Subjects: Visit to Swan; Labor’s cost of living, energy and housing crisis hurting families and small businesses; the Prime Minister’s tricky language on flight upgrades seeking to deceive Australians about his cosy relationship with Alan Joyce; the Coalition’s plan to deliver cheaper, cleaner and consistent energy; nuclear energy; the Coalition’s plan to keep supermarkets in check and stand up for Australian consumers.
E&OE.
MIC FELS:
My name’s Mic Fels. I’m the federal candidate for the electorate of Swan. I’d like to welcome you all officially to Swan. Especially, I’d like to welcome the Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley and Senator Slade Brockman, who’s also with us here today.
Swan is a classic bellwether electorate reflecting the broad Australian community with the industrial engine room of Western Australia to the east, the biggest concentration of FIFO workers in the country, a really broad and diverse multicultural community and right through to the leafy suburbs. So when Australia feels the pain, Swan feels the pain and I’m hearing that when I’m knocking on doors.
Everyone in Swan is feeling the squeeze from this inflation crisis, perhaps none more so than small businesses like Pierre’s business here, where costs have gone up dramatically and red tape and compliance is making it impossible for family run businesses to find time to actually do the work.
Seventy per cent of small businesses are earning less than the median wage in Australia and 50 per cent of small businesses are actually losing money and the rate of insolvencies has doubled in the last 12 months. So clearly there’s a problem and it’s time for more action and less talk here in Swan and across Australia. Peter Dutton is the person who will deliver that as the next Prime Minister of this country.
The Peter Dutton-led Coalition policies on clean, affordable energy, enabling infrastructure for housing development and reducing the regulatory burden on businesses, like Pierre’s business here, are all practical and deliverable policies which will help get Australia back on track.
Labor has wasted two and a half years with lots of talk and no action. We’re ready to change gears here in Swan and across the country.
So welcome Peter and Sussan, and thanks so much to Pierre for hosting us on this beautiful spring day here in Swan.
SUSSAN LEY:
Well thank you very much and well said Mic, and thank you Pierre, for showing us through your extraordinary supermarket that, as your customers say, has real soul.
It’s wonderful to visit a small business. It’s wonderful every day to have the privilege of standing in small businesses and as a frequent visitor to the West, I do that frequently, particularly in the suburbs of Perth. But I don’t think this Prime Minister understands what life is like for the owners of small businesses in Australia today, I don’t think this Prime Minister understands what it’s like to risk a dollar of your own money, many dollars in fact, in a business when you’re not sure whether it will succeed, when you’ve mortgaged your house, where you stand on the floor of your small business for 18 hours a day, and then you go home to a whole lot of ridiculous paperwork. I don’t think we have a Government in Canberra that gets Western Australia at all, but we are here.
Our candidate, Mic Fels in Swan is here for the small businesses of this region and Senator Slade Brockman, thank you for the work you do in bringing those concerns to Canberra. We recognise that everything in Western Australia is unique to Western Australia, but we certainly know that Western Australians work bloody hard. They spend long hours away from their family, they travel huge distances, they expect a government that backs them in, and when they look back on Anthony Albanese two and a half years ago saying, ‘I won’t leave anyone behind’. Well, unfortunately too many people in this country and in this state are being left behind.
So Peter, it’s fantastic to have you – another frequent visitor to Western Australia – here to meet some of our amazing candidates like Mic, and to bring the very strong message that we are determined to change this Government and change the country.
PETER DUTTON:
Sussan, thank you very much.
First, to Pierre and to the staff at the IGA this morning, thank you for hosting us and thank you for the conversation. We spoke to some of the customers there as well. But look, it’s obvious to all Australians and I think people in WA as much as in the eastern states, are feeling the impact of this Government’s economic decisions. It’s hard and it’s getting harder under the Albanese Government. Food’s up by almost 12 per cent, gas is up by over 30 per cent, people’s insurance premiums are through the roof and it was in WA where the Prime Minister promised that there would be lower mortgage rates, he promised that there would be a $275 reduction in power bills – instead they’ve gone up by $1,000. So it’s no wonder Australians are asking themselves whether they can afford another term of the Albanese Government.
I want to say thank you very much, Mic, for sticking your hand up for Swan. You’re a great member of the community and obviously very passionate about the local constituents here. It’s great to have you as part of the team. Obviously, Slade Brockman as well, whose WA through and through and works very hard for the local community here.
Sussan and I have been travelling the country talking to small businesses, to families about the cost of living pressures that Labor’s created. They’ve created a housing crisis by bringing a million people in, but only building 350,000 homes. It’s why here, in Western Australia, I announced the $5 billion plan to build 500,000 additional homes with backyards, to provide young people with the opportunity of home ownership – a dream that they’ve lost, or they’ve given up on under this Government.
