Subjects: Visit to Adelaide; automated data matching for welfare recipients; ACTU calls for industry wide bargaining; Anthony Albanese’s broken promise on a $275 cut to electricity bills; Labor’s millions in donations from the CFMMEU; the CFMMEU’s storming of an office block in Brisbane; working with Indigenous communities.
KERRYNNE LIDDLE
Well, thank you very much for being here today and joining us on a very cold, wet morning. Delighted that Peter could come to South Australia. It’s fantastic – he jumped at the opportunity to come and see a South Australian company that employs 85 people, that contributes to building roads, doing demolition, and to our economy through jobs and training. It’s predominantly employing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but employing all South Australians and it’s a terrific story to come here and to learn a bit more about that.
PETER DUTTON
Well, Kerrynne, thank you very much. Look, it’s really great to be back in South Australia. Thank you very much to the Senator for your genuine interest, Kerrynne, in the lives of Indigenous Australians and all South Australians. The work that you’ve done during your work career – trying to find placements for, employment for and meaningful undertakings for young Indigenous people, is well known to this business, and it’s a real credit to you that you dedicated so much of your life to trying to help others. Intract is an incredible business, I want to say thank you very much to John and to Luke, to all of the team. Some incredible stories from young people about the role model that they play within their own families, within their community.
As Defence Minister, I was very keen to make sure that we had increased participation of Indigenous leaders, not just within the organisation, but the contractors that we were deploying to bases, and to the infrastructure rollout, which is very significant, obviously, in regional areas, right across the network of Defence assets across the entire country. I want to see more of that and Intract here really has a very special model of engaging young Indigenous people within the community to undertake that work in construction, in demolition, in civil works and in so much more – in the accounting side, the estimating side, all of that is really significant work that is being undertaken here and these young people will have their lives changed as a result of that, so I want to really acknowledge the leadership of John and the whole team here.
One of the things that I am concerned about within the construction industry in particular is the growing influence of the CFMMEU. We’ve seen here in South Australia the thuggish behaviour that’s taken place. The Premier has decided that he won’t accept donations from the CFMMEU. In Queensland we saw yesterday the CFMMEU thugs, including some of their bikie associates, who stormed a government building in an attempt to assault the Director General of the Department of Transport. Now it’s completely unacceptable behavior but somehow the Prime Minister still seems to condone it. He condones it through the acceptance of those donations and it’s forcing up the price of construction here in South Australia increasingly. John Setka is a nasty character with all sorts of allegations and a very checkered history. And the influence of that party that that union has on the Labor Party is quite phenomenal. And the strike activity that we’re seeing already, that we’ll see over the next couple of years is not in our economy’s best interests and it’s not in the employees’ best interests either. So, we’ll continue to have more to say about that because I think the links, the very definite links between that lawless union and the Labor Party is, it’s well documented and it’s very concerning. So happy to take any questions.
JOURNALIST
What is your reaction to the Robodebt Royal Commission and does that scheme justify a Royal Commission?
PETER DUTTON
Well, as you know, the data matching started under Labor when Minister Shorten was in that job, when Minister Plibersek was in that area. They set up the data matching that led to the collection of the alleged overpayments. So, I presume the Terms of Reference will include Labor’s time in the portfolio when this situation first started. Of course, if it’s not, then it’s clear that this is nothing more than a political witch hunt and Anthony Albanese is spending more time looking in the rear vision mirror than he is looking ahead at what is going to confront the Australian public, which is economically going to be a tough period over the next couple of years. He should be concentrating more on how he can help families and less on how he can get square with Scott Morrison.
As you’ve seen, in the last few days the Prime Minister is a tricky politician, there is no doubt about that. He has spent a lot of time with Dan Andrews and some of the other premiers. The Commission of inquiry into Scott Morrison won’t extend it seems, to include a look at what the premiers decided over the course of COVID. These political witch hunts, the public can see through it. But families at the moment voted for Anthony Albanese because he promised on 97 occasions before the last election that they would reduce your household power prices down by $275. He’s never mentioned that since he became Prime Minister. He’s broken a very significant promise. It will be the first of many and as families are struggling with their cost of living pressures in their own household budgets and as small businesses are facing those same pressures, the Prime Minister is more worried about the political games that he can play in a very tricky way in Canberra. You know, I think the public is going to call it out soon enough.
JOURNALIST
If the federal Government, Labor Government came up with the dodgy scheme then why did the Coalition Government assist them with robodebt?
PETER DUTTON
Well, we can have had a long debate about what Labor did when they were in government, particularly during the Rudd-Gillard years, when you had a minister in the current government – Chris Bowen, responsible for Fuel Watch and Grocery Watch and the waste of tens of millions of dollars on those programs.
If this is a legitimate look at the robodebt situation – look at the start of it, it started under a Labor government. It started under Bill Shorten. So, Bill Shorten’s looking for the political advantage at the moment, but the Terms of Reference should include his own actions, where he set a scheme up, he laid down the parameters, he set up the arrangements of data matching and any legitimate look at this whole situation should look at day one, up until the time that period finished and day one commenced under Bill Shorten.
JOURNALIST
It has been labelled a human tragedy. As far as the Coalition’s part in this, do you apologise?
PETER DUTTON
Well, I want to see what this inquiry brings out because I want to make sure that where we spend taxpayer’s money and where people are given overpayments, that that money is recovered. Now the Labor Party did that when they were in government and that goes back to Federation, where people owe a debt to the Commonwealth, they need to satisfy that debt. The Commonwealth Government doesn’t have any money except for that which it collects from taxpayers, and so the money should be spent appropriately and according to the law. And if there’s been a negative impact on people then that evidence will come out. But it’s important to understand how this situation first started, it first started under Labor. And if Anthony Albanese is not going to have in his examination, an examination that goes back to when Labor set this scheme up, then clearly it’s nothing more than a political get square with Scott Morrison. And I think the public will see through that.
