THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SUNRISE WITH NATALIE BARR
MONDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 2025
SUBJECTS: FEDERAL ELECTION, ECONOMY.
NATALIE BARR: Australia is on track for a minority government result at the next election, according to the latest federal polling. Newspoll results overnight show 53 per cent of voters are in the mood for change, believing Labor doesn't deserve to be re-elected. Recent Redbridge data focusing on the most marginal seats also shows a 3 per cent swing towards the Coalition. The figures suggest roughly seven or eight seats will be lost by Labor. But that won't be enough to secure Peter Dutton the extra 19 seats he needs to win government outright. For their take, let's bring in Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning to both of you. Barnaby, seven or eight seats away from Labor doesn't get you into government. I think it's about half the size of the swing that the Coalition needs right now. What are you going to do to win those 19 or 20 that you guys need?
BARNABY JOYCE: Well, the first thing is we won't be affected by hubris, we'll just keep working hard and we'll let the Australian people make their decision. Obviously, minority government, just by its very nature, can be chaotic. We've seen that before and we don't want chaos for our nation. But I think the Labor Party, we need them to continue on what they're doing with their incessant attachment to intermittent power. And I've been banging on about that for so long, but now you're seeing it even in places such as Illawarra. People will make their decision about the cost of living and whether they can afford their groceries and can afford their rent and can mostly importantly afford their power. And the Australian people will make a decision at the ballot box and unfortunately, well, fortunately for us, but if you're the Labor Party, they've just done an atrocious job and then they rub salt into the wounds by telling people that they've fixed it. Of course they haven't.
BARR: Tanya, there's a headline this morning that is saying, mood for change. People - the sentiment is against you guys. How do you turn that around now?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, of course the result is close in that polling, and it shows that every vote counts. And that's why it's so important that we remind people that Peter Dutton has opposed every single cost of living measure that we've tried to introduce. So, we've got higher wages now, around $7,000 higher for people on the minimum wage. We've got tax cuts for every Australian. Again, Peter Dutton opposed that. Cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines, more bulk billing, free TAFE, university debt relief, electricity bill relief. Peter Dutton has opposed all of that. Australian families would be $7,200 worse off if Peter Dutton was the Prime Minister now and he's got no plan to take pressure off families. So, we know that cost of living is top of mind for Australian families. We're working every single day to take pressure off families. All Peter Dutton has done is try and get in the way of us helping those families. If he's got a plan to make life easier for families, what is it? So, far we know it's free lunches for bosses and nuclear power sometime in the 2040s. And he won't even tell us the cost of those policies. He won't tell us what he will have to cut to pay for his nuclear power.
JOYCE: That's just a desperate grasp of the talking points from the Prime Minister's office. And once more, you're just rubbing salt to the wounds of people because you're saying, oh, it's all better, you know, we've fixed it. You haven't fixed it -
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, what is your plan Barnaby Joyce? What is your plan?
JOYCE: You haven't fixed it. It's a debacle. It's a debacle, what you've done.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I'm not saying job done.
JOYCE: Our number one plan, part of our one plan is to remove you, right, well, not you personally, Tanya, but to remove the Labor Party because they are a disaster. We are not going to go down this insane, and this is your plan -
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: What's your plan to take pressure off families?
JOYCE: Your plan is 82 per cent renewables.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, because it's cheaper.
JOYCE: Your plan is more intermittent power. Your plan will push up the price of power further. Your plan, as it pushes up the price of power further -
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: That's not right Barnaby. Nuclear is the most expensive.
JOYCE: Is going to push up the cost of living. Your plan has been inactive in the last three years because you have been the government. You are responsible for the way things are. And if you don't want to be responsible, there's one place for that, the opposition.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: What's your plan? The election is weeks away, what's your plan?
BARR: Okay, we might leave that there. It seems clear that people aren't falling behind the Coalition, but they don't like the government either. So, you know, we're heading towards some kind of minority government at the moment. But that's just what the polls say. We've got a long election campaign ahead, whenever it's called.
Let's move on to this one. Economists are tipping that the RBA will finally cut interest rates to tomorrow. But that hasn't stopped the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, from reportedly asking his colleagues to not speculate ahead of the decision. The Australian newspaper reports that the Treasurer has privately asked MPs to avoid political commentary about the Reserve Bank decision in an effort to manage expectations of rate relief. Tanya, have you been told by Jim Chalmers not to discuss any rate decision?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I haven't been told by Jim Chalmers not to discuss rate decisions, but I'd say this is something that the government, whether it's our government or the previous government, has consistently said, the Reserve Bank is independent. It's independent for a reason. Of course, mortgage holders are hoping for a rate cut, but we need to focus on the things that we're doing as a government to bring down cost of living. Inflation, we inherited inflation with a six in front of it. Inflation now has a two in front of it, that makes it a bit easier for the Reserve Bank to make its decision. But we are absolutely focused on what we can control, which are electricity bill relief, free TAFE, cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines, more bulkbilling -
BARR: You'd like one though or two, wouldn't you, before the election.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we all would, you know, any of us who've got a mortgage would like one, that's for sure.
BARR: Barnaby, no gag on you. What do you think is going to happen tomorrow?
JOYCE: Well, I hope for a rate reduction, of course, we all do. If one of your listeners out there believe their electricity bill's gone down. I mean this, it's just this almost fairyland. This fairyland -
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You voted against it, Barnaby. $75 every quarter it's taken off bills.
JOYCE: Because - it went through the Parliament, Tanya, and it didn't work. Viewers it went through the Parliament, and it didn't work.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: How much will nuclear cost?
JOYCE: It didn't work. So, that's -
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, because you opposed it.
JOYCE: But we're all hoping for a rate reduction. We are all hoping for a rate reduction. But I - and we hope that, we want things to get better, we don't want the world to get worse. But, you know Jim Chalmers saying, let's not talk about the Reserve Bank. But my gosh, that's not what he's done for every other, every other decision that the Reserve Bank's done.
BARR: There were a few comments.
JOYCE: He's been trying to jawbone the Reserve Bank around now, all of a sudden he's had an epiphany. Because they're independent. Congratulations, they are.
BARR: Exactly, and you're right Tanya, and we might talk about that nuclear power is going to be big in this election and we might drill down on those costs, the effectiveness, the time. We will need to talk about that in the coming weeks, but thank you very much for this morning.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, an extra twelve hundred dollars on bills. Yeah.
BARR: We haven't got time today. Look at the time. Heading for the 7 o'clock news. Talk to you later.
END
