Subjects: One year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; foreign interference; Indigenous Voice to Parliament; Labor’s superannuation shambles; Stephen Jones’s clumsy superannuation honey blunder.
E&OE.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Let’s go to the Northern Territory now. Joining us live is the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Peter, good to see you. So one year on, I recall speaking to you on the day, as a matter of fact, your thoughts on where the war is at right now?
PETER DUTTON:
Well clearly, the United Nations has a very significant role to play here and the European Union, and many others have really stepped up and let’s hope that it continues. I think what Russia is hoping for is that people will get distracted and fall away from supporting Ukraine. We need to make sure on this anniversary that as friends of Ukraine, we all double down and we continue to make it very clear to Russia and to the rest of the world that sanctions continue, that our supply of defence materiel will continue so that the fight can continue and Ukraine won’t be overcome by Russia’s force. I think that’s the most important message on this anniversary and if we do that then we will outlast the Russians, which is what they’re attempting to do at the moment. So, there are some very significant days ahead but for President Zelenskyy, he’s a modern-day Churchillian figure, a hero of this century, and he continues to lead his people and whilst he does that, we should continue to support them.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Yeah, I read this morning, the first load of Ukrainian troops that have been trained by our soldiers in the UK will be heading to the battlefield shortly. We are contributing another $33 million in aid, amongst that will be Uncrewed Aerial Systems. Now there is some growing discontent in the US about the amount of money they’re spending on the war, given their economic problems. So, just in reference to your first answer, is there any kind of limit to what we can or should provide?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we have to be sensible about what we can afford. We’re a nation of 25.8 million people, so we’re not as big as the US or the UK, and there obviously is a much bigger war machine in the United States. But for us it’s an important statement of principle and it’s an important statement of being prepared to stand up for our values. Australia has done that through world wars and through peacekeeping missions and other actions that we’ve been involved in, and our approach should be no different. I think, frankly, Ukraine will be one of Australia’s great friends and allies in the decades to come, and I always had that in mind when we provided the first wave of support in the Morrison Government. We provided about $285 million worth of defence materiel, support, training and support otherwise and it’s continued under the Albanese Government. We’re very supportive and it’s praiseworthy. So, let’s call it out as a good thing, but it needs to continue. It does come at a cost, but there’s a huge cost for inaction as well.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
On the Sydney Morning Herald this morning, Peter, it was a hive of Russian spies who were kicked out of Australia by ASIO. Now they were there while you were in office. Did you know about it at the time?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Pete, I don’t think the ASIO Director-General has confirmed the nationality of this ring, so I’ll leave that up to him. But certainly I received regular briefings from ASIO in relation to national security matters and I don’t think it would come as a surprise to anyone that certain countries are involved in activity on a daily basis. The theft of intellectual property, the attempt to convert Australian citizens who might be in positions of importance to their way of thinking or to their cause – that’s a reality. It’s not just Russia, not just China, but many other countries as well who are involved in trying to work up their opportunities here and that’s why they’re here, it’s why they’re placed here by their host nations and the work of ASIO is incredibly important – more important than ever.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Do you think that that could have been a response to our helping Ukraine in the war, that Russian spies would be here trying to steal any kind of intellectual information?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Pete, it’s obvious that Russians have had a presence in Australia for many decades. It’s clear that they’re not happy about Australia’s support of Ukraine, so you would expect that they would up their collection activities or put extra resources into their capabilities – that’s just an obvious point to make. But in relation to this particular network, I know there’s been media speculation on it, but all of the briefings I received were either secret or top secret, and it’s not something I’m going to speculate on publicly.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay, you’re in Gove, you’re at the Top End to further your work on the Voice. You’ve spoken to 13 different clans, heads of land councils. What’s that done for your position on the Voice?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Pete, there’s support for the Voice amongst the stakeholders that we met with yesterday, the Dilak here is almost like its own parliament, so it brings the clans together and the way that they operate here in East Arnhem Land is quite remarkable. They provide leadership, the kids in record numbers attending school with a 90 per cent attendance rate. The programme that they’ve undertaken with Barker School is a very successful one. The provision of health services, the management of alcohol, the way in which money hasn’t been squandered here, to be honest. In many programmes they’ve been able to build up industry that’s employing local people. One of the things that I wanted to understand here was how we could replicate that success in other communities and whether or not a Voice would help or hinder that process, which is well-settled in terms of their decision making and the way in which they bring all of those clans together, unite them for the good of their local community.