Subjects: Visit to Boothby; getting Australia Back on Track; new tax deduction to deliver red tape relief for small businesses; Labor’s cost of living crisis; Australia Day; the Prime Minister’s divisive Voice referendum; vandalism of prime ministerial statues in Ballarat; Penny Wong; Labor’s energy policy shambles; minority government; Labor’s housing crisis; Labor’s Big Australia policy; the Prime Minister’s weak leadership.
E&OE.
NICOLLE FLINT:
Good morning, everyone. It is absolutely wonderful to have the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, back here with me in Boothby. We’re talking about our plan to get Australia Back on Track. We have been here in one of my many amazing local hospitality businesses this morning with Deeb and Andrea, the most dynamic young couple who have not one, not two, but three cafes in and around my local community – two here in Boothby, one just over the border in Henley Beach.
It’s been really exciting to be able to share our brand new policy announcement that is firmly focussed on getting more people back into our cafes, our restaurants and our pubs, because it is my hospitality businesses who have been bearing the brunt of Anthony Albanese’s economic crisis. So whatever we can do to support these great small family businesses, we will, and we are encouraging other small businesses to come in and spend and support our cafes and our restaurants and our pubs because this cost of living crisis has meant that people are not spending like they usually do, and on top of that, record high power prices, record grocery prices, record high insurance premiums.
So, I know that Peter will have more to say about that, and Peter, thank you so much for being back in Boothby.
PETER DUTTON:
Thank you very much.
Thanks everyone for being here, and firstly to our amazing hosts – thank you for hosting us, but also thank you for the conversation. There are many cafes and restaurants, pubs and clubs across the country who are the lifeblood of the local economy, they’re employing young people. Often your first job is waiting on a table, or pulling a beer, or washing up in a restaurant or a pub or club. They are really hurting at the moment.
There are about 27,000 small businesses across the country which have closed under Labor’s watch in the last three years, and we know that about 4,000 of them are in the construction sector, we know that there are many people who are finding that they just can’t keep their head above water when they’ve seen their electricity bills double over the course of the last couple of years. The input costs around food and insurance, etc., have all gone up as well, and that’s true in this business, Alimentary, as well.
We thought about different ways in which we could provide support to small businesses, and I know Jim Chalmers has been very critical of small business and the plan that we’ve proposed here, but this is an opportunity for the local real estate agent or the local builder or the local accountant or whatever it might be, to come down to a business like this, to entertain their clients, to try and build up their own businesses or to help celebrate maybe a sales event for a real estate agency or end of month figures, etc. spend money on their staff in a cafe like this. Make it tax deductible and take them out of the jungle of the fringe benefits tax. So it provides an incentive for businesses with a turnover of less than $10 million of which there are two and a half million across the country, to spend that money in these local establishments.
As Nicolle pointed out, in the Albanese economy at the moment, where everybody is doing it tough, a lot of small businesses, cafes, etc., are struggling because they just can’t afford Labor’s cost of living crisis. That’s why we think it’s a sensible policy, it’ll help the business that is spending the money, and it’ll help the business where the money is being spent, it’ll underpin economic growth as well as employment, and we’re very proud of that.
Now we’re almost on the eve of Australia Day, and I’d say to every Australian, please celebrate what is the most wonderful country in the world. We are the greatest country in the world and we should be incredibly proud of it. We have a very proud Indigenous heritage, we have an amazing migrant story. Since that time, people who came here with nothing from Europe and from Asia, from across the world, and have become amazing citizens, have educated their children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren, and we should celebrate this day like every comparable country does. We live in this country under one flag, we should unite under one flag, and we should have an immense sense of pride about who we are as Australians and where we are in the world. I’m incredibly proud to continue to remind Australians of that.
I think since the Voice, to be honest, not only was $500 million wasted and the Prime Minister divided the country, but I think with the outcome, there are many Australians who felt that a dark cloud had been lifted from their heads and they were able to speak out on different issues and they were sick of being told that they should be ashamed of their country, and Labor’s division and putting people into different categories, it just has no future and there’s no utility to it.
We should unite as a country, we should be proud of who we are, and on Australia Day, we should celebrate and enjoy time with our friends and family and be thankful for the country that we live in.
