Television interview - ABC afternoon briefing
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Transcript
HOST, GREG JENNETT: Okay, time now for today's political panel and we've got a very West Australian focused pairing today. Joining us. Labor MP for Perth, Patrick Gorman is back and Liberal Senator for WA. Linda Reynolds joins us for the first time. Linda, in this capacity on the West Australian panel, as we're calling it. Now, why don't we start with a specific question? Pat, I'll throw this one to you. First of all, around the national accounts and the strength of the economy. Things are going gangbusters in your state of Western Australia. Record mining prices and exports. But the flip side of that is, of course, a more acute cost of living crisis, stronger there than anywhere else. What does it fall to the Federal Government to do to address that?
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Well, firstly, Greg, I should say hello to all of your West Australian viewers, whether they be in the electorate of Perth or anywhere else across Western Australia. And yes we are seeing both a lot of heat in the economy and particularly in Western Australia, but also a lot of hurt. And we're really conscious of that. So, as we look, as we work through our budget to sort of prepare things for the 25th October, we're looking at what we can do to ease cost of living pressures, acknowledging that we do have this trillion dollars of debt left by the former government to deal with. So, we're focusing on things where we know it will help, in particular working families, as we're doing with childcare, people who have higher medical costs, as we announced today. And the Prime Minister announced, in terms of cheaper medicines, the only decrease in the price of pharmaceutical benefits in 75 years. We've got the work that we did on the minimum wage and increasing that. So we're trying to get things going in the right direction. But unfortunately, because of the circumstances, we inherit, and many of these problems were things that Linda and the former government knew before the election our hands are a little tied.
JENNET: On that Linda, what is it that you think the Albanese Government should be doing that they're not doing?
LINDA REYNOLDS, LIBERAL SENATOR: Well Greg, first of all, can I also say hi to all the West Australians out there. It's great to be on a West Australian panel here with you. Look, I think you nailed it in your question is that they are now the Government. And as a Government, you take the circumstances you inherit, as we did from Labor when we first came into Government, and you deal with the circumstances as they arrive, which we did. And as you've just said the Government has inherited a very strong set of national accounts, so the last quarter account to June under our Government was nearly 1 per cent and annualised that's 3.6 per cent. So, they have inherited very strong numbers and that's despite COVID and all of the measures that we put in place. So, they can't keep going back and saying “oh we inherited a particular set of circumstances” because that's Government and Government means you take the circumstances as they come and you have to make decisions. Now Pat was just talking about the cost of living. What I would say is that they are now the Government and they campaigned on reducing the cost of living pressures for Australians. We've had four interest rate rises since they came to government and in fact Pat just mentioned the PBS announcement. Well that's the first cost of living measure that they have actually implemented in over 100 days and guess what? It doesn't even come into play until well into next year so they are doing nothing at the moment to not only ease the pressure of cost of living they're doing things that actively increase the cost of living pressure.
JENNET: Right but that’s the rub isn't it Patrick Gorman if you did more it risks being inflationary at present so I mean is there a middle path here that can be fashioned in the October budget that does deliver meaningful relief without tipping bucket loads of fuel?
GORMAN: Of course we do want to be careful, that's what the Australian public expect of us and we're looking at things where there are benefits for cost of living and benefits for the economy over the medium and long term. One great example is the announcement that came out of the Jobs and Skills Summit which is the commitment for 180,000 fee free TAFE places starting in January next year. So what that will mean is that young people and people who are changing careers can get access to training, helping with the skills challenges that we currently have. So that's a benefit for people in cost of living next year and it's a benefit in terms of the long term skills available for the economy. And they're the sorts of things that we're looking at as we build that budget towards the 25th of October.
JENNET: What about the McGowan Government? Linda Reynolds last time I checked their budget was looking very healthy indeed. Worker shortages, as Pat observes, are particularly tight in your state. Can more be done there to maybe even attract people in through promotion and resettlement?
REYNOLDS: Yeah. Absolutely more needs to be done and yes the McGowan Government has been the beneficiary of increase, particularly in the iron ore price and the demand. But again that's not being translated into services on the ground. We've got the worst health system in the country. We've got ambulance ramping up in numbers that we've never seen before. They promised five years ago to build Metronet and I don't think we've seen a single train run on that yet. So there are so many things that Western Australians need, but again, the money is not being spent where it needs to be.
JENNET: Fuel excise, where do you stand on possible extension of that?
