Subjects: Foot and Mouth Disease; energy crisis; cost of living
RAY HADLEY
Good morning, Peter.
PETER DUTTON
‘Morning, Ray.
RAY HADLEY
The trip, when you were away, I noticed that you sensibly didn’t criticise Anthony Albanese for doing what Prime Ministers do, travelling overseas and meeting with various people, particularly when they first come to office.
PETER DUTTON
Well, Ray, we’ve been supportive of the Government, particularly in the times in which we live, for the Prime Minister to engage, and for his Ministers to engage in the region, and to do that in our country’s name. So, we will be supportive. We’ll call them out where we think they’ve got the call wrong. I was critical of the Prime Minister around the delay in the announcement of the support to flood victims in New South Wales. Clearly, they delayed that because the Prime Minister wasn’t able to be on the ground and enjoy the shots and the publicity around that announcement. So, I thought that was a bit shabby, but otherwise, we’re supportive of sensible positions the Government takes and I’ve been very clear about that. From my own perspective, we’ve been over in the US for a couple of weeks, and it’s good to be back at work.
RAY HADLEY
Okay, now, I listened to your colleague and Deputy, David Littleproud, with my colleague Michael McLaren this morning on the network talking about foot and mouth. You don’t want to panic people, but I was really concerned that Murray Watt appeared to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table. Then he went to Indonesia, you know, and had discussions there obviously. But yesterday we see foot and mouth fragments detected in Australia in two separate incidents: pork in Melbourne, in a supermarket; and then inexplicably, beef brought in by traveller returning from Indonesia to Adelaide. We’re on the precipice and that person, male or female, got a warning – a warning!
PETER DUTTON
Well, when you think, Ray, of the devastation to the animals, but to the industry here, the talks of an $80 billion impact in Australia, the devastation on our industry, on our farmers, but also on consumers as well. It would mean the cost of not just beef, but lamb, all sorts of livestock: our products and industries that hang off that would be adversely affected.
So, there’s a huge impact economy-wide here, and I do think, to be honest, that we need to hear from the Prime Minister today on this issue because this can have a devastating impact right across our country and for many years. It would take a long time to contain it, our international reputation would be negatively impacted, and I think what’s unsettling a lot of farmers and farmer groups at the moment is that Murray Watt is probably the most inexperienced of the government ministers. He lives on the Gold Coast – obviously, they just don’t have anyone that lives in a regional area on the Labor side that can represent and understand the farmers – and I really think that showing in some of Minister Watts’s comments at the moment.
So, I just think given the severity of this issue, the potential consequences if the Government gets it wrong, we really need to hear from the Prime Minister today about what extra steps are being put in place, what additional support they’re putting at our borders. Australians need to hear that the Prime Minister is in charge of what is a very significant threat to our livestock industry and to the broader economy.
RAY HADLEY
You’re talking about wiping out our dairy herd, our beef herd, our pigs, our pork, our lambs, our sheep. You’re talking about, you know, all these animals if we contract it – as they did in Great Britain 20 years ago – having to be destroyed, humanely destroyed, because that’s the only way to contain it. And unfortunately, it’s that serious. I mean, yes, we need to do more. Even little things – you know, they said we’ll get some sniffer dogs from somewhere – sniffer dogs aren’t any good. I mean, David Littleproud spoke this morning about having this ability to look at things within luggage and the whole range of it on a 3D basis, and that has to be done. We have to look at what people are bringing back in. We’ve got to make sure. If you come back from the United States of America with mud on your golf shoes in your bag and someone finds them and they take them off you and either clean them or you surrender them. I mean, we are talking about a really important story of foot and mouth decimating the agricultural industry in Australia if it gets a foothold here. It hasn’t got a foothold yet, but we’ve going to make sure it doesn’t.
PETER DUTTON
I think you’re spot on, Ray. I think that’s why the Government really needs to provide a level of reassurance. I was talking to a farmer yesterday in Southeast Queensland and he’s genuinely very concerned and believes that there would be devastation, and he’s exactly right. As you point out, when you’re talking about a whole sector that’s affected, but the economy-wide impacts, the human costs for farming families, the extra cost that you’ll pay at the butchers or at the supermarket when you buy any sort of meat, the impacts on our export markets, the reliability of our product and that ‘brand Australia’ would be negatively impacted in a very tangible way – and that’s why I say, I just think it’s beyond, obviously – as he’s demonstrated over the last couple of days – the new minister. It really is something the Prime Minister needs to stand up on. It’s an issue of national significance and I really think we deserve to hear from him today.
RAY HADLEY
We have a stack of things to talk about but very quickly one final thing – the Government is now finding out it’s very easy to be in opposition a lot harder to be making the decisions. Power prices. We had a series of promises before, and even after the election, and during the election about prices coming down. That hasn’t come to fruition, they’re jackpotting everywhere all over the country.
PETER DUTTON
And they will continue to go up because the Government, I just think, has still got it’s training wheels on when it comes to energy. You’re seeing all sorts of shortages around gas. But they knew all of this, Ray, when they promised that they’d reduce energy prices by $275. Electricity bills would go down they said, and they made that promise knowing that they couldn’t deliver it and now they’re trying to find every excuse to crab walk away from it.
But people are hurting. Families are seeing a massive increase in their gas bills and their electricity bills and the Government’s obsession at the moment will mean that the prices will continue to be driven up and that’s something I just don’t think Australians can afford. You’ve got increased cost of living, you’re seeing your grocery prices go up, interest rates go up, and this is a worrying time. So, we need to understand from the Government how they’re going to deliver on that promise, and at the moment, it’s clear that they can’t.
RAY HADLEY
Okay, we’ll talk next week. Thanks for your time.
PETER DUTTON
Thanks, Ray. See you, mate.
[ends]