TRANSCRIPT – JOINT DOORSTOP

The Hon Peter Dutton MP
Leader of the Opposition
Federal Member for Dickson

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

TRANSCRIPT

JOINT DOOR STOP

29 August 2024

Subjects: Visit to Little Scholars School of Early Learning on the Gold Coast; child care; Labor’s homegrown inflation and cost of living crisis; Labor’s energy policy shambles; nuclear energy; meeting with Brett and Belinda Beasley; the work of the Jack Beasley Foundation; Labor’s Big Australia immigration Policy; the CFMEU and Labor’s rackets, rorts, and rip-offs in the construction sector; the Greens’ radical agenda and what minority government would look like under an Albanese-Bandt-Labor-Greens Government; Tanya Plibersek’s gold mine decision.

E&OE………………………………………………………………………………………

JAE FRASER:

Hi everyone, I’m Jae Fraser, Founder and Managing Director of Little Scholars School of Early Learning. It’s my absolute wonderful pleasure to welcome Peter Dutton here today and our Federal Member for Moncrieff, Angie Bell. It’s really exciting to have them here visiting Little Scholars, meeting our educators, talking to our children and families about the challenges that they’re facing as families in our communities, but also the sorts of challenges that we, as operators, are facing delivering really high-quality education and care to meet the needs of families and our community.

There’s a lot of reviews underway in our sector, there’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of unanswered questions that we’re really keen to get moving forward so we can plan the future to make sure that we can continue to deliver that high-quality education and care.

So, it’s really great to have you both here today to have those conversations, and talk about what the sector, our children and our educators and most importantly, our families need.

So, welcome.

ANGIE BELL:

Thank you, Jae, and great to be here today.

It’s important that we outline the very proud record of the Coalition when it comes to early childhood education and care. Under our Government, we performed the biggest reforms in the sector in 40 years. Under our Government, we had an extra 280,000 children have extra access to early learning and care. And of course, under this Government, what we’ve seen is a $4.7 billion spend and not one extra new place for regional Australians. That’s shameful by this Labor Government.

What we’ve also seen in the last 12 months is that out-of-pocket costs are up by 8.4 per cent, and families are hurting across the nation. The Prime Minister is not paying attention to the cost of living crisis that is going on across our nation right now. We’ve seen that education costs are up by 11 per cent, health costs are up by 11 per cent, groceries are up by 12 per cent, and of course, across Australia, our standard of living has dropped by 10 per cent. So the Government needs to be taking notice of what’s happening around Australia in this cost of living crisis.

It’s good to be here today in Ashmore to welcome, of course, Peter Dutton and Kirilly here as well. It’s great to have you on the Gold Coast at Little Scholars Learning.

I’d like to thank Jae and his wonderful, dedicated early childhood educators and teachers here for the work that they do. Of course, most importantly, I would like to thank them for delivering quality care and learning for the most important people here today, which is our littlest learners.

Thank you.

PETER DUTTON:

Well, Angie, thank you very much.

Firstly, Jae, to you, I just want to say thank you for hosting us today. Jae’s a legend within the childcare industry. He’s a legend because – and you can see it in the product that’s here today –the standard of care provided by these educators, the innovative way in which the playgrounds have been designed and the curriculum put together, and the experience here for children is really world-class. We should speak more about what we’ve been able to build in the early learning sector here in Australia.

As Angie pointed out, in Government, we spent more and more money each year, not just in terms of providing support to families, but improving the product offering. The formative years of our children are incredibly important. As we know, we’ve got literacy and numeracy issues, and the interaction, the reading, the writing skills, the early learning opportunities, the sensory skills – all of that is part of the experience.

Jae, what you’ve been able to do with the wonderful staff that we’ve met today, you can see it on the faces of the young kids that we inadequately tried to garden with and tried to work with. It was a beautiful thing! So, thank you very much for what you do, mate, and for the leadership that you provide.

