Subjects: Visit to Gilmore; the Coalition’s $45 million Roads Package for the Shoalhaven; Trump Presidency; Labor’s cost of living and energy crisis; Australia Day celebrations; Rex Airlines; Labor’s Illawarra offshore wind zone farce; the Prime Minister’s personal attacks.
E&OE.
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
Well, it’s fantastic to have Peter Dutton here, with Senator McKenzie and Senator Bragg with me today to make an important announcement. I’ve said all along in relation to Gilmore, people want cost of living fixed and they want their local roads and the Princes Highway fixed. There is no doubt when you look at the state of our local roads, people have had a gutful. They’ve had enough. They know nothing’s happened under Labor. They know nothing’s happened in recent times in terms of local roads and we’re going to get on with this job.
I bring in experience in terms of Gilmore, in terms of delivering on the highway and delivering on local roads to know what needs to happen. In a cost of living crisis, the last thing that families can afford is expensive car repair bills because of things like shocks and tyres blowing out and everything else. Everyone’s had a gutful of it. Too much talk, not enough delivery.
Today, very pleasingly, we are going to commit $45 million to get on with the local roadworks in the Bay and Basin area in particular. But most importantly, particularly for those communities around Sanctuary Point to Tomerong, we’re putting The Wool Road back on the list. Labor took it off. These local road projects should have been built by now and nothing has happened under Labor.
So, I’m now going to hand over to Bridget just to say a few words in relation to this project, and of course, also it’s great to have Peter here for the third time to support our campaign in Gilmore. Thanks.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE:
Thanks, Andrew.
Well, it’s fantastic to be back on the South Coast with the Liberal candidate for the upcoming election, Andrew Constance, a champion for this community and someone that has the experience and the know-how of how to actually deliver what these communities so desperately need.
A little over three years ago, Anthony Albanese promised this community $40 million of local roads would be actually upgraded and fixed. And here we are, nothing’s been done, and as locals will know, the roads are degrading day-in, day-out, and are impacting not just travel times, but indeed locals impact on transport, trucking, and the family car upgrades. An elected Coalition Government will be committing $45 million to the Shoalhaven roads package, which actually will get these roads upgraded. Specifically, we’ll be putting The Wool Road back into that package.
Anthony Albanese talks a big game when it comes to infrastructure, but since coming to power he’s cut $6 billion from road and rail and infrastructure projects across the New South Wales state. So that $6 billion of cuts and delays under Anthony Albanese have impacted communities right here on the South Coast by cutting The Wool Road upgrade amongst others. We commit to getting the job done, getting back to basics, and delivering for communities what they need and deserve. Thank you.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks, Bridget, very much.
Well, it’s great to be back and to be here with Andrew Constance, who is really a fighter for his local community and for his region. That is demonstrated again today. It’s great to be here with Bridget McKenzie, and also with Senator Andrew Bragg.
I think what we’ve demonstrated is that we have a positive plan for our country. We want to get our country back on track. Part of the solution that we will have to bring to the table to clean up Labor’s mess is to make sure that we can increase the amount of money that we spend in infrastructure. The Labor Party, as Senator McKenzie pointed out, pulled $6 billion out of infrastructure at a time when they brought a million people into our country in just a two year period, that put extra pressure on families and road networks and infrastructure and assets and other community assets that really are under pressure.
So, Andrew Constance understands from his doorknocking and speaking to the local community members here that people want an upgrade to the road network. People are sick of swerving potholes and having a situation where they just don’t know after a rain event whether the road safe to drive on or not. Our announcement today of $45 million will go towards some of the support to council and to an upgrade of those roads.
Andrew has done an amazing job in advocating for this funding, and if elected, we will deliver this funding. Whereas the Labor Party promised three years ago that this funding would be delivered and the projects still haven’t been completed. One thing you know about a Labor government is that they can tax and spend, but they also talk a lot and they don’t deliver much. We have a plan to get our country back on track and I’m really pleased to be here with Andrew today.
I’m happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Andrew, you raised this three years ago, $40 million at that stage. To date, not even a shovel has hit the ground. The Labor Party says, ‘well, when you made the announcement and they matched it, there’s been no planning, no land had been purchased’. They’re blaming that for the delays. How do you respond to that?
