21 November 2023
Subjects: Visit to Wallan; 18 months of the Labor; Rob Mitchell M.I.A on what matters to McEwen; Labor’s cost of living crisis; the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership and transparency; HMAS Toowoomba; Australia-China relations; Labor’s immigration detention chaos; changes to Commonwealth secrecy offences; Labor’s infrastructure cuts and chaos.
E&OE,
JAMES PATERSON:
Good morning everyone. My name’s James Paterson. I’m the Liberal Party’s Patron Senator for the electorate of McEwen, where we are today in Wallan; and it’s great to welcome back the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Liberal Party, Peter Dutton.
Peter, you’re always welcome in Melbourne. It’s great to have you here, particularly in these northern suburbs of Melbourne. These are growing aspirational communities that want to get ahead, but 18 months after Labor was elected, they’re really struggling in communities like Wallan. They’re struggling with the cost of living, they’re struggling with the lack of investment in infrastructure, they’re struggling because, frankly, they have a local member in Rob Mitchell who is absent, who is checked out, and who is not working hard and fighting for this community. When their electricity prices are going up, when their petrol prices and their grocery prices are at record high, they’re really struggling, and this Government has no plan for them at all.
Eighteen months in, we see total chaos from this Government when it comes to national security. We saw their absolutely flat-footed response to the High Court’s decision last week, we saw the Prime Minister’s weak response to the People’s Liberation Army Navy doing harm to our sailors, to our divers in the water; and today, the Government had been briefing to stakeholders in the media that they were planning on launching their new cyber security strategy. Well, where is it? What’s happened to it? It’s been dropped and pushed off to later in the week because it’s been absolute chaos and a mess for the Government this week, and they don’t want to talk about an important national security issue and have it overshadowed.
Well, I don’t think a media management strategy is more important than protecting our country in the very serious threat environment that we face.
PETER DUTTON:
James, thank you very much.
Firstly, happy birthday James. It’s his birthday today, we just celebrated that at Cafe 41 there. I want to say thank you very much to Jen and Alan in particular, but to all of the staff and the people we were able to speak to there, just over a cup of tea and a cup of coffee – salt of the earth people – and they’re forgotten Australians.
These are people who are living in outer metropolitan areas like McEwen – but right around the country – where they’ve been forgotten by this Prime Minister. Eighteen months into this Labor Government, there are many families who are scratching their head wondering where the Anthony Albanese they voted for has gone. Anthony Albanese now is unrecognisable compared to the bloke who was voted in 18 months ago.
He promised that mortgages would go down, well on 12 occasions under his watch interest rates have gone up. He promised that electricity prices would go down by $275, and he said in places like McEwen, right around the country, that people’s power prices would go down under Labor’s energy policy. The fact is that they’ve gone up by 18 per cent – much higher in some parts of the country. Gas has gone up. You get less when you go to the checkout at the local supermarket because inflation is fuelled by this Government’s reckless spending and by the fact that they’ve had two budgets to make it easier for Australians, instead they’ve made it harder for Australians. So, I don’t think there’s much celebrating going on at the moment for a lot of Australians who are just shaking their head, wondering how this Labor Government got it so wrong.
I endorse the comments that James made in relation to the shambolic approach on national security by this Government. We’ve got obviously a Prime Minister that doesn’t know when and how to stand up for Australia’s national interests. He’s got this whole confused explanation as to why he didn’t have the strength of leadership to stand up and to talk in our country’s interests when he met with President Xi, and it really is quite startling that we have at least one of our Navy divers – a member of the Australian Defence Force – injured, and yet our Prime Minister’s not prepared to stand up in our national interest. If the Prime Minister didn’t raise this issue with President Xi, he should be upfront and open and honest with the Australian public.
At the moment, we’re seeing what we’ve got from the Prime Minister during the course of the Voice, that is that he’s talking out both sides of his mouth. Did he raise the issue or he didn’t? Just be open and honest with the Australian public. If he didn’t, then he’s made a catastrophic mistake and he needs to apologise for it; if he did raise it, well, he needs to come up with a proper explanation as to why he continues to talk in riddles.
I just think Australians want a Prime Minister who’s strong, who has the ability to stand up in our national interest, who can be open and honest with them, and they’re not getting any of that from this Prime Minister at the moment.
I’m happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
On China, so China has denied it broke international laws last week in regards to Navy divers. What did you make of their denial?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, it’s propaganda, and we shouldn’t abide it for a second. It’s exactly what happens in relation to Japan, in relation to the Philippines and in relation to other countries in the region. The fact is that there is aggressive behaviour taking place and our country should be calling it out.
The relationship with China is important, of course it is, but so too is our national sovereignty, our national dignity and pride, and to have a Prime Minister who speaks of a long conversation with the Chinese President, but doesn’t raise the issue that the actions of the Chinese Navy have injured one of our naval officers, I think it’s a remarkable oversight by the Prime Minister. Instead of digging deeper, the Prime Minister should be honest, apologise for the mistake that he’s made and call out what is very bad behaviour.
QUESTION:
Now that China has made that denial, which of other Australian Ministers – besides the PM – should also, do you believe, be in contact with their counterparts in regards to it?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think this is an issue for the Prime Minister to deal with. He can’t abrogate his responsibility.
The Prime Minister has been missing in action in relation to the cost of living crisis – where he’s made decisions, in two budgets, they’ve been bad decisions and they’ve driven up the interest rates. The Government’s energy policy continues to drive up inflation, which means you’re paying more for your mortgage, because it’s not just you in your family household, or your small business paying more for your electricity, or paying more for your groceries, it’s everybody else in the supply chain: it’s the dairy farmer, it’s the strawberry farmer, it’s people involved in manufacturing, and they’re passing all of that cost on, which you ultimately pay for, out of your hip pocket.
