THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SUNRISE WITH NATALIE BARR
MONDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER 2024
SUBJECTS: COST OF LIVING PRESSURES, AIRLINE COMPETITION.
NATALIE BARR: The majority of voters blame the government for failing to ease the cost of living, according to a new poll, with 51 per cent believing they have the greatest role in halting the pressure on prices, despite Labor trying to shift blame onto the central bank. It comes after former Labor Treasurer Wayne Swan accused the Reserve Bank of punching itself in the face by choosing not to cut interest rates, with the country's economic woes likely to play a big role in the upcoming election.
For their take, let's bring in Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, good morning. These numbers don't look good for the Prime Minister as an election looms. Tanya, people are not happy, Jan. What's Labor going to do about it?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, we're absolutely laser focused on helping people with the cost of living and we inherited inflation with a six in front of it. We've got that down to inflation with a three in front of it. That's not good enough yet. We're still working hard on it. But we want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they're earning. The previous government said low wages were a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture. They deliberately kept wages low. We've backed pay increases and we've given a tax cut to 13.6 million Australians. Every Australian taxpayer, not just those at the upper end, as Barnaby's mob would have done. Cheaper childcare, Commonwealth Rent Assistance, electricity bill relief, fee-free TAFE, HECS bill relief, right across the board, cheaper medicines. We are trying to help people with those day-to-day cost of living pressures. But as for the Reserve Bank, I mean, I think it's just common sense to say that people are really feeling this in their mortgages. It's no surprise that the Treasurer and the former Treasurer would be saying that those mortgage increases are very difficult for Australian families, because they are.
BARR: Does it frustrate you that people aren't buying what you're selling?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, it's a very close political environment. We know that. And we're just going to work every day to make sure people understand that we're about helping out with the cost of living. And I think it'd be an interesting thing to ask Barnaby what his plan is to help people with the cost of living –
BARR: I'm about to.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Because when people look at those side by side. When they look at those side by side, they'll realise that in every area we are working hard to help people out. And we've got an opposition that just months out from an election, doesn't have a plan to help with the cost of living.
BARR: Yeah. Barnaby, there are a lot of questions about whether the government spending is actually helping people or prolonging high inflation and therefore higher interest rates. What would you do?
BARNABY JOYCE: Well, we've got the Labor Party that's employed 575,000 people, predominantly in the public service and the care sector. So, what we're actually doing is putting money out there to the public service. Actually, manufacturing has gone back by 13,000 people. Now, they said they're laser light focused. They're not focused at all. They're focused on peripheral issues, such as intermittent power in the Swindle factories. They're interested on issues peripheral issues, such as what goes in the Census. I mean, these - this is not laser-like focus on people and you could walk down the street, walk into any supermarket, they'll soon tell you that this Labor Party has had time in government –
BARR: Barnaby, the question was, what would you do?
JOYCE: Well, the first thing is we would not - we'd make sure we get - keep our baseload power going because one of the fundamental seed stocks, one of the fundamental seed stocks that keeps inflation down is having affordable energy, affordable power. It goes into every other part, into food manufacturing, into everything else you do. But the Labor Party is more focused on the peripheral, on keeping green inner-urban seats happy –
BARR: Besides power, what else?
JOYCE: Well, it also makes sure that the things funds, such as the building fund, which hasn't got so much, $10 billion fund and hasn't built a house, they have been there for quite a while now.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: But no plan.
JOYCE: They have been quite a while now. We'll be making sure that money is allocated into things that actually drive the economy forward. We look into things such as regional roads, which actually facilitate the growth of the real economy, real wages, not the public service, and make sure they're built. We have other issues, such as, in regional areas, dams. They always mocked us for not building dams as another fundamental underpinner of growth, but they haven't built one. And immigration, they are pouring people in. This is how they think they're going to solve the problem. They just pour people into Australia.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: There's no plan.
JOYCE: Pour people - I'm giving it to you. Pour people into Australia. What do you believe in immigration? Do you think you've done a good job just pouring people in so people can't get a house? Why are you smiling? There are people out there who haven't got a house to live in. It's not funny. It's not funny at all, mate.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Because Barnaby, you've got no plan. And this is the exact point, right?
JOYCE: You are the government and you have been a disaster.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You were told that 24 coal-fired power stations were closing, and you did nothing to prepare for that –
JOYCE: They closed under you. They closed under you.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: 24 coal-fired power stations closing. You did nothing about that.
JOYCE: Tanya, they closed under you.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You were told, and we've got a plan to roll out renewable energy, if you thought that was a problem you could have built nuclear power stations ten years ago. You were in government for ten years.
BARR: I don't think we are getting anywhere. Let's move on to something that people are talking about this morning. Qantas could be threatened with the forced sell-off of its low-cost Jetstar brand under a new push from the Coalition to give the government the power to break up the major players in the aviation sector. National Senator Bridget McKenzie says we need more competition in order to bring down the cost of airfares. Barnaby, do you support this?
JOYCE: I think it's incredibly important that we have affordable air fares. And we've seen whether it's the centralization of the retail market and the sale of groceries, whether it's the centralization of any market where they have excessive market power. And Qantas does have massive market power. And this is not good for people trying to get a service where there's only Qantas servicing it. Now, what Bridget McKenzie is clearly pointing out is that we represent the people who sometimes in places such as Moree, we've found in the past. The airfare to Sydney is more than the airfare onto Los Angeles, and this is just completely and utterly wrong.
BARR: So, should they have to get rid of Jetstar?
JOYCE: I think it's important that if the study clearly says that we don't have the competition, then we've got to do something about it. You've got to remember Qantas destroyed Bonza, and Qantas has destroyed basically Rex by their control of the marketplace. And we can't just sit back and say, “well, that's all right. We'll just have a monopoly in Australia”. No other country would put up with this. United States would not put up with this, so why would we?
BARR: Yes, that sounds like a support for the plan. Tanya, what do you think? It would be similar to the, the push to break up the supermarkets?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, they've only got one idea. Break up the supermarkets, break up the airlines. What we actually have to do with the airlines is make sure that takeoff and landing slots, there's more competition there. The previous government got a report years ago recommending just that. We're implementing it right now.
JOYCE: You're the government, you haven't done it.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We're implementing the report that you ignored. Barnaby, the report was given to you when you were in government, and we are doing it.
JOYCE: Stop staying in the past, you are the government. If you want to be the Opposition again then hang around.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We've got legislation coming into the parliament. We've got legislation coming into the parliament. You never got to do it.
JOYCE: Well, why have you waited for two and a half years?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Why didn't you do it when you got the report?
JOYCE: You are the government, Tanya, can you please understand -
BARR: Okay, you have had a couple of years Tanya I guess, but yes maybe things move slowly in government. We'll have to leave it there. Thank you very much. We'll see you next week.
END
