Subjects: Visit to Karratha; Labor’s cost of living and housing crisis hurting families and small businesses; the Coalition’s plan to revive the home ownership dream and boost building across Australia; nuclear energy; quick fire questions – ‘this or that’.
E&OE.
ED THOMAS:
Mr Dutton, welcome to town.
PETER DUTTON:
Pleasure to be here, Ed. Thanks very much for having me on the show.
ED THOMAS:
Mate, I’ve got to know, what are you doing in Karratha? What brings you here?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’m here at the request and the invitation of Melissa Price. So, really just getting an opportunity to see the region, to have a chat to locals. Last night, as you pointed out, we had representatives from community groups and the Salvos and people who are providing mental health services, education and training, people in the housing space, and just getting an understanding of the dynamic on the ground, ways in which our policies might be able to be designed to help people out. So, I’m touring around with Melissa today, having a look at a few different aspects of life here in Karratha.
ED THOMAS:
You obviously met with a broad cross-section of the community last night. Were there any issues that stood out to you? And I guess, the big question is how do we go about fixing these issues as well?
PETER DUTTON:
Well mate, I think the common one across all of the discussion was around housing and just the affordability, the access, the difficulty for businesses to attract workers. One lady who had a daughter in hospital in Perth and on a pretty modest income really, she couldn’t afford to pay for the airfares or it would take a week of her work to pay for a return trip. So, the location issues and the airfares, all of that, I suppose, were common themes that people raised last night.
In particular, housing and access to housing and the cost of construction – all of that really was something that people raised across different sectors and from different walks of life.
ED THOMAS:
Perfect. Well, I’m sure you’ve been listening this morning, Mr Dutton, but I spoke to the Mayor, Dan Scott, who you would have met briefly last night. Now, he asked me what hard hitting questions I was going to ask you this morning, and he said he wanted to ask a hard hitting question of his own. So this is the Mayor, Dan Scott:
[excerpt]
CR DAN SCOTT:
Mr Dutton, as the Mayor, I think Karratha has the opportunity to be the gateway to South East Asia. With the amount of work and the underpinning economy here and the growth that we’re experiencing in the Pilbara, there’s a serious amount of skilled workforce in South East Asia that we could tap into and that would be Australia being good neighbours, to particularly Indonesia. What are your thoughts on this?
[end excerpt]
ED THOMAS:
What are your thoughts Mr Dutton?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ed, I’d say to Dan that I think what he’s suggesting makes perfectly good sense. I think there’s a real discussion for us to have about the opportunities into South East Asia, but as an export nation, what else we can do to ramp up our current level of exports, how we can increase our gross domestic product and the state domestic product here in WA as well. So, I’d be very keen to have a conversation with him and with Melissa Price about where we think the opportunities might be.
I’ve been very clear about the fact that WA provides the economic underpinning of the rest of the country. We don’t build roads and we don’t build schools in Sydney, or Melbourne, or Brisbane without the support of the WA economy. When this economy is going strong, then the rest of the country lifts and I want to make it go gangbusters. I want to make sure that we can condense the timelines that are required around some of the approval process so we can get more projects up and running. If we have greater output, then I think it really lends itself to Dan’s proposition to really open up to South East Asia in a way that we couldn’t have contemplated before.
I think our country needs to think big on these issues and really to plan for it. We don’t have enough planning around housing, which is why we’ve announced our $5 billion 500,000 home policy. It’s to help councils with the infrastructure that they can’t afford and that’ll get people into homes again. A lot of Australians have, a lot of young Australians in particular, have given up the dream of home ownership and that’s just not something that’s acceptable in our country.
ED THOMAS:
No, absolutely not.
Peter Dutton, the Leader of the Opposition, would you mind sticking around with me? We’re going to take a quick break, but we’ll be back on the other side of this on Triple M Karratha.
[Ad break]
ED THOMAS:
On Triple M Karratha, we are joined by the Leader of the Opposition Mr Peter Dutton, on the line.
Now, Mr Dutton, it would be remiss of me not to mention nuclear power. I mean it’s something that you feel strongly about. It made a lot of news earlier this year, and no doubt as we lead towards the next election, it’s going to create a lot of buzz there as well. Is that something that we should be worried about? I mean, what’s the go with nuclear power?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ed, if you look at comparable countries, France is arguing for more nuclear power – they’ve already got a lot of nuclear in their system. Canada, the same, the United Kingdom, the same, United States, the same – and they’re all Labour Governments. So the Labor Government here in Canberra would be the only Labour Government in the world in a comparable economy not arguing for nuclear.
