TOM ELLIOTT:     

Our next guest is the Minister for Industry in the Federal Parliament. Greg Hunt, good afternoon.

GREG HUNT:         

And good afternoon Tom, and I know that desal plant well because I said at the time it was going to be a white elephant. It's literally a couple of hundred metres outside of my electorate and it's been there for a long while and as far as I'm aware, it's yet to produce a meaningful drop of water.

TOM ELLIOTT:     

Well, it has produced some drops of water. Whether they have meaning or not I guess is a different issue.

Now, firstly, can I ask you, we've been having a discussion about ugly Australians overseas. Six young Australians at Malaysian Grand Prix are in prison because they stripped down to their Malaysian flag themed undies.

One of them is an adviser to your colleague Christopher Pyne, his name is Jack Walker. What's going to happen to him when he eventually comes back to Australia?

GREG HUNT:         

Look, the first thing is that everyone, everyone has to abide by the law in other countries and there is a long history that Australians will be treated exactly as domestic citizens are when they're in other countries.

So, in other words, don't think just because you're an Australian if you're in Bali, if you're in Phuket, if you're in Malaysia, if you're anywhere that you'll be given light treatment or that the rules don't apply.

The second, I'll be a little bit cautious because I don't want to rush to any judgement but we have a particular duty as Australians to uphold not just the overseas law but standards internationally and I’ve got no more detail than is in the public domain, so we just have to abide by the law.

TOM ELLIOTT:

Well, okay, from a general perspective though, I know that you've travelled overseas a fair bit.

My experience of Australians overseas is that too many of us tend to play up to national stereotypes about being like ocker and being like Barry McKenzie and drinking too much and then chundering in the gutter and so forth.

Do you think that Australians tend to act badly when they're overseas?

GREG HUNT:         

No, look, the vast majority of Australians are tremendous ambassadors for the country.

TOM ELLIOTT:

Oh they're not tremendous ambassadors.

GREG HUNT:

I used to have responsibility for consular issues when I was the Assistant Minister, or the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs.

No, the vast majority do. Some think that when they go on holidays, the laws go on holidays and the laws do not go on holiday.

So, they apply to you and we see too many cases of young Australians who are the absolute minority but they think that they can do things abroad that they can't do in Australia or that they can flout particular countries' laws because they may be different to Australia.

The laws of that country apply to you, the cultural sensitivities of that country apply to you, and our focus right now is frankly consular assistance to help these people.

TOM ELLIOTT:     

Alright, well, I must say they've certainly flouted the Malaysian laws. Social media's pretty split on this issue. Some Malaysians say it was just light-hearted and funny, others say it is insulting the Malaysian flag. I guess we'll find out in the next few days.

Okay, another thing that's happened here in Victoria this morning, of course, is that the draft Infrastructure Victoria plan has been announced. I've already spoken to the state Roads Minister Luke Donnellan about it. What do you think?

I mean, they talk about completing the Ring Road, which I think is a good idea, they suggest that one day we should reconsider East West Link, a train out to the airport is talked about.

What do you make of it, Mr Hunt?

GREG HUNT:         

So, the first thing is of course there was this proposal for a $5 commuter tax which over the course of a week, you know, if it applies one way is $25, over the course of a year that's a massive amount for many people, often on lower incomes if they're travelling a long distance and they've got petrol prices.

I do not support gated communities or that sort of tax which essentially is on the commuter and it frequently is on the lower incomes.

On the roads and the transport, in October I set out what I thought was the long-term approach from a federal level for Melbourne and Victoria and there are some things that I agree with, absolutely.

I think, you know, the bell has been tolled on East West Link. It is overdue, it's necessary, it's been perhaps diplomatically framed in this but it's clear that the authors think that we need an East West Link.

TOM ELLIOTT:     

Well, to be fair, they said that the most pressing road, or the road spend with the greatest return, is finishing the Ring Road. They talk about needing East West Link in the next 15 to 30 years.

