Subjects: Appointment of Ms Samantha Mostyn AO as Governor-General; death of Australian aid worker; supermarket powers; the Prime Minister’s cost of living crisis; Labor’s energy policy shambles; nuclear power; telecommunications; Labor’s Big Australia policy.
E&OE
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much.
Firstly, I wanted to acknowledge, obviously, the Prime Minister’s announcement this morning in relation to the Governor-General Designate, somebody who has been involved in business and sport for a long period of time and obviously is well-known to many people within the Government over a long period of time. I wish her the very best in her appointment, and also thank David Hurley for his excellent service to our country, the way in which he’s been able to deal with difficult issues, including many natural disasters, over the period of his time as Governor-General. Of course, his period doesn’t come to an end until the end of June, and we acknowledge his service, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot more to say about that in the run-up to the 1st of July, when there will be a changeover.
Secondly, of course, it’s a tragic circumstance where an aid worker has lost her life in a very difficult war zone. Obviously, nobody wants to see conflict of any circumstance in the Middle East, but it is a reality, and our thoughts, our prayers and condolences obviously go out to Zomi’s family and to her friends and to those who are there serving at the moment, in harm’s way, trying to provide support to people who are in a very difficult situation.
Of course, Hamas continues to hold hostages, and they should be released immediately so that a ceasefire can be entered into, and the attacks on the 7th of October should never be forgotten as acts of barbarity that shocked the world, and the consequences that we see where innocent people are losing their lives in the Middle East at the moment, is as a direct result of Hamas’ attacks on the 7th of October. We should never forget that. We hope that those hostages can be returned as quickly as possible, so that a ceasefire can be entered into.
I’m very happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Just on supermarkets, you’ve tasked your colleagues Angus Taylor and David Littleproud to look into a plan to break up the supermarkets rather than cooperate with the Greens, what could this plan look like? And also, how do you square potential divestment powers with the Liberal Party’s free market foundations?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, a couple of points. When we were in Government, obviously, we had legislation there in relation to energy companies because of the conduct that was going on within the energy sector.
I believe very strongly that if there’s market failure in a particular market and consumers are being adversely impacted – for example, in a particular geographic region where there was a concentration of Coles or Woolies stores, to the exclusion of those other competitors, and consumers were paying more by way of price – then I think in that circumstance, you would look at whether or not that market domination would continue.
You’ve got a situation now where Coles and Woolies have their own property development arms, they’re purchasing blocks of land so that other competitors can’t build within the vicinity of their existing operations or their planned operations. So, I think there’s a question mark about the appropriateness of that behaviour. Ultimately, we’ve got consumers who are paying through the roof at the moment for items when they turn up to a checkout, and that’s because of the Government’s energy policy, because of the decisions the Government’s made in two budgets which have forced up inflation.
Inflation doesn’t just impact your interest rates. Everybody knows that their mortgages at the moment are higher because of Labor’s inflation rate, and that fuels the interest rate, but we also know that it impacts on small businesses, and we’ve seen today, many small businesses who are adversely impacted by the high inflation rate. The core inflation rate in this country is higher than most other comparable nations. The Reserve Bank Governor has pointed out that our problem here is homegrown, and the Government continues to spend, they continue to tax, and whilst that’s the case, the Reserve Bank will have a very tough time arriving at a decision to reduce interest rates.
I think families get that they’re really suffering at the moment because of the decisions being made by the Albanese Government. The Government’s making it harder, not easier for families, and I just don’t think Australian families can afford three more years of a bad Labor Government.
QUESTION:
So, when supermarkets say that they’re forced to push up prices because of external factors such as energy prices, is that just a furphy?
PETER DUTTON:
I think every business is experiencing higher input costs. That’s the reality. The farmer who pays more for fertiliser because it’s energy intensive, in terms of manufacturing fertiliser, they’re paying more for their cold room storage. The jam manufacturer is paying more for the glass jar. The truck driver is paying more for the truck to be on the road. All of that ultimately gets passed on to consumers, and we need to have a Government that’s able to deal with those realities, but at the moment, the Government’s had two budgets, and they’ve made decisions which have just made it harder for families not easier.
