Subjects: The Prime Minister’s Canberra Voice proposal; cost of living pressures; asylum seekers arriving by plane; visit to Adelaide.
E&OE
SARAH ABO:
The Opposition Leader Peter Dutton joins us now in Adelaide. Sorry Pete, that’s not exactly the warmest welcome, is it?
PETER DUTTON:
Fortunately, I didn’t hear what Karl said but I suspect it wasn’t nice, Sarah! He’s just that sort of guy.
SARAH ABO:
He is that kind of guy. We’re on the same page there. Hey, why do you reckon voters are turning against you?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, I think the polling was taken over a period where we had a resignation from the frontbench and the public, you know, rightly never rewards what they perceive as disunity within the Party. But we’ve got a big rebuild to do. We’re in the first 12 months of a government that’s in its honeymoon. This is not like the New South Wales scenario where it was a tired government after 12 years, the public perceived that, it wasn’t like we’d been through nine years at a federal level, like when Labor was elected in 2022. So, we’ve got a big rebuilding process to go through and we’ll do that.
I also think a lot of families are really hurting at the moment. The cost of living pressures continue to mount on people and I think the public probably hasn’t quite seen that Labor is responsible for making a number of decisions that clearly will make it harder for families, and I think unfortunately, sadly for families, that’s going to come home to roost over the next 12 months.
SARAH ABO:
I mean, is it perceived disunity? Or is it actual disunity? I mean, you’ve got senior Liberal ministers, shadow ministers just basically falling left, right and centre. Does it really come down, do you think, to the stance that you’re taking about the Voice and the opposition against it?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we had a resignation yesterday from Karen Andrews who’s been a great member of our frontbench, but Karen’s 63, she’s decided she doesn’t want to contest the next election, and she said if you’re going to have a reshuffle, bring somebody fresh in because they’ll be a face for going into government in 2025. So, I mean it’s hardly disunity, but the media will portray it as that.
For us, yes, I think it’s incredibly important that we take a strong stance against the Canberra Voice because it’s about an elitist model. It’s not going to deliver the outcomes that we want in the local communities and it’s not in our country’s best interests to have an effective sort of third limb of government that’s going to be a massive, big new bureaucracy and I’ve got to take tough decisions that are in our country’s best interests and fight hard for them, and that’s exactly what we’re doing on the Voice, and there’ll be lots of other issues that we’re able to talk about.
SARAH ABO:
I mean, one thing that Karen Andrews did say was that you guys are sort of distracted by the Voice and not actually focusing on grassroots and things like cost of living pressures across the country. Are you actually, you know, spending too much time where it’s not necessarily needed?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think for a lot of families at the moment, they’ve no idea what the Voice is. They’re more worried about how they’re going to pay their bills. I’m going to a business here in South Australia shortly, their gas bill’s gone up by 340 per cent and their electricity bill by about 100-120 per cent and all of those costs are being passed on to consumers. So, people feel that when they go into the checkout – into the supermarket, at the checkout.
So, you know, you can understand why people are saying, ‘well, why are you talking about the Voice and other issues?’ But this is a proposal that will potentially change our whole system of government. It’s not just about how we can help Indigenous communities. That’s why, yes, there’s short-term pain in talking about an issue that may not be relevant to the day-to-day lives of Australians, but it’s important for our country’s future and that’s why I think we take a strong stand.
SARAH ABO:
All right, Now the report on the front page of the Daily Telegraph this morning talks about an influx of people claiming to be refugees arriving in Australia. Many of the applicants have found to be bogus. We know obviously our borders have been closed for some time, but Labor is saying that this backlog started on the Coalition’s watch. Do you think you let this get away from you?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Sarah, I just think you need to deal with the facts here, and if you have a look at what’s happened behind the scenes, Labor has increased the number of approvals – that is, the number of asylum seeker approvals by about 50 per cent. So, people hear that message very quickly like they did when Labor was last in power and 50,000 people came on boats. We’ve now had almost 2,000 people who have come last month alone, which is a big spike, and the reason for that is that the message has got out that Labor will approve even the questionable claims and as a result you will get big numbers and I predict that there will be further increases in that number. You’re talking about people with dodgy paperwork and claims. You know, those who are legitimate should be given asylum, but if people believe that the government’s a soft touch on borders and they are, then that message will spread very quickly.
SARAH ABO:
All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us from Adelaide this week, Peter, but we missed you there last week? You weren’t there for Gather Round? Come on. Not into the footy, I guess?
PETER DUTTON:
And LIV starts on Friday, right? So, it would have been a cracking week to be in South Australia. But I’m off to Melbourne I think today and then I’ll speak to you guys on Friday. I’m not sure where I’ll be on Friday.
SARAH ABO:
All right, well, good luck in Melbourne.
PETER DUTTON:
I look forward to it. Well, exactly. Thank you.
Hopefully Karl can get me on the segment this week. He cut me off last Friday.
SARAH ABO:
It’s always Karl’s fault! Best to blame him I reckon, Pete.
PETER DUTTON:
Some dodgy cameraman!
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Don’t cut you off as much as Melbourne does!
Good on you, Pete. Thank you.
[ends]