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. So, has that changed your view, though? I mean, given what you’ve learned over the past 24 hours, you know, is it enough for you to now support the Voice?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Pete, we’ve written to the government in January asking 15 pretty basic questions. The Prime Minister still hasn’t answered it. We’ve seen now speculation that the wording is going to change, and you have a look at what Pat Dodson was out there saying the other day, that he wants to see somebody from the Voice or a representation from the Voice sitting at the National Cabinet table. The Prime Minister ruled that out. So, they’re essentially making this plane mid-flight and I just think we need to be very careful about that, because Australians want detail, including many Indigenous Australians I’ve spoken to as I’ve moved around the country. People want to know how it’s going to impact on their local communities, whether it’s going to be a net positive or whether it’s just another layer of bureaucracy, and we want that detail before we arrive at a position and we’ll have our Party Room discussion as a result of that.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Now just a final one on super. Some interesting commentary from Stephen Jones yesterday. He referred to super as ‘honey that needs to be managed in the best interests of the hive’. What’s your thoughts on that reference?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, look, I just think if you’ve got a superannuation fund, you should be worried about Labor’s intent here. The Labor government went to the election promising that there’d be no major changes to superannuation and now they’re talking about major changes to superannuation. As Garry Weaven points out, if you keep tinkering with superannuation, there’d be a lot of people out there who are just on the cusp of maybe putting a redundancy payment into super on financial advice; they might have had a windfall in selling a property recently and they want a provision for their retirement. They might have had an inheritance that they’ve rolled into superannuation and maybe they’ve started with quite a modest balance in superannuation, but they’ve invested in a high-growth strategy, again, on financial advice. Maybe they’ve put money into crypto or into some sort of shares that have gone through the roof and their balance has gone up dramatically. Now they’re the people that Labor is talking about taxing – and taxing a lot. If Stephen Jones is representative in his view of what the government’s intent is here, Australians should be very worried because you work hard, it’s your money that you put into superannuation to provide for your retirement, and you’ve put it in there based on a set of rules and Labor’s now changing those rules.
This final point, to a lot of younger people who would be talking to their parents and grandparents about this, they’d be saying, ‘well, why would I invest in super? I’m only 30 or 40 years of age. It’s 20 or 30 years away before I can get access to that money and heaven knows what Labor will do to it and how much they’ll continue to tax it by the time I retire’. So, that’s exactly the point Garry is legitimately making and I think Labor lose the point that this is about your money and maximising the return on your money so that you can enjoy your retirement, not some sort of socialist policy that Stephen Jones wants where you take a big lick of honey out of the pot and start spreading it out to other projects and other people. That’s not how superannuation is meant to work in our country.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
If the cap was raised to $5 million instead of $3 million, would that change your mind at all? Or are you just blanket across any kind of tax increase?
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, Pete, I mean, you just can’t have these thought bubbles that are on the run. I mean, Wayne Swan’s out talking about a $3 million cap. The fact is that Wayne Swan sitting on a superannuation that is worth – probably if it’s capitalised – a very significant number higher than that because he receives his pension for life. So, you know, the socialists are always happy to come after your money. They’re not happy to give you their own, which is what normally happens with Labor governments, but Labor’s clearly running out of money. They’re driving up the cost of living for Australians so they’re making it more difficult. There have been eight out of eight increases in interest rates under Labor’s watch, so far. They’re driving up the price of interest rates because they’re driving up inflation through some of the stupid policies that they’ve decided over the last couple of years. So, families are paying more for their mortgages and now they’re being told that their superannuation is going to be worth less when they retire. No wonder people are starting to get very angry at Mr Albanese.
It’s obvious, in relation to the Aston by-election that they bought that by-election forward at the earliest possible date so that they don’t have to get through the budget. I worry for Australian families what’s in this budget and it’s clear the Prime Minister doesn’t have a plan to help families. The only plan they’ve got is to tax families and I think this is the last thing that people want at the moment when they’re facing increased cost of living pressures in their family and in their small businesses.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Peter Dutton, live from Gove in the Northern Territory. Appreciate your time as always, Peter. We’ll talk to you again soon.
[ends]