Transcript - Press conference - Austral Bricks in Horsley Park, NSW

JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW WITH

THE HON PETER DUTTON MP
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

THE HON ANGUS TAYLOR MP
SHADOW TREASURER

MELISSA MCINTOSH MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR ENERGY AFFORDABILITY AND
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WESTERN SYDNEY,

HORSLEY PARK, NEW SOUTH WALES

5 September 2024 

Subjects: Visit to Western Sydney; Labor’s home-grown inflation and cost of living crisis; Labor’s energy policy shambles; Bill Shorten’s retirement announcement; the New South Wales Liberal Party; John Setka continues to highlight the Prime Minister’s weak leadership; the CFMEU and Labor’s rackets, rorts, and rip-offs in the construction sector; Tanya Plibersek’s gold mine decision shambles; the Green-teals; the Coalition’s plan to deliver cheaper, cleaner and consistent energy; Labor’s energy policy shambles; the Labor Government’s failures on Medicare.

MELISSA MCINTOSH:

Hi, I'm Melissa McIntosh, the Federal Member for Lindsay and also the Shadow Minister for Western Sydney. It's fantastic to have Peter Dutton, the Opposition Leader, here today, along with our Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor. We are in the heart of Western Sydney in the electorate of McMahon, Chris Bowen's electorate, talking to Brickworks, one of Australia's great stories of manufacturing.

Like all manufacturers right now, energy prices are too high and you go out in the streets, we’ve been speaking to the people of McMahon, which we'll get to do today, and we know right across Western Sydney, people are struggling with their electricity costs under Bowen's energy policy – or should we say failed energy policy.

So it's really great to be here in the heartland of Australia; Western Sydney, meeting with manufacturers, hearing the great story of Brickworks and talking to locals.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well thanks, Mel.

Great to be here with Mel and Peter, talking about what's happening in our economy right now, and of course, what we saw yesterday in the national accounts was a disastrous set of numbers, which tell us what we're seeing on the ground, that Australians are really struggling, Australian households are really struggling, and this Government's economic failures are coming home to roost.

The numbers were truly extraordinary. This is the sixth consecutive quarter where GDP per person has gone backwards. That's 18 months of a household recession under this Government. Household disposable incomes, their real disposable incomes – that's their standard of living – has dropped nine per cent since Labor came to power, alongside the drop in real wages for working families across this country. The result of that is it's got harder and harder for Australians to buy a house, and we're seeing that here as we get around the factory here in Western Sydney.

Underscoring the numbers is a complete collapse in the supply side of the economy. We've seen labour productivity drop by six per cent since Labor came to power, and of course, the Reserve Bank knows only too well if you've got supply constraints and you're stimulating demand, the inflation is impossible to get rid of, and that's the exact situation we have.

Our core inflation is above any of our peers around the world, it hasn't come down since January, and the result of that is we're seeing interest rates dropping in other countries around the world – in Canada, in the UK, in Europe, but not here in Australia. So Australian families, they're losing hope, their savings, they've cracked open the piggy bank, they're digging deep into their savings, and they're seeing less and less light at the end of the tunnel.

We need a better way. Back to basics, back on track, and that's what we're here talking about today in Western Sydney.

Peter.

PETER DUTTON:

Well Angus, thank you very much.

Mel, thank you for having us into Western Sydney, and it's great to be here in McMahon, because we know that not just here in McMahon, but in every household across the country at the moment, people are paying more for their mortgages, they're paying more for their electricity, they're paying more for their gas, and the economy, as Gus pointed out, over the course of the last 18 months, I mean people can feel it themselves in their own budgets – if they own a cafe, if they're working in a factory, if they're teaching at a school, people know that they're going backwards in their own finances, and now it's been proven by these figures, which really bell the cat in terms of the bad decisions that the Government's made over the course of three budgets, which is really making it hard and much harder for those families, than it needs to be.

I want to say thank you very much to Mark and the team here at Brickworks for hosting us today, showing us around this amazing factory. It's part of a network here and in the United States, which Australians should be very proud of. The way in which jobs are created here, the foundations of homes are built here. This is a great asset for our country, but we should be mindful of what's happening in factories like this.

We know at the moment that there are bricks stacking up outside, because the homes aren't being built that Australians need. Young Australians know that when they watch their mum and dad struggling to pay their mortgages, that it's becoming harder and harder for them to buy their own homes.

Under this Government, interest rates have gone up on 12 occasions, inflation is still sticky – as Gus points out – because we've just got the wrong economic responses from a Government that doesn't know what they're doing.

