Subjects: Visit to the Ekka; China; Labor’s millions in donations from the CFMEU; Labor’s Jobs and Skills Summit stunt;
RAY HADLEY
The Opposition Leader’s in the House.
PETER DUTTON
Ray Hadley, great to see you in Brisbane.
RAY HADLEY
Well, it’s great to be here. Great to be here. And thank you for coming down to say g’day.
So, it’s People’s Day.
PETER DUTTON
It is, and there are reports of Matt Damon being here yesterday, but you were saying before that that was actually you walking through the pavilion…
RAY HADLEY
Matt Damon hey?
PETER DUTTON
…and people mistook you for him. Is that a true story now?
RAY HADLEY
Nah, well that’s something that’s on social media somewhere but wasn’t me, wasn’t Matt, but anyway, it’s a very important day for Brisbane. Of course, Peoples’ Day and we’ve 50,000 people here.
One of the things I love about it and I mentioned it earlier when I was talking to the gang on 4BC, that I know that we’ve got a new venue in Sydney for the Royal Easter Show and it’s a first-class, world class venue, but there’s just something about when it used to be down on the showground and they don’t have that anymore. But they’ve got it here. You’ve got the old grandstand, you’ve got the facility that’s been here for 170 years. It’s just something different about it.
PETER DUTTON
Yeah, look Ray, I think if you look at the development that’s taken place, it’s really integrated into the historic element of the Brisbane exhibition. I think there’s a great credit to the council over many years they’ve made a conscious effort of preserving what we’ve got here at the Brisbane Ekka, and the weather here at the moment is just spectacular.
So, I think people have really missed the show over the last couple of years with COVID. They’ll be back here in great number and it’s really a great credit to the volunteers and to the organising committee – they do a wonderful job – and it’s going to form part of the venue for the 2032 Brisbane Games as well.
So I think the legacy there will be obvious because there’ll be an upgrade no doubt to parts of the Ekka which will endure for a long time and will serve us well over the course of the Olympic Games as well.
RAY HADLEY
You know, sometimes I feel sorry for politicians, other times I don’t. But you’re really lucky you know? You’re lucky, the leader of the Liberal National Party – the Liberal Party federally, I should say, as opposed to being the leader of the Liberal Party in New South Wales at the moment. I mean, Dominic Perrottet must wake up every morning and say “oh not again, here we go.” Are there days like that for you?
PETER DUTTON
Well, this morning I suppose I woke up and thought I’m going to get a grilling on Ray Hadley again today.
So, no, look, sometimes people just don’t get the true impression of who somebody is – whether it’s somebody in media or somebody in politics – from what they perceive to be that person, from who they know, having seen them on TV or heard them on the radio.
What I can tell you about Dominic Perrottet is that I caught up with him in Sydney just the other day – he’s a thoroughly decent bloke, he really is. I think he has the genuine interests of New South Wales in his heart, and I think you see that in what he’s done.
If you contrast, Ray, I mean one of the good opportunities in this job is that you get a helicopter view, but you’re moving around the country every week – in New South Wales there’s infrastructure being built there, tunnels being built. The Government’s addressing the needs of the local community.
Here in Queensland, the state government continues to employ more public servants, which means that we’ve got a higher and higher wage bill each year. It means if they can’t afford to build the roads and the tunnels and we’re living in traffic gridlock.
So, I think sometimes, you know, we should pay tribute to what has happened in New South Wales and I desperately hope that Dom Perrottet can be re-elected next year.
RAY HADLEY
Well, I think it’s a faint hope because some of the holes he is digging, ones that he’s trying to climb out of, and it’s not just about him, it’s about lobbyists, and you’ve had the same problem in Queensland.
You’ve had, you know, immeasurable problems with the Labor Party in Queensland, with lobbyists, and they’ve had to be sidelined and sometime soon in New South Wales they have to do the same thing with a particular lobbyist down there, who appears to be some sort of powerbroker who’ll elevate people to the Upper House if he wants to, or preselection for a lower house seat, and the rest of it. It’s an ongoing problem, but it’s not your problem.
There’s a report in The Australian today that elements in your party are pressuring you to ease up on China because they’re worried about you alienating Chinese Australians in certain electorates. Are you concerned about that report?
PETER DUTTON
Well, I saw the report this morning Ray. Look, my position is not going to change. It’s informed by the intelligence that I was reading on a daily basis when I was Defence Minister.
From what I can see and I’ve just come back from Washington, the situation’s only deteriorated. We’re seeing now the activities in the South China Sea. I want to make sure that we continue to have peace in our region, and as we’ve seen in the Ukraine, if you don’t call out these dictators, if you don’t call out somebody like President Putin or President Xi, if we don’t shine a light on the bad behaviour, we will see in Taiwan what we’re seeing in the Ukraine at the moment and I don’t want that for Taiwanese. I don’t want instability in our region. I don’t want naval blockades in the South China Sea or in our trading routes. I don’t want to see instability in Vietnam or in Cambodia or Indonesia or anywhere in our region.