That’s what happens under a Labor Government – they can’t manage the economy – and the Prime Minister needs to stand up, to take responsibility for the commitments that he gave in the election. The 97 times that he promised that he’d reduce electricity prices, he knew at that time he wasn’t telling the truth, and now in relation to the China issue, where one of our officers has been injured, he’s gone missing in action, and I think it’s unforgivable.
QUESTION:
What do you think it says about the relationship between China and Australia – their denial?
PETER DUTTON:
I think there has to be an open, honest and transparent relationship. There will be points of difference, and we want a strong trading relationship, but that doesn’t mean that our Prime Minister has to back pedal, or soft pedal, it doesn’t mean that our Prime Minister needs to come up with some sort of tricky explanation as to why he didn’t raise this very significant issue with President Xi. I just don’t understand why the Prime Minister continues to dig himself a hole.
QUESTION:
On immigration, the Government is reportedly looking at laws which would re-detain some non-citizens who have been released after the High Court decision. Would you support such a measure?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think as we demonstrated last week, we’ll support measures which help to keep the Australian public safe. I’m very worried that Clare O’Neil and Andrew Giles, Anthony Albanese, have decided on a model which is going to make it more dangerous and unsafe for the Australian community.
We’re talking here about significant criminal histories of people who’ve offended against multiple Australians – rape, paedophilia, murder. These are very significant criminals and the fact that the Government has another 340 who are likely to go out into the community just elevates the risk to women and to children, but to the society more generally.
So, I hope that the Prime Minister can come up with a solution here. They had the alarm bells ringing in June when they had comments from the High Court Justice that indicated that they had a problem they needed to deal with. They did nothing about it. Let’s be very clear. They could have resolved this issue by way of their legislation, if they say now that there’s legislation to provide for preventive detention, they could have done that in June. They didn’t do it.
We supported legislation to tighten up what the Government had proposed and we’ll support further tightening up or further legislation, which is going to stop more people from being harmed, but this is a Government that’s created a real mess, and unfortunately, as always, the Australian public will pay the price for that.
QUESTION:
On secrecy, do you believe it’s fair to enshrine in legislation, the ministerial direction that any prosecution of journalists for publishing stories based on secret information need to be signed off by the Attorney-General?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’ll ask James to make a comment in relation to this. James has been a longstanding member of our PJCIS – the Intelligence and Security Committee.
There’s always a balance here for Governments to make sure that the rights of journalists and free speech are protected. We know that the Misinformation Bill – which the Government sought to bring before the Parliament – would have really had a very significant negative impact on free speech in our country. The Government’s now delayed that, and this is a Government, particularly an Attorney-General, that has some very strange ideas.
So, James, you might want to make some additional comments.
JAMES PATERSON:
Press freedom is a critically important freedom in a liberal democracy, and of course, the Coalition strongly supports freedom of speech, but we’re also facing a very serious national security threat environment as well. The Director-General of ASIO says that espionage and foreign interference are our number one security risk, and in the context of the AUKUS agreement, we know there are intelligence agents all over Australia trying to steal our most exquisite military secrets.
So, we’ll look at any sensible proposal that the Government brings forward, but we have to make sure that those national security imperatives are appropriately balanced against the press freedom imperatives that we want to protect as well.
QUESTION:
Australia has quite a wide range of secrecy offences. Do you believe that they require any simplification?
JAMES PATERSON:
Look, that’s a matter for the Government to consider. We can always review whether they’re appropriate, but the balance is critical to be struck here.
We are in a very uncertain strategic environment, we do have rising authoritarian powers – including in our own region – and they have attempted to subvert our democracy, they have attempted to undermine our democracy, and we shouldn’t do anything that gives them any opening to do so.
QUESTION:
Obviously more locally, we’re in Wallan today. We had Richard Marles out not too long ago.
On issues, federal infrastructure issues like the Diamond Interchange at Watson Street, the Hume Freeway, we’ve been promised that, you know, there’s funding, there’s reports happening, it’s on the way, it’s coming, but obviously nothing concrete yet. So, what’s your view on getting those delivered?
PETER DUTTON:
I just think for local people here in Wallan, this is another blow because you’ve got a Government that’s now 18 months into their term and they’re still making decisions about which infrastructure projects will proceed. So they’ve effectively wasted 18 months because the Coalition promised this project – $50 million worth of funding – when we were in government, it’s desperately needed infrastructure within the local community and Rob Mitchell’s been completely missing on the issue.
People want a local member who can fight for them, who’s energetic, who’s enthusiastic, who is aspirational for them, and Rob Mitchell is none of that. Unfortunately, it’s the local residents who are missing out on these infrastructure investments because Catherine King has delayed the decision making. The project won’t get off the ground any time soon under this Government because they can’t manage money, they can’t manage these big projects, they’re always in the too hard basket and locals end up sitting in traffic while they go without necessary infrastructure for years and years and years, and that’s the price unfortunately that people pay for Labor Governments.
I just think Anthony Albanese, Rob Mitchell, have forgotten about many, many Australians. There are many Australians who are working hard and going backwards under this Government. Their electricity bills are going up, their gas prices are going up, every cost of living pressure on their family continues to increase and that’s what we’ve got after 18 months of Labor.
The Prime Minister isn’t standing up for our country, he isn’t showing the strength of leadership that is required in a very difficult time, and I think that’s why Australians are marking him down at the moment.
Alright. Thank you very much.
[ends]