Subjects: Hawaii bushfires; the Prime Minister’s divisive Voice, Treaty, Truth proposal; Labor’s cost of living crisis; 60 day dispensing; WA gas industry; Cheng Lei; Kevin Rudd.
E&OE
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Emergency supplies and rescue teams are being deployed to Hawaii from across the United States as deadly wildfires wreak havoc on the island of Maui.
Let’s bring in Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton this morning. Good morning, guys. Nice to see you.
PETER DUTTON:
‘Morning, Karl.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
To you, first of all, Richard, are we sending help to Hawaii, yet?
RICHARD MARLES:
Well, our Consul-General in Hawaii, in Honolulu, has made an offer to Governor Green of Hawaii to provide assistance. We’re obviously looking at what we can do that is useful. I think all Australians – when you look at the images that we’ve seen overnight from Maui – it brings back a lot of very difficult memories for us. Bushfires are something we know a lot about. We’ve experienced the pain and the suffering of that loss and I know that Australians today will want to reach out to a part of the world that many Australians know very well.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Yeah, very close to Hawaii, aren’t we? It means a lot to us.
Alright, October 14. Are we locked and loaded for the Voice?
RICHARD MARLES:
Well, we have said that we will take this to a Referendum in the latter part of that year. Let’s see what that date ultimately is…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It’s October 14 though, isn’t it?
RICHARD MARLES:
…but we are very committed to seeing this Referendum happen. It’s a moment that can really unify the country.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Have you got an exit strategy?
RICHARD MARLES:
Well, the strategy is to take this to the Australian people. That’s what we promised we would do at the last election. That’s what we are doing. As I say, I think this is a moment where I believe there is a yearning across the Australian people to see our First Nations people recognised in the Constitution – that’s fair and that’s right – and we’re confident about how that will proceed. But what’s important is that Australians be given a choice.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay, Pete, you’d be hoping it goes deeper into the year, this Referendum. It’s given the Opposition the packa-wacka it desperately needed?
PETER DUTTON:
Look Karl, it’s obviously, I think going to be the 14th of October. It’s hard to get a straight answer out of the Government – even on what the date will be – in relation to the Voice. I just think there are millions of Australians out there saying, ‘Look, we want to do the right thing by Indigenous Australians; we want better outcomes in schools and attendance rates and health outcomes and housing, employment, etc’, but making the biggest change to our Constitution in our country’s history without the detail is something that causes a lot of Australians concern. That’s why I think when the Prime Minister argues one thing to one audience and then changes his tune to the next, I think a lot of people are saying, ‘well, hang on, what’s going on here? Why are they being so tricky?’.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Has the PM been too transfixed by this, while people’s wallets burn?
RICHARD MARLES:
This was a commitment that we made at the last election. We’re following through on that, and that’s what you know with this Government and with the Prime Minister that he’ll honour his word. But we have been completely focussed on cost of living issues. I mean, be it more affordable childcare, the measures that we took at the end of last year, which were opposed by Peter to put downward pressure on power bills…
PETER DUTTON:
It didn’t work, Richard.
RICHARD MARLES:
What we’re doing now in terms of providing for cheaper medicines; we are looking at ways in which we can help household budgets because we get the pressure which is on Australian families and it has been the focus for our Government.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
You must be worried about collateral damage if this doesn’t get up?
RICHARD MARLES:
We are taking a decision to the Australian people – that’s fundamentally what we are doing. We’re speaking to the conviction that we have about recognising our First Nations people in the Constitution and actually doing so in the way that they want by having a Voice to Parliament so we can make a difference on all the issues that Peter mentioned.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
You’re not worried at all about this not getting up, and what happens next?
