Subjects: Visit to Halls Gap to tour the fire affected region; Category D funding for bushfire affected businesses; insurance; delays in disaster funding; the new Victorian Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund; Labor’s cost of living crisis; offshore wind zones; Labor’s energy policy shambles; Oscar Jenkins; conflict overseas.
E&OE.
ANNE WEBSTER:
Good morning. It is a great day in Halls Gap, and that is because we have the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, here in Halls Gap to hear from local businesses. We’ve just come out of a meeting where most local businesses were present, talking about how tough they are doing it, that the Government has not been fast enough to act and to bring the supports that they need. Peter was warmly welcomed by all the businesses present and there was an honest and open conversation. The Shires have been really supportive – the Northern Grampians Shire who are here this morning, the Ararat Shire and the Southern Grampians Shire.
So this is something that is the heart and soul of the Grampians. The Halls Gap business community are the lifeblood for this region. If Halls Gap cease to exist, for numerous reasons, if they were burnt out of course, but because insurance is not stepping up and meeting the need of the community, then we will lose so much of the tourism for this region.
This is a day where we are calling on Australia and in fact the world to come back to Halls Gap. It is safe, it is beautiful, all the businesses are operating. So I just want to hand over to Dan Tehan, my neighbour in this part of the world, and I’m sure Dan has some words for you.
DAN TEHAN:
Thanks Anne, and it’s wonderful to be here with you, with the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton and Perin, it’s fantastic to have you here.
Our simple message to everyone is that the Grampians region is open for business. If you’re thinking about coming to the Grampians, please do it! Book the accommodation, come and enjoy what is the most fantastic part of Australia. That is the message we want you to hear loud and clear today. Our volunteer firefighters, our paid firefighters did a magnificent job in protecting our communities. Now what we need is all of Australia to come back here and to get your wallets out and spend money and enjoy this beautiful part of the world. If you can do that, you will make this community happy and you’ll make communities right round here happy.
Perin, I’ll hand over to you.
PERIN DAVEY:
Thank you very much. As Shadow Minister for Emergency Management, I too want to thank all of the volunteers, all of the firefighters, the interstate volunteers who came to this region.
To manage to contain the fire such that only around a third of the national park was impacted, that does mean it’s reopened for business. But what it also means is that, unfortunately, a lot of these small businesses in this region have seen their peak tourism season crushed. It was closed, closed for safety reasons – understandable – but we need to support these businesses.
When we were in a Coalition Government in 2018, we established the disaster recovery funding arrangements to ensure that State and Federal Governments could get money out the door as quickly as possible to help communities impacted by natural disasters to recover and rebuild.
What we need to see happen for communities like Halls Gap, where the businesses haven’t been burnt, but they’ve been severely impacted by the closure for safety reasons, we need to ensure that we can see exceptional circumstances funding come out the door as soon as possible. That requires the State Government to come out and make the assessments for Category D funding. I’m calling on the State Government to do that as soon as possible. The businesses are getting their information in, local councils are getting their information in, the State Government needs to make those assessments and they will have my support. The Federal Government will have my support to get that Category D funding out the door as soon as possible.
I welcome our Leader, Peter Dutton, to this area to hear these messages as well.
Thank you.
PETER DUTTON:
Perin, thank you very much. It’s great to be here with Anne Webster and also with Dan Tehan as well.
I’ve got to say, the meetings that we’ve had this morning have been pretty confronting and all Australians watched their television screens in horror when they saw these bushfires raging just across here, and when you think of the impact on lives, on livestock, on businesses, it’s been devastating; and the camera’s moved on so we’re watching something different on our television screens now, but the devastation is still here to be dealt with. The small businesses, the families, the communities here who have lost everything, or people who are in the process of going broke, they want to do whatever they can to keep their businesses alive. I would just say to every Australian; if you’re thinking about a holiday at the moment, if you’re thinking about where to book for the Australia Day weekend, or for Easter, if you’re thinking about where you go over a mid year break, or if you want to book at the end of the year and pay your deposit now, please think about Halls Gap and think about the Grampians and the businesses here. They really need your support, they need your help, and many of them at the moment are on their knees.
I call on the Victorian Premier to work hand in glove with us, we’ll offer support in a bipartisan way to the State Labor Government here and to the Prime Minister as well, to get the Category D assistance on the ground as quickly as possible, because that is the best way of providing financial support to businesses who are employing literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of local residents and people who are coming into the region to work – but the wineries and the accommodation places and the tourism centres can’t operate without the tourists being here.
So a lot of people at Christmas cancelled their holidays – that’s the peak period, that’s when many of these businesses make money that can see them through the down time, and they’ve gone without that business. You can understand their pleas today and the passion that they had, and we heard it loud and clear.
