing in today’s media section of The Australian, Michael Wilkins says it is time to call a halt to the lock-up charade. He calls it an expensive, archaic practice that costs media organisations in excess of a million dollars for little reward. But Wilkins’ call is unlikely to be heeded any time soon. As he himself notes, “The Government rarely has [this] chance to hold the nation's journalistic leaders hostage within its walls, an opportunity during which officials can ply their take on the numbers to a captive audience searching for answers.” And for a government as obsessed as this one is with staying on message, that opportunity is too good to turn down.

Btw, Australia is not alone with this nonsense. Check out this story of the Canadian budget lock-up from January this year.

Swan floats in the Lilley poll

Of all the seats in Queensland to poll, why in God’s name would you pick Lilley? This was the question asked by William Bowe last week in his blog The Poll Bludger. Bowe is one of Australia’s growing band of influential on-line psephologists. He was perplexed by the decision of a Brisbane newspaper to poll Wayne Swan’s Labor-held seat of Lilley rather than one of Queensland’s volatile seats more likely to change hands in the 24 November election.

The poll was taken by Galaxy for Brisbane’s Sunday Mail on 28 October. It showed Swan’s primary support has risen 10 per cent since the last election - no great surprise, given the Labor swings elsewhere. So why “in God’s name” poll there? A clue to the answer is that the Mail, a News Ltd publication, is more likely to publish a poll in Mammon’s name rather than God’s.

While the electoral focus of William Bowe and the other psephologists is firmly on the key marginal and “bellwether” seats, they sometimes forget the rest of the country is also going to the polls. Bowe acknowledges that a Brisbane monopoly newspaper such as the Mail has to consider every area equally. And Lilley does have a star attraction, If the polls are right, and Labor does win the election, then this seat will be held by the man Kevin Rudd said would be the next Federal Treasurer.

Wayne Swan won the seat by a margin of 5.4 per cent in the 2004 election. Lilley remains, notionally at least, a Labor marginal seat. And it is not an entirely fanciful notion. Named for the 19th century premier of Queensland, Sir Charles Lilley, the seat takes in about 140 square kilometres (pdf) of inner north-eastern bayside suburbs. It is bounded clockwise by the Brisbane River, Breakfast Creek, Webster Road, Cabbage Tree Creek, North Pine River and Moreton Bay. Lilley is mostly residential but also includes industrial areas as well as Brisbane Airport, the Boondall Wetlands and Brisbane’s two racecourses. The seat is roughly analogous to the Brisbane council wards of Hamilton, Northgate and Deagon.

Prior to European settlement, the area was home to the Oondunbi people. They used the lands for food gathering, camping, meetings, conflicts and burials. The first Europeans to arrive were Moravian missionaries who established the German station in Nundah in 1838. They were followed four years later by lay settlers who lusted for the Oondunbi lands and forced them off.

Slowly Brisbane spread its tentacles. Mass settlement took off thanks to public transport. The railway to Sandgate opened in 1882 and it was followed by trams to Ascot in 1899. Today, Lilley has an ageing and mostly Anglo-Irish population. While annual family incomes in the leafier suburbs of Ascot and Clayfield are above the Brisbane average, the industrial belt suburbs of the electorate are below the city’s average.

This demographic mix has seen the seat held by all major parties over the years. Wayne Swan first won in 1993 but was unseated in the Howard landslide election win in 1996. He won the seat back from the Liberals two years later and has increased his margin in every election since. He puts his success down to good local knowledge and hard work. “I think I understand the area well, I’ve spent a lot of time working here and getting extensive knowledge of the community,” he said. “A federal electorate is a large area and it takes time to get to know it.”

Greens’ candidate Simon Kean-Hammerson is also taking the time to get to know his electorate. Born in Kenya, he grew up in Victoria and Sydney and moved to Brisbane in the early 1990s. He has lived in Lilley ever since. Kean-Hammerson was immediately attracted to the friendliness of the area. “Brisbane was a lovely cosmopolitan town with great potential for business” he said. “You walked down a street and someone would smile at you. I didn’t see that down south”. The Galaxy poll puts his support at seven per cent.

