PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Firstly, I would like to say on behalf of the Perth community a huge thank you to Minister Whitby and Minister Jarvis for this investment in more trees. There's been really great understanding by people across Western Australia about the tough decisions that needs to be made to beat the Borer and we have invested as the Commonwealth Government, $19.9 million to make sure that we do everything we can to have a strong biosecurity response. This latest announcement is very welcome to make sure that the parks that we love, Hyde Park, Kings Park, and indeed our small suburban parks, can continue to be places where people can either go to the wedding gazebo and get married with beautiful photos, bring their kids with good shade, or just make sure that we do, as Minister Whitby said, everything we can to make sure that we act on climate change and one of the great things we can do is to rebuild our Urban Canopy.
I also want to thank - we've got some of the people here from the City of Vincent and DWER who are actually doing the work of beating the Borer. They are out there today, up in the trees, 20 meters high. A huge thank you to all of you, thanks to your team, because it's only by working together that are we going to beat this. That is why we need a federal, state, local government response, and we need a community response. And indeed, there is a very important role for the media in educating people about this horrible, tiny, little bug that we can only beat by working together.
When it comes to Commonwealth matters, obviously the week's just gone, we saw some really important progress. Progress on the National Disability Insurance Scheme to make sure that we keep that sustainable for future generations. We have got progress on superannuation for paid parental leave, making sure that the families here in Perth and across Australia, when they are spending time with their new little Bubs that they are not going backwards in their retirement. We have continued our negotiations to get major reforms to aged care progressed to make sure that everyone can have a dignified retirement, to get the care that they need in the later stages of their life. And we have continued our work on making sure we do transition to a net zero economy. It was great to see the Senate pass the Net Zero Economy Authority Bill on Thursday. I introduced that Bill way back in March, really welcome to see that progress for that orderly transition to the great opportunities that lie ahead. In one week’s time, we'll be welcoming the Commonwealth Cabinet here to Perth for a Cabinet meeting, looking forward to welcoming Prime Minister Albanese and all of my future colleagues here to talk across the entire breadth of the issues that are important to Australians, the issues that are important to Western Australians, and continue the very strong partnership we have with the state government.
JOURNALIST: Just on another matter, an expert panel examining how to best prevent violence against women and children has called for tougher alcohol and gambling laws, is the government open to banning gambling advertising [inaudible]?
GORMAN: I really welcome the report. It is really important that we do have the open conversations we need to do about what we can all do to prevent the disgusting scourge of family domestic violence that is far too common, far too common across Australia and indeed here in Western Australia. That report came about because national cabinet commissioned it, we welcome it. It is obviously worked on very closely by the Office for Women, amongst other experts, and it will be discussed by National Cabinet. When it comes to the questions of gambling reform, we are committed to gambling reform. That's very clear. I note that Minister Michelle Rowland was the one who gave reference to the inquiry that our dear late friend Peta Murphy handed down into the Parliament last year. That had a range of recommendations, 31 recommendations, we are working through those. We recognize that we want reforms that do what other reforms already claim to do, which is to reduce gambling harm. It can break apart families, tear apart lives, it can lead to so much misery and lost opportunity. We are still working through that. So, I'm not in a position to commit to any particular new recommendations, what I will say is we are working on a comprehensive plan. And when it comes to our commitment, we started this whole process and we've already done some of this work. The thing I always point out to people that we introduced BetStop, for people who want to self-exclude or need to exclude from accessing gambling services across Australia, it's multi-jurisdictional, 27,000 people are benefiting from that today, including a number of thousand here in Western Australia. That is lives turned around, we are continuing to work through what else we can do to turn lives around.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible]
GORMAN: Of course, National Cabinet will look at the report and work through it. There is no doubt that alcohol has a really toxic role in a number of family domestic violence cases. But of course, the report is not the only thing we have to work through. We have to work through a whole system response. We will continue on our work, we've got the national plan for the ending of family and domestic violence in a generation. We have to look at it as a comprehensive package.
JOURNALIST: The Chair of the Federal Reserve in the US said overnight that the time has come for the interest rates to be cut. What's the likely flow on effect for Australia?
GORMAN: Well, when the Chair of the Federal Reserve speaks, of course, myself, the Treasurer, a range of people in Treasury listen very closely. We monitor those developments. What we've seen here in Australia is, of course, earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of Australia made the welcome decision not to increase interest rates. What we're seeing at the moment and statements from the Reserve Bank, and what we're seeing in the economy is that we've got a bit of global softening. We have got some extreme market volatility that continues, and here in Australia, the fight against inflation is heading in the right direction, less than half of what it was but we're not all the way there, so we'll continue to do things that we can do. We have turned two Liberal deficits into two Labor surpluses in the last few years. That's pressure off inflation. Every house here, every household received earlier this month electricity bill relief, again, strong partnership from us and the state Government, 700 bucks off your electricity bill. That's downward pressure on inflation, just like we're fighting the Borer here today, we continue to fight inflation.