The Prime Minister promised that he’d bring down electricity prices by $275. He promised it on 97 occasions. Do you know that he hasn’t mentioned it once since he’s been elected? And I think Australians know that they’re paying more for electricity, paying more for gas, more for fuel, they’re paying more for their insurance, and every line item in your family budget and your small business budget just continues to go up and up under this Government.
QUESTION:
So, what are the concrete measures you’d like to see in the federal budget to address what small businesses are struggling with?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I want to see this Government make it easier for small businesses, and at the moment, because nobody in the Labor Party comes from small business; nobody sitting on that frontbench has employed people, has put their own house up for security, has found a difficult market that they need to operate in – none of them have experienced any of that. So every industrial relations change they make, every change they make to regulation is a cost, an additional cost borne by small business, and ultimately that is passed on to the customer who walks through the door. This is why you’ve got a problem with productivity, and it’s why you’ve got an inflationary environment where businesses are suffering under this Government’s policies and the increases in their costs, their input costs get passed on to consumers, and that’s why people are paying more every time you turn up to purchase a service or good in the Australian economy at the moment, and I think Australians understand that.
QUESTION:
You mentioned earlier at the Summit, the need to reduce duplication in environmental regulatory approvals across state, Commonwealth and local Governments. How do you propose to do that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we’ve got regulators at the moment who are screaming out to say that we’re going to see a disruption to power supply. We’ve already seen it in some parts of the market, over the course of the last couple of years. But they’re talking about a massive shortage of gas in the economy.
Now, the Government didn’t want anything to do with gas when they were first elected. They’ve been mugged by reality now, so they’re saying, ‘okay, we can tolerate the presence of gas even though it’s a fossil fuel’. You’ve got state Governments, including in Victoria, negotiating with coal fired power stations to extend their life because they know that over the next ten years, 90 per cent of that baseload power is being removed from the system. In that environment, the cold rooms don’t stay on at the local IGA, the local butcher shop and the fruit shop don’t run cold rooms when the lights are out of a night-time, when the wind’s not blowing, or when the solar panels aren’t working of a night time. They don’t work without a firming up; a baseload capacity. If the Government’s going to take that out of the system, which they propose to do over the next ten years, it is going to make it more expensive, it’s going to make it less reliable, which is why businesses don’t stay in an environment like this. They move offshore to an area where they can get cheaper power, where they can get reliable power, because you can’t just turn on and off some of these production lines. I think that’s a problem of the Government’s own making.
So, we can work with state governments, we can work with local governments around the planning and approval processes, including in the housing sector as well. If you do that, you can have a chance of making sure that we can have greener power, you can have cheaper power and reliable power. At the moment, under this Government, power prices are going to continue to go up, they’re going to be less reliable, and there is no chance at all that the Government can meet their net zero by 2050 commitment that they’ve made.
QUESTION:
Just on the new Governor-General, should something be done to avoid a repeat of the secret ministries debacle that we saw in the former Government?
PETER DUTTON:
I think that today is a time to concentrate on the appointment. I’ve made comments in relation to that.
QUESTION:
Telecommunication companies have been criticised for charging policing agencies and also the speed with which they conduct searches and hand over information. As a former police officer, what do you think?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think lives are at risk here when telecommunications companies don’t provide a timely response to the police requests. In relation to this tragic case in Victoria, if there was delay from the telecommunications companies, we need to understand why. Because that information really needs to be provided in a timely way so that evidence can’t be disposed of, or the next crime can be prevented so that the investigation is not impeded.
If there is a reluctance, or a problem that’s obvious, then it should be sorted out, because the telecommunications companies have a moral obligation to act in a timely way and in a responsible way and the way in which their commercial arrangements operate with the police agencies. I think it’s a matter of common sense, and I’d say to the CEOs – who in our private discussions are very willing to engage with authorities – we need to make sure that’s being rolled out in practice as well.