The Liberal candidate is 33 year old accountant Scott McConnel. He was the only person to apply for Liberal preselection in Lilley. McConnel told the Sunday Mail in May he faced "an uphill battle" to win the seat. The Galaxy poll bears this out with his support at just 32 per cent. McConnel did not comment on the poll and he also refused to make himself available to interview for this article.

His reluctance to go on the record is matched by several Brisbane-based Liberal candidates. Democrat Senator Andrew Bartlett has noted the consistent non-appearance of Liberal candidates at public pre-election forums. Dr Jason Wilson, convenor of the citizen journalism website Youdecide2007, is also frustrated by the problem. He says the Liberals have repeatedly broken appointments and not returned calls. “We thought it might be us after Herbert MP Peter Lindsay gave us an unguarded interview that was picked up by the Fairfax Press,” he said. “But it looks more like the Liberals don’t trust their members who aren’t A-list performers to deliver”.

Back in Lilley, Wayne Swan is happy to talk. He said the secret of his success was a common-sense approach. “I work hard, am disciplined and I like to get results.” Former Labor leader Mark Latham was no fan of these characteristics and The Latham Diaries described Swan as a “robot”, “careerist” and a “machine man”. Swan sees it differently. “The reason I’m in politics,” he said, “is that I want to make a difference to my local community and my country”.

His confidence is growing and he impressed with a solid performance in his debate on Tuesday with Treasurer Peter Costello. If Galaxy is right, the local community agree more with Swan’s assessment of himself rather than Latham’s. Lilley looks set to reward him with a handsome majority in November. It may not be an obvious seat to poll, but it does say Lilley is ready to back Wayne Swan as their local Treasurer.

Election 2007: An interview with Wayne Swan

Yesterday, Woolly Days conducted a phone interview with the Shadow Treasurer and Labor member for Lilley, Wayne Swan. It is the first in series of interviews with each of the declared candidates in the local electorate for the upcoming federal election. Wayne Swan was educated at the University of Queensland where he graduated with honours in economics. Prior to entering politics, he was Secretary of the Queensland ALP during the state government tenure of Wayne Goss. Swan was first elected to federal parliament in 1993. He lost the seat of Lilley in the landslide election of 1996 that brought John Howard to power. But he regained it in 1998 and has held it ever since.

Swan was promoted to the Shadow ministry after winning back the seat and was appointed Manager of Opposition business in the lower House in 2001. He has also served as Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services. He was appointed Shadow Treasurer in 2004 and has held this high-profile post since. Last month, Opposition leader Kevin Rudd publicly stated that Swan would be federal treasurer if Labor wins government.

Lilley covers much of the inner Northern suburbs of Brisbane including Brisbane airport, Wooloowin, Clayfield, Kedron, Hamilton, Ascot, Nundah, Boondall, Zillmere, Brighton, Sandgate and parts of Aspley. The seat was created in 1913 and named after Charles Lilley, a former Premier and Chief Justice of Queensland. Swan defends a 5.4 per cent margin in Lilley which makes it notionally a Labor marginal seat. However with the polls running hot for Labor and a recent small distribution that also favours them, it would be a major shock if Swan was not re-elected. ABC psephologist Antony Green’s assessment is that Swan will retain his seat.

Woolly Days began the interview with Wayne Swan by asking him to describe his life outside politics. Swan said he liked to relax and spend time with his friends and family when he could. “I have three children, two girls and a boy, the eldest is 23 and the youngest is 13,” he said. “My eldest Erinn is in a band called Nina May which is doing very well at the moment”. Swan said he enjoyed the simple things such as a take-away curry from nearby Albion, or a meal at the local RSL club. “I like to go for a surf when I can” he added.

