Subjects: Visit to Kilmore; the Government’s new car and ute tax; Labor’s cost of living crisis; Operation Sovereign Borders; Labor’s border security crisis; defence acquisition.
E&OE
BRIDGET MCKENZIE:
Well, it’s fantastic to be back in Kilmore with the Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton.
We’ve got a local Member in Rob Mitchell who is clearly asleep at the wheel. This community is the type of community that is going to be smashed between the eyes by Labor’s car tax. Today we’ve been here at the local dealership looking at the top selling vehicles here in Australia, and their top selling because they’re the type of cars that Australians need and love to drive. Cars like the HiLux ute, the top selling SUV – the RAV4, flooding the kindergarten, primary school, sporting fields, right around the country each and every day – these are the types of cars that are going to be more expensive under Labor’s proposed fuel efficiency standards.
It’s not just petrol and diesel models that are going up in excess of 15 grand come 2029. It is also the hybrid models that are going to be attracting penalties. So even those models which are going to provide us a low emissions future for our transport fleet are going to be slugged by Labor’s efficiency standards.
We know that this is a bad tax for middle Australia, we know it is a bad tax for those families who just want a car that they can afford to drive, that will do the job for them and their families.
Chris Bowen and Catherine King have got it wrong and they need to go back to the drawing board. They’re running around the country saying this is ‘cheaper to drive’, but that’s if you can afford the $30,000 additional price tag, for the electric version of your favourite SUV. That’s actually the entry point into the electric vehicle market for Australian families, and in the middle of a cost of living crisis, it is too much to pay.
PETER DUTTON:
Well said Bridget. At a time when every Australian family is really under the pump, and the cost of living crisis that Labor’s created is biting hard, people are paying $24,000 a year more for their mortgage – that’s in net dollars – people are paying almost 30 per cent more for tax, they’re paying 10 per cent more when they go to the supermarkets for groceries, and now the Prime Minister is proposing a great big new car and ute tax, which is going to drive up the cost of a HiLux or a Ranger, by somewhere between $10 and $15,000.
I think it shows how out of touch the Prime Minister is that he’s imposing this huge new tax on new cars, at a time when families just can’t afford to pay what they’re facing at the moment, every week in their budget.
The Prime Minister never made any mention of this new tax before the last election, and when he promised Australians that he wouldn’t have a new tax, now we find out that he’s broken that promise, another broken promise from this Prime minister, and Australians are going to have to pay the tax. It doesn’t make any sense to me. If they want to apply a tax, they need to explain it, not just drop it out there and then not mention it again and pretend like it’s not happening.
The Government’s 100 per cent renewables policy is going to result in brownouts, blackouts and a continuation of prices going up and up for your electricity and for your gas, and I don’t think families can afford that. You’ve got a situation now where Australians are paying more for their new car under an Albanese Government, than anyone could ever have imagined.
If people want to buy an electric vehicle, that’s fantastic, that’s great, and that’s their decision, but don’t jack up the price of other cars to try and make the EV look more attractive. I don’t think people, particularly in regional areas where they just don’t have the range at the moment with the current technology, they’re not going to be able to have a choice, their choice at the moment is to buy a Ranger or a HiLux or D-Max.
The other point is that it’s likely that some of these vehicles will exit the market. So the D-Max, almost with certainty, will be withdrawn from the market, and as we know it’s a popular vehicle because of the price point, it’s cheaper than some of the other brands, and it’s really been embraced by a lot of tradies around the country. Under Mr Albanese’s new ute tax, the tradies will have to pay – it might mean that they don’t even have the same choice that they’ve got at the moment between the vehicles available to them when they get into the local dealership – so I think they are rightly condemned, and I think the Prime Minister needs to come out and explain why, in the middle of a cost of living crisis that Labor’s created, it’s a good idea to have a great huge new tax on cars and utes.
I’m happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Just in regards to the asylum seekers in WA, yesterday you said the Government needs to be ‘honest and frank and open’ in relation to this issue. How can you demand more details, when the Coalition kept quiet on such water matters when you were in Government?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, it’s quite remarkable that the Prime Minister can look the Australian people in the eye and tell them that Operation Sovereign Borders is operating now, as it was when we were in Government, because of course it’s not.
When we were in Government, the three limbs, the essential limbs to Operation Sovereign borders; turning back boats when it’s safe to do so, offshore processing and temporary protection visas. The Government has abolished the temporary protection visa, and they’re now sending a green light to people smugglers when the news is distributed by the people smugglers, that 149 criminals who are non-citizens and have committed terrible crimes can be released from immigration detention into the community for a permanent outcome in our country.
How can the Prime Minister look the Australian public in the eye and tell them something that he knows is not true. I think the Government absolutely has got all sorts of problems at the moment, because it’s clear that they don’t have the same surveillance in place that we had when we were in government. It’s inconceivable that a boat of this size, carrying 40 plus people, could make it to the mainland without there being any detection. The Prime Minister carried on with some stupid story about his phone not working in the car, and he couldn’t be contacted. He was caught completely by surprise, he had no clue that this boat had arrived when he was asked the question by the journalist.
So, I don’t think you can take this Prime Minister at face value. You certainly can’t take his word as his bond, and he’s now implementing a huge new ute tax that tradies just can’t afford to pay.
QUESTION:
Well, the head of Operation Sovereign Borders says that the mission of the operation is the same now as it was in 2013. So how can you question whether it’s changed since then?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I just think the Prime Minister has got something to say, he should have the guts to face up to the media and say it. Don’t trot out people in uniform to deliver messages from the Government.
