Michael Smith: Barnaby Joyce has floated an idea today that might get a lot of people’s hackles up. It’s been reported this way but the good man will we explain it himself. It’s been reported this way in a lot of the press. Aborigines who work in impoverished communities should  not pay tax until they earn  $80,000a year says this report,   so aborigines  get free money up to $80,000.

 

Barnaby: It’s not just for Aboriginals, it’s for anyone living and working in impoverished communities. We’ve got areas such as Palm Island and the National Party has zonal taxation policy for years.

Michael:  Zonal means that in certain zones you pay less tax?

Barnaby: You get a rebate which is the equivalent of basally paying no tax on the first bit. The reason is Smithy is like, Palm Island for instance; we’ve got 68% unemployment there. The average income is 250 bucks or something and we’ve poured the social security money in and nothings ever changed. We haven’t actually got the economy going. We’ve got to think of something  different to  try to stimulate the  economic growth of the area and  try and get themselves  out of this social security trap which is costing money and the poverty trap which leads to all the other problems we’ve seen in different ways. These people say, we’re sick of “sorry” we want to economically develop and I think we should be doing what we can to stimulate that economic development. Now they’re in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, it’s surrounded by water so you can’t just have people walking down the street to exploit it. It’s for individuals who both work and live in the area not just aboriginals but individuals who work ands live in the area and if we can save ourselves some money, develop the economy of this place and create a solution where there is a problem, surely that’s a good idea?

Michael: Did you ever say to anyone on the media that aborigines should never pay tax till they get up to $80,000 a year?

Barnaby: No.

Michael: Well who is this stirrer? Who try to bloody….. I’ve got this bloke Evan Schwarten , I’ve an  AAP report and others in front of me  .. and they say this “Aborigines…

Barnaby:  I don’t know … I saw that myself and I thought no…. “Individuals….”

Michael: Why do they do this? Because I didn’t think that was like at all to say something like that….

Barnaby:  No, no, no, no, no ….It’s individuals….. In fact one of the attractions of this is how you get nurses, teachers, doctors to go these areas. You’re not going to get them to go in there if you say sorry mate it’s only if you are an aboriginal…

Michael: So it’s for remote  areas such as Palm island , if you want to go there and work and be a nurse , a teacher, a copper or something like that…..

Barnaby: Yeah exactly, a copper there is a classic one….

Michael: So you pay no tax, earn 80 grand and you pay no tax….

Barnaby:  Then after that you probably   incrementally go on like every one else…This is not rocker science… we’ve already got a zonal tax rebate in place it’s been there since 1947, it’s just we’ve not updated it in the last 60 years.

Michael: We’ve got an election going on, people are listening to everything that’s said by politicians, you’re the leader of your party in the Senate, the Nationals, is this coalition policy? Are you…

Barnaby: No it’s not coalition policy it’s National; Party Policy, but I want try to keep.. I want to push this along we‘ve got to do something different Smithy, we can’t just go  on the way we’re going and just lot of…places like Palm Island and  other remote area with high unemployment but a change of economic prosperity  can come with the right stimulation. That stimulation is going to come from people who earn money.

Remember, this costs us nothing if no one gets a job because it’s a rebate on what you earn on a wage. If you’ve got an area with 68% unemployment, you can bet your life it’s costing us a poultice on social security. This is a way out.

Michael: So what is the mechanism by the way you‘d get this up as a Liberal National Party Policy?

Barnaby:  The Australian people say, gee that‘s a good idea, let’s have a crack at that. How about the party’s pursue it and then with the public support of the idea we can go forward. Other wise, we go forward and continue to pay social security and I know your listeners won’t be very keen on that idea.

Michael: So the idea for my listeners to think about is that you can earn up to 80 grand a year in specific remote areas that we want to see populated, or for people to go and work in…

Barnaby: You’d have to both live and work in the area. Your example of the policeman is a good one, the teacher is a good one. The example of people on the island is, they set up a tourism business, attract people out there and while they’re working and living there, they get the advantage of it. This is the sort of way we can create economic growth for the area and maybe make like easier for all the people living in the island and all the other problems that in the past have been associated with it.

Michael: Well good on you for bring an idea out for discussion. Barany Joyce, thank you.