RICHARD MARLES:
What we’re doing is fulfilling a promise that we made at the election and we’re giving the Australian people a choice – and so there’s nothing that I’m worried about in respect of that. I think trying to do something to close the persistent gap of social disadvantage between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is something that Australians will want to see.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright. Peter, it’s pretty hard to convince everyday Aussies that paying less for medicine is a bad thing. I’m still not entirely sure what your problem is.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Karl, we’re certainly in favour of paying less for medicines. We support that. We support the 60 day dispensing, but as the Pharmacy Guild’s pointed out – they’ve got over 3,000 pharmacies across the country – they’re the ones who are paying the bill, who are picking the bill up for it. It should be the Government that, if they want to make medicines cheaper, which we support, then it’s a measure that should be funded. At the moment, the way the Government’s structured it, the pharmacists are going to have to pick up that and I don’t think patients want that. We want, if it’s possible, to have a 60 day script – that’s good – less visits to the doctor so that you can free up that service. Everyone agrees with that, but it’s the pharmacists who are picking the cost of it up, and particularly in a lot of regional areas, they’re talking about services being reduced, visits to aged care homes and doing minor procedures, etc., where there’s no GP in town. So, I just think, again, it’s another botched attempt by the Government at a policy which could have been delivered much more efficiently and that’s our concern in relation to it.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay. In terms of compo, you going to give the pharmacists anything?
RICHARD MARLES:
Let’s be clear, this is a choice between Australian consumers or the pharmacist lobby. I mean, pharmacies are doing okay, but at the end of the day this is about making medicines cheaper, and what you just heard from Peter is where he always stands when it comes to cost of living issues, and that is against the Australian consumer, and we’re seeing that again, today.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
An alarming story coming out of WA this morning. Our gas workers are threatening strike action and the world gas prices – when they heard this; the markets, they absolutely skyrocketed and now there are warnings they’ll try and kill free trade agreements with tariffs and protectionism. Are they running your Party now?
RICHARD MARLES:
Well, obviously, we want to see the industrial issues worked out between the unions and the employers in respect of this. We, as I’ve just said, have done everything we can to put downward pressure on power prices. But if we want to talk about industrial relations, you know, in the last quarter we saw 7,000 days lost in industrial action. In the last quarter of Peter’s government, it was something like 128,000 days. It’s like less than 10 per cent of the industrial action today that there was when the Liberals were in power, and that’s because we actually believe in having workplaces where workers and employers get on with each other.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Pete, just quickly on that one?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, the unions are back in charge. I mean, there’s no question about that. That’s why they’re extorting, at the moment, the CFMEU in workplaces, and that’s just the reality of a Labor Government. They put a lot of support behind the union bosses – forget about the workers.
We don’t want to see a disruption to gas supply, it would be a disaster for domestic prices here, which are already high enough, and our trading partners would look at Australia as an unreliable partner and look elsewhere for those contracts.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright, just a couple of quick ones. Cheng Lei, is she getting out soon?
RICHARD MARLES:
Oh, well, look, we continue to advocate on behalf of Cheng Lei. Tomorrow is a very sad anniversary. It’s three years since Cheng Lei has been incarcerated…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It feels like it’s moving towards a resolution.
RICHARD MARLES:
Well, we will keep advocating on behalf of her to the Chinese Government. We are very concerned about her circumstances, the means by which she has been incarcerated. It’s really important there is a proper process here, but we continue to advocate at every opportunity on behalf of Cheng Lei.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright, one final one, and I think it’s a lighter note. Again, I can get this badly wrong sometimes. Ambassador Kevin Rudd says…
PETER DUTTON:
We saw that the other night, Karl!
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
PETER DUTTON:
Too soon?! Too soon, sorry.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Hey, it’s a timeless gag, Pete. You wouldn’t know anything about it.
PETER DUTTON:
I know. Keep going. Keep going!
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright, so Ambassador Kevin Rudd says he’s happy to work with ‘Trumpy’ if he gets back in next year after calling ‘Trumpy’ a ‘traitor’. I mean, you could sell tickets to their first meeting, Richard. Are you nervous about what’s going to happen if Trumpy gets back in?
RICHARD MARLES:
Did you really call him ‘Trumpy’?
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I think we can.
RICHARD MARLES:
It’ll be fine. It’ll be absolutely fine. I mean, I’m kind of keen to be there, but it will be completely fine. Governments of both persuasions, you know the lines, work well across the Pacific.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
You just went to higher register – ‘It’ll be fine’! Pete, do you have confidence?
PETER DUTTON:
K.Rudd’s back in town and he’s talking about burgers again with the ‘H’, but he enjoys burgers without the ‘H’ as well. So, I don’t know what’s going on there, but anyway, good luck to him.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright, good to see you guys. Thanks so much.
SARAH ABO:
Oh, I reckon Richard Marles sounds a little bit nervous, Karl!
[ends]