QUESTION:
Just on the Coalition’s nuclear plan. There are reports today that the Coalition is considering incentives for regional communities with coal in them to replace their coal fired power plants with nuclear. Can you tell us more about that, particularly in New South Wales and what regions you’re looking at?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’d just make this point: the Government is losing 90 per cent of the baseload power in our country over the next ten years – not into the 2040s or 2050s – between now and 2034. There is likely disruption to power, which means not just that your fridge goes off at home, but that the cold rooms go off at the supermarket, that we don’t have reliable energy for the manufacturing process so jobs are lost in the Australian economy. Why would we tolerate that situation? That’s why I think we need to have a proper, mature discussion about how we migrate to a new energy system where we can have renewables that are firmed up by zero emissions, latest generation nuclear technology…
QUESTION:
But what regions would this work in?
PETER DUTTON:
…the same technology that the Government’s using in relation to their submarines.
If you’ve got communities where you’ve got the small modular reactor operating, you’ve got less distribution costs, and at the moment, the Government system only works with the rollout of 28,000km of poles and wires by 2030. It’s not going to happen. The fact is that, as we’ve seen internationally, those regions end up attracting a greater industrial base. So that is, those small businesses and those manufacturing businesses move closer to a small modular reactor because they can get electricity at a cheaper cost. In terms of regions, we’ve been very definite in our advice that we’re looking at about half a dozen sites, on brownfield sites, those where you’ve got a coal fired generator coming to an end of life. We’ll make more announcements about that in due course.
At the moment, Labor is leading us on a path where electricity prices are going to continue to go through the roof, where you’ll have unreliable energy, and there’s no prospect of them reaching their 2050 targets. Under our plan, you have got a credible pathway to meeting our international commitments to net zero by 2050. You’ve got a zero emission technology, which is why young people are really enthusiastic about this technology. As we saw in the Newspoll results, 61 per cent of young people between 18 and 35 support the technology because they know what’s happening in Europe and in Asia and in North America. Australia is the only country of the G20 that hasn’t got nuclear as part of its energy mix, or hasn’t committed to doing so as part of their domestic energy mix. Why is Anthony Albanese smarter than 19 of the G20 nations? Well, the fact is that he’s not. The fact is that they’ve got us on this ideological path at the moment to renewables only where the lights will go out and we’ll see businesses close up and move into an environment offshore where they can get reliable, cheaper power. I want those jobs here.
Any promise that the Prime Minister makes to you about manufacturing and advanced manufacturing and growing jobs here, it’s all a lie because you can’t deliver on it with an energy system that’s not fit for the 21st century. Businesses are already talking with their feet, they’re moving, and they’re going offshore. That’s the reality of it. Thank you very much.
QUESTION:
Sorry, just one last question.
PETER DUTTON:
Sure mate, yep. Last one.
QUESTION:
New figures today are expected to reveal Australia’s population is continuing to surge. Is the Government doing enough on this?
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, I mean, if you’re asking why there’s a housing crisis in our country, look at the figures over the last two years. If you go back to say 2014, over the last decade, the numbers of migrants coming into our country is roughly about the same number of new house builds. Over the last two years, it’s been more than double the number of people coming in compared to the number of homes started.
So, if you’re wondering why you can’t find a rental property, or you’re wondering why your kids or grandkids can’t find a rental property, or you can’t compete at an auction, it’s because the Government has decided deliberately to bring in hundreds of thousands of people extra each year, above the number of houses that are being built.
So, the supply is outstripping demand and this is why we’ve got a rental and housing crisis at the moment that the Government is just making worse and worse every day. The Government says on the one hand they’re going to reduce the numbers, but we know when these monthly figures come out, they continue to go up.
I think the Government’s got a huge problem here of their own making, and unfortunately Australians are paying the price for another bad decision of the Albanese Government. This is the reason for the housing crisis in our country. I think the Government needs to explain why they continue to bring in hundreds of thousands of people more each year than the numbers of new houses being built.
Thank you very much.
[ends]