So there’s a lot of work to do, but I strongly believe that every day that goes by of Albanese Government is a missed opportunity for our country and if we don’t get them out at the next election, then we’ll see what’s happened in Victoria and in Queensland, where the debt continues to go through the roof, people are closing their businesses, people are losing their jobs and we can’t afford another three years of the Albanese Government.
I’m very happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, how would you describe your relationship with Joe Aston?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Joe, I’ve known for a long time, as I’ve known obviously a lot of journalists – not just here in the West, but in the east as well. I caught up with Joe for lunch only a little while ago, a few months ago I think, perhaps in April or so? Six months ago. But I do that with editors, with journalists, on a regular basis.
So I don’t think there’s any surprise about Joe’s connectedness. I don’t think I’ve seen someone more connected into the corporate sector, or into Labor, or the Coalition side of politics. That was his job at Rear Window.
QUESTION:
So the narrative that he’s spurred you on this attack against the Prime Minister’s Qantas upgrades, or that you’ve spurred him on, is that just Labor playing the man instead of defending the issue?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, I think what’s happening here, as you’d see, the Labor Party dumping this story against the Integrity Commissioner, other issues that they’re trying to run this week, it’s all a giant distraction away from the main game here.
The Prime Minister has two questions to answer. One is; did he pick up the phone as Transport Minister of this country and ask the CEO of Qantas for an upgrade of his flights? Now, it took five days to get some sort of a statement out of the Prime Minister. Nothing he said in the five day period was coherent and then issuing the clarifying statement, we find out this morning that the Prime Minister’s clarified the clarifying statement, but there’s still great ambiguity about what he’s saying. That’s the first question he needs to ask, and we still don’t frankly have a clear, or I don’t think, honest answer from the Prime Minister. The cute form of words coming out of the PMO and out of the Prime Minister just don’t add up to a credible response.
The second question, of course, and I think it’s particularly pertinent here in WA, where people know when you go back to Melbourne, or Sydney, or Brisbane, or Tassie, wherever it might be to visit family, or to go there for business, you’re paying through the nose for airfares. Our argument about allowing Qatar into Australia, is that it would put downward pressure on those airfares. Now, Mr Albanese has to answer the question why he went against the Department’s advice, why he went against the inclination of the current Transport Minister in relation to allowing Qatar in. He still has not answered that question. So, all of these red herrings and distractions should be seen for what they are.
But we’ve got a Prime Minister at the moment who can’t tell the truth to the Australian people. Not only is he wrecking the economy, but he’s also trashing his own credibility. This Prime Minister lurches from one disaster to the next and the people paying the price for that are Australians. We’ve had a threefold increase over the last two years of the number of manufacturing businesses that have closed, and that’s all on the Prime Minister’s watch.
QUESTION:
Bridget McKenzie now isn’t sure she’s declared all her own flight upgrades. Does she need to? And doesn’t that show some hypocrisy?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think what it shows is that Bridget has been open and honest and forthright, the complete opposite of what the Prime Minister has been. Bridget McKenzie wasn’t the Prime Minister, or the Transport Minister requesting flight upgrades from the CEO, or a proxy for the CEO, or call, or maybe not call, maybe text. I mean the Prime Minister just continues to dig deeper each day. If he’s just honest on day one, then this issue would have been dealt with. But you’ve got a Prime Minister who’s being dishonest with the Australian people and I think that much is obvious.
QUESTION:
If she has failed to declare those multiple flight upgrades, which would be in breach of the Parliamentary rules. Will you sack her from your frontbench?
PETER DUTTON:
No, no I won’t. She’s gone through a process, she’s issued a statement this morning, which, as I say, deals with it in a transparent and honest way. The complete opposite of the approach that Mr Albanese as Prime Minister has taken.
I think, the Prime Minister, every time he does a press conference, I think there are more questions that need to be answered, than answers provided.
QUESTION:
Isn’t that a contradiction though? When you’re calling for integrity and transparency on behalf of the Government, and yet you’re going to let one of your own senior MPs flout the parliamentary system when it comes to upgrades and flights?
PETER DUTTON:
No, I think Bridget has been open and honest and transparent, and that’s the complete opposite of what the Prime Minister has been. I think that’s the point. I’ve made the point during the week; the issue is not with the upgrades, it’s how they were asked for by the Transport Minister of the CEO of Qantas – that’s the issue. We have a declaration, and as I said earlier in the week, people for different reasons, either human error, or sloppiness, or whatever it might be, don’t provide the update of their pecuniary interest register – that has happened since Federation…
QUESTION:
So if you don’t ask the CEO personally, you don’t have to disclose the upgrade?
