Transcript – Sky News Weekend Live with Julia Bradley

Angie Bell MP

Shadow Minister for the Environment

Shadow Minister for Youth

Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

Sky News Weekend Live with Julia Bradley

31 May 2025

Subjects: US Tariffs, Shadow Ministry, North West Shelf extension, Net Zero  

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

JULIA BRADLEY:

Now joining me live is Angie Bell. She’s Australia’s new Shadow Minister for the Environment and Youth. Angie, thank you so much for joining me.

ANGIE BELL:

Thanks for having me, Julia.

JULIA BRADLEY:

And Congratulations on the promotion.

ANGIE BELL:

Thank you so very much. It is indeed a great privilege to continue in the portfolio of youth, but also take on the environment portfolio, which is very important to our nation and I’d like to see a balance struck in the portfolio. I look forward to working, of course, with all of the stakeholders across this vast area of environment. So I’m very excited and privileged and humbled at the same time.

JULIA BRADLEY:

Wonderful. There’s a lot going on in news at the moment, politics, in terms of globally and also here in Australia. Just firstly, I want to get your thoughts on this decision by the US to put up tariffs on steel and aluminum.

ANGIE BELL:

Well, there were many things there that the Trade Minister Don Farrell said that, of course, I agreed with. We are concerned about local jobs. But we would also like to see the United States hold up their end of the free trade agreement that we do have with them, as Australia has always done. We do have a good relationship with the United States, and I think it’s important, so very important, that the Prime Minister does build a better relationship with the US President, Donald Trump. And he should be doing that on the sidelines of the G7 which is coming up very shortly. So, I think it’s up to him. We want to see, of course, Australia do well. We want to see the Labor government do well in this area because it is in the national security interests of our nation. And so, we put this to the Prime Minister, that it’s up to him to build that relationship with Donald Trump in order to get a better outcome.

JULIA BRADLEY:

And just getting back to your portfolio, environment, a lot happening this week. We’ve seen the new Environment Minister Murray Watt approve the extension on the life of the North West Shelf gas development in Western Australia, major gas project there. What did you make of this move, and is this a sign that the Labor government’s position on gas could be shifting?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, we welcomed this pragmatic approach to the North West Shelf extension. I do note, however, that the Labor government waited until after the election to make this decision, after the West Australian government spent some six years going through the process and approving it. So, you do have to wonder about the timing of it, but of course, this does mean jobs to our nation, but also this is about securing the firming capability for our electricity grid, and gas is a big part of that. And so it’s very important moving forward into the future, that we have an electricity grid that is reliable and that is also affordable, which, of course, it hasn’t been, because Australians are paying more and more and more under Chris Bowen’s renewables only policy, that is not working. I mean, emissions are up, electricity bills are up. Australians are paying for it, in fact, an extra 10% just in the last year. This is a good decision. The Coalition welcomes it, but really, we need a lot more.

JULIA BRADLEY:

Shadow Cabinet announced this week. We did see some demotions of some high profile figures, including the former Finance Minister, Jane Hume. What did you make of this? And do you expect there to be a big battle when it comes to net zero inside the Coalition when parliament returns in July?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, in terms of the, you know, the women across the new ministry, there’s about 40% of women in the ministry, which is great. We’ve got some new, fresh faces. Certainly in cabinet, myself, obviously, have been promoted now into the Shadow Cabinet. We see Melissa McIntosh, who’s a fresh face as well. She came in to the parliament in 2019 along with myself. But we’ve got also other women in the ministry, new faces, Kerrynne Liddle, and also Zoe McKenzie. And so there are lots of new faces across the ministry, and I look forward to working with all of those. In terms of net zero, Sussan Ley has said that it’s important that we get emissions down, but not at any cost. And I think we should highlight that emissions are up under Labor. Their plan is not working, as I said before, and we need to work through what our energy policies and environmental policies look like to take Australia forward into the future. It is not working under Labor. We know that we’re all paying extra money for our electricity prices, which are just sky high, and so for Labor to say that their renewables policy, renewables only policy, is the cheapest way, I don’t think it is. And Australians know it.

JULIA BRADLEY:

Well, certainly a big fight to come on net zero, and interesting moves around gas to come. You know, will we see an east coast gas reserve announced by the federal government? We’ll wait to see. A big parliament session returns in July. Thank you so much for your time Angie Bell, let’s make it a regular.

ENDS.