Doorstop interview: Tax cuts

SENATOR DOUG CAMERON, SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR SKILLS, TAFE AND APPRENTICESHIPS I note more chaos in the government this morning where Kelly O’Dwyer has been overruled; a cabinet decision has been overruled on payday lenders and rent to buy legislation.

 

I moved rent to buy legislation in the Senate in the last Parliament, it went down to the House of Reps and wasn’t forthcoming – the government just ignored it.

 

These are some of the poorest people, the most vulnerable people in our country being ripped off by these payday lenders and rent to buy organisations. And if Kelly O’Dwyer, after getting it through cabinet is overturned by the extremists in the Liberal Party it just demonstrates how out of touch this government is.

 

It’s a government that just can’t get its act together, it’s a government that is so consumed by its internal brawling that it can’t deliver on decent legislation for ordinary Australians around the country.

 

JOURNALIST Senator what do you make of reports this morning that the government might be looking at its second tranche of tax cuts incrementally. Is that something that might appease Labor?

CAMERON: Well what the government says on tax you just cannot believe. This is a government whose economic policies have been absolutely abysmal. It’s a government that one minute is saying that they want an increased GST, then they want to hand powers to the States, then they go for tax cuts for big business. $65 billion  at a time when most people are battling, when you need more funding in the health system, more funding in the education system.

I don’t believe anything this rabble of a government does in terms of economic policy. They are economic illiterates. They are ruled by the small group of extremists in the party and that’s demonstrated by Kelly O’Dwyer getting rolled this morning and I just think it’s unacceptable.

 

And when you see more right wing extremists like Jim Molan coming in and running the line that he was running on his Facebook, I am not surprised he got rid of his Facebook because this was outrageous what he was supporting, the groups he was supporting and the stuff that he was pushing around.

 

He is not a General anymore, he is a backbench Liberal MP and he should do the right thing and that is apologise to this country for what he was pushing around in his website.  

 

His views are not welcome or this approach in Parliament and I just think he should get out and apologise today.

 

JOURNALIST: Do you think Barnaby Joyce should remain the Deputy Prime Minister?

CAMERON: That’s a matter for the Coalition but certainly Malcolm Turnbull needs to get his act together and needs to make sure that there is a clear and unequivocal statement about what Barnaby Joyce has been doing in terms of expenditure of public funds. That’s the key issue.

 

JOURNALIST: Just on a more positive note, wondering if you might have any goals this year that you want to hopefully achieve?

 

CAMERON: Personally? Well always looking after working class people and keeping this terrible government to account. I mean we are in February now and they are just going from one crisis to another. This is a government that has run its race. This is a Prime Minister who is so weak and so jelly backed that he can’t stand up for the right things for ordinary Australian people.

 

So I want decent rights for workers at work, I want to make sure that the tax system works for ordinary working people and not just the big end of town and my key is to make sure that the $65 billion handout to Malcolm Turnbull’s mates is not the focus of this government, that we get a government that focuses on the key issues for ordinary Australians.