Subjects: Visit to Western Sydney; the Prime Minister’s cost of living crisis; Labor’s energy policy shambles; nuclear energy; Lindsay pre-selection.
E&OE
MELISSA MCINTOSH:
Welcome back to Western Sydney, to Penrith – the true heart of Australia. It’s fantastic, Peter, to have you here again.
Cost of living, energy costs are the number one issue for people in my community and right across Western Sydney. Really worryingly, I heard from a Foodbank just this morning who are feeding more people than ever before. People that have never walked through the doors, and now they’ve said they’re starting to pay people’s electricity bills. People who are at risk of having their electricity cut off, the Foodbanks are stepping in. This is extraordinary in Australia and in Western Sydney.
I’m also hearing daily that we have major closures of small businesses, people just trying to have a go, to get ahead in Western Sydney, because of energy costs specifically, they’re now having to close their doors.
Labor has forgotten about the people of Western Sydney, or worse still, they just don’t care. Small businesses are struggling, families are struggling, major infrastructure cuts of billions of dollars when we have an international airport just a couple of years away. People deserve better in Western Sydney, and I’m so pleased in my new role, to be looking after people here and to be having Peter joining us here at a wonderful Aussie manufacturer, GPC electronics.
Thanks Peter.
PETER DUTTON:
Melissa, thank you very much. Well, firstly to Christopher and the team here, thank you very much for having us to GPC. It’s an incredible success story for our country, and we should be very proud of what’s been achieved here. Hundreds of people being employed locally, exporting products and really building our international reputation.
There’s a big multiplier in businesses like this, it’s not just local families who are supported through helping to pay off their mortgages, put their kids through school, but also the taxes that are paid and the economic growth that’s created. There are many entrepreneurs in our country who deserve significant praise, and, Christopher, to you and to your team here, thank you so much for hosting Melissa and myself this morning. It’s one part of a very big story here in Western Sydney.
It’s clear that for many years now, the Labor Party has neglected this part of the world. We want to make sure that we have the policies that are fit for purpose, that support local families and local businesses, to make sure that Western Sydney can thrive again, and to make sure that people can keep their jobs, keep food on the table, and make sure that they’ve got a better life for their kids and their grandkids. That’s what our vision is, and we want to make sure that we continue to roll it out, because we owe it to those Australians who work hard and deserve to be rewarded.
I want to say thank you to Melissa for the work that she’s done in her local community. She’s our face here in Western Sydney of the Liberal Party, and she knows that people need help.
The decisions now that the Government’s made in two budgets have made it harder, not easier, for Australian families. We know that we’ve got a record number of small businesses closing across the country, and they might be statistics to the Prime Minister, but they’re individual families and they’re tragic stories, and they’re playing out at an increasing number across our economy.
We know that we’re in a per capita GDP recession at the moment for individuals who are really doing it hard. I don’t believe the Government has the answers, and I don’t believe that Australians can afford three more years of this Labor Government. Every decision they make is making it harder, not easier, for families and small businesses.
So, I’m very pleased to be here today, and in terms of energy costs, as Melissa’s pointed out; electricity is up by 20 per cent, gas is up by 27 per cent, and yet the Prime Minister promised on 100 occasions that your electricity bills would go down by $275.
We’ve started this discussion about the latest technology nuclear, because it’s zero emissions, it can provide us with cleaner power, but affordable power and reliable power. There are manufacturers in our country at the moment who are shutting up operations and moving offshore. Why would we want that? Why does the Government have an energy policy in place which is driving these businesses offshore? We lose the jobs, we lose the economic productivity, we lose the taxes, and we import the products back into Australia because we don’t stop consuming them, and there is a higher net loss of emissions into the atmosphere.
It just doesn’t make sense the path the Government’s got us on at the moment. It’s why we need a clear pathway, it’s why the Prime Minister should stand up and debate with me the issue of nuclear and energy in this country. I’ll meet him at the Press Club, or wherever he wants, at any time. We can have the debate and we need it, because at the moment there is so much uncertainty in the economy, and businesses like this continue to have significant growth in their – not just their energy costs – but their input costs otherwise, and ultimately those costs have to be passed on to consumers, which is why people are paying more for every basket of groceries at the supermarket. It’s why they’re paying more when they go to fuel up the car. It’s why they’re paying more for their insurance, and the Government just doesn’t have an answer for them.