I’m happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
What do you make, then, of the vandalism attack on the James Cook statue?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think it’s an outrage. I think the 0.1 per cent of the population who would commit such an act are un-Australian and they deserve the condemnation of 99.9 per cent of Australians who are good people and celebrate who we are as a country.
We have a heritage and a history like every other nation and there are blemishes, there are elements of our history that you wish you could change if you lived in the 19th century, but we don’t. We live in the 21st century, and in 2025, we should be proud of who we are, proud of the country that we’ve created and we should be proud to celebrate it on our national day.
QUESTION:
What do you make of surveys showing that support for a change of the date is starting to lose steam?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, again, we’ve been talking about this over the last couple of years – this sense of pride. Our country needs to re-establish our sense of pride. We don’t have the patriotism of the United States, but we need to be prouder of who we are. We’ve got university lecturers and some teachers who are telling children they should be ashamed of their history and who we are as a country. It’s nonsense. Complete nonsense. Parents have had enough of it. They want their children to be educated, not indoctrinated, and like all of us, they want a country where we can celebrate the wonderful achievements that we have – the peace and freedom, the ability to speak your mind, to do it freely and to do it fairly and responsibly and according to the law, we have free democratic elections. We are the envy of the world. Tens of millions of people would move to Australia tomorrow given the chance, and we shouldn’t be ashamed of who we are. We should be incredibly proud, and that’s how we’re viewed on the world stage.
I think as a result of that, we’ve seen quite a shift in sentiment over the last couple of years where people now have greater pride. As Prime Minister, I want to make sure that one of the first and enduring priorities of the Government will be to re-establish that national pride. And that’s exactly what we’ll do.
QUESTION:
Do you think that the tide has turned on that particular debate, or is there still scope for a change in the date?
PETER DUTTON:
I think as you’re seeing in, not just the surveys, but conversations, discussions with friends and family over a barbecue at Christmas time or over the Christmas holiday period, people have just had enough. They know that we live in a great country. We have great respect for the Indigenous flag and for the Torres Strait Islander flag, but no country, no comparable country, can live in a unified way when we divide people into different groups.
Whether your family has a 60,000 year connection with this country or whether you came to Australia yesterday, we are equal Australians. We don’t have different standards of citizenship in this country. We are all equal and we should treat each other accordingly, respectfully, and we don’t discriminate on any basis.
Labor’s desire to continue these culture wars and to try and pander to the left and the Prime Minister about trying to place the Greens all the time. He knows that the Greens don’t like Australia Day, which is why he’s always equivocated on these matters. But the Prime Minister I think is just out of his depth on this and many other issues. We want a country that can unite and if we do that, we can be our best selves.
QUESTION:
Sorry Peter, on statues; two heads cut off in Ballarat overnight – Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd. Two people that you’re probably not on the Christmas card list of, but what’s your reaction to that vandalism?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, as I say, I think it should be condemned and we should have great respect for our former Prime Ministers, regardless of whether they’re Liberal or Labor. They’ve led the country at different times, and we should be very respectful of our history and we should be very respectful of those who have led our country.
I would absolutely condemn the actions, but as I say, this represents a 0.1 per cent of Australia. The vast majority of people are peace-abiding and they’re, I think, of a similar mind that they just wouldn’t accept this ridiculous conduct.
QUESTION:
Just on the 10,000 people who have signed a petition opposing Penny Wong attending an Auschwitz memorial next week. Do you think she’s the right person to go? And if not, who should take her place?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I certainly have a lot of sympathy with the 10,000 people who have signed that petition. They wouldn’t have done it lightly because Penny Wong is our Foreign Minister, but Penny Wong has real issues in relation to this issue. The relationship with Israel has been trashed. Penny Wong can’t go to Israel and Mark Dreyfus I think was there under sufferance and frankly was shown some courtesy, but I suspect having been to Israel recently myself, I don’t think he would have been receiving the warmest of welcomes.
I think when we’ve got the Jewish community living in fear in our country, and when you see the stance and the rhetoric that has been espoused by Penny Wong and by the Prime Minister, when you see the positions that Penny Wong has taken in conflict with our close allies, including the United States, in votes at the United Nations, I think she’s the most inappropriate person to go and represent our country, and I think the Prime Minister should be more sensitive. I think the Prime Minister should show leadership here and say that he recognises the sensitivities and the concerns. This is a very significant occasion, of course, and as we know, the sensitivities are still very real because people are still held in captivity by Hamas. Women and children were raped and murdered. When I visited the kibbutzes and the Nova Music Festival site, you could feel the raw emotion was still there. I think the Prime Minister should heed the words of those people of Jewish heritage and those people who are supporting the Jewish community, and I think he should reverse the decision of Penny Wong to go to that to that commemoration.
