Subjects: Aston by-election; cost of living pressures; the Prime Minister’s broken promise on a $275 cut to your power bills; electricity prices; Indigenous Voice to Parliament; childcare; Premier Daniel Andrews’ visit to China; Mark Latham’s appalling tweet; AUKUS.
E&OE.
ROSHENA CAMPBELL:
It’s terrific to have Peter back here in Aston. Last night we spent the evening with the Rowville footy club, having some pizza and beers and meeting the players. I’ve spent almost two weeks on prepoll, before that doorknocking and listening to thousands of voters across Aston. The issues we keep hearing; rising living cots, Labor not having a plan. It’s causing real anxiety in this seat and Labor sent the people of the Outer-East a really clear message; slashing that road and rail funding. They’ve shown that they’re happy to take the Outer-East for granted. This Saturday’s by-election will be a chance for voters here to send a message back to Labor. I’m delighted to be joined by Peter today.
PETER DUTTON:
Roshena, thank you very much. Firstly I want to say Roshena to you, you’ve done an amazing job over the course of this by-election. You’re a mum of three beautiful kids, you’ve got lots of responsibilities, you’re a barrister, you’ve had experience as a local councillor. You will be a very strong voice for the people of Aston, and this by-election – it’s not about changing the government – it’s about sending a person to Canberra who will be a strong local representative, and Roshena Campbell is exactly that person.
She has an experience in delivering, and I think as she rightly points out, the first opportunity that Labor had to send a message to the people of this local community here in Aston, they cut road funding and at a time when people are experiencing more and more frustration on the way to work, on the way home, when they’re dropping their kids to footy or dropping their kids to school; they know that they are stuck in traffic and it’s because a Labor Government won’t provide support for that funding that they’re still there, and they’re still encountering that frustration.
It’s also an important message for Labor to hear in relation to the cost of living pressures that families are experiencing. Every decision that Labor has taken economically over the course of the last 10 months has driven up the cost of living pressures on families and on small businesses. We’re seeing it in the last 24 hours where they are talking about now, a disruption to gas supply, which would be a terrible outcome for families, particularly over winter, a terrible outcome for small businesses and you’re seeing an inevitable increase in gas prices, in power prices under Labor as a result of the Bill they brought through the Parliament with the support of the Greens this week.
So, there is an opportunity here in Aston to send a message to Labor that it’s just not good enough that the cost of living pressures continue to go up and up and Labor’s policies, which are inflationary, feeds an increase in interest rates and families are paying that through their mortgages each month. Happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Polling shows you’re a drain on the vote, the Liberal vote here in Aston – Roshena’s vote. Are you a drain on the vote?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Simon, you’re talking about self-serving Labor polling that’s been released. I think the fact is that if you have a look at the latest Newspoll, my figure is exactly the same in net favourability terms as was Anthony Albanese eight days out from the 2022 election…
QUESTION:
That’s nationally though. What about here on the ground in Aston? What’s your polling telling you?
PETER DUTTON:
Our polling is telling us that we have a great candidate in Roshena Campbell and that the people of Aston want a local champion. She has the credentials to work hard here on her community’s behalf, but also to be a very, very powerful voice on behalf of mums, on behalf of working mums in particular, and as a professional woman she has a CV which is unmatched by any other candidate here in Aston.
So, I think if you look at issues that are important to people – they’re not interested in Canberra gossip and the Canberra bubble – they’re interested in how they pay their bills, which are going up and up under Labor. This by-election is an opportunity to put a strong local candidate in Roshena Campbell into the Federal Parliament, but it is also an important opportunity to send Labor a message, that people just can’t continue to pay the increasing bills under Labor.
QUESTION:
Some of that Canberra gossip is to James Massola, the SMH is reporting this morning that if you lose this by-election, some of your colleagues are entertaining a switch to Sussan Ley as (inaudible) Leader.
PETER DUTTON:
Well again Simon, I’m not going to into to Canberra gossip. I can tell you when you move around the streets here, and this is my fifth visit to Aston and they’re talking about the fact that they are frustrated that Labor has cut road funding, that that was their first act when they were in government. Secondly, they’re worried that cost of living pressures…
QUESTION:
So, you’re not worried about a switch to Sussan Ley if you lose this seat?
PETER DUTTON:
I’m concentrating on making sure that Roshena Campbell is sitting in Parliament next week because the seat of Aston deserves a very strong local member, and that’s what this by-election is about.
QUESTION:
Why were you and most of your frontbench not in the chamber yesterday when the Constitution Amendment Bill was introduced? Were you sending a message about where you stand on the Referendum?
PETER DUTTON:
No, I mean again, the Mechanics Bill was the week before, it made clear our position, that is that we are entering into this debate and we’ve conducted ourselves in relation to this debate in a respectful way. There are legitimate questions that Australians have in relation to the Voice, and they should be answered. The Prime Minister was asked half a dozen questions in Parliament this week, just about the basic detail that Australians want before they make a decision in relation to the Voice, and he wasn’t able to answer any of them.
