Subjects: Visit to Dobell; the Prime Minister’s Australia Made Act set to be another broken promise; the Prime Minister’s cost of living crisis; Labor’s energy policy shambles; nuclear power; the barbaric attacks on Israel and the ramifications around Australia; the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership; Labor’s Central Coast funding cuts; Labor’s immigration detention shambles and border security crisis; Labor’s Big Australia policy.
E&OE
HOLLIE HUGHES:
It is great to welcome my Leader Peter Dutton here on the Central Coast today, particularly to see what such a job creating manufacturing infrastructure industry can be for this area. We can see how many people are employed here, how many people locally can see futures for their children going forward, through businesses like this being in the Central Coast.
It’s so wonderful to also be here with our newly appointed candidate, Brendan Small, himself a manufacturer. He understands the challenges of running a small business in this area, and for us to be able to come through, show Peter today what this manufacturing on the Central Coast is all about, and what it looks like, has just been a great opportunity. Brendan?
BRENDAN SMALL:
Thank you. What a great honour it is to be in such a beautiful factory here on the Central Coast. We need to encourage more industry, more of these jobs that are created here in the factory. But what a pleasure it was to walk through the factory with Peter, and thank you, Peter.
PETER DUTTON:
Brendan, thank you very much, and Hollie, thank you for being here today as well.
I want to say thank you very much to Steve from Trendpac, and the wonderful team that we’ve met here today – the people on production lines, in research and development. Some of the work that’s going on here is really world leading. I want to say thank you to Steve and his family because this is a second generation business – his dad, Jim, would be incredibly proud of what we’ve seen here today – and Steve has taken it to the next level. It is employing literally hundreds of people. It’s a huge employer here on the Central Coast, and we need to make sure that the future of manufacturing in our country is bright.
I know the Prime Minister talks a lot about Australian made, which we’re all in strong support of. He talks a lot about Australian jobs, which of course we support, but the problem is that under this Government, the number of manufacturing businesses who are going broke is up by three times. We know that businesses just can’t afford to pay their energy bills, and small and big businesses are no different to family households at the moment because they’ve seen massive increases in their power prices under this Government.
The Prime Minister promised that he would deliver a $275 reduction in people’s electricity bills, but people know that they are paying literally hundreds, if not thousands of dollars more for their electricity bills and for their gas bills. Petrol now is over $2 a litre. People are paying more for the insurance premiums. You go to the checkout at the supermarket and you’re getting less and less for every dollar that you spend because of inflation under this Government. The Government’s spent over $200 billion extra since the last election, which has driven inflation up, and if you drive inflation up, you drive interest rates up, and that’s why families are paying now more than they ever have for their mortgages under this Government. I think a lot of Australians are starting to understand that the Prime Minister just can’t manage the economy.
We’ve got an energy transition underway at the moment, which means that by 2034, 90 per cent of baseload power disappears from the system – that is coal fired power stations are closing and other 24/7 sources of energy. The solar panels here in this factory probably could work about one per cent of the time, or provide one per cent of the energy needs of this factory, but they can’t work for the other 99 per cent of the time – and that’s why you need to firm up energy.
We’ve got a Prime Minister who is taking our country down a dangerous path with his renewables only policy. It means that prices are going to go up for your electricity and your gas bills, it means that we’re going to have unreliability – so we’re talking blackouts and brownouts under this Government’s watch – and we’re talking about no capacity at all for the Government, no prospect at all for the Government to meet their net-zero emissions by 2050.
I think that there is a huge problem of the Government’s making when we see those businesses and businesses like this, who will suffer into the future, because of investment decisions and ideology that’s dictating how investments are made into renewables only; that is going to cause huge disruption for families, for businesses and you can’t have Australian made, if Australian businesses are being driven offshore. If manufacturing businesses continue to go offshore, or they continue to go broke under this Government, they won’t invest here. International companies won’t put capital into the Australian market, and if that happens, we see a loss, an increased loss of Australian jobs and people’s prices will just continue to go through the roof.
So, I’m very proud of the fact that we’ve started a conversation around nuclear energy in our country because of the top 20 countries…the top 20 economies in the world, 19 of them have signed up to nuclear or are using nuclear now. I believe that we can get to an Ontario position where power is half the cost that it is today. I believe that we can get to a position that many of those other countries are in at the moment, where we have greener power, we have cheaper power, and we have reliable power, and that’s what you’ll get under a Coalition Government – instead of under Labor: more businesses closing, more jobs lost, higher costs for everything for your family and small business. Australia is, I think, suffering a lot, and I don’t think Australians can afford three more years of the Albanese Government.
I’m very happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Just on the manufacturing stuff, what do you make of the proposal for the Made in Australia Act? Do you agree with the Prime Minister that Australia needs to do more to stand on its own two feet?
