E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: Social media bill; Economy; Budget surplus; Election
JOURNALIST: Minister, do you believe the Coalition looks like it's about to back down on this social media legislation?
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, I am deeply concerned that we've seen Peter Dutton say that he supports the Government's bill to limit social media for children under 16. He said that he would facilitate it through the Parliament, and he backed it. Now we have Liberal Party Senators and National Party Senators who are clearly trying to back away from this really important bill. I would like to remind people that social media is having a very corrosive impact on many young people. Yes, it has some positives, but we know it also has some really significant impacts. This bill is about protecting children. I thought it was supported right across the board. It seems now that the Liberal Party is playing politics with this. It seems like the Liberal Party's negativity has overtaken, quite frankly, what is good, sensible public policy and what Peter Dutton, just a couple of weeks ago, said he believed in.
JOURNALIST: Will the Government allow for amendments if the Coalition tries to move that passports and licenses, driver's licenses, can't be requested for ID?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Of course, we want to work across the board to make sure that there is strong privacy protections in place. But quite frankly, this seems to me like this is all about politics and about negativity. Now I shouldn't have been surprised. This is not the first time that Peter Dutton has said he supports something and then has decided to destroy. The Labor Party is trying to build, while he has become a blocker. So I shouldn't be surprised that he says he 100 per cent supports something, wants to see it delivered, and then decides to block it and play politics with it. This is the type of negativity that we see from Peter Dutton and shows that he is a real risk to the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: There's a big report out from Deloitte today looking at what would be next year's Budget deficit, being forecast to be even larger than what this year's Budget said it would be. Are you still expecting to hand down a Budget next year? Would that make it tough going into an election handing down a big deficit?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Quite frankly, our Government has been working very hard to ensure that we are getting the economic settings right. We have delivered two Budget surpluses, something that the Liberal and National Party constantly said they would do and never actually do. We've been also doing that at the same time as supporting people with important cost of living measures, things like tax cuts for all taxpayers, not just some taxpayers, energy bill relief, Commonwealth Rent Assistance. This is the type of, I think, action that people want to see. We'll keep working, of course, on those Budget settings. But there's only one political party in this country that has a record of delivering surpluses in the recent in recent history, and that's the Labor Party.
JOURNALIST: So are you still preparing for a Budget next year at this stage?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: We are constantly working to support, to prepare and govern. That is something that we just don't abandon. Our Government has focused on doing the right thing for the Australian people, for doing what's in the national interest, and we'll keep doing that.