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
I mean, it’s quite simple: Labor haven’t initiated a road project in our region in over 20 years. It’s always the Liberals. When I made that commitment at the last election, I expected these roadworks to be done. They’re just roads, local roads that already exist. These are not new roads going into new areas. These are roads that already exist. We stand here at Worrigee intersection, it should have been done by now. They took The Wool Road off the list. So, we’re very serious about this.
As Peter said, in my door knocking, people are raising local roads and cost of living, and they’re suffering so badly. We can’t allow this to continue. We need the jobs – we need the jobs associated with these roadworks for stimulus. Then at the same time, people need the roads to be repaired because they’ve had a gutful of it. So, no more talk, get on with the job. Get our region back on track, get our country back on track, and let’s get our roads back on track.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, some of your National colleagues have welcomed Donald Trump’s views that there should be two genders recognised by government. But Liberal Senator Jane Hume said yesterday the Coalition had no plans to follow Mr Trump’s lead. What’s your personal view?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, look, I just think a couple of points. I mean, the first one is that Australia is a sovereign nation and as Prime Minister, I’ll act in our country’s best interests and I’ll make decisions that I think are in the best interests of all Australians. So, we don’t have any plans to change our position in relation to that issue.
There are other issues where there’ll be agreement and where there’ll be disagreement with the Trump Administration or the Starmer Administration, whatever it might be, and we’ll work through that. We will have a strong and functioning relationship with the United States because I’ve worked with the Trump Administration mark one, I’ve worked with the Obama Administration, I’ve worked obviously with the Biden Administration as well. So we’ll have a strong functioning relationship. But in terms of what’s in Australia’s best interests, I’ll make decisions, our Government will make decisions based on what’s of interest and priority and in the long-term interests of this great country.
QUESTION:
You were previously critical of Labor holding on to its policy costings until late in the last election campaign. Why are you holding on to your policy costing for the tax deductible lunches?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, look, it’s a bit rich for the Labor Party, for Jim Chalmers, who’s presided over the cost of living crisis and created Labor’s cost of living crisis through the last budgets where they could have taken decisions but didn’t, which now see families paying much more for their mortgage, much more for insurance, much more for their groceries. We’ll provide that information as you would in the normal scheme of things. We don’t dance according to the demands of Jim Chalmers.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, what are your thoughts on Labor’s aluminium investment? Do you think that that move is going to sustain the industry?
PETER DUTTON:
That money will never be spent. It is a con job. This is a Prime Minister who’s run out of time. We’ve had three wasted years now under this Prime Minister and we’re going to see all of these promises that won’t come to fruition. There is no way in the world that the Prime Minister is delivering this plan. We need strong baseload power to back up renewables. If we don’t, we’re going to see the blackouts that AEMO and others have warned about.
QUESTION:
A large Australian venue operator has recently banned Australia Day celebrations, saying that we should just celebrate the long weekend without the national holiday. What are your thoughts on that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think if you want to tell your patrons that, be upfront about it and patrons can make a decision about whether they want to patronise an establishment like that. We live in the best country in the world. We should celebrate our history. We should be incredibly proud of our Indigenous history, proud of our European heritage, and proud of the great migrant story.
One of the things I want our country to have greater pride in is the wonderful migrant story – to tell the stories, particularly of people who came here from the end of the Second World War with nothing. People have worked hard as tilers, as concreters, as farmers. They’ve educated their children, they’ve provided an opportunity that their grandparents could never have imagined, and their children now are contributing in an amazing way to society. Why somebody would be ashamed of that is beyond me.
Why somebody who is in the business of trying to provide a custom and reaps a huge profit off the back of hardworking Australians, why they would shun the wishes of those Australians? Because the vast majority of Australians, particularly patrons going into some of these establishments, want us to celebrate Australia Day – is something that that company will have to explain. I just say to patrons who know the pubs that this company owns, I would encourage them to call the company and express their view and express that they don’t support this abandonment of our national day. What other country, what other Western civilisation abandons its national day? We shouldn’t, and Australia Day should be a great celebration of an amazing country.
QUESTION:
You said on 2GB this morning that we should honour the Paris Agreement. When will you release your targets for 2030?