A couple of points: one is that, as Angie pointed out, Australian families who are dropping off kids at childcare centres around the country, are really feeling it – not just because they’re paying more out of pocket expenses, but also because their mortgages have gone up now on 12 occasions under this Government. People are paying more for their food when they go to Coles or Woolies or to the IGA. People know that when they go to the fruit shop or to the butcher shop, they’re paying more and more for a kilo of produce or a kilo of meat. People are not buying meat or steak or lamb, they’re now buying mince and cheaper products. So, people are trying to skimp and save in every aspect of their budget. That’s the reality of two years of this Government.

We know that interest rates have come down in the United Kingdom, we know that interest rates have come down in Canada, we know that interest rates have come down in New Zealand, and we know that they are scheduled to come down in the United States – but they haven’t come down here yet. So, families who are feeling the pressures at the moment know that comparable families in similar economies like ours, like in Canada or in New Zealand, they’re paying less for their interest rates because their Governments have made decisions which have bought downward pressure on interest rates and inflation. Here, inflation is still sticky and therefore interest rates will remain higher for longer.

Our strong belief is that if the Government had have done the right thing over the course of last three budgets, there would be downward pressure on inflation and therefore interest rates would already be lower. As we know from previous Coalition and Labor Governments, interest rates are always lower under a Coalition Government. That provides support for families, but also for small businesses, because the capital investment here doesn’t come out of thin air. Small businesses, who are paying more for cold room storage, for their produce because of electricity costs that have gone through the roof – that’s the experience that the Prime Minister needs to understand.

I know the Treasurer is off on frolics and making personal attacks and the rest of it, but what he really should be concentrating on is how he can help and not hurt families. We want to do everything we can to get our country back on track. It’s clear to us, and I think clear to millions of Australians that we just can’t afford another three years of this bad Albanese Government. We know that there is a much better way. As Assistant Treasurer under Peter Costello, and having worked on the Expenditure Review Committee for a number of years, you can make good decisions where you can take the pressure off inflation.

You can also have a good energy policy. At the moment, the Government’s renewables only energy policy is driving up the cost of electricity. The Prime Minister promised on 97 occasions that power prices would drop by $275. Instead, now they’ve gone up by $1,000. As we know from the energy regulator’s warnings, there’s going to be disruptions to power supply. That means blackouts and brownouts, because the Government can’t get the mix right. You need 24/7 power because on a fantastic day like today, you get a good energy yield out of solar panels. But when it’s overcast or of a night-time, you get next to nothing, during that cloudy period and you get nothing, of course, of a night-time. So, you need the 24/7 baseload power.

That’s why our energy policy will bring energy prices down, electricity and gas prices down. It will also make sure that we’ve got a transition as we decarbonise in the economy but it also means that we’ll have a consistency of a 24/7 baseload power to firm up the renewables in the system, and that’s felt by families, but also by businesses here who are running air conditioning and kitchens. It’s an expensive part of the business and ultimately that has to be passed on to consumers.

So, that’s why it’s important to get these policies right, and it’s why families are hurting now because the Government hasn’t got the policies right over the last couple of years.

I’m happy to take any questions.

QUESTION:

Mr Dutton, some banks have cut interest rates on term deposits despite no movement from the RBA on the official cash rate. What’s your message to the bank bosses?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, the RBA can only respond to the economic settings and as I say, in economies comparable to ours – in Canada, in the UK, in New Zealand – those Governments haven’t gone out and spent money like this Government has. The Government spent an additional $315 billion in the economy. That means that there’s more money, which is inflationary in the economy. That’s why inflation is sticky here and it’s why the Reserve Bank Governor has warned that federal and state government spending is actually keeping inflation higher for longer. If inflation is higher, interest rates are higher.

There’s no sense in the Government giving you $10 in the left pocket when you’re taking $50 out of the right pocket to pay the bank for your increased mortgage rates each month. So, I think the Reserve Bank can only respond to the economic settings, and, as we know, the Government talks about trying to provide relief, but they’re really just making a bad situation worse at the moment. It always happens because Labor has a spending problem, and that’s why they jack up taxes at the same time.

QUESTION:

Just back to the renewable projects. Are you confident that nuclear will ensure that power stays on as the coal and gas plants retire?