QUESTION:
Who do you think should take her place, then?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, it’s an issue for the Prime Minister.
QUESTION:
David Littleproud has said that Australia should withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. Is this a sign that tension over climate change is going to be a big issue for the Coalition again?
PETER DUTTON:
No, I think what you’re seeing at the moment is – and again, just speaking to small businesses here today, but across the country, they’ve had a doubling of their electricity bills in the last couple of years under Mr Albanese and I just think Australians have had enough. They can’t afford Labor’s cost of living crisis.
We want to get our country back on track by making sure that we can fight those cost of living pressures and making sure that we have a strong economy and we want to back small business and we want our country to grow. We’ve seen a threefold increase in the number of manufacturing businesses who have closed over the last two and a half years. They’ve just moved to Malaysia and moved to the United States and elsewhere, and we’re importing that product back to Australia, which makes no sense at all. We lose the jobs, we lose the economic productivity, and ultimately emissions are higher.
So, the Prime Minister’s presided over an energy policy trainwreck. Chris Bowen, really I think it’s fair to say that Chris Bowen belongs in the Whitlam Government as much as he does in the Albanese Government. The Government’s energy policy is going to see power prices go up and up if Mr Albanese’s elected at the next election.
QUESTION:
But what do you say about David Littleproud’s comments?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’ve made comments in relation to these matters yesterday. We’ve been specific in relation to our targets around net zero by 2050. There’s legislated requirements in the Parliament at the moment. But our Government will take decisions which will bring down the pressure on electricity prices and gas prices.
I think the Prime Minister who has the modelling at the moment in relation to 2035 targets should release that modelling and should be open and honest. In Opposition we don’t have any of that, obviously. We don’t have the resources of Treasury and the central agencies otherwise, to be informed in relation to some of the economic settings that the Prime Minister has before him.
So, I think the Prime Minister should be open and honest. How much will power prices go up? The Prime Minister promised a reduction of power prices of $275 and peoples’ power bills have gone up by $1,000. So, I just think there’s a lot that the Prime Minister needs to explain, but he’s obviously not doing it before the election.
QUESTION:
Just on energy, what do you say to the decision by AEMC today that the Government can direct diesel generators in South Australia to switch on if there’s a gas shortage?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I just think Australians would be shaking their heads. China is establishing two coal fired power stations a week. We’ve got a decision by Mr Albanese and Mr Bowen that they’re going to destroy the Australian economy. And why? Because they’re chasing Green votes in inner city Sydney and Melbourne. That’s what’s happening here. Why has the Prime Minister taken this position, which is inexplicable otherwise, in relation to the Jewish community? It’s because he’s chasing Green votes. It’s deplorable.
Similarly in the energy space and the environment space, that’s the decision the Prime Minister’s taken, but in doing that, people in the suburbs and in regional towns know that they’ve been completely abandoned by the Albanese Government, and an Albanese-Bandt Government would be a disaster for our economy here in South Australia, as well as nationally. It would be a disaster for jobs and people’s electricity prices would go through the roof.
The Albanese Government’s energy policy has been such a failure that they’re now having to turn on diesel generators to keep the lights on. I mean, is this a joke? And the Prime Minister again goes silent on these things. He should be explaining how has he got our country to a position where we’re relying on diesel generators to keep the lights on? The public servants in Queensland have been told to drop the blinds in their offices and turn off computers, lest our energy network goes out. It’s absurd and it’s unsustainable.
The Government’s renewables-only plan has driven up the cost of everybody’s electricity, including for small businesses and including for IGAs and cold rooms that are run by farmers, and that’s why your grocery prices have gone up under the Albanese Government.
QUESTION:
Under the small business plan, would the boss able to spend the money on themselves, take themselves out for lunch, for example?
PETER DUTTON:
So just to clarify a little bit in relation to this, there was some speculation again by Jim Chalmers, who I think is, I’d describe Jim Chalmers as sort of the Darrell Eastlake of Australian politics. Everything is so over-the-top and so exaggerated. Why? Because he doesn’t have a good story to tell.