PETER DUTTON:
We’re not having targets, I’ve said this before. The Government’s got a secret plan in relation to 2035, which has all sorts of assumptions I suspect the Prime Minister doesn’t want you to know about. But I’ll tell you one very significant outcome of the Prime Minister’s hidden 2035 plan: that will be a further increase in electricity and gas prices. The Prime Minister is hiding this before the election because he doesn’t want people to know what the 2035 target will mean for electricity prices. I promise you it will mean more price increases. In terms of our target commitments, we’ve committed to net zero by 2050. That’s the commitment that we’ve made and that’s what we will honour.
QUESTION:
In regards to Rex Airlines, the Albanese Government has committed $50 million to pay towards their largest creditor to keep the airline afloat. Will your government match that or increase that?
PETER DUTTON:
We’d be happy to support the Government in a bipartisan way to see Rex Airlines fly again. It’s important for regional areas and it’s very important for competition in this country as well.
QUESTION:
Senator McKenzie, do you mind if we get your comment on Rex Airlines as well?
BRIDGET MCKENZIE:
On Rex?
Well, obviously, we don’t want to see rural and regional Australians cut off from the rest of the country. Having reliable and cost-effective aviation services from our capital cities to the regions is important for the delivery of health services, education services, as well as connecting family and friends with the rest of the country. We’ve been calling for a more competitive aviation sector for the last three years. The Government has been on the go slow, but obviously we want to see regional communities remain connected through aviation services and we’ll be supporting, as Mr Dutton said, measures that the Government has.
The reality is, though, Catherine King has not picked up the phone to talk to me, as the Shadow Minister for Transport, about her plans to keep Rex flying. So, I again, would welcome the call. I would welcome her approaching me to actually come up with and develop a bipartisan approach rather than actually pushing off any decision as the $50 million does till after the election.
QUESTION:
A question for Mr Constance. Earlier this week you posted on Facebook that there were no companies interested in setting up an Illawarra offshore wind zone off the Illawarra Coast and that BlueFloat had withdrawn their application for a feasibility licence. That wasn’t true. The company disagreed with that, said they’re still interested in pursuing an offshore wind zone, there are companies still interested. Do you regret making those comments?
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
No, because the reality is that the company said it’s going to focus on Gippsland, and because of what Mr Bowen’s doing in holding up the issuance of the feasibility licence, he’s not interested in the Illawarra. So that’s where they’re at, so to accuse me of lying, I think is a bit rich from the ABC…
QUESTION:
Right, but it’s not true, I’m not accusing you…
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
No, no, hang on, you just said that, right?
QUESTION:
I’m not. I’m just saying…
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
You just said it in a press conference that I’m lying.
QUESTION:
The company has said that your comments aren’t true. So, who is telling the truth – the company or you?
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
I’ll tell you who I think is spreading the most misinformation in relation to this – Chris Bowen. You know, his feasibility licence hasn’t been issued – why not? Because he’s got no players interested.
QUESTION:
But the company has just said that they’re interested, so you can’t say…
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
Will they apply?
QUESTION:
Hmm?
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
Have they applied?
QUESTION:
Well, they’re still – yeah, they’ve told us that they’re still interested in the offshore wind zone.
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
The bottom line is, right? If BlueFloat had applied, Chris Bowen would have issued the feasibility licence by now. The reality is BlueFloat also indicated to journalists that they’re going to focus on Gippsland.
So, the bottom line is, if he had proponents, he’d put it to market. It’s a white elephant – a $10 billion floating wind farm off the coast of the Illawarra ain’t going to fly. It’s absolutely absurd and ridiculous. If he had a proponent, he’d issue a licence and he hasn’t done that. He has misled journalists continuously now the best part of 12 months. I think there is a very big question as to why he is directly involved in this process, which should be at arm’s length run by his own department. So, you know, quite clearly, BlueFloat have not come out and said, ‘yeah, no, we’ve applied for a feasibility licence’, the reality is…
QUESTION:
But they retain interest in the zone.
ANDREW CONSTANCE:
…they haven’t applied for a feasibility licence, and therein lies the point. This process closed months ago. Chris Bowen is holding this off until after the election in the hope that it goes away. It’s not going to go away.
