Interview with Emma Rebellato - ABC News Breakfast

EMMA REBELLATO, HOST: Look, we've got a lot to talk about this morning with politics. Also yesterday Australia's unemployment rate came out. Now that remains steady at 4.1 per cent for the month of October. So, the RBA is forecasting it could creep up to 4.3 per cent by the end of the year.
 
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Murray Watt, joins us now from Adelaide. Good morning to you, Murray Watt.
 
MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: G'day Emma, good to be with you.
 
EMMA REBELLATO: Look, I want to talk to you about the job figures in a moment, but we've had a couple of other stories first that I'd like to touch on. One of them is those political donations and those reforms that the Government is set to introduce next week. Why now? What's been the impetus to bring in these reforms now?
 
MURRAY WATT: Well, I think, Emma, that this is an issue that many Australians have been concerned about for quite some time now. We don't want to go down the American path where we can see rich individuals effectively buy elections, and the amount of money that is being spent on elections, even in Australia, keeps increasing year on year.
 
We have been working on this for some time. There was a joint Parliamentary Inquiry that looked into these matters about electoral reform, and we've taken on board some of the recommendations of that inquiry to put together a proposal for the Parliament to consider, which is really about trying to regulate and put some limits around the amount that people can be spending on political campaigns.
 
We are seeing an increasing arms race when it gets to political donations and the amount of money that's being spent on election campaigns, and I think all Australians have an interest in trying to keep big money out of politics, try to keep it clean and try to make sure that this actually functions as a democracy where everyone's vote counts rather than just the richest people in our communities.
 
EMMA REBELLATO: What do you expect the reception to be on this? We understand that the Coalition is likely to give bipartisan support, but the crossbench perhaps won't support some of these reforms. What are you expecting in Parliament next week?
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah. So the plan at this stage is to introduce the legislation into Parliament next week, Emma, and you're right, we have had extensive discussions with the Coalition over quite a long time now, and there is an in‑principle agreement for these reforms. I wouldn't say that they have agreed to every single detail, and there no doubt will be continued negotiations.
 
The crossbench's position is a little bit more unclear. Of course there are some crossbench members who have benefitted significantly from extremely large donations from particular individuals, and have been able to spend very large amounts of money on an individual seat.
 
What we're trying to do here is to bring in caps around how much can be spent on a particular seat, and that would apply to the large parties, just as it would to Independents, and also put some limits on the kind of level of donations that individuals or companies or unions can make to favour particular candidates.
 
EMMA REBELLATO: Another story that's happened overnight is regarding the UN. So Australia's broken ranks with the US and Israel voting in favour of a draft UN resolution recognising permanent sovereignty of Palestinians to natural resources. Can you explain why the shift; why has Australia changed its position on this issue?
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I guess in the end, Emma, it comes down to the fact that I think most people want to see change in the Middle East. We want to see an end to the terrible violence and the terrible casualties that we see there. But the reality is that no country acting on its own, whether it be Australia or anyone else, is able to influence what's going on there. So we think the best way of trying to drive forward with peace, which I think, as I say, most people want to see, is by working with other like‑minded countries.
 
Now there were over 150 other countries who voted for this resolution, including the UK, Germany and many other countries with very similar views to Australia, and there are issues when it comes to settler violence against Palestinians around the control of resources by Palestinians in the Palestinian‑occupied territories. So we think this is a resolution worth supporting. It may not be that we agree with every single word in that resolution, but when you've got 150 other countries moving, we think that that is the best way to try to achieve change as well.
 
EMMA REBELLATO: Let's talk about something that's within your portfolio now, and that is the unemployment rate which came out yesterday. Now we're seeing that it remained steady, the number of jobs grew, but also the number of people looking for work. What are you expecting overcoming months?
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, I think everyone has been predicting for some time, Emma, that we would see a softening in the labour market because the economy is still quite soft at the moment, and this is one of the challenges that we've faced as a government, is how can we continue to drive down inflation? Which of course, we are, having halved it since we came to office, while at the same time we don't want to tank the economy, and when the economic growth figures are still quite weak, we need to run that sort of balancing act.
 
So we were quite pleased to see a modest increase in the number of jobs created last month. We've managed to create more than 1 million jobs since coming to office, which is the most that any government has ever created in a single parliamentary term, but I think it would be reasonable to expect that the labour market will continue to soften, and we could see a slight uptick in the unemployment rate before too long.
 
EMMA REBELLATO: Murray Watt, we're about to speak to some colleagues across the ditch in New Zealand. We've seen what's happened in Parliament there yesterday, some extremely emotional and passionate scenes in Parliament, as they've debated a bill to reinterpret the Waitangi Treaty. Do you think scenes like that over in New Zealand will change the conversation, or influence the conversation here?
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I must admit I haven't seen that footage, Emma, I have heard about it, but I haven't seen the footage myself. Look, I think there are many Australians who care very deeply about the rights of our First Peoples, you know, of course Australians had their say on The Voice to Parliament in the recent Referendum, but I don't think that that means that the issue of reconciliation is closed in Australia.
 
That is something that our Government remains committed to working on with our First Peoples, and I think a lot of Australians support that as well. I probably won't comment on what's happened in New Zealand, 'cause it's their own affairs, but you know, it shows that these issues still really matter to people.
 
EMMA REBELLATO: Murray Watt, thank you very much for joining us.
 
MURRAY WATT: Thanks, Emma.
 
EMMA REBELLATO: And no doubt it's said to be a couple of very busy weeks when Parliament resumes on Monday.
 
MURRAY WATT: For sure, look forward to it.
 
EMMA REBELLATO: Thank you.