REYNOLDS: Well, again, we did introduce it for six months, which made a tangible difference to inflation. So by 0.25 per cent. So it reduced the inflationary pressures on family budgets. Now, this Government has a decision to make. Do they extend it? If they don't extend it, it will be inflationary by again up to a quarter of a per cent. But that's not a decision for us, Greg, that's a decision for the Government.
JENNET: All right and I think we put this regularly to Labor MPs, frontbench and back, Patrick Gorman, doesn't seem like there's much contemplation of any extension from your side.
GORMAN: We've been really open with people that the cost of extending this is so great and in a really constrained fiscal environment, with all of that debt that the previous cabinet left, which Linda served in, we do have to make some pretty tough decisions. And on this one, I'll say that the decision Linda made when she sat around the cabinet table to only have this for six months was, unfortunately probably the right decision. I know that's tough news for people, but we've tried to be really open and honest with people about that rather than it comes a surprise as it comes off.
JENNET: Well, in some parts of the country, the price has actually fallen significantly in just the last few months. So hopefully, when it does come off, it's fallen even further. Why don't we go to some regional issues now? Solomon Islands yet again, we seem to find ourselves in some level of disputation Pat with Manasseh Sogavare this time around, public election funding. To whom should we apportion blame for this latest flare up?
GORMAN: I don't think we're looking to have blame between one country and another. This is a very standard expression of Australia's democratic values. We've supported democratic elections in Papua New Guinea, in Indonesia, indeed, in the Solomon Islands previously in 2019. I don't want to reflect on the particular comments that have been made, but it's a very common thing for Australia to support democratic elections in our region. We believe that democracy is the best form of government. We are strong advocates. It is a universal Australian value of democracy. So if we can make sure that other countries can fulfil their democratic aspirations, we will do everything we can to help them with those aspirations.
JENNET: These strategic matters, as you'd be well aware, Linda Reynolds flared up domestically in the context of our election campaign. Is your side now trying to provoke that once again, domestically, by taking on, or at least criticising Penny Wong on this issue?
REYNOLDS: Not at all. I think this was a complete own goal by the Foreign Minister and it was entirely predictable. The response that she engendered, because Patrick is quite right, is that as part of our foreign development budget through DFAT and also the Defence regional support programs, we have for many, many elections in the region, in the Solomon Islands, in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere, supported their democracy building and election support programs. I've actually participated in 2014, I was an election observer in the Solomon Islands and I've done it in Papua New Guinea and the Defence Force through Defence Corporation programs. So we do this all the time and it is business as usual, but we do it with respect to the countries that we support. We don't get the megaphone out a week after we have made that offer, before we've even, as it appears, before we've even checked with the head of state that we've made the offer to, that we're going to talk about it publicly. So this was, from our perspective, a complete own goal.
JENNET: So is it your belief that this was hypersensitive and could have been predicted because Manasseh Sogavare saw it as an attempt to push the election out until 2024?
REYNOLDS: Look, I think in the current environment, again, as Defence Minister, I've been to the Solomon Islands and I understand the circumstances there and the strategic pull and push that they have in the Solomon Islands. And if you poke them in the eye through megaphone diplomacy, this is the inevitable result, because if you use it for domestic political purposes, then of course they're going to get upset, and particularly in the environment we find ourselves now with Solomon Islands and China.
JENNET: Well, that's the charge that Linda is making. Pat, your response?
GORMAN: I just can't accept that characterisation. I realise that might be the opposition's political interests to use that, but I'm not going to take a lecture about megaphone diplomacy from the previous Government that only had megaphone diplomacy. I think we saw the Prime Minister today say that Prime Minister Sogavare would be joining him for dinner at The Lodge in October. I'm sure they'll have a very fruitful discussion. I think that proves that that characterisation is just completely incorrect.
JENNET: All right,
REYNOLDS: Greg, can I just, that was dealt with at Question Time in the Senate today and Minister Wong absolutely tap danced around this issue. It was only extended a week ago, as we understand, and we understand that there was no confirmation with the Solomon Islands whether they were happy for us to talk about, because you just don't talk about these things in that way.
JENNET: Well, it does look like way the ball is back in the Solomon's court, so we'll see what response that draws either immediately or perhaps even on that visit that you're foreshadowing there, Patrick Gorman. We’re going to wrap it up and thank both of you. We'll do it again sometime with the West Australian focus. We don't forget the big state.
GORMAN: The ABC loves Western Australia. I’ve always know that.
JENNET: Thank you. Patrick Gorman and Linda Reynolds, thanks so much.
REYNOLDS: Thank you.
GORMAN: Thank you.