Interview with Liam and Robbie
Radio 96.5, Brisbane
20 July 2009
SUBJECTS: State of Origin; living in Brisbane; visit to Wollongong, Lismore and Grafton; notable treasurers; homelessness and Blankets for Brisbane
LIAM:
A very special guest who joins us right now, we're actually very privileged that he joins us on a regular basis, he has been in a few times, on our show. The Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan joins us right now, good morning, how are you?
TREASURER:
Good morning, I'm great.
LIAM:
I know you've been back into town for a little while. You got to see a bit of the Origin last week. What's it like being home for a number of weeks?
TREASURER:
It's fantastic to be home. I love walking early in the morning. I was out and about around Shaw Park this morning pretty early. It was my daughter's birthday yesterday. She's twenty-five and she's flying out of Brisbane to New York today. So it was good to be home and good to give her a big hug before she left this morning.
LIAM:
How did you celebrate her birthday? Was there a party at the Swan house on the weekend?
TREASURER:
We had a bit of a party. I took her out to dinner and we had the cake. Her Mum baked the chocolate cake that she really likes, so there was plenty of activity and it was a good time.
LIAM:
Tell us about your time at the Origin the other night, because I thought I had good seats in the grandstand. Robbie was there on Friday watching the Broncos. You were sitting there with the 'FOG's' - the Former Origin Greats.
TREASURER:
That's right.
LIAM:
Drop some names. Who were you sitting with at the football?
TREASURER:
There was a lot of them around. Gene Miles was there, but plenty of them from the past. I ran into Greg Oliphant, he was there. Lots of others. Sam Backo, I shook hands with at one stage.
LIAM:
He almost break your hand did he?
TREASURER:
Well, yeah absolutely.
TREASURER:
Yeah, there were plenty of them there.
LIAM:
You don't spend as much time in Brisbane as you'd like. What do you miss about our great city? You spend a lot of time back and forth, travelling and in Canberra. What do you miss about Brisbane?
TREASURER:
I just miss being home. I love the place, I like to get out and about. I didn't to get to go up to the coast on the weekend but I would have loved to have gone for a surf. When the weather is twenty degrees, it would have been pretty good. Just being home, catching up with the family and catching up with a few friends.
LIAM:
All the good stuff.
ROBBIE:
So you're on a break now from Parliament? They call it a winter break, is that right?
TREASURER:
Yeah they call it the winter break. It's our opportunity to get out and about and get around the country, because when you're in Canberra when the Parliament's sitting or when you're a minister and you have you deal with your department and see all those delegations that are coming through and so on, I mean you're pinned down in Canberra. And what I really love is getting out and about, so the week before last I was out and about. I went to Wollongong, I went to Lismore, I went to Grafton and did a variety of functions there.
The most important thing about being a representative and particularly about being a minister is you have to be out and about talking to people. Talking to people in their situations, their neighbourhood, in their business or where they live.
LIAM:
I noticed that you had a birthday, happy birthday for a few weeks ago by the way.
TREASURER:
Yeah, I'm getting on.
LIAM:
I did see that. This is possibly the big awkward Parliament moment. We will bring it up. We noticed that there was a big room full of people and Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, was there and he led the singing for your birthday. And come on be honest, it's just us here Wayne. Was that not the worst ever rendition of happy birthday?
TREASURER:
I thought it was fantastic, come on.
LIAM:
No, really? It was spoken.
ROBBIE:
It's the thought that counts.
TREASURER:
We were actually down in Logan City, because we were at a Community Cabinet meeting and there was five hundred people from that local area down there in Beenleigh. I thought it went very well. You're very harsh.
LIAM:
Did he get you a present? What does the Prime Minister buy the Treasurer for a birthday present?
TREASURER:
Well, we had a cake in the cabinet meeting beforehand, so there you go.
ROBBIE:
It must be hard, with that in mind, I mean the press had a little bit of a field day with that and it was a bit of fun. What's it like being in the public eye knowing that something like that, for Prime Minister Rudd – he was just trying to do the right thing.
TREASURER:
Look, I laughed along like everybody else and the National Press Gallery as well. I mean Laurie Oakes had pictures of Marilyn Monroe jumping out of a birthday cake. I thought that was pretty funny.
ROBBIE:
So, I suppose it's how you take it.
LIAM:
At least he remembered which was nice.
TREASURER:
The thing about celebrating a birthday is that you celebrate the privilege of being alive and everything that comes with it. It's better than the options. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
LIAM:
I noticed that Peter Costello is stepping aside soon and it got me thinking last night about great treasurers of years gone by. Have you got one that you look up to? Is there a treasurer from years ago that you thought, now that you have got the job yourself, actually I really like them, I thought they did a really good job?
TREASURER:
Look, I think there are people from both sides of politics that you respect. We all have our political differences with the other side, but the important thing is you talk to people and you give them the respect they are due. And anyone who has served for a long time in a particular job is deserving of respect.
But there are a number of people I look up to in politics over the years. Some of the great people like Chifley and Curtin come to mind immediately. Someone who did a great job in really difficult circumstances and has been a particular mentor of mine was Bill Hayden, the former Foreign Minister and Treasurer many governments ago. People who serve in public life, put in the hours, put in the effort, are deserving of respect.
