Subjects: Visit to Strahan to discuss the Tasmanian salmon industry; the Prime Minister’s shocking betrayal on the stage three tax cuts; the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership and credibility; Labor’s cost of living crisis; Bridget Archer; bulk billing rates in Tasmania.
E&OE.
RICHARD PERNO:
And, winning a little bit on the West Coast over the weekend was the Federal Leader of the Opposition, the Liberal Party, Peter Dutton.
Good morning. Good morning Peter. Did you catch a salmon yesterday, Pete?
PETER DUTTON:
Ah Richard, I didn’t. I saw a few jumping actually, which was impressive. I did catch the tennis last night. So I’m a bit shady this morning, but it was a great game last night…
RICHARD PERNO:
Certainly was.
PETER DUTTON:
…and we had a great visit to Strahan as well.
RICHARD PERNO:
Yeah, I was a little bit – this booing at the PM. What’s your opinion on that, Peter?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah look, I think it’s time honoured and I don’t think the PM will be too fazed by it, but I think that the PM hasn’t made too many friends over his backflip on the tax cuts, and I think a lot of people are angry when the PM looks him in the eye and tells him something 100 times and then ends up lying about it. I think you pay a price for that.
RICHARD PERNO:
Yeah, Peter Dutton, I hate to be cynical, and you know what I’m about to say: that’s a politician, isn’t it?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think to an extent you can say that people are cynical and politicians deserve it, but this is sort of next level. It’s sort of Julia Gillard style where you go to – well they went to two elections actually: 2019 and 2022, told people on 100 occasions that they’ve got to get a tax cut, and now the Prime Minister backflips on that because he’s panicking about the by-election in Victoria.
People have budgeted for this, they’ve planned for it and bracket creep’s a real thing – particularly in a high inflationary environment – as the Government forgot to mention, or the Prime Minister forgot to mention in his speech, but the Treasury paper pointed out: the Government will reap $28 billion more in tax under the Government’s plan and the tax cut of $15 a week, I’m sure is welcome, but it’s not going to make up for the couple of thousand dollars extra a month people are paying in their mortgages.
RICHARD PERNO:
Yeah, okay. It’s being sucked into by electricity and the cost of living as we’ve used that bashed to death phrase, Peter Dutton. What would you like to say happen? And one of the suggestions that’s come across our page over the last couple of weeks or so about the cost of living, Peter Dutton, why don’t we look at this double dipping that the Government is able to get federally on our petrol?
PETER DUTTON:
This is in terms of excise and then GST?
RICHARD PERNO:
Yes. Yeah.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, it’s been a time honoured discussion, and when we were in Government we reduced the excise temporarily, and some economists have argued for that because it’s deflationary, and at the moment what we want to do is get that inflation back into the bandwidth that the RBA requests, which is two to three per cent, it’s up over four per cent at the moment…
RICHARD PERNO:
Yeah.
PETER DUTTON:
…and if we don’t get it down then prices continue to go up.
I honestly think one of the bigger issues is the energy situation at the moment where every farmer is copping it with extra bills, to run their cold room, extra prices for their fertiliser, extra prices, as you say, for diesel, and it means that all of that’s been passed on to consumers.
So people when they go to check out at the moment are saying ‘jeez, I’m not getting much for my 100 bucks or however much I’m spending compared to 12 or 18 months ago’, and that is fuelling the price of goods and therefore inflation, and I think a lot of people are feeling that at the moment. Whilst we’ve got this energy policy that the Government keeps pushing, the prices will continue to go up.
RICHARD PERNO:
Yeah, yeah. But if we can’t control supermarkets and what they – I mean we’ve got a duopoly, and just like in the petrol situation, Coles and Woolies have got us by the short and curlies haven’t they, Peter Dutton? How can we stop them putting 50 cents on every time we go and buy the same product a few days later? You can’t stop that, can you Peter?
PETER DUTTON:
Well for the oil companies, they’ve worked out a situation, particularly in markets where they don’t have independence, where they can jack the prices up, and you’re right, only a couple weeks ago, because I was driving from one side of the town to the other, and it was a 51 cent price….
