KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Joining me live in the studio is the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Patrick Gorman. We've heard from the Treasurer on this inflation number. It could have been avoided, couldn't it, where we are right now if governments had listened and cut spending?
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: What I think you also heard from the Treasurer in that press conference he's just held is that the last budget that we delivered had some $60 billion of savings in it. So, we take our responsibility for careful budget management, but we also recognise –
GILBERT: But still the highest spending in 40 years outside covid?
GORMAN: You have got to recognise both that we've – if you think of which Treasurers have delivered surpluses in the last 15 years – there is only two surpluses that have come, both delivered by Jim Chalmers. So, we have carefully managed spending. But also, if you look at this inflationary pressure, which is there and it is higher than we would like – if you look at where it's coming from –
GILBERT: The Treasurer should have gone further, shouldn't he?
GORMAN: I don't agree.
GILBERT: It's still at the highest level as a percentage of GDP, for 40 years.
GORMAN: I don't agree with those who say we need to slash and burn. I don't think that that's going to take our country forward. I don't think it's going to help us deal with the big drivers of this inflation. You can't avoid that this inflation is being driven by a war on the other side of the world. If you go and look at the ABS website and look at the basket of goods. There is a range of different things in there. But the one that stands out is transport. In Western Australia, transport inflation, year on year, 10.4 per cent. 10.4 per cent. And that's happening because of the huge increase in fuel prices and oil prices around the world and that is flowing through the economy. I would like the end of that war. But that's not a decision Australia can make. That's a decision that the United States, Iran –
GILBERT: But there are further cuts coming in the mid-year update. The Treasurer has made that clear. You're the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, why don't you advise him as you are Assistant Minister, to just be very clear that he made a mistake and apologise over the Marrickville Grant. Should he apologise?
GORMAN: The Prime Minister outlined all of this in Question Time yesterday. There was an election commitment for a golf club. There is a range of election commitments. Hundreds of them across the country. And of course, where we've made commitments to local communities we honour and deliver on those commitments –
GILBERT: But it was a mistake. So why not just say 'this was a mistake. I stuffed up. I apologise'?
GORMAN: He outlined all of the circumstances, including the fact that the New South Wales Government had funded the sewage works that the Prime Minister referred to. He tabled – and I've actually got it here, because I thought not everyone goes to the Tabling Office at the Parliament. I have got multiple props today. This is good, New South Wales Government media release, “Putt-ing an end to sewer woes”. And it clearly says final line, “The New South Wales Government funding to connect the clubhouse will pave the way for further upgrades to the golf course precinct funded by the Federal Government.” These two things have always clearly been connected. The New South Wales Government stepped up in September last year. The Prime Minister outlined all of that in Question Time. It's on Hansard. It’s on the public record –
GILBERT: No, I get it. But the initial comments weren't accurate. So, why not just say 'look, I'm sorry. That was inaccurate. I’m correcting the record'?
GORMAN: I don't accept that characterisation. The Prime Minister added additional information in Question Time yesterday. He tabled this document, which I am happy to hand to you and you can put on the News24 Twitter feed –
GILBERT: So, you're saying that provides all the clarity needed as to why $6 million was needed for a public golf course via the council?
GORMAN: It is a golf course that is about 84 years old. So, the same age as Chuck Norris. It hasn't held up as well as Chuck Norris has, but it's an old golf course. It needed some investment. It had been a priority for the local council for a period of time. We are a government that partners with local government.
GILBERT: Do you accept that what the PM said in the initial comments around it, were wrong? Because what he said they were not correct. They were inaccurate.
GORMAN: What I've just given you connects those two things. That the sewerage works, now funded by the New South Wales Government, enables the Commonwealth's commitment to be delivered, and that's in the last line of that media release that is in your hands, right now.
GILBERT: So you're saying there's not an apology needed? That there wasn't a clear cut misleading of the Parliament?
GORMAN: The Prime Minister added additional information yesterday. He was very relaxed about doing so. He tabled relevant documents in the Parliament. I actually don't know when the Prime Minister's – we have spoken about this golf club more than the collective of all other golf clubs in Australia in the Parliament over the last –
GILBERT: What do you say to the suggestions that it should be referred to the NACC, given it was $6 million? And it was uncontested.
GORMAN: Election commitments are made by all political parties, including commitments that are made by Greens and others. We deliver on our election commitments when we have the honour of being elected to Government. And in delivering those election commitments we go through the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Infrastructure and others, to get advice on how to best deliver those election commitments. We have accepted that advice. And that is how we are delivering, not just this election commitment but, you know, for Leederville Oval in my electorate, where we are doing some upgrades to help more women play AFL footy at Leederville. We are doing exactly the same process across the country. As have other governments.
GILBERT: You know the Prime Minister is targeted for not –
GORMAN: Of course, the Prime Minister is being targeted. He is the Prime Minister.
GILBERT: Not being clear cut when things are handled incorrectly, like with the Helen Haines backgrounding that was delivered. He ended up trying to spin it as being a positive assessment of Helen Haines. Is that just obfuscation? Is it being too tricky? Why not just be upfront?
GORMAN: I think, you know, I don't think anyone in the Commonwealth Parliament has answered more questions about an election commitment than the Prime Minister has about this one. We will continue to answer those questions, I'm sure, in Question Time today.
GILBERT: Appreciate Pat Gorman, thanks.