Subjects: Third time unlucky for Australians: the Albanese Government’s big-taxing and big-spending budget; Labor’s homegrown inflation crisis; Labor’s cost of living and energy crisis; Labor’s Big Australia policy; Labor’s immigration and border security shambles.
E&OE.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
We’ll get more reaction now and go to Canberra with the Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton.
Peter, good to see you. Thanks for your time.
PETER DUTTON:
Pleasure, Pete.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
So, with more time to consider the numbers now, how do you define this budget?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Pete, I think listen to all of the independent analysts overnight and again this morning, some of whom you just played then: people are very critical of the budget because it is going to make it harder for families to meet their mortgage repayments, it’s going to make it harder for them to balance their own budgets. When you’ve got a high-spending, high-taxing Labor Government, like the Whitlam Government, people pay a price for that.
We know that the average household is $35,000 worse off. We know that under this Government, people have paid in a cumulative way so far, more than $1,000 additional for their energy bills. The Government’s broken every promise made. We’ve got people living in cars and in tents at the moment and the Government’s splashing billions of dollars for billionaires. It just doesn’t make any sense, and I think a lot of Australians, rightly, will be very annoyed.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
So, do you support that rebate for everybody?
PETER DUTTON:
We’ll support the bill that the Government’s putting through, because as we saw with the tax cuts, they won’t change their position. But I don’t understand why you and I, on high incomes, would be getting $300. I think there are a lot of families at the moment who really are genuinely struggling to understand how they’re going to pay all of their bills this month. Australians know that when they go to the supermarket…
PETER STEFANOVIC:
So you would means-test it? Would you cap it? Would you means-test it?
PETER DUTTON:
I think there’s a more sensible way of doing it, but, again, it’s an election commitment, right? So, you’re seeing it with Steven Miles in Queensland as well, splashing out $1,000. That’s not about an economic measure, it’s actually inflationary. They are going to do that because they’ve got an election coming up – and that’s exactly what this Government’s doing as well. They’re trying to buy themselves an interest rate cut before the election and pretend that everything’s okay, whereas it’s not. As all of the credible economists have said overnight: this is inflationary, it’s going to drive up inflation, and therefore interest rates, and it’s going to prolong the pain for a lot of families for many years to come.
The Government was bequeathed a good set of books when they came into power. They’ve had two surpluses – and now they’ve blown it. So, every year, prospectively now, under a Labor Government, they go into more and more and more debt. That is going to be a bill that ultimately is paid for by Australian families, small businesses, and taxpayers more generally.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
So, I mean, if you win the next election, Pete, you’re going to have to make cuts. You’re going to have to make big cuts because there’s a sea of red ink after this year. So, what are you eyeing off?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Pete, we’re not going to give billions of dollars to billionaires during a housing emergency. The Government’s brought in 1.67 million people over the course of a five year period – or they will do – almost a million people over the course of just the last two years. House starts in our country are at an 11-year low, people know they can’t get a builder or a tradie to come and renovate, or an electrician. It’s tough out there. The fact is that you can’t find rental accommodation. People can’t find a house for their children or grandchildren. It’s a big problem, and the Government has made decisions deliberately over the last two years, over the last two budgets, which have hurt families, not helped them, and this Budget only contributes to that.
So, I think there are a lot of issues that we need to address as a nation. We need to keep our country secure and we need to keep people safe, but we also need to make sure that we can address Labor’s homegrown inflation problem. It’s fuelled by giving billionaires additional billions of dollars. So, that would be the first savings, but there’ll be others that we can identify, because ultimately, what I want to do is get inflation down and interest rates down. That would be the greatest assistance that you could provide to families, but unfortunately, in this Budget, through high-spending and high-taxing, the Government has put upward pressure on inflation and therefore upward pressure on interest rates.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
I’m just curious here, where would you make the cap, rather, on the energy savings?
PETER DUTTON:
Oh well, Pete, I mean, for example Clive Palmer, he gets $1,000 from Steven Miles, and he gets $300 from Anthony Albanese…
PETER STEFANOVIC:
But if there’s an income threshold, what would you be eyeing off?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, let’s look at it in time, but at the moment, you’ve got this money that will go out the door before the next Budget, so, it’s sort of a moot discussion. I think at the moment, what we need to recognise is that all of these billions of dollars are going out, but nothing is made in Australia except inflation, homegrown inflation, under Labor, and that’s going to really hit families more disproportionately and more negatively than it will the billionaires who are going to be the big winners out of this Budget.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
The Prime Minister squibbed this question this morning, but do you suspect there could be an election this year?
PETER DUTTON:
I think they are setting themselves up for an election this year. I think they worried about the economy deteriorating. As we know, we’re already in a per capita recession. We know that families are going backwards because their real wages just aren’t keeping up with inflation, and there are a lot of families at the moment who are drowning in a sea of red. They’ve got difficulties for insurance premiums that continue to go up, they’ve got higher grocery prices, everything is just going up and up under this Government, and the Government’s ‘renewable only’ policy means that the price for the farmer to run a cold room goes up, the price for the packaging for the products you’re buying from a supermarket goes up – and all of that is passed on to the consumer. That’s what happens when you get a Labor Government. They tax and spend, inflation’s high, and interest rates are always higher under a Labor Government.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
I’ve got time for one more question, Peter. Another matter emerged on the weekend, a man released from immigration detention by your former Government has been convicted of carrying an illegal weapon in the wake of being charged with the assault and that alleged bashing of Perth grandmother Ninette Simons. Do you have to take any responsibility for that man’s release?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Pete, I saw the detail that the Prime Minister put out on the weekend. The only thing I’d say is that the only thing worse than a weak Prime Minister is a weak, scared Prime Minister – and the Prime Minister is scared and desperate when he puts out these sorts of stories. The fact is that this individual came on a boat. Fifty thousand people arrived under Labor, and you’ve got a situation now in the Budget where they’ve taken money out, even though they’ve had three boat arrivals in a week. So, I would stack my record on immigration any day of the week up against Anthony Albanese. I kicked out criminals. I cancelled visas. I didn’t release 151 hardcore criminals when they didn’t need to be released. I think the facts stand for themselves. This is a weak, desperate, incompetent Prime Minister. I’m sure he’s full of good intent, but he’s completely hopeless. We’ve seen that in The Voice, we’ve seen it in the budget, and Australian families are experiencing it in their hip pocket at the moment.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Peter Dutton, the Opposition Leader. Thanks, as always, for your time. We’ll talk to you soon.
[ends]