TOM CONNELL, HOST: We're standing by to hear from the Prime Minister, which means we'll know what is the real powerful power of Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Patrick Gorman, in delaying him and letting us get out the most important news of the day, which is the Gorman-Falinski panel. Patrick Gorman joining me here in the studio, as well as Jason Falinski, and that wasn't a question, Pat, so you don't have to answer it. But answer me this, the polling is out. It still suggests your boss is just not all that popular. Is it different in Perth? I know west coast just likes to be different to the east, are they mobbing him like it's 2022 all over again?
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Well, Tom, as I think you know, I was on a particularly packed METRONET train yesterday with the Prime Minister, where we opened the new Perth-Bayswater-Morley-Ellenbrook train line. A train line that the Liberals in the State Government had promised in the past, and cancelled. We were riding that train that Labor funded and built. It was a pretty exciting day, and there were more demands for selfies than there was time available. And the people of Western Australia know that Anthony Albanese is a Prime Minister who's delivered for the West, just as he's delivered for the country. I mean, you only need to open up your pay packet every week to know that 13.6 million Australians got a tax cut because of this government, because of a difficult choice that we made. Go to your power bill in the west this month, you'll see $350 off your power bill. Again, a contribution we made to help with cost of living. We're doing our bit, and that's where our focus is.
CONNELL: There you go, the selfie index and don't forget the GST as well. That's the -
GORMAN: Don't forget the GST!
CONNELL: Stitch up for the rest of the country, that me and Jason remain outraged about.
GORMAN: I've disappointed your viewers, Tom -
CONNELL: Yes you have.
GORMAN: I always get to the GST and Peter Dutton's opposition to the GST deal.
CONNELL: Alright, no, no, that's not an invitation!
GORMAN: Peter Dutton's opposition!
CONNELL: The PM's got the flags up. He hasn't listened to you. He's gonna ride right over you, Patrick.
GORMAN: Over to the boss.
CONNELL: Jason, be specific here. Here's a question for you, how many Teal seats, and which ones, do you think the Coalition can pick up given the improved standing since 2022?
JASON FALINSKI, FORMER LIBERAL MP FOR MACKELLAR: And also the selection of much, much better candidates than they had in 2022 as well, Tom. Look, I think the answer is that if people are looking at the facts, they're looking at what they've achieved. They've seen that real wages have decreased. They've seen that emissions have gone up by nearly 7% they've seen their electricity prices go up by 37%. A lot of these electorates are ocean-bound electorates, and all of the Teals support offshore wind, but refuse to explain how that will look off the shores of their electorates. You've got none of them willing to rule out capital gains tax increases and applying the CGT to family homes. It's that sort of stuff that I think if the media finally has a close look at the Teals and stops looking at -
CONNELL: What seats should we be looking at?
FALINSKI: And actually starts calling them to account -
CONNELL: Help us out, which seats?
FALINSKI: To the fact that under them emissions have gone up then we will see that.
CONNELL: Where do I need to be looking?
FALINSKI: Mate, just go and have a look at Patrick's own Government's figures. Emissions since March 2022 have increased by 6.57 per cent.
CONNELL: No no I'm not - okay. Okay, well I was interested in which seats, but alright, let's go to emissions -
GORMAN: Make him put his credibility on the line. Tom, come on, Jason, name a seat.
CONNELL: I went to look at the emissions here - here you go. Anthony Albanese. He didn't listen to Patrick Gorman. He's got Tony Burke, Mark Dreyfus. Let's have a listen in, the Prime Minister holding a news conference live here in Parliament House.
[BREAK IN PANEL COVERAGE FOR PRIME MINISTER'S PRESS CONFERENCE ON SPECIAL OPERATION AVALITE]
CONNELL: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese there. So he stood up there, here in Parliament. They call it the Blue Room, where you generally make major announcements. Operation, or Special Operation Avalite has been announced. This will focus on, what the Prime Minister has described, on increasing antisemitism in Australia. And it will include not just acts, like we've seen this terror act carried out, in terms of the fire bombing on this synagogue in Melbourne, but it could be urgings as well in terms of violence against Jewish people and cover all sorts of elements. So he was alongside, of course, the head of the AFP, the Attorney-General there as well, announcing this. And Mark Dreyfus, obviously, he's the Attorney-General, he's a Jewish man as well. Saying, 'this is a time for unity and it's a time for coming together.' Obviously, there's been some commentary and criticism from the Coalition since this all happened. Has the federal Government done enough, both in terms of actual acts and so on, but also condemning this? The Prime Minister even criticised for talking about, well, 'antisemitism has always been here' last week. True enough, but is that explaining it away? Patrick Gorman was in the studio listening to this, of course, Assistant Minister to the PM. You were with him on Saturday. So, a story has come out - the Prime Minister played tennis in the afternoon at Cottesloe. He said he had six meetings that morning, including at a synagogue. You were with him.
GORMAN: Yeah, I was.
CONNELL: So, there were a few community events, and this is not the sort of thing you take cameras into when you're in the synagogue, in the bar mitzvah.
GORMAN: Not on a Saturday, not on the basis of what the Prime Minister and myself were invited to join that part of the Jewish community in Perth. The Prime Minister had the opportunity to speak to the community, to do as he's done many times, to condemn antisemitism, to commit to further action. And again, the Prime Minister had been saying that. We stood yesterday at Bayswater Train Station where he announced $32.5 million of additional funding to help with Jewish community security. And today we saw the announcement of Special Operation Avalite. This is about doing what is needed, based on the advice of our security agencies. The Prime Minister was very open with the Australian people that he had been meeting with his national security advisers to do what was necessary in the wake of what is now a suspected terror attack. And I know that that terror has been felt by the Jewish community all over Australia. That's what the Prime Minister and I heard when we were at that synagogue in Perth on Saturday. I think it's what we've heard from people across the community. And I think there's broad understanding that as an Australian community, we need to come together. And I really do want to echo the comments from Mark Dreyfus that as a community, we need to come together. That's how we all do our bit to prevent the awful antisemitism that we have seen in our community. It's not acceptable. We all have responsibility to call it out. We take our responsibility as a government seriously to do what we can and to take these further steps, which will see Home Affairs and the Australian Federal Police, working together, making sure that we do have the strongest possible response to keep Australians safe.
CONNELL: Including threats to Jewish Australians, obviously, even parliamentarians. We've seen quite a few.
GORMAN: Yeah, we have.
CONNELL: Attacks, boycotts and so on, in terms of MPs' offices.
GORMAN: It's gone too far.
CONNELL: This was a clear escalation from an already troubling time on Friday, the PM was out Saturday morning. After that, he was out playing tennis at Cottesloe, was that the time to get back, get to the synagogue? I saw one commentator claiming this as his Hawaii moment. Do you think Australians will be comfortable with him having his meetings in the morning, tennis in the afternoon?
GORMAN: As the Prime Minister has just explained, and as many of your viewers would know, we had the opening of a significant public infrastructure project, METRONET, a train line that has been many years in the making. The Prime Minister was there for that. It's got billions of Commonwealth dollars in that project. He was there for that, but as I just said, even standing at Bayswater Station, we were talking about these incredibly important national issues. Because I know that while it's been horrific for the community in Melbourne, it's spread fear across the nation. The Prime Minister said that he will be visiting in the days ahead, as you'd expect. And I really think what Mark Dreyfus said, which is this isn't the time for us to be looking for political division. It is a moment of national unity. We need to come together. The Australian people needs to hear from every political leader.
CONNELL: Appreciate you standing by while that happened, Pat Gorman, thanks for your time. Talk soon.