TRANSCRIPT – SKY NEWS NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT

Angie Bell MP
Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education
Shadow Minister for Youth
Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

SKY NEWS – NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT

27 January 2025

Subjects: Newspoll, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Labor’s lack of leadership on anti-Semitism, Worker Retention Payment another Labor lie

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………

KIERAN GILBERT:

Welcome back to the program. Let’s go live now to the Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, Angie Bell. Angie, thanks for your time. We’ve played today this new campaign video by the Liberal Party talking about Peter Dutton, a former police officer. He worked part time in a butcher shop when he was a young man as well and lots of images of their him with his family. How important is it for the Coalition, for Mr Dutton himself, to explain to the Australian people who he is, I guess, to humanise him.

ANGIE BELL:

Well, thanks for having me on Kieran. I think certainly Peter Dutton is a very good human, one of the best that I know. I’ve known him for very long time. He is a strong leader. He’s a device, sorry, decisive leader, unlike the Albanese government and Anthony Albanese who is divisive. I think it’s important that Australians reflect on the last three years and really think about what the Prime Minister has done to divide our nation, and are they better off now than they were three years ago. And of course, the answer is no. There’s been a litany of broken promises. We’ve had weak leadership around anti-Semitism. Australians are not feeling better off, and they’re certainly not feeling safer in the community. The Jewish community is living in fear, and it’s all thanks to weak leadership from Anthony Albanese. So it’s important that Australians have a good alternative, and Peter Dutton provides that.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Has the government done the right thing though, do you give them credit, sending a high level delegation to pay their respects on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz?

ANGIE BELL:

Well of course, there should be representatives at the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, our thoughts are with Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and their families. You know Kieran, as a young woman, I went to Dachau Concentration Camp and saw, well the history, was reminded and had the opportunity to reflect on what happened to 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. And our community needs to be aware of that history. It affected me deeply as a young woman, and I think that we need to make sure that Australians remain aware of anti-Semitism and where it can lead. And that’s, of course, what Holocaust Remembrance Day is about. To remind Australians, to remind our children, the next generation, to make sure that it never happens again. And I will just say again, that the weak leadership provided on this by the Labor Albanese government is not acceptable. It should have been stamped out. We’ve had 15 months of this in our community. It’s getting worse. It is a national crisis, and the Coalition and Peter Dutton will provide that strong leadership against anti-Semitism.

KIERAN GILBERT:

What do you say to Mark Dreyfus, the Attorney General, a Jewish Australian himself, he’s argued from the commemorations there on International Holocaust Remembrance Day that it’s grotesque to politicise the issue of anti-Semitism.

ANGIE BELL:

Again, I will point to the weak leadership of the Labor government, including the Attorney General, who has not had a voice on this issue. They have not stood up for Jewish Australians in the community. They have not provided strong leadership around anti-Semitism, which has been allowed to run rife across our nation. We just saw a child care centre a few weeks, last week being set alight in Sydney, and this is all because 15 months ago, the Prime Minister didn’t put his foot down and provide strong leadership on this in our community. So it falls squarely at the feet of Anthony Albanese and his leadership team who have not provided that leadership that we need.

KIERAN GILBERT:

On the area of your responsibility now, in child care and child care workers particularly, I noticed a report late last week that suggested the boost to payments was running behind time. The Department, however, says 51% of eligible child care services have submitted applications for the worker retention payment. Is this an example of where it just takes a while to bed in a new program?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I think Australians should look back to before Christmas, when the Prime Minister, the Education Minister and the Early Childhood Education Minister all stood up and promised that 200,000 workers across the nation would get $100 increase to their pay packet before the end of last year, and another $50 into their pay packet before the end of this year. And the reality of that Kieran, is that 85% of those workers have missed out on that pay rise. They say 50% might have applied, but actually it’s 85% of workers who have missed out. So it’s only 15% of the sector who have received that promise, when Jason Clare stood up and said late last year that it’s pay day for 200,000 workers, and frankly, they’re still waiting for that promise to materialise. So it’s another broken promise in the litany of broken promises from this government.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Angie Bell, I appreciate your time. We’ll talk to you soon. Thanks.

ANGIE BELL:

Thanks Kieran.

[ENDS]