TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
BRISBANE
MONDAY, 14 APRIL 2025
SUBJECTS: Housing Policy; Tax Policy; Campaign Launch.
ALI FRANCE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR DICKSON: Good afternoon, everyone welcome to Everton Hills here in Dickson. So, so happy to have Tanya Plibersek here with me today to do some door knocking, which I have been doing every single day for months on end. Also so happy that she's here to talk about housing. There's so many people in this electorate that are really struggling to pay for higher rents, but also to save for a deposit on a new home. Yesterday, Labor announced that we will ensure that every first home buyer will be able to buy a home with just a 5% deposit. We also announced that we would build 100,000 homes, quarantined for first time home buyers. And we have a $43 billion Homes for Australians plan, which will deliver 1.2 million social and affordable homes, which is something that we desperately need across Moreton Bay here. That's in stark contrast to Peter Dutton. He has literally no plan for one, new, social and affordable home. None, zero. I'm now going to hand over to Tanya.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Thank you. It's such a pleasure to be here with Ali France, our candidate for Dickson. I've campaigned with Ali before, oh it's starting to rain, I've campaigned with Ali before, and I know that she is tenacious, she is hard working, and she would be an amazing representative for the people of Dickson. I've door knocked with Ali before, and I remember that in each campaign, she has worked her socks off.
Since January the 1st, this campaign has had almost 10,000 conversations right here in Dickson. Today, as Ali said, we're going to be talking about housing policy. Two great new announcements made at our campaign launch yesterday, allowing more Australians into a home of their own with just a 5 per cent deposit. That means they're in their own home much sooner, they're paying off their own mortgage instead of paying off the landlord's mortgage. It means they also saved thousands of dollars on mortgage lenders insurance and of course, our other policy announced yesterday to build 100,000 more homes for first home buyers so they're not they're not competing against investors in the property market.
Now I'm just wondering whether this rain is a problem for anybody else, I'm happy to pause. There's a little bit of cover under there if you want to reposition, but I'm happy to keep going in the rain if you're happy. Okay, yeah, no worries.
Look, it's very important to be here in the seat of Dickson, because this is a very close contest in Dickson. We want to make sure every Australian, including those voters in Dickson, know that it's the Albanese Labor Government that will help take the pressure off their families. We've backed a tax cut for every single Australian taxpayer. We've backed pay increases. We've seen three pay increases so far, adding $7,500 to the minimum wage. And we're backing a further pay increase right now in the Fair Work Commission. We are for cheaper medicines, for free visits to the doctor, for free TAFE, for university debt relief, for electricity bill relief, for cheaper child care. We are about taking the pressure off Australian families.
Peter Dutton is about the exact opposite. Peter Dutton himself says the best indication of future performance is past performance. Well, look at what he did when he was the health minister. $50 billion cut from hospitals, a $7 GP co-payment, which would have been the end of Medicare bulk billing, and $5 added to the cost of medicines, when instead, Labor is bringing down the cost of medicines.
Now he's out there talking about housing affordability, as though housing affordability were never a problem in the 10 years of the LNP government. We know that young Australians have been struggling for years to get into a home of their own, and it's only Labor that has a $43 billion program to make sure we're building more houses, and we're providing them more cheaply. And just think about tradies. We've got a tradie shortage because the Liberals and Nationals cut funding to TAFE, it was the LNP that made the Australian tradie an endangered species. Thanks, any questions?
JOURNALIST: Ms Plibersek there’s been a lot of commentary about supposed frosty reception or an awkward exchange at the Labor campaign launch yesterday, what do you make of all that and speculation that you’re on the outer from the senior government leadership?
PLIBERSEK: Look, it's just such nonsense, isn't it. We're campaigning around Australia to make it clear that what's at stake in this election, the investments that Labor has made to take a bit of pressure off Australian families, and the risk that Peter Dutton poses to all of that. Peter Dutton is part of the team that said, no cuts to health, no cuts to education, and then got into government straight away and cut those things. And the real risk here is Peter Dutton, who has a $600 billion nuclear energy policy that he's now stopped talking about. And the real risk is Peter Dutton, who one minute says he's going to cut 41,000 public service jobs, and the next minute says that's not his policy. It's just voluntary redundancies. They're all over the place.
JOURNALIST: It looked a bit awkward when Albanese greeted you yesterday, did it feel a bit awkward?
PLIBERSEK: Well, I think everybody's had an awkward moment when they're going in like that, but not everybody has a camera crew trailing them. Election campaigns are unpredictable.
JOURNALIST: Do you feel like this morning as well, you tried to brush off a bit with Sunrise about that exchange, do you feel like this still makes it more believable, effectively saying that you’re still friends?
PLIBERSEK: Do you know what? I honestly think Australians are a lot more interested in the fact that Peter Dutton is going to an election promising to increase taxes on every Australian by reversing our tax cuts. I think Australians are much more interested in the fact that when Peter Dutton had the chance, he cut health funding and was voted by doctors as the worst health minister in Australian history. I think this is a distraction.
JOURNALIST: Are you focusing on this seat in particular because of I guess Peter Dutton's role because I feel like there has been a lot of Labor ministers that have come up here in the last few weeks as well. Does that form part of your plan?
PLIBERSEK: I tell you what, Dickson is a very close contest. It's a very close contest indeed, and we've got a truly amazing candidate here who would be such a great representative of the people of Dickson in Canberra. That's why I'm here. I'm here to remind people that it's only Labor that has a plan to reduce pressure on their families, to help Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn, to invest in cheaper medicines, more bulk billing, fee-free TAFE, lower university debts, electricity bill relief, cheaper child care, better aged care. It's only Labor that has a plan to do all of that, and the biggest risk to that is Peter Dutton.
JOURNALIST: Have you seen the Labor campaign media transcript that's been sent out from this morning? It seems to shorten the interaction that happened on Sunrise this morning, is that intentional?
PLIBERSEK: Honestly, I'm out campaigning. I'm not reading transcripts.
JOURNALIST: This electorate from the Labor Party has got a lot more attention than other marginals, a lot of a lot of marginal electorates around the country, because there's been a rollcall of senior leadership from Labor come up to campaign alongside Ms France, is this marginal seat particularly [inaudible] do you want to just see Peter Dutton out [inaudible]?
PLIBERSEK: Well this is a very winnable seat. It's a very tight contest, and I'm campaigning in winnable seats all over Australia, as are all of my colleagues.
That's it? Thank you all.
ENDS
