Subjects: Visit to Gilmore with Andrew Constance; the Coalition’s commitment to funding roads for the Shoalhaven; Labor’s cost of living crisis; new tax deduction to deliver red tape relief for small businesses; getting Australia Back on Track.
E&OE.
GRAEME DAY:
It’s right on ten minutes to 10 and on the line is the Leader of the Opposition in Federal Parliament. It’s a very good morning to Peter Dutton.
Hello, Peter.
PETER DUTTON:
Hello, Graeme. Great to be with you. Thank you.
GRAEME DAY:
Thanks for joining us.
You’re in the Shoalhaven. You’ve got an appointment at 10 o’clock, so we won’t keep you too long because I know that you love being there on time, but you’re in a seat that’s the most marginal in the whole of Australia.
PETER DUTTON:
I am. It’s great to be back. I was here just before Christmas with Andrew Constance and we saw some small businesses and had a look at the emergency services efforts and went down to Kiama to the surf club. So yeah, we had a really good visit actually. It was good to spend some time with him and good to be back today. We’ve got some announcements on road funding, which I think are really important to the local community here.
GRAEME DAY:
Yes, it’s been a bit of a disconnect as far as certain funding and not getting the council and council not using it, so I’m sure this will be welcome. Now we’re leading towards an election this year. How are you feeling? You’d be buoyed today with the figures coming out as far as preferred Prime Minister?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, Graeme, I think everyone in politics always says, ‘you know, we don’t watch the polls’, but the fact is that politicians do. So, it’s good news, but it’s a long way to go. We have history against us. There’s only been one, one-term government that’s lost in the last hundred years. This is a bad Government. We’ve think we’ve got a really important and visionary plan for our country, and that’s what we’re concentrating on. So, a lot of hard work but if we can get Andrew Constance up as the Member for Gilmore, then I think we’ll be very close to forming government.
GRAEME DAY:
We’re actually talking this morning about people that retired and have retired, and now have got to go back to work because just the cost – their rates are going up as far as councils are concerned, their water is going up, cost of living is going up. Many people are kind of cynical these days going, ‘oh, they all say they’re going to bring the costs down’. Have you got pretty definite plans to look at that and see what you can do as far as regional areas are concerned?
[interruption]
I think we’ve got him back in. Sorry, mate. You dropped out there.
PETER DUTTON:
Ah, Graeme, I’m sorry about that. My fault. We’ve got some patchy coverage.
GRAEME DAY:
No, that’s ok. No worries.
I was just saying, you’ve got a definitive plan as far as cost of living because many people who thought they would retire have got to go back just to pay the rates, just to pay the water and to pay for their groceries. It’s a real struggle out there, and you’re obviously picking that up with your visits like today?
PETER DUTTON:
We are, most definitely. We’ve announced a policy, actually, which I think provides a good incentive particularly for people who’ve retired, may be retired too early, or just have had enough of work, but they’re at home now watching the bills pile up.
So, people can still keep their pension and we allow them to work more hours and for their pension and their health care card not to be affected. We think that’ll help literally tens of thousands of people get some extra hours maybe at the local cafe or at Bunnings or wherever it might be, and it provides extra income, but it also helps those businesses that, in many cases, find it really hard to find reliable staff.
So, there’s a good win there, but there’ll be other messages that we’ve got, other policies that we can announce in the run-up to the election as well.
GRAEME DAY:
Interesting one this morning that I’ve noticed the press has grabbed onto. I remember the days of like a fringe benefits tax for businesses where you could go out, you could basically shout somebody’s lunch and what have you, and you were able to claim that back. You’ve got something similar. It doesn’t include alcohol, but it’s something similar. I think this is innovative and it just helps small business basically reward those that are working and that’s been released. Just explain what that’s all about.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, again, it’s about trying to focus on helping small businesses so that they can keep staff employed and hopefully employ more staff and be even more productive in the economy. As we’ve moved around the country, there are a lot of businesses – particularly cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs – that have been struggling and we had to look at ways in which we could help. We think the best way that we can help is to provide an incentive for businesses like a real estate agent or a local builder, for example, to go down to a local cafe, take their staff or take the customers, spend some money on a meal. It’s good, because it’s a reward for maybe a milestone achievement in sales results, or maybe you won a big contract or maybe you’re trying to win a big contract from a client and we make that expense, the money that they spend at the cafe tax-deductible for that business – no fringe benefits tax, so it’s just like another expense of the business.
So, it takes the businesses out of that tax jungle, but it also means that they’re spending money in that local community. That means that the cafe is out buying more produce and employing more people as well. About 98 per cent of businesses in Australia are turning over about $10 million or less, and there are about 2.5 million in that category. So, this helps the 2.5 million businesses and it just takes some of the red tape and the complication out. I think it helps build that teamwork and helps provide a reward for those employees, and a big win for the cafes and restaurants as well.
GRAEME DAY:
Good to see, and we’ll find out more about that as we get closer to the election.
Thanks for your time this morning and enjoy your stay in the Shoalhaven and we’ll talk, I’m sure, before the election.
PETER DUTTON:
My pleasure, Graeme. Thanks very much, mate. Thank you.
GRAEME DAY:
No worries at all. Great to talk to you.
[ends]