JOURNALIST: The banks are cutting interest rates, why isn't the RBA?
GORMAN: Banks set their interest rates, and I welcome the announcements today that some banks have recalibrated to see if they can actually get their rates lower. Obviously, we have in Australia a competitive banking sector, that's very welcome, and I encourage every one of my constituents and every Western Australian to shop around for the absolute best deal. Interest rates are causing significant pain for some in our community, I recognize that. Where people can take actions in their own hands while we wait for Reserve Bank decisions, they next meet in September. That's what I encourage people to do.
JOURNALIST: How does the government plan to better involve men and boys in helping combat men's violence?
GORMAN: Coming out of that national action plan that was agreed between all States and Territories last year, we've had a of initiatives, including some education initiatives, we've had some advertising initiatives to encourage 'Stop at the Start' conversations, encouraging parents to talk to their children. I'm the father of a primary school aged boy, I'm actually really encouraged. I've got to say, huge credit to our teachers, what we see in our schools and what I hear my son come home with, talking about consent, talking about respect, all those things. I really welcome it, because we all have a role to play. Government has a role to play. Leaders in our community, such as teachers, have a role to play. We all have got a role to play. In terms of next steps, again, I'll recognize and respect the first Ministers that they have a role to play in terms of making decisions, because there is more work to be done, and we've been very open about that. There's so much more to be done. Too often we are picking up the papers or seeing reports on your outlets at nighttime that just horrifies Australians.
JOURNALIST: The CFMEU is planning protests around the country after being put into administration. Does that bode ill for the administration process? And do you worry union action could blow out construction timelines and increase building costs?
GORMAN: Former CFMEU officials who were terminated yesterday, can do whatever they want. They have no role anymore in the administration of the CFMEU. CFMEU is now in the hands of the administrator. The legislation that the Labor Government brought into Parliament, less than two weeks ago. We initially tried to get an administrator in through Fair Work, through a legal process. That was blocked by CFMEU officials, that didn't stop us, we're taking the strongest action of any government against the inappropriate behavior, corrupt behavior that we've seen in CFMEU. We've appointed an administrator to clean it up. People can protest all they want. It's not going to stop us. We're determined to clean up this union, and that's why we've appointed a tough administrator with the powers to look into the books, the powers to get that union under control, the powers to sack anyone they need to. We will continue to do that work, because it's important that people have faith in our institutions. And there's lots of people who are in unions who do the right thing every day. I know got the Australian Services Union, who represent the people who work for the City of Vincent, the public service union, who represent people DWER, who make sure that we can do things like beat the Borer. We have got workers in our early childhood education who fought for pay rise for some of Australia's lowest paid workers. That's the sort of union work that I want to back not this disgusting corrupt behavior.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned it could blow out construction timelines and increase building costs.
GORMAN: Well, again the people who are doing that protest today are former officials that were sacked yesterday. When it comes to what we're doing, we're trying to make sure that the CFMEU under the administrator is run in a legal, appropriate way, focused on things such as workers’ pay, conditions and safety. That's how we get back to, what I know is the best form of industrial relations, which is that when workers and business come together, with shared interest, shared interest for creating jobs, shared interest in creating economic opportunity, shared interest in getting on with the job, that's the sort of thing I want to see.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible]
GORMAN: I'll leave negotiations for the Master Builders and the Administrator. What we've done is our responsibility, that is to make sure that there's a tough administrator overseeing every single inch of that union, to make sure that it's cleaned up.
JOURNALIST: Do you have a message for the Dockers, given they are the only WA team that might have a small finals chance?
GORMAN: I still hold hope for the Dockers. I joined the Fremantle Dockers back in 1994, I grew up in Fremantle, my primary school was near South Fremantle Oval where we go and watch them train. I held hope then, I hold hope for tomorrow. I hope the ladder falls exactly right so the Dockers can find that incredibly narrow path through to bringing the cup home to Western Australia. I'm an eternal optimist. That's why I'm a member of the Dockers. That's why I have great hope for tomorrow. And to the entire team, I wish them the very best, and I encourage every everyone, whether you're an NRL supporter, but you happen to have found yourself in Western Australia for some reason. I encourage every West Australian to say, Get behind Dockers tomorrow.
JOURNALIST: Just a final question on the NT elections. Has the territory government done enough to combat crime?
GORMAN: Look in just a few hours, we'll see the results of the Northern Territory election. I wish Eva Lawler and her entire team a really good success. I'm a Dockers member, I'm also a Labor Party member. So, you'd expect me to be barracking for the Labor Northern Territory Government to be re-elected. Obviously, they've had, like every government, a range of challenges at the territory level that they've had to deal with. They have responded to those well where we've had partnership, obviously, be a special relationship with the Commonwealth and the territories where we need to assist them. I also know that police services in other states have really welcomed that. When it comes to the election tonight, I think Australia's democracy is the best in the world. We're going to see the people of Northern Territory have the opportunity to have their say about who they want to lead them, but I wish the Northern Territory Labor team all the best.