I don’t think frankly, Prime Minister Keating or Prime Minister Howard or any of the successors since then would have had such a shambolic display of just incompetence – not being across the detail – and this Prime Minister is not across the detail. We’re seeing it manifest in higher power prices, in higher cost of living pressures, and they don’t have any regard for the fact that many of the decisions that they’re making are feeding inflation, which is making your mortgage higher under Labor. Interest rates are always higher under Labor and your cost of living pressures are always higher under Labor. That’s the way that they conduct their economic decision making. They have no regard for the impact on families and on small businesses.
QUESTION:
Should wages be lifted in line with inflation for the nation’s lowest paid workers?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, everybody wants to see an increase in wages. We want to provide support to workers, particularly low paid workers and the trouble of course, for workers at the moment, is that Prime Minister Albanese said before the last election – in fact it was one of about 15 promises that have now been broken – that there would be an increase in real wages, of course under this government wages have gone backwards because Labor has fuelled inflation, which means you’re paying more at the checkout, it means you pay more at the bowser, it means that you’re paying more for your gas bill, it means that you’re paying more for your insurance and even with a wage increase, you’re not keeping up. So no wonder people are angry about Labor and their failure to deliver.
Australians today cannot say that they are better off than they were 10 months ago when Labor was elected. The Prime Minister said that he had a plan to deliver a $275 cut to your power bills. He promised it on 97 occasions before the election and then since the election he’s never mentioned that figure, not even once. So why would you believe what Labor says?
Here in Aston, people really are feeling the pinch. Their cost of living pressures are really hitting hard. There are a lot of families who are cutting back on expenditure now, which means that less money is being spent at the cafe up the road, or the restaurant down the road and it means that those jobs are at risk. That’s the spiral we see under Labor. We don’t want to see that. We want to see a strong economy. We want to see a strong local voice, and Roshena Campbell will be that voice in Aston.
QUESTION:
I’ve got a question for you, but I just want to ask Roshena one if that’s alright? Can I just ask you Roshena, just in regards to the reports the other day in regards to you claiming childcare benefits while a councillor, while also hitting out at the childcare system. Is that hypocritical?
ROSHENA CAMPBELL:
I’m a working mum. I juggle three kids, two jobs. I’m not going to be lectured by Labor about asking questions about the best way that we can use our childcare budget. The reality is, the only thing I’ve ever said is, we have a childcare pie and I want every working woman in this country to have choices about how that’s used, including those who want to go straight back to work, those that want to take extended parental leave. The reality is, the last time Labor was in government, childcare went up by 53 per cent. Working mums around this country have not forgotten that taint. Labor’s rhetoric on childcare does not match the reality. So, I’m not going to be lectured by a Labor Minister who doesn’t deliver and who wants to question someone who is fighting for more choices for working mums.
QUESTION:
So it’s not hypocritical?
ROSHENA CAMPBELL:
I don’t think that we should ever stop working women raising questions about how policy can best be delivered to every working woman in this country.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, I’ve got two if you don’t mind. Just on the issue of Daniel Andrews’ trip to China and then I’ll ask you about Mark Latham’s tweet, if that’s ok? Just on Daniel Andrews’ trip to China, are you concerned by the intentions of this trip as a former Defence Minister and at a time when we’ve signed the AUKUS deal and he also doesn’t have any media with him so we don’t exactly know exactly what he’s up to?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Simon, a couple of points. I mean firstly, China is incredibly important trading partner for our country and we have an incredible diaspora community here of Australians of Chinese heritage. They are people who have worked hard, they’ve educated their kids, they’re entrepreneurial, they are working hard for their families, for their community, for their country, and they’re wonderful Australians. They’re also feeling a lot of pressure under Labor at the moment because they’re in small businesses, they’re in households – like any other Australian – and they’re experiencing higher cost of living pressures under Labor. So I think that’s an important point to make. In relation to issues around the trip otherwise, well, they’re questions for Premier Andrews when he returns.
In relation to Mr Latham, you ask about that issue. I thought his tweet was appalling and I think he should apologise for it. I think that would be the general consensus.
Final point in relation to your question; it is clear that there is a lot of dissent and division within Labor when it comes to AUKUS. You’ve now got the union movement out against AUKUS. You’ve got different Labor members who are publicly saying that they’re against AUKUS – let alone what they’re saying privately. I think it undermines – as we’re seeing reports out of the US in relation to Paul Keating at the moment – it undermines our status as a reliable partner with the US and the UK at a time when that shouldn’t be the message.
I think the Prime Minister at the moment is presiding over a hotbed of division within the Labor Party and it’s not in our national interest. For a Party who negotiated and brokered this deal, we will always make decisions that will keep our country safe and that’s what I did as Defence Minister and that’s what we will do when we return to government in 2025.
Thank you very much.
[ends]