This is as bad as it's been since the early 1990s, and for 50 years we haven't seen a situation where we've had six consecutive quarters of negative household growth. That's why families are really hurting, and I think the Prime Minister needs to start understanding that. There are all sorts of issues going on within the Labor Party at the moment; the leaks that we're seeing out of Cabinet shows that they're not a happy Government, and we know that Australians are paying the price for that.

There is a better way, and we want to get our country back on track, we want to make sure that we can bring downward pressure on inflation so that interest rates come down. Interest rates have come down in Canada, they've come down in New Zealand, they've come down in the United Kingdom, and interest rates should already have fallen here. But as the Reserve Bank Governor points out, Labor at a federal and state level, continues to pump money into the economy, and when they do that, that's what keeps interest rates high. Their renewables only policy of energy is also inflationary, and that's what's keeping interest rates higher for longer.

Just on a separate note, I want to acknowledge Bill Shorten's announcement today that he will retire from the Parliament at the next election.

Now, I might disagree with Bill on politics, but I think he's a decent person, and I wanted to wish him and Chloe all the very best for the next phase of their life. I look forward to ribbing him a bit on Friday on the Today Show about what his next steps might be – we thought it was going to be France, I mean Anthony Albanese tried to give him a package to shove him off to France – but instead he's going to stay here in Australia, which I'm sure is great for he and his family.

But he has contributed an enormous amount to this country. During his time with the unions, everybody will remember his efforts around Beaconsfield, and people have seen him as a local Member, a hardworking local Member, and somebody who has contributed to a number of Governments. He was a Leader of the Opposition, a job nobody in their right mind wants, including me. Everyone wants to get out of this job as quickly as they're able to, and he had a disappointing end from his perspective during his time as Leader of the Opposition. But he recovered well, and he showed a level of dignity and respect to our democratic process, that he should be honoured for.

So, I congratulate Bill on his time in Parliament, and we've been able to work with him in relation to the NDIS in recent months, and we look forward to paying tribute to him in the Parliament as well.

I'm happy to take any questions.

QUESTION:

On a different topic, who will the Liberal Party appoint to run the New South Wales division instead of Rob Stokes, because he's not available?

PETER DUTTON:

We'll make that announcement in due course.

QUESTION:

Mr Dutton, what's your reaction to John Setka addressing that rally at a work site in Melbourne?

PETER DUTTON:

I just think if you're at home at the moment and you're struggling to work out how you’re going to pay your bills, you know in part it's because we've got a weak Prime Minister who can't make the decisions that are necessary, that may not make him popular, but that can keep our country safe and strong.

John Setka's worked out as well that Anthony Albanese is a weak leader. The stunning audacity of John Setka, who was part of a criminal organisation in the CFMEU – these are people who hang out with bikies, bikies who are involved in extortion. We know that bikies are the biggest movers of drugs and the biggest distributors of drugs in our country. They trade in misery. They go onto building sites which force up the cost of building. So, when you're building a house or you're buying a unit, you know that that unit is more expensive because Anthony Albanese won't stand up to the unions.

Now, he tried to put a weak piece of legislation through the Parliament to try and rein in the CFMEU. We moved 20 amendments, and we extended from two years, to three years, the period of administration because we wanted the administrator to really root out and put in place fundamental changes, so that those elements, including John Setka, could never serve in those roles again.

The Labor Party needs to deal with the CFMEU internally. There are still many people around John Setka who are members of Anthony Albanese's branches of the Labor Party, they're voting in preselections, they're going to be manning booths on election day, they're doing phone canvassing here in Western Sydney right now. The CFMEU is still well and truly immersed in the Labor Party, and Anthony Albanese hasn't had the strength of leadership to call them out.

Whilst ever the CFMEU and the other unions are in charge of the Labor Party, we're going to have an economy that is not functioning well, inflation won't come down, prices will continue to go up and that's why when we talk about the Labor Party wrecking the economy, you're seeing it in action at the moment. We've watched this movie before and unfortunately for many businesses and many Australians, it doesn't end well.

QUESTION:

Tanya Plibersek says she's happy for the Blayney Gold Mine to go ahead if the company just moves the tailings dam. Is that fair enough?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, I've seen Tanya Plibersek trying to move all over the place on this project, but I'll tell you the one message that's been consistent out of the Albanese Government – to people in Western Australia, to people in Queensland and in this case in New South Wales – that is, if you're in the mining sector, or if you're in the manufacturing sector, you've got no future in this country. Let's be very clear about it.

