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  Interview: Mark Vaile May 27, 2007 Reporter : Laurie Oakes  Watch videoTranscirpt LAURIE OAKES: Mr Vaile welcome to SUNDAY. MARK VAILE: Thanks, Laurie. LAURIE OAKES: Has Therese Rein the right thing and in deciding to sell the Australian arm of her business? MARK VAILE: Well obviously that was a decision for Mrs Rudd and what she did with her company obviously, and that obviously became abundantly apparent to them that if following the election this year Mr Rudd does become Prime Minister there would be a significant conflict of interest. The irony in this Laurie is that to her credit, Mrs Rudd has built an enormous business based on the policies of our government that we introduced when we establish the Jobs Network are policies that ironically Mr Rudd has opposed for all the time that he has been in Parliament. LAURIE OAKES: Well it is a heck of a sacrifice she is making isn't it? Do you think voters might be impressed by that? MARK VAILE: Well I think the point to make Laurie is that we all make sacrifices to become a part of the political process and if you aspire to high office in this land there is a great expectation of total transparency. Now you know I'm sure there will be a lot of empathy through the broader community and of course within the Labor family about you know, an honest mistake that was made by this particular company and Mrs Rudd having to sell your interest in this business. But I think the point should be made that the Labor Party should now apologise to all those businesses, particularly the small businesses, that they have been criticising over the last six to 12 months as a result of our new industry relations laws that some of them often haven't been proven to have made mistakes or to have contravenes the law, but none the less have been publicly vilified by the Labour party. LAURIE OAKES: Well you talk about the need for transparency and avoiding conflict of interest, farmers in cabinet receive a fair bit of dosh from the government in various ways don't they? Is there one rule for farmers and another one for people who are in private business? MARK VAILE: There is not Laurie, but farmers don't necessarily directly contract to the government or a government agency. Just remember that … LAURIE OAKES: They receive plenty of handouts. MARK VAILE: Under the Jobs Network they, it is a direct contract with the Government and whenever, all the years that I've been in Cabinet if there has ever been an issue where there has been a remote connection for a conflict of interest then that individual minister has declared an interest. LAURIE OAKES: Okay, do Therese Rein's actions resolve the political problem for the Labor Party, the immediate political problem, as opposed to the conflict of interest problem if they won the election? MARK VAILE: I think it will probably divert attention away from the substantive issue and that is whether Australia needs to have a much more flexible industrial relations system as it does today or whether Australia is going to go back to the industrial relations system of old where the union movement got in control of so many workplaces across Australia where they were heavily involved in the process of employment. They we saw a great exposé on the front page of The Australian yesterday that I think gave us a bit of an insight to what the future might be like under a Labor Government. LAURIE OAKES: That was about union leaders in Western Australia? MARK VAILE: Correct yes. We are there looking forward to the days of old where they were in charge of the country. LAURIE OAKES: I suppose the issue of a single desk to handle wheat exports also raises the conflict of interest question given the National Party's role in insisting that it continue. How do you react to Liberal Wilson Tuckey's pointing the finger at the Nationals and suggesting that corruption is somehow involved? MARK VAILE: Laurie, the decision that the Government took this week to give a clear indication to Australia's wheat growers of the way their industry would be managed by them in the future was a win for wheat growers and a democratic process of extensive consultation we undertook. I mean the reality is that 70 percent of growers across Australia wanted to maintain a form of a single desk-type management and marketing structure. Only 20 percent of them wanted AWB involved and the reality is that the process as we move forward will be completely disconnecting the whole operation away from AWB. LAURIE OAKES: Was it 70 percent of growers or 70% percent of growers who have put in submissions? MARK VAILE: Well 70 percent of growers who put in submissions who appeared before our consultative process and that was right across Australia. LAURIE OAKES: That's nothing like the entirety of growers, is it? MARK VAILE: Well there have been other surveys conducted and very, very clear messages sent through that consultative process, through other surveys that have been conduced, and certainly through the key farm organisations from across Australia. LAURIE OAKES: Mr Tuckey commented on the point you just made when he said the National Party has become the coalition's ACTU. In other words he is suggesting that you claim to represent all farmers but you only represent a minority. MARK VAILE: Well all sorts of people make all sorts of comments about those involved in the political process, and that's what the game is all about Laurie, but at the end of the day the government has taken a decision that's in the interests of the entire wheat industry and particularly the wheat growers. LAURIE OAKES: Well if I could get you to put your Transport Minister's hat on and talk about the aftermath of the failed Qantas take over bid. You wrote to Qantas three weeks ago asking for clarification of whether the airline had breached its 49 percent foreign ownership cap. Have you got a reply? MARK VAILE: I've written again in this last week to the chairman of the board seeking the same information. I'm aware that there has been post the lapsed bid, if you like, from APA, significant movement in shares and in the last week that would indicate that the register is being moved back into compliance with the Qantas sales Act. But in answer to your question, Laurie, I think that from my position there needs to be a better system in place with electronic registers and the like aVaileable today that we can have a company like Qantas manage its share register better and almost on a weekly basis to ensure that it is compliant. I believe it's moving back into that situation now but I'm awaiting for final confirmation from Qantas. LAURIE OAKES: Is it true that Qantas has no