When he says that this is going to extend to playing golf and the rest of it – it’s not. It’s designed to provide support for a small business with a turnover of less than $10 Million to come down to a local pub, to a local cafe, to a local restaurant and spend money in that cafe, for it to be tax deductible, and fringe benefits won’t be applied, and it will be I think a huge success for the small business where that money is being spent.
If the boss is down there with her five real estate agents, then that total bill for that small business will be deductible over the year, up to $20,000. But there is no expense that will be deductible beyond that. We’ve been clear about it.
Jim Chalmers, and his over-the-top rhetoric, I just think should be seen for what it is. Jim Chalmers will go down in history as one of the most hopeless Treasurers, and there is a better way. When you look at the success of Angus Taylor in his business life, in his political life, and what he can bring to the table as the Treasurer of our country, I think the difference is quite stark and people will recognise that at the next election.
QUESTION:
Before the Queensland election, David Crisafulli categorically denied ruling a minority government, is that something you’re willing to do as well?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we will never govern with the Greens, I can assure you of that. Now, there is not a political commentator in the country who says that the Prime Minister can form a majority government. So, if people are voting for Anthony Albanese or for a Green-Teal or for a Greens Member at the next election, they’re voting for a minority Labor-Greens Government. Let’s be very clear about that. So, you vote for the Labor Party at this election, there is no chance that Anthony Albanese can form a majority government. He can pretend otherwise. It’s a nonsense. He will say he’s not going to rule with the Greens in power, it’s complete garbage, and the Prime Minister should be exposed for that.
Most of the Teals will only ever support a Labor Government. Monique Ryan will never support the Liberal Government. So, you vote for Monique Ryan, you’ll get Anthony Albanese and Adam Bandt. That’s the reality.
Now, we want to form a majority government. If we’re not able to form a majority government, then you’re in a position where you have to negotiate with the independents, and that’s just being honest with the Australian public.
I’m confident that we can form a majority government because millions of Australians cannot afford three more years of Labor, and I would say to those Australians, ‘are you better off now than you were three years ago – at the time Mr Albanese got elected?’, and I just haven’t met an Australian who’s said that they are better off today than three years ago when Mr Albanese was elected.
QUESTION:
Begs the question then, what is priority one for a Dutton-led Government? Is it cost of living or is it other issues?
PETER DUTTON:
It’s absolutely the cost of living, and it’s national security. We need to make sure that our country is safe and secure, and we need to make sure that people can afford to provide for their families and that there’s an incentive for work. If you work hard, you keep more of your own money. The Liberal Party has always been a better economic manager than the Labor Party and we will make sure that that’s the case when we return to government.
QUESTION:
Can we ask about your response to the $10,000 incentive for trade apprentices? Is that going to fix the skills shortage?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, again, there are 80,000 less apprentices under Mr Albanese’s watch. The Government’s brought in a million people through the migration programme in two years, which is the greatest number in our country’s history and building approvals are at an 11 year low. This is what’s created Labor’s housing crisis. It’s why young Australians, increasingly, are giving up the dream of home ownership, which I think is outrageous. We will restore that dream. I promise you. We will get young people the opportunity to get into a home of their own.
The Government, of course, has listened to the unions. So, the CFMEU said that on the skills list they didn’t want to see tradies coming in. So, Labor’s created this perfect storm. Now, on the eve of the election, the Prime Minister says that there’s a problem and he thinks in part it can be addressed by this support of apprentices. Now, we support the announcement and the detail that we know of it so far. We think that any support for apprentices in the building industry is a good thing. But I would just make the point that under Labor, over the course of last two and a half years, apprenticeship numbers are through the floor. This is why, in part, the housing crisis has been created. So, we’ll support measures which support our tradies.
I just think, again, the Prime Minister – you wouldn’t want to see the Prime Minister as a first responder. He’d turn up to a house fire two days after it’d started and been put out. This Prime Minister never responds in time and he’s always late to the party. On the eve of the election, when he’s looking for votes and becoming more and more desperate every day, he makes this announcement. He should have made the announcement two years ago.
We support it in terms of what we’ve seen, and I want to make sure that the building sector is viable again – and it’s just not, under Labor.
Thank you very much.
[ends]