LIAM:
We're in the middle of 96.5's Blankets for Brisbane. We are collecting blankets for the rest of this week to give to the homeless, the elderly and refugees. And I know that Wayne was in town last week and he rang and said ‘I want to be a part of this, what a great idea'. He came in today with a blanket, it's a really nice, big, blue blanket that you've brought in this morning as well. It's one of the biggest ones that we've actually seen. Thankyou so much for bringing that in. We really appreciate your support.
TREASURER:
Thankyou.
LIAM:
It's a need in this city. I know that I have heard that the Government is actually giving a lot of money this year to homeless projects. You would see a lot that we don't see. What's the situation like?
TREASURER:
Well, in a county such as ours, having as many homeless aw we do, is something that we have to be absolutely focussed on. We should be able to do a lot better and there are too many people in that situation.
So we sat down when we were elected and started working with the state governments and also the community sector to come up with a response to homelessness, and we produced a white paper. We've now sat down with the state governments through our COAG process, and we are working on a plan which we are implementing as we go through the next few years.
There is a very big commitment from the Commonwealth Government to housing in particular and also social housing. You see it in many of the initiatives that have been put forward, some of which we have been able to do also through economic stimulus. But also very particular initiatives which are run by the church and charitable sector who are so important in this country when we are working with people who are suffering particular disadvantages – whether it's homelessness or whether it's people who've come here from another country and are refugees and are trying to settle, whether it is people who are afflicted by mental illness for example, which brings with it a whole set of disadvantages including homelessness. So that's when you get the great church and charitable sector who do such good work. And we have to make sure that the policies that we put forward in response to something like homelessness mean that we can work with that sector.
And of course this appeal is being done with Spiritus who do great community work here in Brisbane and in particular on the Northside, whether it's residential aged care, or what it's doing over in Nundah in terms of homelessness and so on. It's good to be involved with them.
LIAM:
Do you think this is a fixable problem? Are we ever going to ever get to a point, and I think we all know the answer is no, are we ever going to be able to fix the fact that there so many in need?
TREASURER:
Well, what we have to do is make sure that in terms of the facilities that we provide by way of response to this disadvantage, that they are there and can be accessed. Because you can never do anything about it unless you do two things; one, you put in place a set of long-term policies that are addressed to the causes of the disadvantage and the homelessness that comes with it, and that is a long-term response which can't just come overnight. And it encompasses a whole range of policies to do with community welfare; what we do to support families particularly when their children are young.
I'm a great believer in the early years agenda and providing support, particularly early services- what are termed early intervention services- for families when children are very young. Because a lot of disadvantage that comes to somebody in their life will have its origins in events in their community, in their household much earlier in life. So if we can deal with the causes of that disadvantage at that stage, then we can do something in the long term.
But what do we do in the short-term? What we do in the short term therefore is we provide the sort of facilities that need to be there for people who are homeless.
LIAM:
We were talking earlier, something as simple as giving someone a blanket, obviously there is the physical side that they are cold and they need blankets, but also there is the inspirational side of it that they actually feel that someone actually cares for me enough to give me a blanket, that it actually could turn them around. Do you agree?
TREASURER:
I certainly would, but also the person that participates in providing the help is also the winner.
LIAM:
That's right.
TREASURER:
Because what we need as a community is a set of values here, where we recognise that if someone isn't doing well in our community, we all lose from that as well.
LIAM:
Yes, yes
TREASURER:
So in helping someone else, at the end of the day we help one another and I think that is a very important part of it. So part of community-building, part of building a stronger local community, part of building a stronger society, is people giving of themselves, because at the end of the day we all have a responsibility to one another.
ROBBIE:
And we do have a lot to give from don't we?
TREASURER:
Sure, we do, we're a wealthy country.
LIAM:
I mean, globally speaking we are in the richest people in the world, so we do have a lot to give.
LIAM:
We're hoping that this is just the kicks-start we need, that people in Brisbane will go well hang on Wayne Swan has put his money where his mouth is and he's actually brought in a big beautiful, woven, cotton blanket today. Last week we did the head count and four hundred blankets in just one week.
ROBBIE:
Pretty good.
LIAM:
Which I think is a massive number. Four hundred individual people said we are going to give blankets and provide hope to this city. One more week of collections. It's with our delivery partners at Spiritus. You can drop them off at any Spiritus location, any Quest newspaper. Or this is easy too; Wayne has actually physically brought in the blanket, but you can buy one online, the prices are on our website. You go click, I'll have that, a couple of dollars on your credit card and you have bought a blanket from 96five.com. We wholeheartedly want to thank you for bringing in a blanket, very impressed. It's a nice blanket too, this will keep a family warm. It's one of the biggest blankets we've seen. Thankyou so much.
How long are you in town for, before you've got to go back and do all the stuff you've got to do?
TREASURER:
I'm off to Sydney on Wednesday but I'm here for the rest of the week. And at the end of the week my wife and I are having a day or two – it's a delayed twenty-fifth wedding anniversary weekend.
ROBBIE:
Oh great.
LIAM:
Great to see you mate. I know you have been very supportive of our show. Say hi to your family for us, have a good break and thankyou so much for being part of our blanket drive. We really appreciate it.