Our transition’s important, we need to decarbonise. We’re trading nation and our trading partners and investors require that. If we’re to do it, we need to have still baseload power in the system because with the big industrial base in our economy, smelters and manufacturing, heavy users of electricity, those companies just close up and they go offshore and we end up re-importing the product. So why would we do that? We lose the jobs, we lose the economic productivity and it’s bad for our economy, certainly very bad for the WA economy.
So, I think we just need to have a sensible discussion about it. The Labor Party under Mr Albanese were initially opposed to the nuclear powered submarines. They agreed to it and I think on that basis, it’s clear that the Prime Minister doesn’t have any concerns about the safety aspects – and they’ve agreed to disposal of the waste.
In fact, when I was in Kalgoorlie not too long ago, the people there were arguing for nuclear in that town, and actually people in the business community last night raised it with me and said that they would welcome a reactor here in the Pilbara.
Now, we’ve identified the seven sites and we’re not going beyond that. But I think what it says is that people who look at it objectively understand that nuclear with zero emissions delivers cheaper electricity and it gives us certainty of supply. If we end up with blackouts and brownouts, businesses will move offshore and we’ll lose those jobs. It’s just not something we want for our future.
ED THOMAS:
Just quickly as well, is it likely to affect the mining industry at all?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, if you have unreliable electricity, which is what the independent regulator’s warning about at the moment – the Federal Government’s got this policy of renewables only and that’s great on a sunny day, it’s great when the wind’s blowing, but the reality is that offshore wind turbines last for 19 years; a nuclear reactor lasts for between 80 and 100 years. It’s zero emissions, it’s a much smaller footprint and 65 per cent of young people between the age of 18 to 34 support nuclear because they look at what’s happening in Europe, and North America, and Asia and they realise that that’s where all the investment is being made. We’re just being left behind.
So I hope that we can have a conversation with the PM, and I think ultimately, the Labor Party will support nuclear power because it’s common sense and it will allow us the ability to compete in the world and to keep our mining sector going because people just can’t keep seeing their power bills go up and up and up. That’s what happens if you’ve got a renewables only policy.
ED THOMAS:
Yeah, you made a strong point last night as well that 19 out of the 20 top countries in the world contribute to nuclear power or have nuclear power contributing to their economy. So, it’s certainly an interesting discussion.
But Peter, that’s all the formal stuff out of the way. But, you know, it’s always tough with politicians because we don’t really know the real you, Mr Dutton. We don’t know the real Mr Peter Dutton and well, I’ve got a number of quick fire ‘this or that’ questions that I thought I’d just run past you. Just so we can get to know you a bit better. Would you humour me in these?
PETER DUTTON:
Mate, I’m sweating a little bit, but fire away!
ED THOMAS:
Perfect. Well, they’re not too difficult.
Football or rugby?
PETER DUTTON:
Rugby.
ED THOMAS:
Wow. League or union?
PETER DUTTON:
Ah, that’s a tough question. Mate, I’m split on that because I follow both codes. But my boys played rugby union and love it. So, in case they’re listening, I’ll go union.
ED THOMAS:
Now, I know that you’re a Brisbane fan, but if you had to choose between West Coast or Freo?
PETER DUTTON:
I’d go West Coast – and I want you to celebrate too that the Lions smashed the Swans by 60 points this year, just saying.
ED THOMAS:
Yeah, well, West Coast fans are not too fond of Sydney supporters after ’05 and ’06, so we’re not too disappointed.
Would you rather be – now, this is a bit of a tough one. Would you rather be the Prime Minister or the Australian cricket captain? Who feels more pressure?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’d rather be the Australian Prime Minister, although I’m a cricket fanatic and I caught up with Pat Cummins the other day, but I say that because I fear that I’d only have one game as Australian captain and I’d be bowled out for a duck, or go for 200 off the first over and I’d be dropped pretty quickly. So, I think I’ll go for the PM.
ED THOMAS:
Home and Away or Neighbours?
PETER DUTTON:
That’s a good question – Home and Away.
ED THOMAS:
INXS or Cold Chisel?
PETER DUTTON:
INXS.
ED THOMAS:
What couldn’t you live without? Coffee or beer?
PETER DUTTON:
Beer.
ED THOMAS:
And finally, Mr Dutton, and I suppose keeping on political news, would you rather fly business class or economy?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’m happy to fly business, or economy, but I just don’t have the CEO on speed dial to be able to call up and upgrade me. So, I’ll take whatever they give me at the gate.
ED THOMAS:
Perfect.
Mr Peter Dutton, the Leader of the Opposition, very appreciative of your time this morning and enjoy your time in Karratha.
PETER DUTTON:
Pleasure Ed. Take care mate. Thank you.
[ends]