I want to work very closely with Melissa, particularly here in Western Sydney, to make sure that we listen again to people who are living in this great part of the world.
I’m very happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, where do you propose nuclear reactors should be built?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we’ve said very clearly that they should be confined to areas where we’ve got a coal fired generator that’s coming to an end of life, because of a couple of reasons: one is you’ve got a brownfield site, secondly, you’ve got the ability to distribute the energy that’s generated out of that site.
The Government’s proposal to build 28,000km of poles and wires – the whole system that they’re talking about could cost up to about $1.3 trillion. Now, all of that money’s going to be passed on in the form of higher electricity bills, and people are paying through the nose already for their electricity bill under this Government, but they haven’t seen anything yet. Prices are going to continue to go up, but worse than that, we’re going to see blackouts and brownouts and disruption to supply.
The Government at the moment is saying to businesses ‘ramp down your activity in the afternoon if you’re a high energy using business, because we don’t want blackouts and brownouts during that peak period when people are coming home from work to try and cook their dinner, or put a load of washing on’. We can’t have that in our country. We need a strong, reliable energy source. We need it at the cheapest possible price and we need it to be clean. That’s what our policy is designed and targeted at.
We’ll have more to say about the exact locations over the next couple of weeks, but we’ve been very clear that an adoption of the newest technology, that has zero emissions is the only credible pathway we have to net zero by 2050.
At the moment, let’s not continue with the fantasy that Labor has, that they can get to net zero by 2050, they just can’t.
QUESTION:
You’ve identified six sites…
PETER DUTTON:
In the vicinity of six.
QUESTION:
Right. Can give us a hint? Where do you propose…?
PETER DUTTON:
We’ll provide you with that detail over the next couple of weeks.
QUESTION:
Australia’s former Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, said last year it was highly unlikely Australia could open a nuclear power reactor before the early 2040s. Isn’t that far too long and wouldn’t Australia be better off focusing on renewables?
PETER DUTTON:
We need to firm up renewables. So, I am completely and utterly in favour of renewables. I want to see renewables in our system, but you need to be able to firm them up.
In a factory like this, there’s no solar panels on the roof, because of the structure, it just can’t carry the weight, and for a business like this, they need to rely on a secure energy grid. If the power is intermittent – as it is with wind or solar – then the business here can’t operate. You can’t have a situation where the machinery is closing down and then ramping back up an hour later. That’s not how you can run a modern economy, and as we’ve seen already, many businesses are moving to the United States, for example, where they’re paying a third the cost of electricity than what they’re paying here because they’re in a nuclear state.
We know that in Ontario, for example, families there are paying about half the cost of electricity because of nuclear in the system, compared to what families in Western Sydney are paying.
The Government’s 28,000km of new poles and wires is never going to be built. It’s a fantasy. It’s equal to the distance of our coastline, and they’re talking about rolling that out. It’s not going to happen. The cost is exponential and prohibitive, and I believe that we should follow the path of every other G20 nation who is either, in their system at the moment, relying on nuclear energy to firm up renewables, or has committed to introducing nuclear. Why is Australia any different? And Chris Bowen is out there running all sorts of scare campaigns, but nobody should take any notice of that. Let’s stick to the facts of the debate. We can have a modern system that is zero emissions, and can contribute to, I think, a renewal of manufacturing in this country – more jobs, more industry, and that’s what the Liberal Party’s about.
QUESTION:
But isn’t nuclear fantasy? It’ll take decades to build, and coal fired power plants are closing left, right and centre.
PETER DUTTON:
But again, you can’t go from coal fired power to 100 per cent renewables, which is the Government’s policy, because you need to firm up. So, the latest battery that AGL has installed in Adelaide, at a cost of $180 million, the battery firms up for between one hour and two hours. We’re not talking 200 hours. So if you get inclement weather for a week, what happens in Labor’s model where you can’t have the lights on in this factory? What happens to the cold rooms at the IGA, or at the local butcher shop? Or the local manufacturer of food? What happens in that model where the lights go out and the power bills continue to go up? Business won’t operate, it can’t.
In our country, we’ve got a high labour cost, we’ve got a high compliance cost, we’ve got a high regulatory burden, and businesses just say, ‘well, I’ll move to Malaysia’ or ‘I’ll go to the United States where they’re paying a third of the electricity costs that they are here’. We’ve got to be realistic about our position in the world.
