MIKE CARLTON: Julia Gillard is the Deputy Prime Minister and also the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. She's in our Canberra studio. Good morning.
JULIA GILLARD: Good morning.
MIKE CARLTON: Not a bad day for you yesterday, was it?
JULIA GILLARD: (laugh) Well, it was a somewhat confusing day. When Julie Bishop went out for her press conference, it was very difficult to work out what the Liberal Party was on about. Obviously they've been the bringers of Work Choices to this nation. They've been the continuing supporters of Work Choices. And I'd have to say, they've been the generator of a lot of Work Choices propaganda. I've been talking about booklets that we've had to go and pulp and a hundred thousand mouse pads that we found yesterday…
MIKE CARLTON: Mouse pads?
JULIA GILLARD: Work Choices…
MIKE CARLTON: What - Work Choices mouse pads?
JULIA GILLARD: I can send you one if you'd like one to …
MIKE CARLTON: I'd love one…
JULIA GILLARD: …adorn your computer.
MIKE CARLTON: I'd love one (laugh).
JULIA GILLARD: I think they're well on their way to becoming a collectors' item.
MIKE CARLTON: You should auction them off!
JULIA GILLARD: (laugh) Maybe we could, as a special government fundraiser. But the challenge for the Opposition now is to not go out to a press conference, but actually to do the right thing and to pass Labor's bill to end Australian Workplace Agreements before Easter.
MIKE CARLTON: That…
JULIA GILLARD: The Parliament is sitting a couple more weeks before Easter. They could have a Senate inquiry and still deal with the bill in that timeframe. But they've delayed dealing with the bill until the May-June sittings.
So rather than them supporting us and helping us get rid of Australian Workplace Agreements, they're basically guaranteeing that they can continue for a few more months.
MIKE CARLTON: They do want to toss out one amendment, apparently - to extend this, what do you call it? Period of grace, or whatever, from three to five years, is it? Is that right?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, Julie Bishop yesterday didn't, or maybe couldn't, properly explain this. It's not clear to me whether what they're trying to do is extend our transitional arrangements from two years to five years…
MIKE CARLTON: Yeah.
JULIA GILLARD: Or whether it's a rolling five years. So that you would extend statutory individual contracts until 2017. It wasn't really properly explained.
But, in any event, we won't be amending our legislation. Our legislation is exactly what we promised the Australian people in our policy documents. It's got a two year transition period because that's the time it will take to modernise Australia's awards; and to make sure our safety net, our award system is all in the right shape for the future.
SANDY ALOISI: So can you take us then through, briefly, the common law contracts that are going to replace the AWAs? What will they encapsulate for the workers?
JULIA GILLARD: Well common law contracts are part of our system now. But the central thing with a common law contract is it can only give you better than the safety net.
So under Labor, you will have a two-part safety net, if you earn less than $100,000 - and most people do. You'll have ten National Employment Standards and a modern, simple award. The common law contract can give you more than that, but it can never take any part of that safety net away.
The key difference with what the Liberal Party supports - Australian Workplace Agreements - is they are purpose-designed to override the safety net and to take parts of the safety net away.
So, common law contract, you always know - when you walk into your workplace, you're going to get the safety net or better. You'll never get a safety net minus something.
MIKE CARLTON: What's going to happen to all that network of Ombudsman and Authorities and so on that the Howard lot set up to police all this?
JULIA GILLARD: Yes, we do have a bit of an alphabet soup of agencies out there…
MIKE CARLTON: Yeah.
JULIA GILLARD: We've got the Workplace Authority and the Workplace Ombudsman and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and the list goes on.
We're intending to create one industrial umpire called Fair work Australia and it would be in business from the first of January 2010. So when we are talking about a two year transition period, we are talking about the period we are in now so this year and 2009. Every aspect of the old system dies if you like on the 31st December 2009; the new system is fully operational on the 1st of January 2010 including our new Industrial umpire Fair Work Australia. But from the date of passage of the bill before the Parliament now there will be no new Australian Workplace Agreements.
SANDY ALOISI: Can I say it changed tack quickly now and ask about the axing of this $1.2 billion program which had allowed schools across NSW to upgrade various facilities, what's going to happen to those facilities now, now that this money has been taken out of the loop?