PETER DUTTON:

Yes. Look, a couple of points here: firstly, 90 per cent of that 24/7 baseload power goes out of the system by 2034.

As AEMO’s pointing out, and this is the independent regulator, if we don’t have a replacement of that baseload power, then we will have a shock to the economy. Because, as we know, under this Government over the last two years, there’s been a three-fold increase in the number of manufacturing businesses that have closed. Now, those businesses have just gone to Malaysia or to Wyoming, to Ontario, where people are paying a third the cost of electricity that we are here, because they’ve got 70 per cent nuclear in the system.

Nuclear is a zero emissions technology, you can amortise the capital cost over a 60-to-80 year period, whereas with a wind turbine it’s about 19 years, so you’ve got three or four life cycles for wind turbines compared to the life cycle of a reactor, and we know that 19 of the top 20 economies in the world are using or have signed up to nuclear power for all those reasons. The only one economy that hasn’t signed up to it is Australia.

So, let’s look at what the rest of the world is doing, and why would we be smarter than the 19 top economies of the world? We should look at the international experience, because if we don’t and if you don’t like coal and you don’t like gas and green hydrogen is not a reality, as we now know it’s not, then what is the baseload power? If you don’t like nuclear, what keeps the lights on?

So, these are tough decisions, but they’re the right decisions for our country. If we’re to set our country up for the next generation and beyond, then you need to make the decisions that are in our best interests, and that’s exactly what we’ve done with our nuclear policy.

QUESTION:

You’re also going to be meeting with the Beasley family today. What are you hoping to speak to them about and get out of that?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, the story of the Beasley family is known to I think every Queenslander, certainly, but to every Australian. The taking of any life, but Jack was a young, athletic person with a bright future in front of him – 17 years of age loses his life, and as we know from our television screens every night, as people know who have had their homes broken into or somebody who works a night shift at the service station, when they’ve had a knife shoved in front of their face, that is a daunting experience. I remember as a police officer, one of the most confronting scenes is when somebody produces a knife, and particularly when they’re in close proximity to you, to try and manage that situation is very difficult.

What Jack’s mum and dad have done has been quite amazing in lifting awareness, and Jack’s Law is something that we want to replicate – and we’ve already announced that we want to roll that policy out across the rest of the country – because we believe that we can save young lives. There’s no excuse whatsoever for a 17 year old or a 16 year old to be carrying a hunting knife down the street of Ashmore or anywhere, at any time of the day, let alone at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. We need to give the police more powers to be able to scan, and that’s exactly what we’ve announced that we will do.

So, our meeting today will be an opportunity to talk more about what we can do at a Federal Government level to provide support, and I think we’re best to listen to the victims of crime.

As we know, in the Northern Territory, the Labor Government there has just ignored the victims of crime for years, and Labor’s done it at a federal level as well. I think people ultimately want a safe community for their kids, for their families, and we intend to deliver that when we get into government after the election.

QUESTION:

The energy market operator argues it’s critical that expected energy projects, including renewables and transmission, are delivered on time and in full. Do you have confidence that will happen?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, there’s just no evidence that that is happening. In fact, the evidence is completely the opposite. Something like 80 per cent of projects are behind time. You can’t retire the assets of the old system until the new system is ready, because people when they go home tonight will need to be able to throw a load of washing on, or start a meal, or wash the kids, and you need electricity and gas for that. So, you’ve seen Labor Governments now extend their contracts with coal fired power stations because they know that they don’t have a replacement baseload.

So, I just think some of the emotion is now being replaced by reality. The Government can pretend that they can keep the lights going and that they can keep power prices down, but that’s not the lived experience. I haven’t come across any Australian, as we move around the country every week, who says to me that their power bill has come down under this Government – and the Prime Minister promised that they would by $275 every year. I just don’t think Australians can afford the Albanese Government anymore.

QUESTION:

Just on the Census, Richard Marles and Jim Chalmers have said they won’t be adding a question to the Census on the LGBTQI community because they don’t want divisive debate. Do you think they should be included?

