E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: Inflation; Cost of living; Recession; Social media age minimum.
KARL STEFANOVIC, HOST: Welcome back. The Albanese Government is presiding over the longest household recession since the 1970s, economists have revealed. Joining us to discuss today's headlines is Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth and Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie. Morning, ladies. Nice to see you. Busy week this one, isn't it? Amanda, you’re first up – the worst conditions for families in 50 years. Good luck taking that one to the electorate at the next election.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, let's be clear, Karl. We inherited a pretty big economic mess from the Liberal and National Party when we came to Government, we had inflation with the six in front of it. We inherited a policy from the Liberal Party that was deliberately keeping wages low.
KARL STEFANOVIC: You've had time, though. You've had time, Amanda.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, we have had time. And what we've done with that, I think you can see as we firstly made sure that we have a fight against inflation. Inflation now has a two in front of it. We've also made sure that there is wages growth, something which the Liberal Party continue to fight against. Why shouldn't people have wages growth? And thirdly, we've helped with cost of living while delivering Budget surpluses. So, we've had our tax cuts, we've had energy relief, all opposed by the Coalition. We know households are doing it tough and that's why we've worked every single day. The alternative would have been if Peter Dutton was in the Prime Minister chair, he's opposed every single one of these measures, and we would be in a real recession right now if he had got his way on so many policy issues.
KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay, Bridget, there are extenuating circumstances for some of the things that are being outlined by Amanda, but I'm not sure families are buying those anymore. You might have to fix it. What would you do exactly from day one?
BRIDGET MCKENZIE, SENATOR: Yeah, Karl, I think today you're just seeing what everybody's been feeling for 18 months now. We've had six quarters continuous of GDP per capita, which is your real disposable income that your household has, going south. So, Australians are feeling poorer because they actually are poorer under Albanese. And it is this Government's fault that the economic situation is as it is. It's been warned and warned about government spending. That's why in comparable nations, our numbers are in the toilet, comparatively. That is just so Amanda can try and blame other people.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: That is just not right, Bridget.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE: But the reality is in the OECD, when compared against like nations, our communities, our households have less disposable income than they should because this Government has been fuelling our economy with public spending. And that’s the issue.
KARL STEFANOVIC: The comparison with the OECD countries, Amanda, is that accurate?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: That is just not true, Bridget.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE: It actually is, Amanda.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: What we know it actually is…. [Senator McKenzie interrupts]. Let me just get the point across, Bridget. What we've actually seen is for in many countries, inflation peak higher earlier. What we've been doing is making sure that we bring the fight against inflation down.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE: It’s not working. It’s not working.
KARL STEFANOVIC: Okay, okay.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Bridget, there was a six in front of it under you and a two in front of it now.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE: Karl, can I make a point?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: So, we have been working hard on this, but we know people are doing it tough and we'll continue to work hard.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE: Inflation is higher.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: But if you're saying we shouldn't be spending, what we shouldn't have given people? Tax cuts? We shouldn't be helping with energy bill relief? That would make their lives harder.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE: $450 million on the Voice.
KARL STEFANOVIC: Alright, we're going to close that one off there because there are other things to debate. That is going to be the challenge for you though, Amanda, heading towards the next election, we know that. Moving on. Social media age limits will be debated in the lower house today. Amanda, I think there is really good intent on behalf of the Government here and I think it's well supported intent. But are you rushing it?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: No, not at all. In fact, we believe that there is bipartisan support. Well, I thought there was bipartisan support until we've seen a number of both Liberal and National senators say they are opposed. Just a couple of weeks ago, Peter Dutton said he would facilitate this important piece of legislation and support the Government. And now we see senators defying him, I guess. So, this is a test for Peter Dutton about his leadership. But this is a really important piece of legislation and I'll just recap why this is so important. Parents are coming to us really worried, concerned, upset about this.
KARL STEFANOVIC: I think everyone knows. I think everyone knows. Bridget, just in response to that, why are some of your party against this?
BRIDGET MCKENZIE: So, we are very concerned about digital ID laws, obviously privacy concerns and given the Government had to pull their misinformation, disinformation or their, you know, censoring the Australian public bill from the Senate this week, we want to make sure we get strong, robust laws that don't damage the privacy and make compulsorily Australians having to have digital IDs.
KARL STEFANOVIC: So, is it going to get through this week? You won't support it this week or what? What's going to happen?
BRIDGET MCKENZIE: We do want strong, robust laws to protect kids under 16 on social media platforms. We've been out of the blocks before the Government on this.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: But you’re about to break a promise, Bridget.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE: We need this legislation but it needs to be right. Please stop interrupting me, Amanda. I let you speak. We need to get the legislation right, so it does actually get the outcomes we want. And we need to make sure that those protections exist in the legislation.
KARL STEFANOVIC: I so badly wanted to talk about the Greens, how Albo is giving it to the Greens and you're doing deals with them, Bridget. But we'll have to wait and see what happens with that this week. Thank you, ladies, good luck.