Malcolm Turnbull says he will try to create a “more flexible” industrial relations system without “waging war with unions” in another sharp difference in tone from the Abbott government.



Turnbull has announced no detailed new policies – the new prime minister’s cabinet met for the first time after being sworn in Monday – but he is differentiating himself from his predecessor in style and approach.

Tony Abbott repeatedly attacked the union movement but was himself criticised by business for not pursuing more ambitious industrial relations reform.

Turnbull, in an interview with the ABC’s 7.30, said his aim was to reassure workers that any changes proposed would not threaten their conditions.

“The industrial relations reform which is labour market reform has been a very vexed one … The important thing is to seek to explore ways in which we can achieve more flexibility, higher levels of employment, higher levels of business activity and do so in a way that reassures Australians, Australian workers in particular, that this is not threatening their conditions,” he said.

“In other words, the challenge for us is not to wage war with unions or the workers that they seek to represent, but really to explain what the challenges are and then lay out some reform options.”

Turnbull has also signalled a new approach to tax reform. Abbott had ruled out any changes to negative gearing, or tax breaks for high income earners superannuation and had sent conflicting messages on changes to the GST even before the government had responded to the tax white paper.

Insisting he wants a “more rational” debate, Turnbull says everything is on the table. “Tax reform is going to be a big part of our agenda going forward ... I’m not going to rule things in or rule things out,” he said.

New administrative arrangements posted last night confirm Guardian Australia’s revelation that both the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation are being moved into the environment minister Greg Hunt’s portfolio – a shift government sources said meant the Coalition had abandoned its intention to abolish the agencies and a new attitude towards renewable energy.

But Turnbull continues to insist that the $2.5bn emissions reduction fund can meet Australia’s long-term greenhouse gas reduction goals, an idea he has himself rejected in the past and which is disputed by most analysts.

Turnbull faces an immediate policy debate as the Labor party releases its long-awaited policy on higher education, with the opposition promising a $2.5bn net increase to the sector’s funding as a contrast to the government’s twice-blocked plan to deregulate university fees and cut the public subsidy for bachelor degrees.

He has indicated that policy is also likely to change. “If you can’t get something through the Senate, I would say it’s highly possible you could change it to something that will get through the Senate,” he said earlier on Monday. “This is what John Howard calls the iron laws of arithmetic.”

In the wide-ranging interview on 7.30, he nominated Islamist terrorist groups and also the potential regional implications of the rise of China as the biggest security issues for Australia.

He also suggested the Chinese government was acting against its own self interest with its controversial reclamation of land for military bases in the South China Sea.

“You would think what China would seek to achieve is to create a sufficient feeling of trust and confidence among its neighbours that they know longer felt the need to have the US fleet and a strong US presence in the western Pacific.

“What the island construction and all of the activity in the South China Sea has done has resulted in the smaller countries surrounding that area becoming, turning to the United States even more than they did before.

“Vietnam, for example, which obviously had a very different history with the United States is now seeking its support. So I think their foreign policy in the South China Sea has been quite counterproductive.”

Turnbull said in the six years since losing the Liberal leadership to Abbott in 2009 he had become “much more confident and settled in myself” and had learned to be more respectful of the views of others.

He also revealed he and his wife, Lucy, would continue to live in their Point Piper mansion in Sydney, and would use Kirribilli House for official functions and entertaining and for charity events. They would live in the Lodge when in Canberra.