Only the Liberals and Nationals have a sensible renewable, gas, nuclear power approach to securing Australia’s affordable, reliable energy supply. This nonsense of 100 per cent renewables with projects falling over everywhere, shows that Chris Bowen is out of his depth, and, quite frankly, he should just come clean on this and say, ‘I have nobody who applied for the feasibility licence, I can’t issue it, and on that basis we’re not going to proceed’.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, a question just off the back of that, so your plan is to scrap the Illawarra and Hunter offshore wind zones, if elected. What opportunities are you promising to the people of the Illawarra? In the Hunter there are opportunities potentially under your nuclear plan. In the Illawarra, we’re not going to have a nuclear energy producing reactor. So what opportunities are you promising for people in the Illawarra in terms of moving forward into the future and new and emerging industries?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, a couple of points. One is that the best thing that we can do for any sector, for any part of the country, is to try and bring downward pressure on those energy prices.
You see, part of the problem that we’ve got at the moment is that we’re paying about three times the cost of electricity compared to other jurisdictions, and we’re fast becoming unviable for investment for many projects, and we have to make sure that the investment pipeline is rich, because, if we don’t, we won’t have jobs in regions or in many parts of the country. So, the plan that we’ve put forward – as has been costed by Danny Price and Frontier Economics, a company used by the Labor Party in government as well – demonstrates that our plan is 44 per cent cheaper than Labor’s.
So, we are going to see, over the period of the implementation of our policy, a lower electricity cost. That is going to be of benefit to all Australians and that will help industry grow not shrink. Over the course of the last two and a half, three years, we’ve had a threefold increase in the number of manufacturing businesses that have closed under Mr Albanese’s watch and 27,000 small businesses have gone insolvent over the last two and a half years.
So, there’ll be different ways in which we can help different regions, but what we’re not going to do for regional areas is carpet bomb them with 28,000 kilometres of new poles and wires. For those of us who live in the city, this is not something that we have to confront, but for people who live in regional areas, they’re not any different, they’re not lesser Australians than those of us who live in capital cities. I don’t understand why the Prime Minister has such disregard for them and such disdain for their views, when they’ve expressed very clearly that they don’t want their rural environment to be smothered in new renewable projects that require these transmission lines. We want to have a sensible balance and that’s exactly what we’ve provided. We’ve done it looking at the world experience, and of the top 20 economies in the world, 19 of them have or have signed up to nuclear. Australia is the only one that hasn’t. That’s why I think we’ve got a much more sensible plan for our country. The Prime Minister has no plan for the future because clearly he’s struggling with just getting through every day at the moment.
QUESTION:
To Mr Dutton, or Andrew, Anthony Albanese recently made a comment about you shopping around for a marginal seat. What is your response to that?
PETER DUTTON:
I’ll respond to it. One thing you’ll notice with the Prime Minister is that when he realises that he’s snookered, he goes personal. Right? What he doesn’t say about Andrew Constance is that Andrew Constance is an ineffective local Member, or that Andrew Constance is a bad person, or that he’s incapable of delivering for his local community. Because the Prime Minister, like people in Gilmore, know that Andrew Constance is a good person, they know that he is an effective local Member, they know that he’s a strong and effective advocate and he’s not only a great candidate, but more importantly will be an incredibly effective local Member of Parliament. Instead, the Prime Minister goes for these cheap attacks.
So, I think if the Prime Minister had something substantive to say, then it’d be worth responding to, but I think these personal attacks from the Prime Minister should, frankly, be beneath somebody in his office and he should recognise the fact – as more and more people across Gilmore and the country do – and that is that they want change. They want a better future for our country, they want to get our country back on track, and as we move around Gilmore, I can promise you the reception that we’ve had and the way in which Andrew’s been warmly received, I think more and more people here are preparing for change because they want an effective local Member.
The $45 million announcement today for road funding is as a direct result of Andrew’s advocacy, and it will only be with Andrew Constance that if we can get these local roads fixed, and it’s only through electing Andrew Constance that we can get rid of Anthony Albanese and make sure that we address the cost of living crisis that Labor’s created.
Thank you very much.
[ends]