It was almost 30 years ago, more or less the same time that Senator Arthur Sinodinos entered the trying world of politics, that James Carville, a senior campaign strategist of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign against George W Bush senior, coined the phrase ‘it’s the economy, stupid’ as one of the main slogans of the 1992 election campaign.
While political campaign slogans come and go in the blink of an eye, this one managed, for obvious reasons, to withstand the test of time. It’s the slogan that Senator Sinodinos and his party did not endorse literally, but if we cut through the frivolities and the pandemonium of words that goes part and parcel with an election campaign, the main issue that the Coalition has run this election campaign on is the economy. It is an issue that Senator Sinodinos knows better than most. After all, his début in the political race back in the late 1980s was as a senior economic adviser for former prime minister John Howard while he was in opposition.
Sinodinos managed to remain out of the limelight as a political figure for a number of years but was always an insider. In 1997, the newly-elected PM, John Howard, chose him to lead his office as chief of staff, a position he held for nine years. His expertise, economic acumen, aptitude and intelligence were highly regarded by the former PM and the Liberal party, in which he later held a number of high-powered positions.
His time to enter frontline politics came in 2011, when he replaced the departing Liberal senator for NSW, Helen Coonan.
Since then, while never a stranger to controversy (as the former chairman of infrastructure company Australian Water Holdings), Mr Sinodinos remains one of most sought-after figures of his party as a whole, and its leadership team in particular. Besides the fact that he holds the position of cabinet secretary in the Turnbull government, since the start of the election campaign Senator Sinodinos became a key part of Mr Turnbull’s strategy team and these days he hits the election trail next to the chief.
There is no doubt that he is the most powerful Greek Australian politician in the country. No doubt, also, that if the Coalition returns to government and Sinodinos is re-elected as a NSW senator, he will hold a very vital position in the next government of Australia.
Neos Kosmos posed a number of questions to Mr Sinodinos relating not to the economy per se, but to the effects it has on some of the most vulnerable members of our community.
We also questioned him on issues relating to the future of Greek language programs in the public school system, the status of the Work and Holiday Visa agreement with Greece, and last but not least, on issues that touch upon the foreign policy of Australia and are of great interest to our community, such as the Cyprus and FYROM naming disputes.
It must be recognised that Mr Sinodinos’ high level of commitment to the Greek Australian community, and a long-standing position at that, was reaffirmed once again throughout this discussion.
Senator Sinodinos, it is widely acknowledged that young people have turned their backs on the election. This, however, does not apply to the older generation of citizens, who to a certain extent remain engaged in the political process. On behalf of this group in our community, i.e. pensioners, I would like you to respond to their frustration and indignation over the changes to the assets test from January 1, 2017, which your government legislated for, and as a result, will see their pension depressed. Also, your government promotes the reduction of the period that they can receive their full pension while overseas from 26 to six weeks.
I will begin with pensions in general. Our policy is not to change the way that pensions are indexed and it is important that people understand that we are not proposing to reduce pensions or change the way in which the price increases are measured. What we wanted to do, though, with the changes that were in the budget last year, was in situations where people had the capacity to look after themselves. To make sure that the rules around the pensions reflect that, so we have more money available for those pensioners on low incomes who can’t look after themselves. So that was the background for the changes last year and more than 90 per cent of pensioners are not affected by those changes in the assets test. Only those with higher assets will be affected.
In relation to the changes to do with being overseas for a particular period, I should emphasise that, that measure was not taken targeting one group of pensioners particularly, as we have been accused of. It was part of a sweep of changes we were looking at, to help strengthen the basic pension system and to find ways to pay for it. That’s why my undertaking to you and the readers of Neos Kosmos is that if any hardship issues arise, we were willing to look into it. And I can say that the minister for social services will look into hardship cases.
Last week The Australian, assisted by the comments of the Social Services Minister Christian Porter, went ‘pensioner bashing’. The fundamental argument in the article was that the taxpayer should not fork out millions of dollars to pay pensions to expatriates who live permanently overseas. In that article there were some worrying comments about Greek Australians who receive their Australian pension in Greece. These people do not do anything illegal. Their pension payment abides by the rules and regulations of the Social Security agreement between Australia and Greece. Are there any plans for these rules to change so Australia can reduce their pension entitlement?
There is no plan to change the agreement we have in place with other countries. In fact with the Australian Greek Social Security agreement this was negotiated a few years ago. It is not an inundated one, so I do not think there are any plans to change that. The main plan is to make sure that it operates as effectively as possible.
Your decision to freeze the Medicare rebate for four more years is another issue of concern for many. They worry that GPs would be forced to charge a larger gap to fee-paying patients or choose to bulk bill fewer patients. Can you guarantee that this measure will not hit the hip pocket of the vulnerable, meaning older age patients and families?
Let me answer that in two parts. The first is the rate of bulk billing, which now is 84 per cent. It’s the highest it’s ever been, from memory. It was something like an average of 79 per cent under the previous Labor government up until 2013. So the rate of bulk billing in the last three four years had gone up. We take into account that this can reflect on other factors, like where people live, for example. If you can live in an area with a lot of doctors and more competition, it is more likely you get bulk billed. If you live in a regional or rural area there are more challenges. What we are saying is yes, it is possible some doctors may want to raise their fees, but other doctors who bulk bill would potentially see an opportunity to increase the number of customers they have and bulk bill. So we are continuing a policy that Labor started to freeze the rebate, which we will monitor. But today the bulk billing rate over the last four years when the rebate was frozen has gone up rather than down and that indicates to us that the balance is right. My point also is that if people go to a doctor who suddenly starts charging, they should choose another doctor. Because in the area there will be potentially other doctors who will be willing to take on more patients at the bulk billing rate. The thing is, I can’t guarantee what an individual doctor might do.
The Greek language managed to make it into the National Curriculum, though the community is still wondering if that achievement had any meaningful value, since the Greek language programs in the public school sector are disappearing one after the other.
This particular issue is one I hold very close to my heart and I can give you my personal commitment that I will follow through and see what can be done. I am all for pursuing this and I will as someone of Greek Australian background. I can’t give you a promise on the spot of how or what could be done as I have to talk with my colleagues.
What is going on with that long-forgotten agreement regarding the Work and Holiday Visa for young Greek nationals?
As I understand it, the Australian side implemented our side of the agreement and the relevant arrangements. We are waiting for the Greek government to implement the agreement in their own immigration system, so what we will do after the election is to put more pressure on Greece to expedite that so we can get people in as soon as we can.
Senator can you give our readers the undertaking that as far as the FYROM and Cyprus issues, a future Turnbull government, irrelevant to the pressures that it receives from time to time, will adhere to its current policy?
Nothing is going to change in our policy in these issues.
And last but not least, Senator, why should voters vote for the Liberal party?
The Greek community for more than 60 years has made a big contribution to the development of Australia and this was recognised by governments of all sides of politics. Particularly we recognise the contribution of the older generation, those who came after the war, for example, who worked in the manufacturing industry and in small business and all the rest of it and they, as much as any other migrant group, helped to build the Australian economy of today.
Our challenge is to take the Australian economy to the next stage and we believe that the Coalition of Liberal-National parties has the policy to do that. The sort of enterprise, the sort of initiative that Greek migrants showed in coming to Australia, is what we want to harness, to create this new Australian economy.
We also need to recognise and honour the service of previous generations by making sure that our pension system and our retirement income system and the other ways which help the older Australians cater to the particular needs of migrants and others who made such a contribution to be this, the best country in the world.