Subjects: Visit to Agfest; Federal Budget; cost of living pressures; the government’s broken promise on a $275 cut to your power bills; Stuart Robert; wages; Tasmanian AFL team.
E&OE.
SUSIE BOWER:
It’s wonderful to have the Leader of the Opposition here in the Lyons electorate. Of course, we also have our patron Senator Wendy Askew, Richard Colbeck, Senator as well for Tasmania and of course, who can forget Gav Pearce from Braddon who is a huge supporter of the Agfest event. It’s great that Peter is actually here today and not yesterday, but I’m sure that the farmers would have appreciated that rainfall that we had yesterday. But as we know, Agfest is one of the premier events for Tasmania and what makes it so impressive is that it is actually run by volunteers, but also volunteers that are under the age of 30. So I will actually hand over now to the Leader of the Opposition, the Honourable Peter Dutton, to have a little bit more of a chat about Agfest and Rural Youth.
PETER DUTTON:
Susie, thank you very much. Look, it’s great to be here. Kirilly and I have been looking forward to coming down to Agfest. I just want to say, firstly, thank you very much to an incredible group of young people in Rural Youth. Kane and Dylan, thank you very much for showing us around. It’s a really spectacular event and I’d say to all Australians, if you have the opportunity, come down to Tasmania when they’ve got one of these events on because it’s a huge display and a very proud display of rural Tasmania and we’ve had a chance to speak to a number of volunteers. Gavin Pearce is a legend in these parts. He knows a lot of people and we’ve run into a lot of friends and just those people that are volunteering and a huge part of the local community here.
I want to say thank you very much to Wendy Askew and also to Richard Colbeck for being here, for the work that they do on behalf of Tasmanians and Susie, you are a great find for us. It’s fantastic to have Susie Bower as our candidate for Lyons. She has, I think, demonstrated to people that she hasn’t stopped since the last election. She has continued to work for her local community, 20 years of experience, and that counts for a lot because we don’t want a lazy local member, we want somebody who is vibrant, who’s got to continue to work hard for their local community, not somebody who’s in retirement mode. Susie has the enthusiasm and the desire to step up, to work for her community and I’m very proud to have her as our candidate.
I just want to make a couple of points in relation to matters, otherwise. I want to say thank you very much to Stuart Robert for his 16 years of service to the Liberal Party and to the Australian Parliament. He’s worked hard in a number of portfolios, obviously worked very closely as a confidant of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison. He’s contributed in many ways. He’s a Queensland colleague and I wish him and his family all the very best in their next stage of life.
I also want to point out obviously that people in regional communities, dairy farmers, others who are on the land are big users of energy and they heard the Prime Minister say before the last election that he had policies and a plan to bring your electricity bill down by $275 a year. Now, I don’t know anybody in Tasmania or across the country, frankly, who can say that their electricity bills have dropped over the course of the last 12 months and every decision that the government is making is forcing those electricity and gas prices even higher. So, the test for the government in this budget is whether they will be able to deal with inflation or continue to add to it, because if they continue to add to it, interest rates will be higher for longer and mortgage holders and people who have overdrafts and small businesses are going to hurt for longer. I want to see a plan in this budget which helps, not hurts Australians, and I’m just not sure that the government has that plan.
It’s obvious that there are significant revenues, particularly mining royalties, company tax receipts, etc. so it’s likely that there will be a surplus budget on Tuesday but the question is whether they will have a plan for inflation. As we know, Australia has a higher core inflation rate than any of the G7 nations and the difficulty for the Prime Minister is that his decisions continue to add to inflationary pressure. The inflation we’re seeing at the moment is not coming out of Ukraine, it’s coming out of Canberra and the Prime Minister has a chance on Tuesday in the Budget to fix the mess that he’s created and we will wait to see what he details on Tuesday.
QUESTION:
Real wages growth is now expected to happen earlier than predicted. Do you think that that will actually happen and can the government take credit for that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, the difficulty is that if there is real wage growth, under this government, you’re getting money in one hand, but you’re losing it in the other. So there’s no sense in a scenario where the government continues to put pressure on interest rates, they remain higher for longer, and then every mortgage payment that you make is higher. We were in South Australia the other day talking to a food manufacturer there. They’re paying three times the rate per kilowatt hour than what their sister factory is in Malaysia, for example. So, the input costs continue to go up and those businesses can’t wear those costs. They end up increasing the price of food, increasing the price of goods and services otherwise and that’s what contributes to inflation remaining higher under Labor and the cost of living crisis that Labor has created is hurting a lot of families.
QUESTION:
If the government does deliver that surplus on Tuesday, is that a vindication of their economic management?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, if they deliver a surplus, it’ll only be for one reason and that is the economic management of the Coalition government over the course of the last nine years. When we were coming into Covid, we had balanced the budget, we had inherited from Labor a debt bomb which was on a trajectory to $667 billion. We spent a lot of money during the course of Covid to keep people in jobs – well over $300 billion and Labor promised in addition that they would spend another $81 billion. So, we’ll see what happens in the budget but as we know with the Labor Party, they just can’t manage money and when they run out of money, they come after yours. We always see a big taxing, big spending budget from Labor and we’ll see what happens on Tuesday.
