26 June 2023
Subjects: Simon Crean; visit to Western Australia; Labor’s cost of living crisis; the Prime Minister’s divisive Canberra Voice.
E&OE
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
The federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is in town for the next three days. He’s here to discuss issues to do with that cost-of-living crisis that is biting so many of you. So, what are his ideas to ease those pressures? Well, I’m going to ask him. He’s on the phone right now.
Thanks for your time Mr Dutton, and welcome to the Mornings show.
PETER DUTTON:
Nadia, how are you?
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
Yeah, good thanks, and thanks for joining me.
PETER DUTTON:
Thank you.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
Before we get into the reasons why you’re in Perth, the sudden death of former Labor minister Simon Crean has certainly shocked the political world today. How do you remember him?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Nadia, it certainly does. Simon was a fit guy, who kept well, and I saw him in Melbourne only a couple of months ago. I always found him to be a true professional, a gentleman, somebody who was easy to deal with. He was an intelligent person, he was well respected by both sides of Parliament and he was 74, but way too young to pass away, and I just, really, to be honest, was quite in shock when I heard the news yesterday.
He leaves behind a beautiful wife in Carole, and family, and grandkids who we spoke about when I when I caught up with him. He’s a giant of the Labor Party, he was obviously head of the ACTU, incredibly accomplished leader of the Labor Party and one of the good people in Australian public life, so he’ll be sadly missed.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
Yeah, and I’m sure his family and friends will appreciate your sentiments. What brings you to Perth, Mr Dutton? Why are you here?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we’re back to catch-up with some of our Members, some of our Senators. We’re visiting a number of small businesses – particularly those who are just really doing it tough at the moment, trying to work out how they can pay their energy bills. We’re going to see some NGOs – a similar story – and just to get a feel for what’s happening on the ground.
Obviously, one of the – perhaps the only silver lining in Opposition I’d say – is that you can sit down and talk to people about policy, and that’s the process that we’re in at the moment, is reconsidering our policies, putting all of those together so that we’ve got a pretty significant offering by the time of the next election.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
Can you give us an idea of where your thinking is in regards to being able to ease some of those cost-of-living pressures? I mean what are people asking? What do they want?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, the Government’s had two budgets now, and they’ve had the opportunity to make decisions which could put downward pressure on interest rates, and instead we’ve seen interest rates go up as a result of the decisions they’ve made, and in fact because of some of the decisions they haven’t taken.
So, I think it’s telling that we’ve got a higher core inflation rate in our country than any G7 nation, except for the United Kingdom. So, the thought that this is a global problem, or that it’s coming out of Ukraine, or because of Putin’s actions is just not right. I mean all of those international factors always lead into the inflation rate…
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
…but they do have an influence, though.
PETER DUTTON:
Of course they do, but when you see our core inflation rate higher than those other comparable economies, you know that at least a significant part of the problem is coming from decisions here.
I fear that rates are going to stay higher for longer than what is otherwise predicted. We’re seeing overseas that inflation is very sticky and the Reserve Bank band target here of two to three per cent is a long way off where inflation, CPI, is at the moment.
So, there’s a lot of work to do and at the moment I think the government’s making a bad situation worse. I just fear for a lot of small businesses who are paying double-digit interest rates for their overdrafts, or people who are coming off a low rate fixed interest package, they’ve got to find thousands of dollars every month across their budget and it’s tough.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
But is it fair, though, to blame the federal government? The RBA Governor Philip Lowe said the recent federal budget had a ‘neutral’ impact on interest rates.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think most commentators, if you look at those who have assessed the budget, realise that there are some things that are in the budget that are good for the economy and we’ve supported those measures. There are others which the government’s either squibbed, or has made decisions on which have put upward pressure on interest rates.
The Reserve Bank Governor is independent, in the sense that he’s not dictated to by government as to what the rate should be, but he has to respond to the government policies and if he’s seeing government policies where additional money is being thrown at the economy, at a time when we don’t want inflationary pressures, then he has to respond by putting up interest rates, as any Reserve Bank Governor does anywhere around the world, in a comparable country.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
It’s just a few minutes away from the news at 9 o’clock. I’ve got the Federal Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, on the phone.
I notice too, support appears to be declining for the Voice in today’s Newspoll in The Australian newspaper has support for the Voice going to 43 per cent for the ‘yes’ vote, ‘no’ vote at 47 per cent.
Do you think that the argument and the conversation around the Voice is starting to get a little confused because we’re all now referring to ‘the Voice’ as opposed to ‘constitutional recognition’ and it’s now confusing people?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Nadia, a couple of points; one; we’ve tried to have a respectful debate in relation to what’s a very important issue, but the Prime Minister named this as his number one issue when he was elected in May of last year, and I think a lot of families and small business people are right to point out, can he walk and chew gum at the same time or not? I mean the economy has got away from the government and, it seems that they haven’t done a good sales job on the Voice either.
We wrote to the Prime Minister in January asking for answers to 15 pretty basic questions, and I think they’re questions that millions of Australians are asking right now – I still haven’t had a response to that – and I think the frustration for people is that, yes, I think there’s 80 or 90 per cent support for constitutional recognition – and we’ve proposed that – there’s a bipartisan position on that, but it’s the Voice that is confusing people because it’s a deliberate strategy of the Prime Minister not to release the detail of the Voice, and therefore it gives rise to questions, and when the Prime Minister and Linda Burney and others are yelling at people; ‘why don’t you understand what the Voice is about?’. Well, I’m just not sure that’s how you conduct a civil conversation.
So, I hope that the government can release detail. I don’t think they’re going to, and I think in that circumstance, people realise that inserting a new chapter into the Constitution will be the biggest change to our nation’s rulebook since 1901.
NADIA MITSOPOULOS:
I need to leave it there Peter Dutton, we’re heading up to the news. I thank you very much for your time though.
[ends]