PETER DUTTON:
So Bridget’s gone through a process now. She’ll deal with that. But when you’ve got the Transport Minister calling either directly, or through a third party it seems, to the CEO of Qantas, I think that’s quite a different proposition.
QUESTION:
But when you’re demanding total honesty from the Prime Minister, she was dishonest a couple of days ago when she said she’d declared it all. She hasn’t.
PETER DUTTON:
I think I’ve addressed that.
QUESTION:
You explained this morning why you took a flight on Gina Rinehart’s plane for the Bali Bombing Memorial. For clarity, did you ask for that flight, or was it offered to you?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, just for those who weren’t listening to the Ray Hadley Show this morning and you should if you don’t, it’s a great show, but I was asked this question.
I have flown to Roy Hill to see the mining operation there, and I went up and back from Perth on that flight, and I have gone from – as I recall – from Rockhampton to Sydney for the Bali Memorial ceremony – which I couldn’t get a commercial flight to get there in time – and the flight returned back to Mackay, which was a continuation of my programme in Central Queensland.
I wasn’t the Transport Minister asking the CEO of a company for an upgrade. So again, I just think the Government can throw all of this mud and the PMO can background journalists and the rest of it. What’s at stake here is the Prime Minister’s integrity. He has been dishonest, he has been, I think, untruthful and I think the Australian public is starting to see a Prime Minister, as we saw in the Voice to be honest – let’s be frank about it – if you look at any objective analysis of the Prime Minister’s conduct during the Voice, he wasn’t honest with the Australian people. It was always shifty words and that’s how this Prime Minister has become known.
I think the onus is on the Prime Minister to provide at least some sort of sensible coherent statement, that so far we haven’t heard from his own mouth.
QUESTION:
Did you personally arrange those? Or did someone from your staff? And was that contact directly with Gina Rinehart?
PETER DUTTON:
So in relation to the Roy Hill flight, there was a request for us to go to Roy Hill, which we were very happy to do. I was up in the Pilbara yesterday visiting Rio Tinto and went to their mining operation. As I’ve said before, on many visits to WA, a Dutton Government will be the best friend that WA has had, because we will support mining, not because of Rio, not because of Hancock, not because of MinRes, or Fortescue, or whatever else, because it’s good for our state and it’s good for our country and that’s the approach that we’ve taken.
In relation to the flight to the Bali Memorial service, we asked the Government for a RAAF flight, they played games and they didn’t offer that flight, and at that point I think we had a charter estimate, which was about $40,000 to fly from Rockhampton to Sydney and then back to Mackay. I thought that was very expensive and the cheaper option for the taxpayer was for my office to speak to Mrs Rinehart’s office, as to whether the plane might be available. That was at zero cost to the taxpayer. I don’t think you get a clearer statement as that from the Prime Minister, but that’s what happened.
QUESTION:
Do you see that there is an issue there? If you’ve got a private jet on call from a billionaire…
PETER DUTTON:
But I don’t think that’s…
QUESTION:
…that potentially you will be regulating if you do get into government again. Surely you can see the issues there?
PETER DUTTON:
No, I can’t. I’m sorry.
QUESTION:
The latest State of the Climate report has warned Australia has about seven years to really try and tackle emissions. If you win government, how will you take immediate action other than implementing your proposed nuclear plan, which obviously has a longer timeframe?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, as you know, when we were in government we invested very significantly into renewables and we support renewables very strongly. But a state like WA with a big industrial base, with big energy users in smelters, or manufacturing, or heavy industry, it can’t work on intermittent power. There’s 90 per cent of the baseload power that supports the part time wind and solar which comes out of the system by 2034 in our country.
Green hydrogen is not going to be a commercial reality, let’s be very frank about that. We invested into hydrogen, and it’s a good option to continue to look at in different ways, but let’s be realistic: we want the battery technology to be better than what it is, but the latest battery technology can firm up for about four hours and businesses can’t operate in that environment. That’s why businesses are going to Malaysia, or to Wyoming, or Ontario, or wherever it might be, the United States, otherwise, other than Wyoming. It’s because there’s a reliable source of energy in many of those jurisdictions – you’ve got nuclear, so it’s zero emissions technology.
I believe very strongly that there can be a bipartisan position in relation to nuclear because let’s be frank again in relation to this debate, the Prime Minister’s offered no intellectual argument against nuclear power. In France, a Labour Government strongly supportive of nuclear, in the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, the new Prime Minister, putting more nuclear into the system, in Canada, in the United States, Labour equivalent administrations there are doing exactly the same and our Prime Minister needs to start putting our national interest first, instead of his own interests and having a frank and honest debate about nuclear power, because we can firm up renewables, we can bring down the cost of electricity, we can have secure and reliable energy supply, which is what businesses and households need.