The difference between the two Parties now when it comes to mining and support of our mining and agriculture and manufacturing industries couldn't be more stark. The Labor Party is making it harder and harder and harder for mining and manufacturing. We know that there's been a three-fold increase in the number of manufacturing businesses who've closed over the last two years under this Government, and this Government hasn't done their work yet, they haven't finished wrecking the economy.

So, I don't believe Australians can afford three more years of Anthony Albanese, and the next election will be about 'who do you trust to get our country back on track? Who do you trust to help your family, not hurt them? Who do you trust to keep our country safe, not less secure?' And that will be a test that the Prime Minister needs to answer at the next election. I don't think he's up to it.

 

QUESTION:

Teal independent Jacqui Scruby has today launched her campaign for the state seat of Pittwater. Does the Federal Liberal Party have any hope of reclaiming teal held seats in the North Beaches in Sydney?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, what we know about the teals is that the majority of them are actually Green-teals. They made themselves out to be disaffected Liberal voters, but they're not. Look, in the case of Monique Ryan, she was in the Labor Party and left the Labor Party because it was too far to the right for her.

We know that the Green-teals vote consistently with the Greens and with the Labor Party in the Parliament. If you're voting for a Green-teal, know that you're voting for Anthony Albanese. Because at the next federal election, as every commentator is now pointing out, the Labor Party can’t form a majority Government, and if the Labor Party is to go into minority, it's a disaster for every Australian because Anthony Albanese will be joined at the hip with Adam Bandt and with the Green-teals, and so the economy will get harder, not easier, for families.

We'll see more manufacturing businesses close, we'll see it harder for mining to compete – and if mining is not competitive in our country, we don't pay for schools, we don't pay for infrastructure, we don't pay for police, we don't pay for the hospitals that we need without the productive mining and manufacturing and agricultural sectors.

QUESTION:

What kind of incentives are you planning to dish out to communities who host nuclear reactors, and how will that investment fund work?

PETER DUTTON:

Look, I think the energy debate is incredibly important because 90 per cent of the 24/7 power goes out of the system by 2034 – so over the next decade. The green hydrogen project that the Prime Minister's trumpeted is not realistic. It's prohibitively expensive. So what will be the baseload 24/7 power?

Well, we've looked at the top 20 economies in the world, and in 19 of those, they are either adopting or have adopted nuclear power. Australia is the only country that hasn't. In those communities, where you've got an end-of-life coal fired power station, on those seven sites that we're talking about, you've also got an existing distribution network – so the poles and wires are already there in those communities – which means you don't need Anthony Albanese's new rollout of 28,000 kilometres of poles and wires. So we can deliver electricity cheaper than he can and we'll work with those communities to get an understanding of what the transformation will look like for them because...

QUESTION:

So, you don't have anything specific yet on the type of incentives?

PETER DUTTON:

If you've got an end-of-use coal fired power station, there are no jobs. Let's be frank, in those communities, there are no jobs. You can create as many coffee shops as you want, but that won't keep the town running, and that's why there's strong support in regional areas, because they know that the jobs translate into new jobs from the coal mining sector, into the nuclear energy sector. It also means that heavy users of electricity and gas are attracted to those regions, so the jobs come and then the economic growth continues. For infrastructure projects and those other discussions, we'll have those with those local communities.

QUESTION:

Okay. So it's still yet to be hashed out, but when those incentives are announced, a cynic would say that, you know, you're just trying to buy support for these communities that could host nuclear. What do you say to that?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, I just think the overwhelming response from the Australian public, where many people, the majority of Australians now support the latest technology in nuclear energy, they do it because they know that when the Prime Minister says that the wind is free and the sun's free, that's rubbish. Look at your power bill to understand whether you've got Anthony Albanese's $275 reduction in power prices. Most households are now paying another thousand dollars and the prices under Labor are going to continue to go up and up and up.

As the energy regulator points out, there's going to be blackouts and brownouts. Now, in a factory like this where the kiln runs 24 hours a day, they're paying about four times the price for gas than what they're paying in their US operation. If the Prime Minister continues to jack that price up, then there is going to be enormous pressure on industry, on jobs and on the economy more generally.

We want a sustainable, balanced energy system. We want renewables, but we know that we have to have 24/7 power. That's why nuclear is being adopted or has been adopted by most of the major economies.

Interestingly, in the International Energy Agency report, they talk about now 50 countries being on the nuclear bandwagon and that it's the only way that you can meet your carbon reduction commitments by 2050.

