Transcripts

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW CANBERRA 8AM TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2009

24th November 2009

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW

CANBERRA

8AM TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2009

E&OE………………………………………………………………………………………

Subject: Ripoll Report, ETS negotiations

JOE HOCKEY:

So last night the Ripoll Committee delivered its report into the financial services industry.  I would say that the recommendations on first glance seem to be good. The Coalition will not support a legislative banning of commissions for financial planners. However, we welcome the initiatives of the industry to phase out commissions but still leave the capacity for commissions to be paid where people cannot afford to pay an upfront fee.

By way of background, it’s important to note and experience in the law tells you this, that when you ban something like a success fee or a commission, it means the government has to step in with a legal aid type service.  Now, in financial services there will be people who need financial advice who cannot afford the upfront fees and there is a role for commissions in that. So we think that the Ripoll Committee has come up with a reasonable, a reasonable set of recommendations. We’ll look at them more carefully, obviously.

JOURNALIST:

Do you think commissions are problematic inherently"

JOE HOCKEY:

Look, where the commissions distort the behaviour of a financial adviser, then obviously that is not in the client’s best interest.  Last Friday at a conference where there were about 1000 people, I recommended to the financial planners that they look at fiduciary obligations. If you have a fiduciary obligation, a legal obligation to act in the best interest of your client, then commissions obviously will have a far lesser impact. And should it be determined by the court that you were more interested in the commission than you were in your legal obligation to your client, then obviously you’ll be fined, may end up in jail. So the fiduciary obligation is a significant step forward.

JOURNALIST:

How worried are you about [inaudible] Kevin Andrews calling  a spill?

JOE HOCKEY:

Look, in this building I’ve discovered that 70% of the time is about speculation, and 30% of the time it’s about reporting. And I’d say to you, don’t worry about the speculation.  The processes today will be the normal processes of the Party Room and the Shadow Cabinet. And I’ll go one step further and say this - this is Kevin Rudd’s ETS.  It’s not Malcolm Turnbull’s, it’s not Warren Truss’s, it is Kevin Rudd’s and the Labor Party’s ETS. 

And everything that we have done today is about trying to protect Australian jobs, protect Australian exporters, protect the Australian economy and at the same time, do something about carbon emissions. Now getting the balance right is very difficult but we have worked damn hard to try and protect Australian jobs and I am bemused by the fact that somehow we’re being criticised for doing that.

JOURNALIST:

Do you think that everyone in your Party thinks you’ve done a good enough job on protecting the jobs [inaudible]?

 JOE HOCKEY:

No one will ever be totally satisfied and that’s part of life and politics. If you always got your way in politics, it wouldn’t be a democracy.

JOURNALIST:

Kevin was quoted as saying [inaudible]. Quite clearly he’s trying to destabilise the Party [inaudible]?

JOE HOCKEY:

No, I don’t believe that.

JOURNALIST:

[inaudible]

JOE HOCKEY:

Absolutely. We need to focus on what the government is doing, we need to focus on the government. It’s a little indulgent for everyone to keep focusing on the Liberal Party and the National Party.

It’s important to focus on the fact another boat arrived last night. Kevin Rudd has lost control of Australia’s borders. Another boat arrived last night and obviously there are other issues, the fact that it looks as though the government will never deliver a surplus Budget given some of the structural challenges it has. Obviously rising interest rates are having an impact on families. There’s a huge number of issues out there which are having a more direct impact on Australian families today than Kevin Rudd’s ETS.

JOURNALIST:

Quick question. Kurt Fearnley, are you commenting on his treatment on Jetstar?

JOE HOCKEY:

Look, I don’t know about his treatment from Jetstar but I am simply amazed that he successfully crossed the Kokoda track. That is the most remarkable human feat I have ever heard of. Having done the Kokoda track with two reasonable legs, I’ll tell you what it was damn hard and for someone to crawl their way through that track is just the most amazing feat of human endurance.  I still am absolutely amazed that he could do it.

JOURNALIST:

Apparently Jetstar asked him to carry his, he had to get, he wasn’t allowed to use his wheelchair to get on a plane. He had to check it in as luggage ...

JOE HOCKEY:

I mean that’s just, it sounds ridiculous. It sounds so absurd as to be unbelievable and hopefully that would not be the case.

JOURNALIST:

[inaudible]

JOE HOCKEY:

See there you go speculating again! There won’t be a leadership ballot. It’s speculation. It’s a full toss on leg stump and I’m about to put into the stand and say forget it.

JOURNALIST:

So do you think the leadership will allow a secret ballot?

JOE HOCKEY:

 No, we go through the normal processes, that’s what the Party Room does. You know it is always the case that people try to reinvent the rules when they can’t get their way.

The fact is that we have normal processes, in living memory in the Party Room, which goes back 34 years and the only secret ballots that have ever been held have been about leadership and usually after an election. So we’re not going down the path of getting to a level of distrust where you need to have secret ballots on individual policy matters.

JOURNALIST:

[inaudible] with the Party so divided now on the ETS, what’s the chance that a divided Party Room will actually support Ian Macfarlane with the amendments?

JOE HOCKEY:

Well that’s another speculator we’ll see.

JOURNALIST:

Well, you’re the insider, I’m not.

JOE HOCKEY:

Well you just about sit in the Party Room occasionally!

JOURNALIST:

[inaudible]

JOE HOCKEY:

No, I think what you ought to know is that the Liberal Party is a Party that is robust.  It has diverse opinions but at the end of the day, our focus is on being a Party to serve all the national interest and not just some sectional interests. We will go through the challenging times. We will go through the divided times. But we come out stronger because we tolerate diversity of opinion in the Liberal Party.

That’s in stark contrast with the Labor Party where the Emperor gets his way on all occasions. Kevin Rudd is the Emperor of the Labor Party at the moment and sadly that reflects poorly on the individual members of the Labor Caucus who haven’t got the courage to stand up to him.

Having said that, Julia Irwin deserves a pat on the back because she’s prepared to speak her mind from time to time. Whilst we have reasonable differences on policy in the Liberal Party and the National Party - people are entitled to those differences, but we’re part of a team and I would hope that people would reflect on that. 

JOURNALIST:

Is Dennis Jensen part of your team, that bloke over there?

JOE HOCKEY:

Well of course he’s part of our team, of course he is. He’s a handsome man.  He’s obviously got strong views on things but he’s entitled to his strong views on things. You know that’s what a robust democracy is all about guys.  It’s about having different opinions.

I read so often about commentators saying that politicians are so plain vanilla these days, that they all look the same. That they’re all running off a script. And then old haggard commentators like Alan Ramsey say that “they’re so boring these days, but isn’t it wonderful they’re so disciplined?” Well let me tell you, you can’t have both.

You’re going to have diversity of opinion and that’s a good thing. The question is whether you can come together to serve the national interest when it really counts. And it’s good to have a diversity of opinion because that’s the democracy I signed up to.

Thanks.

[ends]