JOURNALIST
Do you anticipate that some of your colleagues, including Scott Morrison could be called on as witnesses?
PETER DUTTON
Well, it’s an issue for the Royal Commission but it’s been set up by the Labor Party for that exact outcome. But Bill Shorten should be the first witness at the inquiry because he set robodebt up, he set the scheme up, he put in place the parameters, he was the one that set up the data matching that was the day one of this operation. So, I just think it’s a witch hunt if we don’t see Bill Shorten as the first witness in the witness box.
JOURNALIST
Why did the Coalition persist with that Scheme though, if it was faulty?
PETER DUTTON
Well, I’ve really dealt with that issue pretty extensively.
JOURNALIST
What is your reaction to Sally McManus pushing for industry wide enterprise bargaining?
PETER DUTTON
Well, I think Sally McManus is a throwback from the 70s. And she wants a, frankly, a return to an industrial relations system that would cripple families and small businesses in this country. The economy wide strikes that she advocates for, the increased taxation on small businesses, the inability for small business to have the final say about employees in their own business. I mean, this is an agenda of the Labor Party from the 1970s. Bob Hawke and Paul Keating cleaned up a lot of that mess. But this goes back even before that, in terms of what Sally McManus is proposing, so I want to see good outcomes and we will support good outcomes but the proposals for increased taxes, for a tightening of the industrial relations scheme that takes it back to the 1970s is, I mean, surely not something that Mr Albanese can entertain, but he owes the unions a lot. They donate millions to the Labor Party and that no doubt comes with a dividend that the unions would expect.
JOURNALIST
If you had that concern then, isn’t there some merit in you raising that at the Jobs Summit?
PETER DUTTON
Well, I think if you’ve got a union boss at the moment that is not acting like Bill Kelty did back in the Hawke days, and you’ve got somebody in Sally McManus who is really, as I say, a throwback to the 1970s who wants only to increase taxation, increase the burden on small business, which will make it more difficult to employ people, then families are going to suffer because of that, because young people won’t get jobs and that’s not an environment that we want.
As you move across the country, I was with James Stevens yesterday, speaking to a cabinet maker there. It’s tough to find staff. And that is true not just in SA, but across the country, in every sector. And we want to make sure that, yes, we’ve got a 50 year low in terms of unemployment at the moment, but when you look at double digit inflation in the United States, when you see increasing electricity and gas prices in the United Kingdom, we have to make sure that over the next couple of years we’ve got a system that can not make a bad situation worse and what Labor’s proposing at the moment and what Sally McManus is proposing, is going to make a bad situation worse.
JOURNALIST
So, do you support the push for collective bargaining agreements across entire sectors?
PETER DUTTON
I don’t. I don’t support a throwback to the 1970s because it would result in crippling strikes that would adversely impact businesses like this and businesses right across the country. I want a situation where employees are paid fairly, that they’re rewarded for the effort that they make and that there’s an environment that exists where businesses can employ those people and not an environment where it’s too difficult to employ them. Sally McManus is going well into the past. As I say, this goes back past Rudd and Gillard, it goes past Hawke and Keating and it’s not something that can seriously be entertained.
JOURNALIST
Have you been in consultation with Indigenous communities and if so, what have they said about the Uluru Statement from the Heart?
PETER DUTTON
I’ve had, obviously a lot of interaction as Defence Minister, as Home Affairs Minister and as Health Minister, over many years, I’ve had a lot to do with Indigenous leaders and with Indigenous communities. I thought one of the greatest things that Tony Abbott did when he was Prime Minister was to immerse the Cabinet into Indigenous Australia so that you could hear on the ground the problems that people have.
I’ve been very passionate over my working life – both as a police officer and in this job – to make sure that we support laws and enforce the laws that protect children and reduce domestic violence and you know, they’re the priorities I think that people have right across the country. Yes, in Indigenous communities, but in communities right across the country, I think that’s the reality. People just want a safe environment for kids to grow up in. We want to see a reduction not an increase in domestic violence and the abolition for example of the welfare cards in Indigenous communities, I’m sorry to say, is going to increase the prevalence of violence in those communities, particularly against women and children. And I think that’s something the Prime Minister still hasn’t been able to explain. So, we’ll continue our consultation in relation to the Voice and other issues that are important to Indigenous communities, but I really want to see action now from the Prime Minister on reducing that violence within Indigenous communities and I’m really proud of the work that Intract and other companies are doing to employ young Indigenous Australians. To hold them up as role models, to provide them with an opportunity that may not have been there a generation ago and they’re doing incredible things.
JOURNALIST
What are some of the actions, I suppose, that you would then like to see from the federal Government? Is it seeing more things like this, you know, an advancement of things like Intract?
PETER DUTTON
Yeah, well, I want them to continue the work of the Coalition Government in offering more job opportunities to Indigenous Australians. We’ve had an unemployment rate in our country which is at a 50 year low. You should remind yourself that Australia has an economy where the fundamentals are still very strong. Yes, the debt ramped up because of JobKeeper and because we helped keep literally millions of Australians in work over the course of COVID. But we’re not in a situation like Europe is or the United States is, the fundamentals here are much stronger. I think that will see us avoid a recession here unless Labor gets it really wrong. In a state like Arizona, in the US, 11% inflation there at the moment and you’re going to see a situation where interest rates may have to rise above that to bring inflation down. That will be devastating in an economy like that, and I don’t want to see it repeated in our economy here. So, Labor’s got to pull the right reins here and make the right decisions over the next couple of years to help families and not make a bad situation worse.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
[ends]