The IGA next door, it can’t operate its cold rooms for just eight or 12 hours of the day when the sun is shining and the battery’s lasting. They need to have a 24/7 operation. The Children’s Hospital we visited only a few days ago here in Perth, they’d need 24/7 reliable power. The United States at the moment is a classic example where Google and Apple and Oracle, Microsoft, all of them are having discussions on data storage with nuclear energy providers.
Australia is having none of those discussions and I want our industry to grow, not to contract, and that’s why we’re strong proponents of a zero emissions technology – the same technology that the Prime Minister’s signed up to in the submarines, the same technology that Premier Cook is very happy to have here in Henderson and Premier Malinauskas in South Australia is happy to have at Osborne.
So, I just think our country needs to have a sensible discussion because we need to reduce our emissions, we need to decarbonise, but we can’t send families and businesses broke doing it, and that’s the path that the Albanese Government’s got us on at the moment.
QUESTION:
Outside of the nuclear plant? Immediate action outside of the nuclear plant, considering the State of the Climate Report is saying, we only have seven years?
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, I mean the Labor Party in Victoria and in New South Wales are signing up for an extension of coal fired power station assets – well beyond seven years. In WA here, the Premier here has extended the life of Collie, as you know. So let’s be honest about what’s happening.
I just think the emotion of the debate needs to be replaced with some reality. We need to decarbonise, we need to do it as quickly and reasonably as possible. Part of the reason that the Prime Minister is refusing to release the 2035 costings detail is because his plan is going to jack up the power prices even more for everyday Australians, and make it harder for the IGAs of the world and for others in small business. I think again, we need to have a transparent and honest debate about energy.
QUESTION:
On that Roy Hill flight, you say that you requested it to save taxpayers money…
PETER DUTTON:
No, not on that issue. That’s not what I said.
QUESTION:
You said it saved 40,000 taxpayers’ money.
PETER DUTTON:
No, that was in relation to a trip from Rockhampton to Sydney for the Bali Memorial service, and then from Sydney to Mackay. The Perth to Roy Hill return flight was not requested.
QUESTION:
You did not request that flight?
PETER DUTTON:
No. So that was…
QUESTION:
So it was offered to you?
PETER DUTTON:
It was offered to us and I suspect others, because like most of the companies – I mean Rio’s been asking us to visit their site for a while, Woodside likewise, and no doubt, I mean, many other companies across the country ask us to visit because most of them are deeply concerned about what the Government’s doing to the economy at the moment – so there are reasons for us to engage; and I’m in WA, I’m back to the East Coast, I’ve been up to Karratha and we fly regularly around the country, I mean there’s no surprise there.
QUESTION:
Is there a perception then that you owe Gina one?
PETER DUTTON:
I just don’t think there is. I just think again, it’s a red herring, and I know that the PMO is sort of shopping all of that around, but the Prime Minister just hasn’t been honest with the Australian public and he can’t answer a simple question. Two questions: why did he make the decision to exclude Qatar from coming into Australia, which would have reduced airfares? He still hasn’t answered that question. It was against the advice of the Department, it was against the inclination of the Minister at the time, and it’s resulted in higher airfares for West Australians and for all Australians. He can’t answer that question, and he can’t answer straight the question about whether he’s requested a flight upgrade from Mr Joyce, or a proxy for Mr Joyce.
I think that says a lot about where he’s at the moment, and it comes off the back of a horror period for the Prime Minister. As I say, the difficulty is that Australians are suffering because this Prime Minister spent 16 months on the Voice, which meant they didn’t make the decisions in the budgets to protect us against Labor’s inflation problem, and that’s why Australians have seen 12 increases in interest rates under this Government when the Prime Minister promised here in Perth that interest rates under him would be lower than a Coalition Government, and of course they’re not.
QUESTION:
Would you or your office have – you’d have no qualms in seeking out a flight from Gina Rinehart in the future?
PETER DUTTON:
I think I’ve answered that question.
QUESTION:
Just on cost of living, Coles says that prices are now dropping on lots of items. Given their form, can they be believed?
PETER DUTTON:
Well look, Coles and Woolies are two great Australian companies, but they need to act in the interests – not just of their shareholders – but of their customers as well. If they want to maintain their brand within Australia as being recognisable and trustworthy, then they have to be honest with the consumers. If they have acted outside of the law, then the ACCC, or others will take action.
We’ve taken a decision, as a Coalition, to put in place a cop on the beat for the big supermarkets, because we think they have unfair practices that restrict competition from IGA, Aldi, other independents, etc., and I want a market which operates freely and allows for consumers, particularly at the moment when inflation is high under this Government, to be able to go to the checkout, get the best possible deal, and we need to make sure that that’s the case. That’s what we’ve done, not just with the cop on the beat, but the divestiture power as well, which we’ve announced.
Alright. Thank you very much.
[ends]