Subjects: Visit to WA; The Coalition’s plan to get Australia back on track; the Coalition’s plan to get more GPs into our suburbs and regional areas; Labor’s energy policy shambles; the International Criminal Court and the Prime Minister’s weak leadership; Labor’s continuing immigration detention shambles; the Eraring Power Station; nuclear energy; Anthony Albanese’s tax credits for billionaires; Labor’s disregard for WA and Australia’s mining sector.
E&OE.
SUSAN MCDONALD:
It is terrific to be here in Perth, Western Australia, with Peter Dutton, Leader of the Opposition, because it is so important that we support this important industry, get Australia back on track. We focus on announcements of policies that will reduce electricity prices, not just for industry, but for families right across Australia.
The policies that are being announced are incredibly important to provide an investment environment that allows businesses to feel confident coming to Australia – manufacturing, jobs, but most importantly, in turbocharging an industry that pays so much of the royalties and taxes that pay for this nation – NDIS, Medicare, hospitals, roads, schools right across the country.
So, I’m very pleased to be here with Peter, and look forward to hearing his words this morning.
Thank you.
PETER DUTTON:
Susie, thank you very much. It’s great to have spent time with West Australians over the course of this visit, hearing about the concerns that people have on the ground. It was fantastic yesterday to catch up with the RACGP and talk about our $400 million investment into getting more GPs into the suburbs, and into regional areas, make sure that we can help support families and people as they age in the community, etc., and it’s incredibly important to be able to send a very clear message of support to the economic development of this state, because it’s not just in WA’s interest, it’s in our national interest to make sure that we can turbocharge mining when there’s insatiable demand for our resources right across the world.
We need to make sure that we can provide proper approval processes, because at the moment, we know under the Government’s strategy they’re bogging down and deliberately delaying applications. That means that literally billions of dollars is lost in economic productivity, jobs are lost, and we don’t end up with the value add that we would want in the economy.
So, I want to make it very clear that the Coalition is determined to support the industry, to make sure that we can continue, particularly with gas, to see it involved in the mix because without it we don’t achieve net zero by 2050. As AEMO warns, under the Labor policy at the moment, there’s the prospect of blackouts over the course of this summer in Victoria and New South Wales. There’s a lot more that is of concern, and I think people have aired some of that today and over the last two days of this conference. So, I’m really pleased to be here.
A couple of other issues. Obviously, the Prime Minister yesterday went into hiding. He didn’t come out to make any statement in relation to the ICC. I think this is one of the most shameful acts of the Prime Minister. The Jewish community is completely and utterly bewildered, and I think Australians of good faith are bewildered as well that their Prime Minister doesn’t have the ability, or the wit to be able to stand up for what is in our country’s best interests and to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies, including the United States, to condemn an obvious anti-Semitic act by the ICC. The ICC should reverse their decision, and the Prime Minister should come out today to call for that, instead of continuing to remain in hiding, or continuing to dig a deep hole for himself.
Finally, there’s a tragic case as you know of a murder of a young man and the allegation is that the person who committed that heinous crime is somebody who was released out into the community after an AAT decision. So, a non-citizen, somebody with an alleged criminal record, and the Government changed the character assessment test when they came into government. They did that to try and please Jacinda Ardern – you’ll remember the debate well. That is the reason that this individual was allowed back into the community. The AAT made that clear in the decisions that they handed down, they cited the Direction 99 that had been issued by the Minister. Andrew Giles, instead of being in hiding, as I understand, is coming out today, and questions should be asked about this; why didn’t he intervene when the AAT made the decision? There’s no sense in the Prime Minister and Andrew Giles blaming the AAT. The AAT can only abide by the laws in front of them, and the Government watered down the character test, and it’s meant that this individual has been released back out into the community, and the allegation now is that he’s gone on to commit a murder. That is a very, very serious matter for the Government to handle, to deal with, and to explain, and Minister Giles should be out there with a full explanation today.
I’m happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Has the NSW Government made the right decision to extend Eraring?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, only if we don’t want the lights to go out. So, it’s okay in this sort of mystical world of the Labor Party and the Greens, and you could pretend that the lights are going to stay on when the Energy Regulator is telling us that the renewables on the policy of Labor, is going to result in higher electricity prices and less reliability in the system. Businesses won’t remain in our country if there’s a disruption to their power supply.
There’s 90 per cent of the 24/7 baseload power that goes out of the system by 2034, and without gas and the ability to firm up with baseload power, we are going to have disruption and increased prices.
So, the Labor Government has negotiated to extend the life of the coal fired power station, and that’s obviously necessary, because we have to keep the lights on in our country.
QUESTION:
Would you need to extend it further under the Coalition, with its nuclear plans, given the time it would take to build them?
PETER DUTTON:
I mean it’s a fair question to ask of the Labor Party. Also, if you’re reliant on green hydrogen, when will green hydrogen [inaudible]? People talk about the time to invent new technologies, but it’s true of batteries. I mean, you want to believe that the battery technology is more advanced than it is, but it’s not. So, we have to deal with, yes, new and emerging technologies, investment into those technologies which we’ve made in government and we’re happy to support again when we return to government after the next election, but you have to deal with the realities of here and now.
I just think the Government’s renewables only policy, which is designed to please the Greens in Sydney and Melbourne, is of no benefit to Western Australia, or to Queensland, or to the rest of the country if we see manufacturing closed down. We know under this Government that there is a three fold increase in the number of manufacturers who have gone into insolvency just in the last two years.