I want to grow Australian jobs, I want to keep Australian industry. The Prime Minister’s energy policy is going to drive jobs offshore, it’s going to reduce the amount of manufacturing that we do in our country, and going from coal to 100 per cent renewable is just not realistic. No other country is doing that.
QUESTION:
You’ve spoken about rising energy costs. The CSIRO’s GenCost Report, released in December, found that nuclear small modular reactors were the highest cost technology, more expensive than fossil fuels and renewables. So, why on earth would Australia take the most expensive option?
PETER DUTTON:
It’s a discredited report – let’s be clear about it. It’s not relied on. It’s not a genuine piece of work. It doesn’t take into account some of the transmission costs, the costs around subsidies for the renewables, and when you look at a like for like, as 19 of the 20 G20 countries have done, why does it stack up for those economies, but not for Australia?
So, I would look at the independent, verifiable evidence. That all points to us having a transition to a zero emissions latest technology nuclear, where we can firm up renewables in the system. If we do that, we can have cleaner energy, we can have cheaper energy, and we can have reliable energy. The path that the Prime Minister’s got us on at the moment is going to result in the lights going out, prices going up and businesses moving offshore.
QUESTION:
Are you really saying that the CSIRO can’t be relied upon?
PETER DUTTON:
I think that’s been well documented.
QUESTION:
How will you convince communities to get on board?
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, you need community support and you need licence. If you look at other markets, they’ve done that. They’ve gone and worked with local communities. There are incentives that you can put in place to provide support…
QUESTION:
What kind of incentives?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, you can put in place discounts in relation to electricity prices, for example, which ends up attracting industry and creates jobs and generates a huge multiplier for the local economy. That’s what’s happened in many other markets, in comparable markets. You can provide support, as frankly, should be happening in rural areas at the moment, where you’ve got wind turbines.
In my area, and I suspect in suburbs close to where we’re standing now, they don’t want wind turbines. They don’t want large scale solar farms…
QUESTION:
Do they want nuclear?
PETER DUTTON:
And, we’ll have that discussion. If there’s a coal fired generator in this site – I don’t believe that there is – then we’ll have that discussion. But of course, there is no coal fired generator in this community. But my point is that you need community license.
I don’t want to continue down the path the Prime Minister’s got us on at the moment, which is pitching one Australian against the other. I don’t want a situation where people in regional areas are considered less as Australians than they are in the CBD. At the moment, the Prime Minister’s got an energy policy, which is all about winning votes from the Greens in inner city Sydney and Melbourne.
My Party, that I lead very proudly, is about reducing energy prices, having clean energy, making sure that we have reliable energy and that’s the policy that we’ve got. The Prime Minister needs social license when he goes out into communities to talk about the amenity impact, the impact on farmers. At the moment he’s not doing that, which is why up to 92 per cent of people are concerned that there’s not sufficient engagement in those communities.
To roll out 28,000km of poles and wires through national parks, across pristine farming land, requires the compulsory acquisition of land. That is going to be a process that will be years in the courts, hundreds of billions of dollars in expenditure, and frankly, it’s a pipe dream. It’s never going to happen.
QUESTION:
How would you feel about living near a nuclear reactor?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, such childish discussions just don’t belong in a modern debate, to be honest, and to be frank and honest with you. If you have a look at the latest generation nuclear technology, have a look at what it is capable of doing. This is like the Prime Minister saying – not even the Prime Minister’s running the safety argument, right? Because, I’ll tell you why: he’s just signed up for our sailors in Australian uniform to serve on a nuclear submarine that can sit at the bottom of the ocean with those reactors powering the submarine for months at a time. If the Prime Minister thought that the latest generation nuclear technology wasn’t safe, why would he put our submariners onto nuclear propelled submarines?
QUESTION:
Adam Bandt spent almost $1 million in entitlements, including $200,000 on printing and $23,000 on private jets. Is that hypocritical given his climate change agenda?
PETER DUTTON:
If he’s acted outside of the rules, then there’s penalties in place for it, and if he’s acted outside of the rules, the penalties should apply. If he’s being a hypocrite about criticising people for hopping on planes and contributing to emissions, then you know, ask me the general question, ‘is Adam Bandt a hypocrite?’, of course he is, of the first order. He’s a hypocrite. He’s half crazy, right? His whole energy policy would destroy the economy. He’s economically illiterate.