PETER DUTTON:
I just think if you look at manufacturing in Australia now, it’s not made in Australia because it’s going broke. It’s going broke under the Labor Government because of their energy costs, because of their industrial relations impost, and this Government continues to do everything to please the union bosses, but it’s making it harder for the workers.
This Prime Minister promises Australian made, but he’s closing Australian industry down. Businesses are closing, they’re moving offshore. They’re going to Malaysia, they’re going to the United States where they’re paying a fraction of the electricity and gas costs that they are here. I want to see Australian made, but under Labor, you won’t get it. All you get is business closing down or business moving offshore.
Under us, we want a secure energy transition. We want to meet our international obligations. We want to meet our net-zero by 2050. We want greener power. We want cheaper power, and we want reliable power. If you do that, you will get the Australian industry continuing to grow. But under Labor, you’re getting a loss of jobs, you’re getting a closing down of Australian manufacturing and you’re getting an offshore of those businesses. I think Labor’s taking us down a very dangerous path with their renewables and policy.
QUESTION:
I just have some questions from ABC Parliament House, if you don’t mind? Do you stand by comparing the pro-Palestinian rally on the steps of the Opera House last year to the Port Arthur massacre? How is the social significance of these two events in any way comparable?
PETER DUTTON:
I made the very important point last night, that in 1996, when we saw a tragic loss of life in Port Arthur, with that massacre there, that John Howard as Prime Minister at the time, stood up and was strong as a leader, not weak. He stood up for what was right, not what was wrong, and he led the Australian public on a path that we still benefit from today – that is gun law reform.
We had a chance, I think, for the Prime Minister to see the controversy that was created after October 7 in our country, those dreadful scenes on the steps of the Opera House – fortunately, there’s no loss of life in our country as a result of that protest – of course, no one’s suggesting there is – but what we saw was a rise of anti-Semitism. We’ve got armed guards outside schools at the moment in our country, there are people of Jewish faith who are worried about going to a synagogue, or worried about going to a Jewish supermarket, or gathering in communities. We’ve got Holocaust survivors who sought refuge in our country, and have felt safe for decades under Liberal and Labor Governments, are now talking about wanting to leave Australia because they feel unsafe.
So, yes, did I think that John Howard stood up in ’96 when he needed to in our country’s interest? Absolutely. And did Anthony Albanese stand up and show the strength that John Howard demonstrated and change the course of our country’s history? No he didn’t. He was weak, he’s been trying to walk both sides of the street when it comes to this issue, he’s trying to tell people in Western Sydney one story, and people in Dover Heights a completely different story and Australians are seeing through it.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong has damaged our relationship with Israel irreparably. It’s clear that the Albanese Government does not have a functioning, working relationship with our most important ally in the Middle East. We have received intelligence from Israel that has thwarted terrorist attacks against our own interests, including against Australian Defence Force personnel, and yet Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese have damaged our relationship with that important ally.
So, do I think Anthony Albanese is a weak leader? Do I think he’s let the Jewish community down? Do I think he’s made our country less safe? Yes, I do. It’s time that he stood up for all Australians because the rise of anti-Semitism wouldn’t have happened on John Howard’s watch. Frankly, it wouldn’t have happened on Kevin Rudd’s watch, or Julia Gillard’s watch. It certainly didn’t happen on John Howard’s watch. But it has happened under a weak Prime Minister, who doesn’t have the capacity, or the ability to stand up in our national interest, and I think Australians are seeing that quite tragically unfold at the moment.
QUESTION:
I think the point of that question, though, is the events that were compared are very different…
PETER DUTTON:
Look at the comments that I made and you can’t – the basis of that question that’s come out of Canberra, is obviously a Canberra based question from the ABC. If you look at the facts of what I said, I don’t think you could have the presumption in that question that you ask. So I would say to whoever it is from the Canberra bureau, to look at what I had to say last night, because I think they’ve set you up with that question, if I might say.
QUESTION:
Well, Mike Burgess last year said ‘words matter’ when maintaining social cohesion in Australia. Did you breach that advice in your speech last night?
PETER DUTTON:
As Mike Burgess said, no. Again, the Labor Party were running this line through the ABC last year and Mike Burgess came out to say he was making no reference to comments that I made whatsoever.
So, I’m not going to be tarnished by the ABC, I’m not going to cower because of the ABC and other left wing media organisations in our country. My job is to stand up for what is best in our country’s interests. My job is to share our vision with the Australian people about what we want for the future of our country. I want a safe country, I want a country where people of any faith can go to their place of worship, or take their kids to school and not live in fear. I want a country where we can have manufacturing and we can grow manufacturing in our country. I want to make sure that that’s the country that we can protect and defend, and at the moment, the Prime Minister is telling every Australian what it is they want to hear.