PETER DUTTON:

I think the set of questions that we’ve got at the moment, the long-term way in which we’ve collected this data, has stood us well as a country. If you’ve got the woke agenda, which I think is at odds with the vast majority of Australians, then the Prime Minister should argue that case, but I think we’re pretty happy with the settings that we’ve got in place at the moment.

QUESTION:

Just on university caps, if you were in government, would you be slashing university caps further than what the Government proposed?

PETER DUTTON:

Well, what we said in relation to the migration programme, firstly, is that the Prime Minister’s brought in a million people over the last two years, but only 265,000 homes have been built.

Now, what happens in that circumstance? We see people living rough and on the streets, and we’re certainly seeing more of that right across the country, because people can’t find rental accommodation. So, we need to have a managed migration programme, and the settings on that will depend on the economic situation at the time when we’re elected after the next election and we can make the decisions about the composition of the programme.

We do know, that – at the same time as the Government’s created a housing crisis through the migration programme by bringing in a million people, and only a quarter of a million homes have been built – we’ve also seen the CFMEU running rampant across the building industry. I was talking to some builders earlier in the week, a project that used to take 15 months – a unit development – now takes three years. So, you wonder why you’re paying another couple of hundred thousand dollars for a three bedroom unit? It’s because of the CFMEU.

The Government’s allowed the CFMEU to run riot through the economy. Building firms have gone broke as a result of it, people can’t find an electrician or a plumber or a builder to renovate, and that’s why the cost of everything has gone up. This has fed directly into inflation and that’s why interest rates are staying higher. So, this is what happens under a Labor Government when they let the unions get out of control.

There are some great unions and they provide support to workers across the economy, but the CFMEU is an unlawful effort and as we saw with Max Chandler – whatever his name is – yesterday. I mean, the fact is that the CFMEU donate to the Greens and the Greens are out there advocating for the CFMEU. The virtuous Greens, who want people to believe that they just believe in the economy, they believe in everything but. They’re on this radical agenda about decriminalising drugs, the defunding the police – crime would run rampant. I mean, if you think youth crime is bad now, imagine what would happen under an Albanese-Bandt-Labor-Greens Government. There would be a watering down of all of these laws.

So there’s one more over here, I think?

QUESTION:

Just what you think of a gold mine in New South Wales being halted. Should that decision be overturned?

PETER DUTTON:

The decision should be overturned. I mean, this is madness. There are no jobs in these local communities that can backfill the loss of hundreds or thousands of jobs when Labor takes a decision for political reasons to shut down a mine, to stop a perfectly viable business. I just don’t understand how anybody in Western Australia could look to the current Labor Party and say that they’re anything other than a sovereign risk.

We know that miners now are taking their capital offshore to invest in Africa and Asia, because they just think it’s too risky to invest in Australia, and again, what happens? Like in manufacturing, we lose the jobs, we lose the economic productivity, and we just re-import the product at a higher price. Why would we do that to ourselves? Our economy doesn’t function, we don’t build roads here on the Gold Coast, or we don’t build infrastructure of hospitals, we don’t fund police and our nurses and doctors and our medicines system under the PBS without mining in this country.

When you get Tanya Plibersek closing a mine for votes, you know that this Government’s gone off track. They do visas for votes. They attack the mining industry for votes. This Government is doing an enormous amount of damage to the economy, and I think Australians are starting to see through that. That’s why I think the Prime Minister is being found out as somebody who has divided the country through the Voice, and now with not a clue as to how to keep us safe or how to bring interest rates down and to get the economy back on track.

Just in final, I want to say to Angie Bell, thank you, Ange, for inviting us here today.

Angie has done an enormous amount of work, is highly-respected within the early learning sector, and really has rolled her sleeves up to get a better understanding of what parents need, most importantly what young Australians need in an early learning setting, and she’s interacted with amazing people like Jae.

So, Angie, I want to congratulate you for the work you’ve done in your portfolio, but also here on the Gold Coast as a local Member and a leader, and the work also I might say that you’ve done in providing support to young kids who are a bit older in their teens, who need additional support and may have grown up in very difficult circumstances. It demonstrates the big heart that you’ve got and what you’ve given back to your community is a wonderful thing.

So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.

[ends]