computerised way of checking on this? They have to look at every individual shareholding? MARK VAILE: I understand that there are some manual processes that they go through but the point I'm making is that I don't see any reason why a company like Qantas can't have a much faster and quicker response time in terms of these issues. I mean the one thing through this whole process that the Government has maintained is that the company must remain compliant with the Qantas Sale Act and that's about foreign ownership. They were able to do it in 1994 – '95, after it was first floated. It actually went over the cap and was brought back. And there is a mechanism for making those adjustments, but I think that the company could be moving a little bit quicker than what they are to make sure they remain compliant. LAURIE OAKES: All right, now petrol prices are a big issue. The Labor Party announced yesterday it would give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission new powers to crack down on petrol price gouging. Will the Government match that? MARK VAILE: Well from my position Laurie, the ACCC already has significant powers of monitoring and being able to take action. A couple of years ago they took action, I think in a number of different cases and actually won in the court, in the Federal Court, were able to have about $23 million worth of fines applied. Now I'm not sure what the Labor Party is suggesting. Whether they may be suggesting they go right back to actually intervening and setting prices. That may be what they're suggesting, but the ACCC has significant powers already. We extended those recently so that they monitor the sale of ethanol blended fuel as well to ensure the price competitiveness of that particular product as well. LAURIE OAKES: Wayne Swan says at present the ACCC can only look behind the closed doors of petrol company pricing, if the Treasurer gives a written direction which he's never done. And Labor says they would give the ACCC full powers to exercise that kind of power whenever it sees fit. MARK VAILE: Well my understanding is the ACCC if there is evidence of price fixing or collusion can get any entity, particularly the oil companies in Australia, into the Federal Court and start put that information forward as is the case now. And those court cases that I mentioned going back 12 or so months ago they did that on a number of occasions and were able to win and have $23 million worth of fines applied to those companies. LAURIE OAKES: What are you going to do about petrol prices? For example, are you going to look at excise? MARK VAILE: We did that, as you recall back in 2001, we froze the indexation of excise. LAURIE OAKES: It helped you win the election. MARK VAILE: Yes but excise has not moved since 2001. If you applied the CPI inflater through those years it would be significantly higher now. Last year during the peak in oil prices and as a result of a hurricane Katrina in the United States, there was a spike in petrol prices in Australia. We provided assistance and support for more service station across Australia to sell E10 blended fuels, ethanol blended fuels, and we provided an incentive if they discounted those fuels. And what that has done Laurie is where E10 blended fuels are aVaileable they're generally three cents a litre cheaper. We now have I think about 560 outlets across Australia that are selling ... LAURIE OAKES: You're disappointed with that, aren't you? MARK VAILE: Yeah, well it hasn't happened quickly enough and I delivered that message to the oil companies but also to major retailers like Coles and Woolworths. They have a responsibility in this as well, as having a significant share of the retail market to ensure that ethanol blended fuels are aVaileable in their outlets at a cheaper price so they can provide that at three cents a litre cheaper to assist motorists, and it would be good if we could see Coles and Woolworths by the end of this year have a couple of hundred sites each selling ethanol blended fuels. LAURIE OAKES: When you and the Prime Minister first met the oil companies to discuss this blended fuel idea, Coles and Woolworths weren't invited as I recall because at that stage they weren't the dominant players they are now. Are you going to get together with them and try to twist their arms? MARK VAILE: That's true, at the end of 2005 when the Prime Minister and I met the oil majors Coles and Woolworths didn't have the position that they have now, and certainly we want to maintain and continue the dialogue with the industry from refiners right through to retailers and it is about ensuring that we achieve our objective of 350 million litres of biofuels by 2010. Now the oil industry through the oil majors is committed to do that. In the last 12 months a lot of heavy lifting has been done by the independents. The message we wanted to continue to send to the oil companies and to major retailers like Coles and Woolworths that we are serious about achieving this target and we expect them to participate and provide assistance in achieving that target. LAURIE OAKES: The final issue. Is the National Party headed for annihilation at the election or is it just the Liberals? MARK VAILE: Well I think that the comment that you're referring to Laurie is … LAURIE OAKES: The Prime Minister's comment. MARK VAILE: … is the Prime Minister's comment. It was an accurate reflection of the circumstances of the polls as they are today and there's no point in trying to gild the lily on this, that those polls if they ultimately materialised at election time would see a significant impact on the Government and our numbers and our members. What we will continue to do between now and election day is to prosecute the case for good policy as we have done over the last 10 or 11 years. There'll be no complacency, there will be no knee-jerk reactions, we'll continual to deliver good policy to the Australian people that has put us in a position to deliver the sort of Budget that we did this year which is quite significant, and that is about locking in prosperity for the future. LAURIE OAKES: Do you think it will work? Do you think you can win the election? MARK VAILE: Well that's a matter for the Australian people Laurie, and we have an enormous amount of faith in their judgment. All we can do is continue to deliver the message of what it takes to deliver good economic management, what it takes to maintain a competitive Australia in the sort of global economy that we're competing in today. LAURIE OAKES: Mr Vaile, we thank you. MARK VAILE: Thanks Laurie. Click here to read Laurie Oakes' exclusive column on ninemsn News. |
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