I understand how Operation Sovereign Borders works, and when we came into Government, people had been drowning at sea, new detention centres were opened up under Labor, kids were in detention. We got rid of those detention centres, we closed them down because we stopped the boats and we kept them stopped, and we didn’t have kids and women drowning at sea because we stopped the failure of Labor’s policy. Now it seems that Mr Albanese, who was the Deputy Prime Minister in the Rudd-Gillard years, and now is staying true to who he’s always been; he doesn’t believe in Operation Sovereign Borders, he’s been open about it for years and years.
At National Conference when Bill Shorten was a Leader, he was talking down Operation Sovereign Borders. They’ve ripped a cumulative $600 million out of Operation Sovereign Borders and Border Force, and it’s no wonder at Estimates last year that the Border Force Commissioner says that the organisation is completely stretched. The organisation is at breaking point, and this is exactly what happened in the Rudd-Gillard years. They took money out of ASIO and out of the Federal Police, and out of the other national security agencies, and then they wonder why we have crime rates where they are in this country. Then they wonder why people smugglers see a green light from another Labor Government.
So, I just think the Prime Minister, frankly, couldn’t lie straight in bed. His energy policy is a train wreck, his economic policy is a train wreck, they’ve had two budgets now where they’ve made decisions that have driven prices up and made it harder for Australians. They’ve presided over 12 interest rate rises, which is why the Reserve Bank Governor says that the problem is ‘home grown’, and interest rates and inflation always stay high under a Labor Government, because, as we know, they’ve spent an extra $209 billion since they’ve come to Government, which is what’s driven up inflation.
QUESTION:
So, you disagree with the idea that the head of Operation Sovereign Borders says that the mission is still the same? You disagree with that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think I’ve answered that question.
QUESTION:
Are cuts to maritime security the reason that this boat got into WA? And is that also the same reason a boat reached Queensland in 2018?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, the reason the boat got there is because the Government has suspended or cancelled surveillance flights. That’s the problem.
So, this is not a quick dash between Papua New Guinea and the top of Australia. This is a boat that has come undetected into the north west of our country. You’ve got a Prime Minister who is asleep at the wheel, you’ve got the situation where Labor doesn’t believe in Operation Sovereign Borders, and a situation, obviously, where they are going to lurch from one disaster to the next because people smugglers know that this Prime Minister is leading a weak and incompetent Government.
This is not just a weak and incompetent Government when it comes to border protection. The Voice, he raised expectations in the Indigenous community – there was never any real prospect of it succeeding. He wasted $450 million. The Prime Minister’s incompetent, weak Government on energy policy is now seeing brownouts and blackouts, and prices go through the roof at a time when families can’t afford it, and now they’re proposing a new ute and car tax, where the average SUV, or ute is going to go up by $4 or $5000 in some cases for a Toyota RAV4 hybrid, or a Corolla, and you’re going to see $10 to $15,000 for a Ranger or D-Max or HiLux. It’s just madness.
I think the incompetence of the Prime Minister is on full display to the Australian public at the moment, and that’s why they’re rightly marking him down.
QUESTION:
Can you point to evidence and examples of how there’s been cuts to maritime security or flyovers?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I just point you to the budget documents released by the Treasurer, at the most recent budget. That details all the cuts.
QUESTION:
You don’t have any examples of evidence of that sort?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, that the budget cuts are there in the papers. So, unless Border Force officers are working for free, or they’re buying boats for free, then that’s the impact. Unless it’s a fabrication that the Dash 8s aren’t flying, then I mean that’s the evidence.
So, I know the Labor Party trot these lines out and they want journalists to repeat them, but the fact is that they’re cutting money and they’ve cut surveillance flights. How can a boat containing 40 people land on Australia’s mainland and not be detected? How can the Prime Minister pretend that he’s stuck in his car and that his phone won’t work, which is why he didn’t know about the boat – he didn’t have a clue this boat had arrived, and he made up some stupid story about him being in the car, and therefore, he couldn’t find out about it. He didn’t know about it until the journalist asked him, and there’s no excuses to be made for that. That’s the reality of a bad, weak, incompetent Government and Prime minister.
QUESTION:
Do you support the decision to send them to Nauru?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes. Of course.
QUESTION:
Just one more question from me please?
PETER DUTTON:
Sure mate.
QUESTION:
Did the Coalition over program the naval shipbuilding program while in office? Do you think it promised these projects, like the Hunter-Class Frigates, without actually committing the funds needed for the ships, as defence officials alluded to in the Senate estimates last week?
PETER DUTTON:
No, again, Labor’s trying to make all sorts of excuses for their failure.
When Labor was in Government, they never ordered a single ship. Let’s be very clear about it. In the defence portfolio, they reduced spending on defence down to the lowest levels since 1938, to 1.56 per cent of GDP, and Labor is doing it again. They are ripping money out of defence, as ASPI pointed out, and other independent observers.
This is why Richard Marles is at war with his own Department. There’s obviously an estrangement and a difficulty in the relationship, because Defence have a weak and hopeless Minister, and he’s demonstrating that on a daily basis.
Labor just don’t believe in putting money into Defence and supporting the men and women of the Australian Defence Force with additional funding. They need the nine ships, the nine frigates. The Government’s obviously trying to butter-up the community for reducing it down to six. You’ve even got Peter Malinauskas out now, running the Anthony Albanese line that there’s going to be no impact on jobs in South Australia, when that is not the case.
We don’t want to have another valley of death in the shipbuilding industry in South Australia, as we had under Labor last time. We need, at a time when we’re in the most precarious period since the Second World War, to increase the number of assets that we have, not decrease. This is just an excuse for a Government who can’t find the money.
All right. Thank you very much.
[ends]