QUESTION:
Unemployment over the next couple of years is also expected to be lower than originally forecast. Labor claims that their economic plan is working. What’s your response to that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, again, I mean they’ve not been in government 12 months and if they hadn’t inherited the budget in the shape it was from us, they’d have no chance of getting to a surplus budget and no chance of reducing unemployment below the 3.5 that they inherited when they came into government. I think it’s going to be a tough six or 12 months ahead, I’m sorry to say, for a lot of Australian families and small businesses. The test for the government will be whether they keep interest rates higher than otherwise needs to be the case, because if they do that, it’s average families and small business owners who really pay the price of Labor’s mismanagement.
QUESTION:
You touched on Stuart Robert’s resignation. Do you think his legacy’s been tarnished by the Robodebt Royal Commission?
PETER DUTTON:
I think if you look at his 16 years in Parliament, he’s contributed significantly to his own local electorate in Fadden. He’s been a central figure in the Morrison Government. He has been across a number of portfolios and he’s at the moment the Shadow Assistant Treasurer, and he’s done a good job in that portfolio. So, I think his CV speaks for itself.
QUESTION:
Do you expect to win that by-election in Fadden?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’ve already heard a few names mentioned about prospective candidates, and we’ll preselect somebody who is a local. We’ll preselect somebody who understands that part of the Gold Coast, and we should be in that seat, frankly, preselecting somebody who can be a future cabinet minister or a leader of our party. So, we will work hard with the LNP in Queensland to make sure that we do win.
QUESTION:
The government has released some new figures showing $21 billion was spent in a single year on consultants, contractors and labour hire workers in the APS in 21-22. Was that money well spent?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, this was of course over the course of Covid, and that was at a time when Labor was recommending that we spend another $81 billion. So there are services that were provided to Australians during the course of Covid, obviously that were one off and there was additional expenditure, but as I say, Labor at the same time was suggesting that we should be spending an extra $81 billion. So, it’s a bit hard to take a lecture, a morality lecture from them on finances, because they always spend, they always tax, and they always drive up inflation.
QUESTION:
You’re in Tasmania and probably some of the discussions you’ve been having is about a big announcement last week about the stadium in Hobart. What are you hearing on the ground and does the federal Liberal Party have a position on the money that has been pledged towards it?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I saw the Premier earlier today and it was nice to catch up with him again. I’ve known him for a long time and I think he’s doing a great job in Tasmania. When you compare the finances here and the services that are being delivered by the state government, and contrast that to my home state in Queensland, in Victoria for example, I think Tasmania is punching above its weight. So, I congratulate him for what he’s done in relation to the 19th AFL team – true representation from Tasmania.
We’re in the middle of the Magic Round this weekend in Brisbane, we had the Gather Round of the AFL in Adelaide only a couple of weeks ago and those sort of events, like this one here – when you look at what Agfest is able to put on, it’s a real vibe within the community and it’s a multiplier back into the community. The estimations here; about $26 million pumped into the local economy because of the work of Rural Youth and Agfest here. So, I think he’s doing a great job and I really congratulate him on what he’s been able to achieve.
QUESTION:
Why isn’t the Premier standing here with you today?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, he was here earlier today, and he’s obviously gone off to commitments now. But I saw him when we arrived and he was good enough, I think, to stay around actually a bit longer than what he planned to say hello. But as I say, known him for many, many years.
QUESTION:
We know some of the, you know, federal Liberal MPs from here in Tasmania and some senators as well have actually come out and said that the stadium and federal funding for the stadium isn’t, you know, the right move. Do you agree with that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think one of the points that my colleagues have been making is that Labor cut the blackspot road funding for Tasmania by a third and if you’re cutting road funding and essential services on the one hand, then how is it a priority to fund a stadium above that? So, it’s about the federal government getting its priorities right. But I think particularly when you look at the immigration numbers at the moment, there’s a lot of debate about this. There’s a housing crisis in our country, there’s a rental crisis in our country under Labor and they’re proposing, even when the HIA is suggesting that there be somewhere around about 180,000 new builds across Australia in the next 12 months, we’ve got something like 7,000 people (a week) coming in, you need to build the infrastructure before you bring people in and need to plan properly for it. Labor is cutting infrastructure spending at a time that they’re increasing migration, which is only going to increase congestion, particularly in our capital cities and outer-metropolitan areas.
QUESTION:
I guess if you were in government and Premier Jeremy Rockliff came to you and said ‘can I have $240 million for this stadium?’ Would you say ‘yes’ or ‘no’?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we’ll see where the finances are when we’re elected in two-and-a-half years’ time. But what we’re worried about at the moment is that we’ve got a budget next Tuesday night and that Labor doesn’t have a plan to reduce inflation and to help families. This cost of living crisis that Labor’s created, it’s not because of Ukraine or international factors and we know that because inflation here in our country, the core inflation rate is higher than any other G7 nation around the world. So it’s domestic factors and it’s Labor over the course of the last 12 months and their decisions, which have driven your mortgage rates higher and higher and I want to see a plan in Tuesday night’s budget to deal with that and I hope the Treasurer and the Prime Minister can deliver.
Now, I just want to give one last plug to RAW who we just spent some time with. They do an incredible job. Gav and Susie were talking about this on the way here. They lend a hand. They reach out. They support people. They move in a preventive way, not just responding to an acute incident where there are pressures on families, on rural communities and for those people that might have mental health issues, they might have significant financial pressures, relationship issues at a point in time. But the work that the volunteers do here is quite remarkable and I really want to pay tribute to them and it’s very nice to be able to spend some time with them earlier. Thank you very much. Thank you.
[ends]