Scott Morrison has attacked Labor’s plans to mandate use of Australian steel in government projects and labelled its consideration of a royal commission into banks a “reckless distraction”.
Speaking on Radio National on Friday, the treasurer ruled out mandating the use of Australian steel, calling it “old-economy Labor politics”.
“Mandatory procurement, when put in the way that the opposition leader [Bill Shorten] has put it forward, would run at odds with the trade agreements, which are actually growing jobs in our economy,” he said.
“What you don’t do is get involved in a kneejerk reaction, the sort of thing that says: let’s tear up our trade agreement, let’s tear up the jobs in the new economy to go and play politics with [this issue].”
The treasurer said Labor’s refusal to rule out a royal commission into banks was a reckless attempt to distract attention from the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill.
Morrison said responses to banking scandals needed to be proportional. “The problems have been identified and are being dealt with” by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which he called “a tough cop on the beat”.
He said calling for a royal commission implied widespread corruption in the banking industry, which would harm the international reputation of Australia’s banks.
“[Labor] voted against it a year ago,” Morrison said. “Apparently on the eve of the election there are a few [news] reports about banks and Bill Shorten is there in his ill-fitting suit saying we need to thump the table.”
Asked about reports in the Australian Financial Review that the government would defer corporate tax cuts and had scrapped plans to reduce annual work-related deductions to find revenue, Morrison rejected the view that the budget had a revenue problem.
He said revenue this financial year was already above the long-term average. When asked about specific measures, he said details would be released on 3 May.
Morrison said the cost of the national disability insurance scheme was not funded. “We are committed to the NDIS but we won’t engage in this fairytale that the previous government was and Labor continues to indulge – that it’s fully funded,” he said.
He said $5bn or $6bn a year extra has to be found to pay for the NDIS. “We will find it and we will support [it] but we’re the government that has to deliver it, not just promise it,” he said.
The opposition industry spokesman, Kim Carr, said “there is no doubt it is consistent with international trade obligation to secure sale of Australian steel in Australian government projects”. Procurement rules were not company-specific but specified use of steel that met Australian standards and production qualities, he said.
“It is a particularly feeble-minded attitude ... that we can’t move to secure Australian jobs,” Carr said. “It’s a kneejerk reaction to cry ‘free trade’ as an excuse not to develop public policy to protect Australian companies.”
On Friday the industry minister, Christopher Pyne, said “state and territory governments using federal taxpayers’ dollars for construction and any federal government projects should use Australian steel”. He qualified the remarks by saying Australian steelmakers “should be allowed to compete”.
A spokeswoman for the opposition trade spokeswoman, Penny Wong, told Guardian Australia that “Morrison should be discussing this with Christopher Pyne”, implying that the treasurer was at odds with the industry minister, who has called for consideration of government support for steelmakers.
The spokeswoman said Labor believed governments should seek to maximise the use of Australian steel, such as through enforcing anti-dumping laws that prevented steel being dumped in Australia at below-cost prices.
“This approach is entirely consistent with Australia’s international trade obligations,” she said.
“The Turnbull government should stop looking for excuses to do nothing and work with Labor to support Australian steel and Australian jobs.”