When I hear about him talking on Made in Australia, I hear the same message that he gave to the Australian people on delivering a $275 cut to your power bill. It’s just not going to happen. He’s promising Australian made solar panels, it’s not going to happen because this Prime Minister is driving up every input cost and Australian manufacturing is going broke.
Australian manufacturing is failing 300 per cent greater under the Albanese Government, than it did under the Morrison Government. We’re seeing businesses go offshore because they can’t afford to continue in our country, and there’s no sense the Prime Minister offering this false hope and false promise. I think that’s what we should be focusing on at the moment.
QUESTION:
And just in terms of words, Penny Wong has said Hamas has no role in the future of Gaza and says that it is a condition of ‘statehood’. So, is the Coalition not just misrepresenting what the Government has said?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, listen to the Palestinian leaders in our country who say that Hamas should play a role in relation to a stake in Palestinian territory. So, has Penny Wong consulted with the Palestinian leaders, or community here in Australia? I don’t think so. I think, frankly, Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese are living out their university prejudices.
The views that were created on university campuses for them in the 1980s don’t have relevancy in this day and age. We can be a peaceful and harmonious country. I wouldn’t tolerate the sort of hatred that we’re seeing against the community of Jewish people in our country, of people of Jewish heritage. I wouldn’t tolerate that if it was directed at people of any religion, including Islam, people of the Islamic community. I wouldn’t tolerate it if it was targeted against the Indian community, or the Chinese community. It would be equally intolerable.
We’ve got a Prime Minister who is trying to tell the Jewish community one thing and the Muslim community something different. The problem for the Prime Minister is that people can see that he’s weak and he’s walking both sides of the street, and he’s now got a Foreign Minister who has damaged our international reputation. He’s got a Foreign Minister who’s either freelancing, or he supports what she says, but this is the most significant misstep by a Foreign Minister in our country’s recent history. You can’t have a Foreign Minister out there damaging our international relations.
Israel is an important partner for us in the Middle East, as many other countries are around the world, and the Foreign Minister has damaged our international standing. There are people of Jewish faith at the moment who are living in fear. They’re being doxed, they’re being identified, not because of who they are, or what they believe in, simply because of their surname or their heritage. That has no place in our country, and it should be spoken about by the Prime Minister as well, instead of saying the words, but not being prepared to deliver the action, and I spoke about this in my speech last night.
I feel very strongly about it because we live in a country where we have a great Indigenous heritage, we have a wonderful British inheritance, and we have an incredible migrant story. We should celebrate our migrant story every year. We don’t have a discriminatory migrant program, migrants coming into this country aren’t picked by their skin colour, or by their religion; they come here because they want to make Australia home. They want to live the life that generations of migrants have lived successfully. That is my vision for our country as well and I don’t want to see one pocket of our community, one segment of our community, living in fear, or being forced into their homes. That has no place in our country whatsoever.
QUESTION:
Just some local questions, if you don’t mind? So, we have a regional hub on the Central Coast in Gosford that’s been forced to close this week because it’s federal funding has expired. That funding was, of course, promised by the Coalition Government previously, it was a two year funding. $500,000 is what they need to continue as an annual kind of funding measure. What do you say to that given that Labor hasn’t come up with the funds to help that continue?
PETER DUTTON:
I might ask Hollie to address it because it’s within her shadow portfolio as well.
HOLLIE HUGHES:
Thanks Peter. It’s absolutely disgraceful that in a time when we are seeing a youth crime crisis unfolding across the nation, that this Albanese Government has yet again lied to communities, has lied to services, has lied to 2,600 young people who rely on this service, has let down the six social workers, that the funding that was supplied under the Safer Communities Program, by the former Coalition Government, has now been taken away from this important resource for Gosford and the broader Central Coast community.
This is a Government who basically said to this service, ‘don’t worry, we’re just restructuring things, we will find you the funding’. Yet, that is again another lie. Here we are with this service closing, shutting up shop, saying goodbye to 2,600 young people, losing six jobs as of this Friday.
This is completely unacceptable, but it is again, this Albanese Government, this Prime Minister, talking out of one side of his mouth somewhere and then talking out of the other side of his mouth to other communities. Where is the local Labor Member? Why has Gordon Reid not stood up for his community? He should understand the impact, but yet complete silence from the local Labor Member, because he probably doesn’t even know what’s going on. This Government doesn’t know what’s going on. The left hand doesn’t know what the far left hand is doing at any stage of this Government’s delivery, and yet again, we’re seeing local communities let down by their incompetence.
QUESTION:
Will your Government commit to investing in these kind of youth models that are proven to work?