Then Swan described his professional approach. “Politically I’ve got a common sense approach: I work hard, am disciplined and I like to get results,” he said. “The reason I’m in politics is that I want to make a difference to my local community and my country.” Woolly Days asked him how he differentiates himself from the other candidates in the electorate and why the people of Lilley should vote for him. Swan began by saying he has lived in the electorate in for 26 years. “I think I understand the area well, I’ve spent a lot of time working here and getting extensive knowledge of the community and the areas of it,” he said. “A federal electorate is a large area and it takes time to get to know it”.

Woolly Days asked him what concerns were emerging from his discussions with voters in the electorate. Swan said the needs of the people of Lilley are same as those nationally. “People want a good start in life, a commitment to education, and someone to address the lack of urgency about the federal government’s commitment to climate change. We have a commitment to reducing carbon emissions, people want to see an end to the unfairness of work choices, and are sick of the government’s inaction on infrastructure,” he said. “We have seen problems on the Gateway Motorway with traffic spewing out onto suburban roads. That’s why we’ve made a major commitment to fixing it up with a recent announcement to build a link between two of Brisbane's major motorways”.

Swan said that local people want a good quality of life “and that’s why I’ve been a long-term supporter of the Boondall Wetlands and making sure they haven’t been taking over by property developers”. Swan said he works with local and environmental groups, climate change groups, the RSL and other service groups to get good outcomes for the community. The next question to Swan was: what he saw as the three single most important issues nationally for this election and why? Swan nominated the trio of education, climate change and industrial relations. He said what he meant by education was creating the conditions for the prosperity of the children of the future. It meant keeping up with China and India and giving people the opportunity to get ahead.

On climate change Swan cited the creation of the economic and social framework for the carbon reductions Australia needs. He reiterated Labor’s commitment to ratify Kyoto and then look beyond that. He said the post 2012 framework will be decided in Bali this December and Labor is committed to supporting the process. On industrial relations Swan said Labor is committed to replacing workchoices with “a fair and balanced set of industrial policies”.

Woolly Days asked if he thought the council amalgamation debate would impact on Labor's chances of picking up extra seats in Queensland. Swan flatly denied it would have any impact and said Federal Labor is opposed to compulsory council amalgamations. The next question was “If Labor does win, how will you manage the interests of your local constituency given Kevin Rudd's stated position you will be Treasurer?” Swan responded by saying his job as shadow treasurer has already a large and public profile “but it doesn’t stop me from being attentive to the needs of my electorate”. He continued: “My community involvement would not be affected in whatever role I might end up with after the election nor is my commitment to my local area. If anything, I would have a stronger voice to act for my locality in Treasury.”

Woolly Days then asked what opportunities he thought Peter Costello has missed in his management of the Treasury portfolio over the last 11 years and how would he do things differently? Swan said Costello had “squandered the opportunities of the mining boom and the strongest global economy in 30 years and has missed the chance to secure Australia’s long-term prosperity”. He said Costello had also presided over “dangerous climate change of the worst order”. He said Costello had also missed opportunities in education. “We are investing less in education and training; in fact Peter Costello is going in the other direction.”

Swan refused to be drawn on how a lower house Labor government would deal with a potentially hostile Senate. He said Labour would stand by its policies and not negotiate in advance with any of the minor parties. Woolly Days also asked whether he had noticed trends or biases in the media's pre-election coverage. Swan said that bias was not a factor. “There are things we agree with the media on and things we disagree with them on but it all balances out in the end,” he said. But he did take exception to the government’s use of the media. “What annoys me is the outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money on government advertising,” he said. “What is needed is an alternative framework.” He said that if elected Labor will have the auditor-general examine these ads and define what is legitimate and what is illegitimate use. “Advertising for recruitment to the defence forces is legitimate,” he said. “But this governments's work choices ads and climate change ads are simply free campaign ads for the Liberals”. Swan parting message was a contrast between Labor and the government. “We have a program for the future based on social cohesion,” he said, “while the government is stuck in the past”.