QUESTION:
Do you want to see Eraring stay open until you’re able to build a nuclear reactor on that site?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think as we’ve said, gas is going to play a very significant role. Now 12 months ago, the Prime Minister wouldn’t mention the word gas, because he’s more interested in courting votes from the Greens in Sydney and Melbourne. They’re now mentioning gas because the reality has dawned. You can’t live in this mystical world where you just believe the lights turn on by chance each day. You need to have stability in the system, and the intermittent power, as we know, with wind and solar, it doesn’t run 24/7, and yet the hospitals have to run 24/7. You have to run your freezer, or your cold rooms, and there are many processing plants that need 24/7 power. So, of course you need the baseload power to firm up the intermittent power of wind and solar in the system.
QUESTION:
On the CSIRO report into nukes, do you accept the findings of that report?
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, we’ve been very clear Geof, for a long time, that the Government settings that are in place at the moment discriminate against a new technology, even though of the top 20 economies in the world, Australia is the only one that hasn’t adopted, or agreed to take up zero emissions, latest generation technology in nuclear power.
The Government’s signed up to a submarine that’s got a nuclear propulsion system. There will be at least one submarine tied up alongside Henderson Dock here in WA and in Osbourne, into perpetuity. Now, the Government doesn’t have any concerns about safety, they don’t have any concerns about disposal of the 470 megawatt small modular reactor, the waste in a year is about the size of coke can. We’ve had a nuclear facility in New South Wales since 1950s for nuclear medicine, they dispose of their waste successfully, and in Ontario they’re paying a quarter of the price for electricity that we are here.
So, I want cheaper electricity for Australians, I want consistent power, and I want to make sure that we can have cleaner power as well. So if you have a look at the assumptions in there, it just doesn’t reflect the reality of the settings, the policy settings that…
QUESTION:
…the State Liberals are on the record here saying that nuclear power doesn’t stack up. Do you accept that? Do you see Collie as a viable area for that to happen?
PETER DUTTON:
Again, I’ve said that we’ll look into places where there is an existing coal fired power station coming to an end of life. The reason that that’s important is that you’ve got poles and wires already there to distribute the power that’s generated from the small modular reactor, or the reactor that’s there.
Under Labor’s model, it’s a $1.2 to $1.5 trillion plan, including rolling out 28,000 kilometres of new poles and wires, because the energy generated out of the solar panels, or out of wind turbines can’t be distributed on the existing poles and wires. So, under Labor, your power prices are going to go through the roof, there’s going to be less reliability and they’re not going to meet the net zero by 2050 commitment.
I want to have a 24/7 baseload power that can firm up renewables in the system. That way we can keep prices down, and we can have consistent power so that businesses will continue to invest in our country.
QUESTION:
That CSIRO report was about the costings, not the waste, or the safety of nuclear. I mean do you accept that that report – which says that it’s the most expensive option – is correct?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, a couple of points out of your question. Firstly, you’re right. They raised no issues around safety, or concern around stability, or concerns around disposal. All of those in the 21st century, as is the case for 19 of the 20 G20 countries, all that is resolved. When you look at Ontario, where they rely on 60 per cent of nuclear power in their system, their electricity is a fraction of the cost that we’re paying here. So, why in those other 19 countries is energy delivered more cheaply with the use of nuclear, than what Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese believe they can do it here? I would prefer to rely on the lived experience and the example that those countries are setting, as opposed to the scare campaigns being dreamt up by the Labor Party.
QUESTION:
You mentioned in your speech that there’s obviously some major concern for Western Australia over your opposition to the production tax credits. You’ve flagged working with miners to do more there. Is that an acknowledgement that you might have gone off a bit early on your opposition? Are you going to extend some elements of that scheme? Can you tell us what miners might expect from your government?
PETER DUTTON:
Well look, in our discussion with the miners – both big and small – they want certainty in relation to their projects so that they can invest. That is, firstly, they don’t want to spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of additional money in bogged down approval processes. So we’ve said today that we will halve the time that it takes for those processes. We’re not going to do anything other than have an efficient process in place.
At the moment, the Government talks out of both sides of their mouth. They say when they’re here in WA that they support these projects, when they get back to the East Coast, they don’t support it. We’ll support it, because it’s in WA’s best interests and in the country’s best interests as well.
So, there are a number of things we can do otherwise, and we’ll talk to other companies in relation to that. But ultimately, as Prime Minister, you need to be responsible in the way that you’re spending taxpayers’ money, and if you’ve got some of the most astute investors, who know this sector like the back of their hand and they’ve made billions of dollars, they’ve been successful, and we should thank them for their investment, for the money that they put into our community, the jobs that they create, if they’ve taken the decision that they don’t want to invest their money in some of these projects, then I think it’s a reasonable question to say, ‘should we be investing taxpayers’ money into those projects?’.
It’s a similar – I’ll just make this point – it’s a similar story around solar panels, or around the half a billion dollars that the Government’s announced on the quantum computing investment in Brisbane – which was done off the recommendation of Labor lobbyists – is that the best way to spend taxpayers’ dollars? Can we compete with China in relation to solar panel production? It’s $1 billion of taxpayers’ money, money that could help families at the moment who are struggling with cost of living pressures.
QUESTION:
If you had have picked up the phone and asked if they wanted these credits, they would have told you that they do. Did you consult with anyone in the mining industry here in WA before you came to your opposition [inaudible]?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we’ve had extensive consultations over a long period of time with producers, with speculators, with many people who’ve been involved in all parts of the supply chain and the production.
We will be the Party that supports the mining industry in a way that the Labor Party just can’t do. Because as every credible commentator is saying at the moment, the best case for Labor after the next election is that they’re in a minority government with the Greens and Teals. That will spell an absolute death knell for the mining sector in our country. They are dead opposed to fossil fuels, and we will not put our country in a position where we sacrifice those jobs, where we see the loss of that industry and that tax revenue, because without the economic powerhouse of WA, the east coast doesn’t keep the lights on and we should be very mindful of that.
Thanks very much.
[ends]