PETER DUTTON:
Well look, you can only judge somebody by their track record. When we were in government, we provided funding to these programs, and as Hollie rightly points out, the funding is necessary because there is a community need there for it. The great thing that we’ve done is we’ve preselected Brendan as our candidate here in Dobell. He has the ability and the desire, the burning desire, to work hard for his local community, to represent it ably. He will be fighting for these local community groups and local causes otherwise that deserve funding and need funding.
I just think, as the public has seen now on a number of occasions, the Prime Minister might be a nice enough bloke, but you can’t take him at his word. He promised electricity would go down by $275 and prices have gone up. He promised that interest rates would go down and mortgages would be cheaper, interest rates have gone up 12 times under this Prime Minister’s watch. The average family’s paying $24,000 a year after tax more in mortgage repayments under this Government, and on the Central Coast here, families are really doing it tough and I think they need a representative who’s going to work hard for them, not be the Labor Party representative in the local community here that’s beholden to what’s happening in Canberra. They want a local champion, and Brendan has demonstrated that. He’s a father, he’s a small business owner, he’s worked hard in his local community. He’ll be a great MP and he will take up the fight on behalf of many organisations, and I’ve no doubt about that.
QUESTION:
Just another question on that. So, the New South Wales Government says the cost of keeping a young person in detention is $1 million a year. This hub, $500,000 a year, helping thousands of people. The local police on the Central Coast have said this is a vital service. As an ex-police officer yourself, you know, what are your thoughts on that kind of cross discrepancy when they’re helping kids out of jail?
PETER DUTTON:
I just think the local police are as frustrated as the victims of crime. Police take an oath to serve their community because they want to help people. They see people in their hour of need. They go into homes where homes have been broken into, people’s possessions have been stolen, their car’s been stolen. It’s incredibly confronting having somebody come into your own home and rummage through your bedside draw while you’re asleep, or whilst your daughter is asleep in her bedroom. The police want to do everything they can to keep the community safe and yet, Mr Albanese’s making the police job that much harder by taking this funding away.
We should be giving every support to local police, and we should be listening to what they saying. I believe very strongly that the police need every tool in their toolkit to address youth crime, to make sure that they can reduce the impact of crime in local communities, and why the Prime Minister would be taking this money away, I don’t know. It just shows he’s completely out of touch with the local community and we’ll be fighting hard for the people of Dobell, because I just believe that people want to know that there is a better option, and there is a better option than what Mr Albanese’s providing at the moment. We’ll have a lot more to say about that between now and the next election.
QUESTION:
Sorry, has the Coalition had an opportunity to closely scrutinise the Government’s emergency immigration legislation? And what are your remaining concerns with the legislation?
PETER DUTTON:
Well look, what I’d say is that Clare O’Neil is like this, just this rolling train wreck. She goes from one stop to the next, and every stop she crashes into the platform. The trains derailed on a daily basis, and she’s a complete debacle. Just a walking disaster for the Government. We saw Clare O’Neil say that it was okay for 150 people to be released into the community – these are serious criminals – and she said, ‘well, we can’t do anything about it. The High Court said that these people needed to be released’. As it turned out, the High Court didn’t say that and these people are out committing more crimes. We’re talking about rapists, we’re talking about paedophiles, people who have committed sexual assault against women and children. That was Clare O’Neil’s big claim to fame to start with, which was a disaster.
We now see that Clare O’Neil is putting forward urgent legislation into Parliament. It’s splitting the Labor Party. They’re saying to some countries, but not others, that you can’t bring people to Australia, that they won’t issue visas, that they might issue visas in certain circumstances. It’s a dog’s breakfast.
Then we find that the housing crisis our country is in at the moment, is as a result of this Government bringing in a million people over the last two years, when we’re only building 170,000 houses a year. So generally over the last 10 years, we’ve poured in the same number of people as number of houses and units built, but over the last two years, a million people have come in and less than 340,000 homes have been built. That’s why people can’t get rental accommodation. It’s why your kids and grandkids can’t afford to buy a home. That is a direct decision of Clare O’Neil.
Clare O’Neil says yesterday that the Government’s going to halve the migration number, yet in the MYEFO figures in December the figure was 345,000. So I don’t know whether she’s making it up as she goes along, but what I do know is that Australians can’t find an affordable rental property, Australians can’t afford to buy a home, and there are a lot of Australians under Labor who’ve been told that they can never expect to own a home.
Well, I promise you this, under a Liberal Government, we will introduce policies which will make it possible for young people to own homes. We will make it possible for home ownership to be an Australian dream again, and we will make sure that our policies support families because we know as people move into retirement, if you own your own home, your future is so much more secure. You haven’t got to worry about a mortgage and the stress that goes with that, or continuing to pay rental payments.
This Government has created a disaster, not just in the energy market, not just in manufacturing, but obviously in relation to housing as well. As is always the case, a Liberal Government, a Coalition Government will clean up Labor’s messes.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
[ends]