GREG HUNT:         

The other big things that I talked about myself were the cross city-rail tunnel, the cross-city road tunnel, and the missing quarter of the Ring Road, which is exactly what's here so I think that you put those three big things together and you have the heart of a Melbourne transport plan, something that doesn't help just Melbourne but all of Victoria.

So the cross-city tunnel, e.g. the East West Link, the Metro Tunnel, which I think there's support for from federal and state level, and I'm very glad to see that there is support for the Ring Road to completed.

Unfortunately, they blew $1.2 billion as we now know on East West Link, I still think that there is a very strong case, and we have $1.5 billion available, but the missing quadrant is a very good suggestion.

TOM ELLIOTT:     

Alright, well that's good. So there's agreement on both sides of politics there. Now, the banking inquiry began today.

I hear that the Commonwealth Bank's CEO Ian Narev appeared in front of a Parliamentary Committee. I don't believe you're on the committee, but what have you heard? How did it go? What has been learnt from it?

GREG HUNT:         

Look, I think what you find is that you have a mix with the Australian banks. I think the public inquiry is very important because it holds them to account.

I think going forward you've got a very strong basis for account and it builds on a series of actions that we've taken, including reviewing ASIC and we've put in, which is the corporate regulator, we've backed that up with $127 million to really crack down on any corporate activities that are inappropriate.

TOM ELLIOTT:     

Yeah, but do you think there's anything broken about the banking system right now that requires government intervention to fix it up?

GREG HUNT:         

I think you've got to keep vigilance but the idea of Bill Shorten to delay reform by a Royal Commission which would take three years, I think that's grandstanding, it doesn't actually fix anything.

Whereas what we've done is we've prepared legislation to make sure that consumers are protected in relation to life insurance advisors, that's due to be introduced this month, we've got the House Economics Committee that's working.

So we've got a series of things that are in train now rather than reviewing the past about things which essentially occurred on Labor's watch and delaying action.

TOM ELLIOTT:

Okay, but do you think something concrete will emerge out of the parliamentary inquiry into the banks, or is it just a sort of an annual talk-fest that'll take place?

GREG HUNT:         

Look, I think what it does is it compels the banks to explain and justify their decisions. It will put extra pressure on them in terms of interest rates.

I will say this, because I'm not into sort of trying to denounce one sector or another, that when you look around the world, it is far better to have profitable than unprofitable bank.

The global financial crisis came about because we had unprofitable banks. When we came in, we very specifically launched a financial systems inquiry which was a root and branch review.

Labor at the time, only three years ago, said that this wasn't necessary. So what we see is I think that by world standards, we have probably the world's best banking system, which ultimately secures Australian families and secures our economy.

It's one of the reasons why we were able to get through the global financial system. So I think we want to be very realistic about where we're at.

By global standards, right at the top. By absolute standards, we're always pushing to make it better.

TOM ELLIOTT:     

And very quickly, sadly Ford is going to close forever, local manufacturing of cars, this coming Friday at 10am. A sad day for Australian manufacturing?

GREG HUNT:         

Yes, it is. It is a disappointment, and the message that comes out of it, though, is that we've got to be world-class competitive.

We're doing things and we're very engaged in a $185 million plan to assist both manufacturing in Victoria and South Australia and the workers in particular.

But there are great examples that I've seen in recent days at BlueScope, at Dulux, at many different places around the country such as the Carbon Revolution plant making carbon fibre wheels in Geelong, which are about really successful manufacturing.

So the answer is we have to be world-class competitive. We can't pretend that anything less than that will be good enough, and right now we're in the process of focusing on the workers with a $15 million boost for the Automotive Industry Structural Adjustment Programme.

That's extending employment support to retrenched workers, and then that's part of a broader $185 million plan to help with manufacturing and employment.

TOM ELLIOTT:     

Greg Hunt, thank you for your time.