There are other issues that we need to work on for them in the medium to longer term, and that is in relation to insurance in particular. There are businesses now who can’t get insurance and banks won’t lend money to a business that can’t ensure the asset that underpins the loan that’s been made. In that circumstance, those people lose their business if they can’t get finance, they sack the staff, they move on, and that has a spiralling effect in a community like this, because these businesses bounce off each other. People come here to go to the winery, they stay at the accommodation places, they go down to the local hotel, they’ll spend money in the local gift shop. This is an incredible natural resource of our country and Australians enjoy it in their tens of thousands and we want them back. That’s the real plea today. So I hope that we can do whatever we can and I’d encourage the Prime Minister to do the same, which I’m sure he will, and we’ll work together in relation to that.
There are obviously a lot of families here otherwise who are doing it tough with electricity bills and gas bills, insurance, mortgage repayments. This is reflective of what’s happening across our country at the moment, and there are just too many Australians who are really struggling to keep their head above water. There is a better way, and we do want to get our country back on track and do it quickly so that we can provide support, we can address the cost of living pressures, we can back small business, we can provide support to our health system, to our environment, and to so many other aspects of our community who are suffering at the moment.
I’m happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Peter, I’ll just ask a question about why you’re here today? We’ve seen in the past with other natural disasters that there has been a delay in the State Government funding. Why is it so vital that these communities here in Halls Gap and surrounds don’t wait that long?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, if we have a look at some of the jurisdictions in Queensland, perhaps in New South Wales as well, it seems to be the case that there’s a quicker response from the State Governments, and the State Governments have to do the assessments and provide that advice to the Federal Government. That’s the way that the emergency management arrangements work, and I think there is a lot of frustration, understandably, here on the ground from the people that we’ve spoken to that that decision hasn’t yet been made by the State Government. So once that decision is made by the Premier, that triggers support, financial support, for these businesses.
At the moment, instead of sacking staff, they should be employing more staff because this should be a peak period and it’s not. So they need some relief to help them get through this really dangerous period for their business, and if that Category D payment is made, it can be the difference between a business staying open and closing. That’s really what they’re facing at the moment.
QUESTION:
Did you hear any businesses today say that they might be forced to close if they don’t get help?
PETER DUTTON:
We certainly heard that. There are a lot of businesses and a lot of mental health pressures that these businesses are feeling because obviously they’ve gone through the second fire now, and some of them have been impacted in their own businesses, their own houses, their properties, but as Anne Webster pointed out before, there are many businesses who weren’t directly impacted by the fires – that is that their businesses weren’t burnt, but they’ve seen a 90 per cent downturn in their occupancies. People aren’t going to the zoo, and yet they’re still employing 25 staff – so they’re still paying the wages.
There are a lot of businesses who are really concerned, particularly about insurance, and they can’t run their businesses if they don’t have insurance. If they don’t have disruption insurance, if they don’t have insurance in relation to liability, they can’t be taking people on walks and having people in their restaurants if they can’t get the insurance, and as I say, the banks won’t insure them. They’re an uninsurable risk in that circumstance, and that needs to be addressed.
QUESTION:
Peter can we get your thoughts on the number of businesses, the growing number of businesses that aren’t eligible for funding? The Prime Minister announced 13 weeks of funding, however, once they navigate the website, they find out they’re not eligible.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think it’s a really good point and it goes to a lot of the advice that we received today, and that is that if the Category D funding is approved by the State Government, then that funding can start to flow straight away to the businesses, and that will be the lifeline that they need and it will be the difference between them opening or shutting.
QUESTION:
You mentioned some confronting stories, without going into too much detail, what was one story that really stuck with you from the community today that really sort of brought it home for you?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, there was understandable emotion and tears from one lady that we spoke to who has invested a lot into the local community, and she’s reflective of many other people who were there at the table. Her story was a compelling one because she works hard, she’s sacrificed, she’s built a business, and she supports the tourism and the broader economy here. She’s facing a really dire situation where she could lose everything and she’s working seven days a week, and through no fault of her own – it’s not a business decision that she’s made that is going to make her unviable – it’s a natural disaster that’s taken place, and we want to see as much assistance for those people as possible. I think that’s the situation that we saw this morning.
QUESTION:
I guess another question that sort of partners up well with what we’ve seen here in the Grampians is the announcement from the State Government of the Emergency Services Volunteer Fund. It’s been rebranded for the Fire Services Levy. Unfortunately, it’s going to see some farmers pay up to $204 million, up from $76 million, and I guess in some indirect way, those same farmers are CFA volunteers that have actually helped defend this area. It’s certainly caused a lot of unrest in the western Victorian community.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we’ve just got to see common sense applied. At the moment people are paying a lot more for their insurance, we know that electricity prices are up and every input cost is up, and if we’re having a discussion about bulk billing at the moment, the reason the bulk billing is so low under the Albanese Government, is because those doctors are small business owners, they’ve got costs of wages, they’ve got costs of rents, they’ve cost of insurance going up and they’ve got every other cost that makes it harder for their business to operate, and farmers are no different. Why we would be imposing further cost on farmers at the moment is beyond me.