JULIA GILLARD: Well this report is entirely wrong I regret to say…
MIKE CARLTON: Oh it couldn't be wrong it's in the Daily Telegraph.
JULIA GILLARD: Sometimes our friends at the newspapers make an error.
MIKE CARLTON: Sure.
JULIA GILLARD: Even sometimes our friends on radio make errors but we won't go there will we. The investing in our schools program was always a limited life program, a four year program. The Howard Government announced it in 2004, there is only money in the budget for the four years. When the Prime Minister, the former Prime Minister, John Howard announced the last round of funding he himself said that it; this is the final round of funding. What we are intending to do is to have a new investment strategy for our schools so we will have our $1 billion digital education revolution to get computers into classrooms and our $2.5 billion investment into trades trading centres. So investing in our schools is coming to an end as was always planned but there are exciting new programs that will make a real difference for children in classrooms and for the shape of our schools.
MIKE CARLTON: Alright now one of Kevin Rudd's pre-election promises was a computer for every child. You're going back on that now aren't you, its just access to a computer for every child, right?
JULIA GILLARD: We'll be providing resources to schools so that there can be computers for year 9 to 12 students. We are obviously leaving…
MIKE CARLTON: For every student?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, we are leaving it to the school how they do it , we are not mandating that every desk have a computer on it but we are saying the aim of the program is to make sure every student has access to a computer and that learning on a computer…
MIKE CARLTON: First change, 'cause the promise was a computer for every child so you've pulled back on that a little.
JULIA GILLARD: No, there will be sufficient resources so that schools can put a computer on each child's desk for years 9 to 12. Some schools will choose to do it differently, some schools are using different technology, they're using things called would you believe thin clients which are little keyboards that then relate to a server that's somewhere else. We are not mandating technology but we're mandating the outcome. And the outcome will be that year 9 to 12 students have computers embedded in the way they learn in a way that you know using pens and pencils in embedded in how people learn today.
MIKE CARLTON: Alright.
SANDY ALOISI: Can I just ask you about universities I see that the Universities Australia chief executive Glen Withers said that your education revolution will fall far short of what's needed in that sector to basically make up for years of neglect. What do you say to that?
JULIA GILLARD: We have got some important promises for universities, a big one is that we are going to phase out full fee paying degrees for Australian students. We want to make sure that Australian students go to university on the basis of merit not capacity to pay. We've also got a big new scholarship program for both undergraduates and post graduates because we understand that getting to university can be very tough for people. We want to keep talking to our university sector about the shape of higher education in this country. We understand that they are chaffing at the bit after 11 years of neglect and we understand they look at the rest of the world and they see other nations investing while this nation has been falling behind. So we will be working with them to do everything we can to improve higher education but there are some substantial promises on the table.
MIKE CARLTON: Now I've got to ask you this, umm on second thoughts Minister it might be better if Sandy asks you this.
SANDY ALOISI: I knew he would pass this one over to me, I know exactly what he wants to ask you, he wants to ask you about Ralph magazine. Naming you the runner up to Jennifer Hawkins as the sexiest woman of the year, see its something, women have to ask the hard questions, what do you think about that?
MIKE CARLTON: Are you aware of this?
JULIA GILLARD: Umm, I am aware of it. I am not a reader of Ralph magazine I'd like to make that clear I am sure many Australians do read Ralph magazine but I'm not one of them. I have been advised by my ever watchful media adviser that this is the situation and what I said to her when she advised me of it is I don't think people understand that I am probably two foot shorter than Jennifer Hawkins and double her body weight, so it does seem like a fairly unusual result .
MIKE CARLTON: The aphrodisiac of power do you think?
JULIA GILLARD: I really wouldn't want to comment on that but I would cheerfully agree the Jennifer is a very attractive woman
MIKE CARLTON: Wonderful, apparently they offered $50,000 if you would pose in a bikini?
JULIA GILLARD: Yes and I saved the Australian people from that.
MIKE CARLTON: You did a very diplomatic thing (inaudible).
SANDY ALOISI: Notice I am not even entering into that, the whole thing.
I think you handled it beautifully.
MIKE CARLTON: I am a bit embarrassed myself and that doesn't happen often, good to talk to you.
JULIA GILLARD: Thank you very much.
MIKE CARLTON: Thanks for you time.
END