E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUBJECTS: Energy; US Tariff Decision.
KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Let's get to our political panel now. The Assistant Minister for Women, Kate Thwaites, and Liberal MP Member for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie. Kate, the Default Market Offer on power bills up nine per cent as of July 1. Around an election this is not what Labor wants in the midst of a cost of living crisis.
KATE THWAITES, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY, AGEING AND WOMEN: Look, this is obviously difficult for households, but we have been focusing on cost of living and more importantly Kieran, we've been focusing on getting cheaper, more reliable renewables into the grid, and what this report shows us, in fact, is that one of the things that is really driving price increases is older ageing coal power stations. And we know that under Peter Dutton and the Liberals, what we will get more of is older ageing coal power stations as we work towards his $600 billion nuclear plan. So, we understand that this isn't what consumers wanted to hear. We are urging people to check that they're on the cheapest possible offer. What we also know is that a lot of people, in fact 80 per cent of people are currently not on the cheapest possible offer. So people do need to do that work. Check it out. We've made a website to make that easier and we'll continue and have been providing cost of living relief and we want to continue that.
GILBERT: Zoe McKenzie, well that's a pretty good indication there from the Assistant Minister that those rebates will, the energy rebates will likely continue. I think that that's a no brainer now when you look at this latest number, Zoe, would you urge your shadow cabinet to support that, to support that sort of short term relief?
ZOE McKENZIE, LIBERAL MEMBER FOR FLINDERS: Kieran, let's go back to first principles, shall we? Three years ago, Australians were promised that their energy bills would be reset and $275 cheaper every year. And that was a promise made by the Prime Minister 97 times. Now they never got that. They never saw that reduction. Gas is up by about 30 per cent and electricity would be up by about 34 per cent, but for the temporary handout from these guys to get them beyond an election. Now we have this announcement today that will actually see that handout pretty much sucked up out of the blue almost immediately overnight. And by the way, when you want to talk about coal fired power, who's extending the lives of those coal fired powered plants right now? Labor Premiers. They realise we have to have a balanced market and then we have to plan carefully to get baseload onto the system post coal, that's going to take more gas and it's going to take nuclear. And we've done the maths, we've assessed the cost of our plan versus their plan and ours is 44 per cent cheaper. Yes, it is brave and it is bold, but it is exactly the leadership this country needs to get the country back on track.
GILBERT: Kate Thwaites has the Government, I mean, obviously a couple of years, you've been in office two and a half, three years, but various policies over the years, including in your home state of Victoria, have they not been damaging, like the moratorium on gas, for example, as Zoe says there, some say it's a transition fuel, others believe it's going to need to be in place as a peaking capacity for many, many years to come. Did Labor take its eye off the ball certainly at the state level and beyond when it comes to gas?
THWAITES: I'll tell you what's been damaging, Kieran, the almost decade of denial about Australia's energy needs that we got under the federal Liberal National governments, we had a decade of denial and drift. We did not get the investment we needed into the energy grid, into cheaper, more reliable renewable options. And yes, we will not have renewable options alone. But that does not mean that the answer for Australia, all the experts tell us is that a $600 billion nuclear fantasy, which is what the Opposition are putting up, is not the right choice for Australia. It is certainly not the right choice for Australian households. Again, in our short time in Government, compared to that decade under the Liberal Nationals, we have been working on this. We have stepped forward to also provide energy bill relief, which Peter Dutton opposed, will continue to work hard on this to make sure we're getting cheaper, more reliable energy into the grid to do the forward planning that Peter Dutton and his colleagues failed to do when they were in government and certainly aren't ready to do now.
GILBERT: Zoe McKenzie, it goes back to that question about the energy bill relief. I get your sort of broader points and Kate's responded to some of those there. But when it comes to the Budget Reply, it seems a tricky one to try and navigate because I think many households would be welcoming a few extra dollars, as we saw in the recent Newspoll on Tuesday of this week, which said people want and support cost of living relief as opposed to the reduction of debt. They see that urgency right now Zoe.
McKENZIE: Kieran there's no doubt people are desperate, right? I come from a small business electorate. We've lost 27,000 small businesses in this country since the Albanese Government was elected. So, people are desperate and they're looking to where they save. But people have also cottoned onto the fact that this is a tax and spend government and it is precisely that that is fuelling inflation that is keeping interest rates high. Behind every single small business in my electorate, more likely than not you will find a home loan. That home loan is costing between $26,000 and $50,000 more. More like $50,000 given land values in my electorate, for every single small business. So, what people want to see is a responsible government that will get the economy back on track, break the tax and spend cycle we are on and make the Reserve Bank's job a whole lot easier. It's pretty clear if you read between the lines in terms of what the Reserve Bank says, they feel like they are the only people trying to suppress inflation right now. And frankly, I reckon we're going to see a sugar and cake budget in a couple of weeks’ time that'll just try to get them through the hump of the election and then it will all disappear overnight.
GILBERT: The other hump that we're facing at the moment are the tariffs Kate Thwaites. Jacqui Lambie was on the program earlier. She's saying we need to put everything on the table, including Pine Gap, the Marines in the Northern Territory, start putting pressure back on Donald Trump. What do you say to that?
THWAITES: We've been really clear that these tariffs are unjustifiable, they shouldn't be in place. We have made that case to the US and we will continue to make that case to the US. We are standing up for Australians’ interests and it is not in our interest to have these tariffs in place. That's work we'll keep doing on a range of fronts as the Australian people would expect us to do. And I would note that Australia of course is not the only country in the world that is currently being affected by these tariffs. So, we will continue to stand up for Australia's interests to make sure that we put that representation as strongly as possible and continue to do that.
GILBERT: Zoe McKenzie, the Government and the Prime Minister yesterday saying it should be a Team Australia moment. But Peter Dutton is criticising him for dropping the ball. Kate Thwaites is right. No other government, no other country, despite visits to the White House, has got an exemption.
McKENZIE: To my knowledge, no other leader's phone call went unanswered as well. The Prime Minister has had so many opportunities to go and speak with Donald Trump. I remember when he went to APEC. He could have just gone up to Florida and met with President Trump when he was President Trump-elect, like many other leaders did. He could have established a good relationship, a good rapport. He was all cockahooed after his phone call that was in early February, telling us, ‘I think I've solved it, I think I've solved it.’ Well, between him and Kevin Rudd, he has not solved it at all. This has real implications on the ground in Australia. I have 700 employees who work at BlueScope in my electorate. This puts their future in peril as well. So, you'd think that the leadership we have should have at least managed to get a phone call put through. Remember, this is the Government that a couple of weeks ago was throwing mud at Peter Dutton for being a businessman. Well, think about how a businessman is going to go with Donald Trump in terms of the relationship between Australia and the US, versus somebody who's been in the Parliament for 26 years and before that a Labor apparatchik. You think about how the relationship will go going forward. And I back Peter Dutton.
GILBERT: Zoe McKenzie, Kate Thwaites, thank you both. We will catch you soon.