Farmers are struggling, they’re paying more for their electricity, more for their cold storage, more for their fertiliser because it’s energy intensive and all of that cost is being passed on through higher grocery prices. We want to make sure that we put downward pressure on prices, not upward pressure, and ultimately, if you apply that tax to the farmer, it’s going to be passed on through higher food prices, which I just don’t think average families can afford.
QUESTION:
Just some questions from Canberra, if that’s okay to switch it up? So this is just about the Illawarra offshore wind project; are you putting pressure on Minister Bowen to be transparent about this project?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I just think again, the Minister and the Prime Minister should be honest with local communities, and honest about the prospective nature of some of these projects. Clearly financially unviable, which is why many of the proponents have pulled out of these projects. We need to have renewables in the system, but we need to have a firming of those renewables. We need to make sure that we can keep the lights on because we have an economy that can’t function, we can’t run cold rooms at the local IGA, or butcher store without 24/7 power, we can’t have an ICU unit, or a hospital operating 24/7 if we don’t have a constancy of energy supply. I just think that’s obvious to every Australian, and it should be obvious to the Prime Minister as well.
QUESTION:
Seeing something similar in the south west as well, off the coast of Portland. There’s obviously a proposed offshore wind farm down there as well, and that’s quite an important area for the southern right whale and migration down there – no doubt Dan’s brought that to your attention – but they say that there’s been obviously some research and obviously investigation into that, but yet there’s still a proposed zone right through the Logans Beach Whale Nursery?
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, one of the things that we have to really consider and have a more serious discussion about is the impact on the environment of all of these projects. If there is a negative impact, the local communities, deserve transparency and they deserve to know what the impact will be on their local community.
We also need to have an eye on energy prices. Families can’t afford to have the increasing energy prices that we’ve seen under the Albanese Government. The Prime Minister promised a $275 reduction in energy bills, they’ve gone up by $1,000, and they’re going to go up higher and higher and higher under Mr Albanese. That’s the reality of the energy plan that they’ve got at the moment.
So we’ll have more to say about projects in due course, but that’s the reality of what we face at the moment.
QUESTION:
The Wimmera region is sort of like a renewable leader in Victoria, would that continue under a Coalition Government?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we’ve been very clear that we’re supportive of renewable energy, but it can’t operate by itself, we need to be able to firm it up. As coal fired power stations come to a close, our view is the view in 19 of the top 20 economies in the world, that a zero emissions nuclear technology is the best way to firm up that renewable energy and provide stability. At the moment we’ve seen in our country a three fold increase in the number of manufacturing businesses who have closed and moved offshore. It’s a nonsense to pretend that we’re not using the products that they manufacture, and all that’s happening is the projects are being manufactured in Malaysia, imported back into Australia at a higher cost, and a higher cost, not just financially, but to the environment globally as well. It just doesn’t make any sense that we would lose that economic activity and that we would lose those jobs and that from our economy. It makes no sense at all.
QUESTION:
If it is confirmed Oscar Jenkins has been killed, what should Australia’s response be to that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, if there is confirmation that Oscar’s been killed, then the Government should take the strongest possible action, and that is that the Ambassador should be withdrawn and that the Ambassador here in Australia should be sent packing.
We should send a very clear message to Russia and to other similar minded regimes that Australians are sacrosanct, that they deserve to be protected by their Government, and if they’re harmed in this way and if they’re brutally executed as seems to be the suggestion in this case – and we’ll wait for confirmation – then there should be a strong reaction from the Prime Minister and I would encourage the Prime Minister to be open and honest and transparent in relation to this matter. If it is the case that this Australian has been killed, then Australia should respond in the strongest possible terms and that is out of bipartisan position, I’m sure, but the Prime Minister needs to advise that very quickly.
QUESTION:
Should Australians be travelling to Ukraine to fight with their Army?
PETER DUTTON:
Well clearly Australians shouldn’t be travelling to Ukraine, or to any other war zone, or conflict zone. As we know, when ISIL was at it’s peak, Australians sought to travel offshore. For some people they’re well intentioned, there might be an aspect for them that’s important, but the reality is Australians should not be going to fight in a war zone, and people should, if they’ve got any intelligence or advice in relation to a family member, or in relation to work colleague who’s thinking about going offshore to fight in Ukraine, or somewhere else, they should call the Australian Federal Police, or call Crime Stoppers and provide that information.
QUESTION:
Very quickly on Gaza; there are reports of an imminent ceasefire. Would you support a ceasefire?
PETER DUTTON:
Well certainly we’d support a ceasefire, but we need to make sure that the hostages are released and we need to make sure that a terrorist organisation is not being rewarded.
We have, in our country, a very strong relationship historically with Israel. Obviously the problem at the moment is that the Government hasn’t seen fit to prioritise that relationship. As Defence Minister and as Home Affairs Minister, I received intelligence, we received intelligence as a country, which saved the lives of Australian citizens and Australian men and women serving in uniform. They are the only democracy in the Middle East and they deserve our support, and we should be providing whatever support we can to Israel and certainly to people of Jewish heritage in our country as well.
[ends]