QUESTION:

You spoke about the power bills. Do you have evidence that nuclear power is actually going to bring down power bills?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, in Ontario for example, people are paying one third the cost for their electricity than what we are paying here in Australia. I was in South Australia yesterday, 45 cents a kilowatt hour. These are the highest power prices in the world. If Anthony Albanese was telling the truth, then they're going to continue to go higher and higher.

I just don't think families can afford Anthony Albanese anymore. It's not just your mortgage, not just your insurance bill, not just your grocery prices that have gone through the roof, it's also your electricity prices.

I'll make this important point; that if you look at your electricity bill at home, or in your small business, and it's gone up by 100 per cent over the last two years, also know that the local IGA store's power bill has gone up the same, the local farmer is paying more, and that's why your groceries are much more expensive when you go to the checkout, because the Albanese Government is wrecking the economy and we can't afford three more years of Anthony Albanese.

QUESTION:

The Climate Change Authority's report says Australia would need to cut emissions by 75 per cent in 2035 to help limit global warming by 1.5 degrees. Would you support this target if you're in government?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, I think it's fascinating that the Prime Minister is now saying that the release of the modelling, which will show how much electricity prices go up by with their 2035 target, is now going to be delayed until after the election.

So, I'd say to the Prime Minister, release the secret report that you've been working on in government to allow the Australian people to understand before they vote, how much more exponential price increases we will see in electricity bills with the 2035 commitment.

We have made a commitment to net zero by 2050, we can do that successfully, but Labor is killing our economy and families are suffering. People can't afford to pay their bills under this Government, and the Prime Minister has a report which he's not going to release to the public because he knows that people will be horrified by how much your power bill is going to go up as a result of the 2035 target. If it was so good, if it was such a good report and it's good news for Australians, why wouldn't the Prime Minister release it before the election so that people could vote on that basis?

QUESTION:

The New South Wales Opposition Leader, Mark Speakman, he said he wasn't given a heads up from the Federal Executive that a complete takeover was going to happen. Does Mark Speakman have your support?

PETER DUTTON:

Mark Speakman does have my support, of course he does. We've worked closely with the New South Wales Division because we want to vote out a bad Government and we want the best possible scenario in terms of all of our resources at an election campaign, and in the run up to it to defeat Anthony Albanese, because he's killing the economy and families can't afford three more years of Labor.

So, we'll make the necessary changes, they're underway already, and I'm very optimistic about what we can transform the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party into. I think thousands of members will join the Party again, I think we will be a campaigning machine, and that's part of the reason that we're here in McMahon today, because when we look at the polling at the moment, people like Chris Bowen are seriously at risk of losing their seats.

I think it's also important to point out, as we saw today, the independent candidate in Tony Burke's seat needs to be held to account. The Prime Minister needs to stand up today and to say that he will not take or receive any preferences from this independent candidate in Tony Burke's seat. Tony Burke needs to stand up and say that he will not accept or give preferences to this independent candidate who has sought to support the glorification of the slaughter of 1,200 people in the October 7 attacks.

If the Prime Minister is serious, if this is an opportunity that he should grasp, it's like no other opportunity before him. This will demonstrate the weakness, or whether the Prime Minister is prepared to stand up for Australians, particularly people of Jewish faith here in Australia. If he doesn't condemn these comments and commit to not accepting and not preferencing this candidate, then this Prime Minister really has lost the plot. I think that is a reasonable question the Prime Minister should answer today.

QUESTION:

Thousands of people are being asked to pay membership fees, some hundreds of dollars to GP clinics to access bulk billed medical care. Do you think this is appropriate?

PETER DUTTON:

Well look, I've seen those reports and I don't understand how that's consistent with the Medicare rules, so Mark Butler needs to explain this.

What we do know is that bulk billing rates have fallen under this Government compared to when I was Health Minister or when we were in government. We put a record amount of money into health. When I was Health Minister, the bulk billing rate was much higher than what it is today. I put more and more money into hospitals every year, we announced in the Budget In Reply that we were going to put $400 million additional funding into general practice, which was supported strongly by the RACGP and also by the AMA.

It's clear that this Government, it doesn't matter whether we're talking about national security, the economy, whether we're talking about health or education, this Government doesn't have any answers for Australians. We've got private health insurance and private hospitals in panic mode at the moment and the Government doesn't have a clue what they're doing.

Every day that goes by, we see that the wheels are falling off the Albanese Government and this is the latest example. If the Government can't provide support to pensioners and others through the bulk billing system, then they've failed yet another fundamental aspect of what they should be providing to the Australian public.

Thank you very much.

[ends]