The Greens have nothing to contribute to the way in which our economy should run, and yet the Labor Party rely on them. The most likely outcome from the polls at the moment is a Labor-Greens Government at the next election, which would be devastating for families in Western Sydney. It would be devastating for small businesses and for medium sized businesses because the Greens’ policies destroy those jobs, and yet the Prime Minister is in lockstep, with the Greens Political Party.
I want to lead a country where we can see Australian jobs grow. I don’t want the Albanese model of exporting jobs. I want to lead a country where we can have clean energy, and that we can have reliable energy, and we can have lower cost energy. That’s what we will implement, that is what we will deliver. Yet, the Prime Minister will deliver a model that’s going to have great uncertainty, huge cost.
I just think we should remind ourselves of the pressure that families are under at the moment. There are people sitting around kitchen tables tonight in tears, wondering how they’re going to pay their bills. The only solution the Prime Minister has for them, is to increase the price of their bills. Not only that, the price of their insurance, the price of their groceries, because energy has an impact on every element of the supply chain.
When people go to the supermarket and they buy, I don’t know, strawberry jam. The strawberries are costing more in cold storage because of the energy costs, the fertiliser is costing more because it’s energy intensive, the farmer is paying more to the workers because their bills at home have gone up, and ultimately that jar of strawberry jam, or the cereal, or the meat, or the groceries, the fruit and vegetables that you’re buying, all of those prices are going up under this Government because of their crazy energy policy.
We have a solution to lower prices, to make energy reliable, and to make it cleaner and greener. The juvenile comments from the Prime Minister and others need to be put to one side. I will debate the Prime Minister on this issue anytime, anywhere.
QUESTION:
I’ve got two more if that’s alright. On another topic, aged care: do you support the idea of wealthier Australians contributing more to the cost of aged and in-home care?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, let’s wait to see what the Government has to say on aged care. Clearly, they’ve got an unsustainable system at the moment. We are very happy to have the discussion with the Government – although, as Senator Ruston points out, they haven’t been forthcoming in their discussions with us. So we’ll see the detail.
Because with an ageing population, we want to act responsibly. We’ll support sensible reforms, but we don’t know anything about what’s happening with workforce, and if it’s just a sop to the union movement, and they’re making it even more unsustainable for providers to increase beds at a time when we need those increased beds, then that’s not something we would support. So, we’ll have a look at the detail and provide our response.
QUESTION:
Canada and Sweden have restored funding for UNRWA. Why shouldn’t Australia follow suit? And would you back support for the US direct aid initiative?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I want to see aid get into Gaza, but I think the United States is the best option for the Government to provide that aid now. There is no way in the world this Government should be providing aid to an organisation that has been linked to a listed terrorist organisation, including listed in this country. So, imagine if the proposition from Ed Husic was that our government should provide aid to Al-Qaeda or to a listed terrorist organisation otherwise, I don’t think anybody would accept that proposition. The links are indisputable.
The tragic circumstances that followed from Hamas’ horrible attack on the Israeli people in October is one of the most shameful acts in history, and if the Government’s proposing to give money to an organisation that has definite links to a listed terrorist organisation, they should explain why that’s the case.
QUESTION:
You recently appointed Melissa as Shadow Minister for Western Sydney and Energy Affordability. Are you backing her in the pre-selection, in the upcoming election?
PETER DUTTON:
I am absolutely thrilled and excited to have Melissa in her new role, a) because she understands Western Sydney. Her family, like many other families across Western Sydney, are under the same pressures. She has a professional background and an expertise, a great communicator. It’s meant that she’s not only a wonderful local member, but also a very significant contributor to our Shadow Ministry discussions. A very valuable contributor. She’s an astute person, she has a good read on and a good connection with what people are thinking, and that’s why she’s an integral part to our success.
Not only do I back her in the pre-selection, but I would say to all people, in what’s a democratic process; I would urge them strongly to back and to vote for Melissa. In our Party, pre-selections can be contested anywhere – that’s a democratic right – but there is not an outcome that I will accept where Melissa is not the candidate at the next election. I want to be very clear about that. She’s a great candidate, she’s an integral part of our team, and she will be the candidate for us at the time of the next election. To all those who are listening and need to listen, I send that very clear message.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
[ends]