RICHARD PERNO:
Difference. Yeah, yeah.
PETER DUTTON:
…difference between the two service stations, and unless you put some arrangement in place where you’ve got a floor or a cap system, it’s difficult to rein them in. But I think consumers have got to speak with their wallet and go to the independents in particular, who generally try and keep the prices down.
RICHARD PERNO:
Yeah but what about you buy a loaf of bread today and it’s up 30 cents – it’s an arbitrary and I guess, a hypothetical situation Peter Dutton – but I bought something last week and it cost me $3.80, I went into the shops on the weekend and it was $4.20. I can’t stop the supermarket’s doing that, and you can’t either.
PETER DUTTON:
No, you’ve certainly got to shop around. I think there are different parts of the cycle, as some of the economists have pointed out, where during the week some supermarkets are providing specials. The IGA’s, for example, again, I think it’s important to support them because without the competition, you will get price spikes and you’ve got to chase those specials. Particularly for people on fixed incomes, for pensioners and people on part pensions, they just don’t have the flexibility in their budgets to make it all work.
RICHARD PERNO:
Alright, before I let you go, and now I’ve got you all. While, I have you on the hook, so to speak, talking about salmon and the like; have you contacted Bridget Archer?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we’ve spoken to Bridget a lot, and Bridget’s pointed out one of the big problems in Tassie at the moment in relation to Medicare bulk billing rates.
RICHARD PERNO:
Yes.
PETER DUTTON:
She’s been really on the front foot on this to her credit, and she’s done a good job in pointing out, again, another problem of the Government’s making. They’ve got a situation where bulk billing rates are very low. When I was Health Minister, bulk billing rates were 84 per cent, they’re well and truly below that now, particularly right across Tasmania, but other parts of the country as well.
Just before we go, Richard, I just want to point out the visit that we had yesterday out to Strahan was an incredibly important one because this is a $1 billion industry employing 5,000 people in Tasmania. The Bob Brown Foundation, the Environmental Defenders Office – these are radical people, and they want to see the industry closed down. When we met with those young people yesterday who are working at the salmon farms, they had their young kids in their arms – there’s no other job alternative for them.
RICHARD PERNO:
That’s right.
PETER DUTTON:
They leave Strahan if it’s closed down. I just think we’ve got to really start to talk the message that this is the most sustainable environment, it is beating world class standards in terms of the environmental standards, and we shouldn’t be bullied by these environmental groups who would close down every aquaculture enterprise across Tasmania and then go onto mining and then go onto forestry. We’ve seen this movie before and we’ve got to push back on it.
Unfortunately at the moment, Tanya Plibersek’s got this concocted arrangement where they’re trying to rule out the environmental sustainability of salmon farming, and it’s done for political reasons because they’re trying to please people…
RICHARD PERNO:
Sure.
PETER DUTTON:
…The greenies in inner city Melbourne and Sydney and we should be calling it out, because otherwise those jobs and that economic activity will go from places like Strahan, which can’t survive without it.
RICHARD PERNO:
Okay, one final question because I know you’re on an agenda Peter Dutton. Are you concerned about Bridget Archer crossing the floor all the time and going against the Lib’s policies?
PETER DUTTON:
No, I’m not. I’ve been in the Parliament for a long time, I’ve seen it before when John Howard was Prime Minister, with people like Bruce Baird or Judi Moylan and others who crossed the floor.
Bridget’s a strong, independent person. Ideally, you want everybody to vote in accordance with their Party direction each time, but Bridget’s got that streak of independence. She works hard for her local community, and in my mind the work that she does locally is most important. She’s a team player most of the time, and she has a decision to cross the floor on other occasions. That’s her right.
In the Liberal Party you can do that, in the Labor Party you’ve got to resign from the Party if you do that. The Liberal Party’s always been about the power of the independence of each person and we don’t seek stifle that.
RICHARD PERNO:
Peter Dutton, the Leader of the Federal Liberal Party. I appreciate your time this morning.
Peter, thank you. Have a good day.
PETER DUTTON:
My pleasure mate. Thank you too.
[ends]