I want to make sure that peace prevails and we’re living in a period similar to the 1930s and an approach of appeasement doesn’t work. That’s not a slight on the Russian people, when we talk about President Putin. It’s not a slight on the North Korean people when we talk about the North Korean dictator and it’s not a slight on the Chinese – who are wonderful people and wonderful migrants to our country – when you’re talking about President Xi.
He’s made himself leader for life and he’s been very clear about their intention to go into Taiwan by hook or by crook, and that’s a reality that we just can’t ignore.
RAY HADLEY
I’ll take that as a no, you won’t be changing.
PETER DUTTON
No, I won’t be, and I think it’s right to stand up for our national interest.
RAY HADLEY
Now, have you been invited to the Jobs Summit? Because there’s talk that you may have got an invitation minutes before it was released to the media last night by the Treasurer, Mr Chalmers. Are you in receipt of an invitation to the Jobs Summit?
PETER DUTTON
Well, I was, but I must say that my media team came to me with a query from the newspaper before I saw the letter. So, it was it was a cute trick. But don’t forget that Jim Chalmers was Wayne Swan’s Chief of Staff, so he was the trickiest bloke in the book…
RAY HADLEY
Hang on, hang on. He was the world’s greatest treasurer. He was reported, it was voted by someone, some dickhead, that he was the world’s greatest treasurer.
PETER DUTTON
Well, there was obviously some strange interpretation of the rules that saw him get across the line but, anyway, it was a stunt. It’s a talkfest for the union movement, and as you’re seeing at the moment – I mean, all of this additional talk about strikes and union activity around the country – that’s what happens when Labor gets back into power.
You know, I think the CFMEU actions at the moment – the millions of dollars that the Labor Party’s taken from these thugs and grubs from the CFMEU – you’ll get the policy outcomes, and that’s what’s happened.
The Labor Party’s already moved to abolish the Australian Building Construction Commission – the watchdog that helped to police the job sites, the stopping of concrete being poured on building sites, the abuse of female workers on building sites, the charges of assault and affray, and the activity that you’ve just seen in South Australia this week by the CFMEU. I’m not going to a Summit with those people.
I want to see this Government address the very real issue of cost of living pressures that families are facing at the moment. I think that’s increasingly people will focus on over the course of the next couple of years and I think it was a stunt. I mean, if you’re genuine, you give me a call or you send us a letter, you wait for the response, you have a dialogue, you don’t drop it to the media.
RAY HADLEY
Well, given we have an unemployment rate almost at a 50 year low, I think it’s 48 years but the ACTU wants to completely overhaul the entire economy. And that’s what they’ll go and demand of the Treasurer and of the Prime Minister, despite that unprecedented unemployment rate, they want to change everything.
PETER DUTTON
Well, they do. It’s important to understand what they’re talking about changing is what Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd introduced – it’s not the industrial relations reform that the Abbott or Turnbull, or Morrison Government introduced – we operated under the industrial relations regime that Labor put in place.
So, what they’re talking about doing is unwinding the industrial relations back to a period probably similar to what we had in the 1980s. Now you’ll see a massive spike in strikes, you’re seeing it on the ports at the moment where it’s difficult to get medicines in because the tugboat operators are going on strike and it means that those ships can’t land and the shipping containers offloading and that’s what happens.
The government should be standing up to that sort of behaviour, not folding and bending to every whim of the union movement. It’s not in our country’s best interests. Ray, when you look at what’s happening in the US at the moment, I mean in some states in the US inflation is at 11% now. Unemployment will spike as a result of that, interest rates will have to go to double digits to bring that under control.
So, I’m worried about where the US is headed, and the economy here is much stronger, so we should be able to withstand that. But families at the moment are struggling to pay their power bills, their gas bills, when they fill up at the bowser or they’re going to check out at the grocery store. So, it’s going to get worse over the next couple of years, unfortunately.
RAY HADLEY
All right, you’ve got a busy day, how long are you here for? All day or you’ll get out by lunchtime?
PETER DUTTON
No, I’ll be here for a couple of hours. The kids have given me a showbag list, so I’ll try and find my way through that queue.
RAY HADLEY
There’s a fairy floss stand across there.
PETER DUTTON
As you can see, I don’t need any fairy floss. Just to just pre-empt what you were about to say next.
RAY HADLEY
And there’s well, there’s a healthy pineapple juice stand to my left hand side. And look, I have had a walk around here after finishing on air at midday, and it is, it’s wonderful that it’s back after a two year hiatus because of the virus.
It’s wonderful so many people are here and wonderful to see so many smiling faces as well. I’m going to Doomben races this afternoon.
PETER DUTTON
Oh good.
RAY HADLEY
I’ll have a day out with a couple of old mates of mine.
PETER DUTTON
Alright, I’ll get a tip off you later on.
RAY HADLEY
Yeah, no tips. I’m not punting, I’m just going to look. I like watching the horses. Okay. Have a good day. Thank you very much.
PETER DUTTON
Thank you, Ray.
[ends]