Topics: Monthly inflation data, Labor’s cost of living crisis; Medicare announcement, Treasurer’s politicisation of the public service, affordable energy

 

E&OE   

 

PETER FEGAN:

Now we’ve got the fresh inflation figures from the ABS showing core inflation is slightly up. That's bad news for anyone hoping interest rates will ease anytime soon. Meanwhile, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been caught out playing politics with Treasury. And on the world stage, China's warships are making moves in our own matters, in our own waters, I should say. It's raising big questions about our national security, plenty to get into here and joining me in the studio now is the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor. Very good morning to you.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Good to be with you.

PETER FEGAN:

I want to start and catch you off guard if I can. Marty Sheargold's comments, and we were just talking about it, and I know that more broadly, you know, you probably won't weigh in, you know, too politically. But are we living in a world now where we're just desperate to cancel everybody?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah, I mean, I don't endorse those comments.

PETER FEGAN:

No, I don't either, but we're so quick to cancel.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

I love all sport. Women's, men's, it doesn't really matter. Sport's a great thing, but you're absolutely right. I think it's an incredibly difficult time to be a comedian.

PETER FEGAN:

It is, yeah.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

And you're always an inch away from being cancelled and the nature of comedians is they take risks, and sometimes they get them wrong, and he got it wrong this time.

PETER FEGAN:

He did. He did. I think he got it very wrong. I just don't think he should be cancelled forever.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Look, if my kids said to me, Dad, Dad, I want to be a comedian, I'd say, nah, maybe you should be a politician. It's that bad.

PETER FEGAN:

Now, you have a Budget Reply in March, obviously, because we're going to have the Labor Party's, what could be their last budget for some time. Now, this could be the most significant Budget Reply in modern political history, and I say that because if you get it right, you could win the election and that's what I think people will use when they go to the polls. But how do you make promises without raising government spending? It's going to be very difficult.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, because at the end of the day, what is most important right now is strong economic management that beats inflation and boosts growth. That's what we need to see and that's what the Liberal Party has always stood for, making sure that we do contain the growth in spending. We do have to spend on essential services for Australians, but we don't need to add 36,000 Canberra-based public servants, which is exactly what Labor's done. We need to get critical sectors like energy and construction and access to finance for investing in a small business or owning a home. We need to make sure those sectors are working for all Australians, and they're not right now. You know, this is good economic management. It's the key to beating inflation and boosting growth, getting interest rates down. But Labor's got it wrong. They've had the wrong priorities. They've made bad decisions, and the results are clear. We've had dud budget after dud budget under this government, if they want to go to another one, good luck to them, but I suspect we'll just see more of the same.

PETER FEGAN:

Now, Medicare is under major pressure. The Coalition has pledged $9 billion to pay for it. The reality is Australians will lose jobs, because for you to pay for it, some 30,000 jobs will have to be cut from the public sector. Now, I would argue that these people, yes, they're employed under a Labor public service, but they're still Australians, and I would argue that they deserve their jobs. They don't deserve to be sacked. I mean, here you're going to just walk into Canberra and say, okay, you work for this Albanese public service. You're gone. I mean, this could be 30,000 people that aren't working in Australia.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah, can I say, the important point here is this. We've got a private sector right now that's having to tighten its belt, because the Labor government hasn't tightened the government's belt. That's the way economics works. We're seeing what's called crowding out. The public sector, government has got too big, and that's putting pressure on the private sector, on small businesses. The good news right now is we've got a strong job market, and so there's no need to create jobs by making government bigger. That's not what's needed right now. What is needed is for government to manage its means, making sure it's balancing the books in a sensible way, just as every small business and household is having to do right now. So, look, the public service has got a lot bigger under Labor, and we don't need more bureaucracy at a time like this. We need to invest in businesses, not bureaucracy.

PETER FEGAN:

But do you think it's fair 30,000 people lose their jobs to pay for Medicare?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, at the end of the day, we'll put out our costings and the detail on that in the lead-up to the election, but we do think what's not fair right now is we've seen a record level of insolvencies in the private sector, in small businesses going under at a pace we've never seen before. What's not fair is that Australian families are having to tighten their belts like never before under the biggest hit to our standard of living in our history, because the public sector isn't prepared to tighten its belt. So, we've got to do the right thing by the country. There's a lot of very good people in the public service, by the way, a lot of very good people, and many, the vast majority of them will continue to do good work for Australians, and some will choose to leave, as they do now, and get good jobs out in the private sector.

PETER FEGAN:

I think if you put it to ballot, and you said to, if you put it out to Australians and said, hey, if you can afford to go to the doctor, I can afford to go to the doctor, I'm going next week, and I'll just pay for it, right? I don't want it for free because I'm paid enough to go and pay for a doctor, and I think that's what Australians should do. If you can afford it, pay for it. If you put it out to vote, and you said, would you rather pay for a doctor or see a public servant lose their job? Shadow Treasurer, I think the majority of people would say, let's pay for the doctors so people can stay in work. I mean, $9 billion, I don't think we need $9 billion into Medicare. I don't.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah, well look, we have always protected funding into essential services, but what we've not supported is funding into frolics from Labor. I mean, Labor wants to build tens of thousands of kilometres of power lines, crisscrossing our beautiful agricultural land at a time like this. That is a bad use of money. Labor's pursuing these so-called manufacturing policies that's seeing no increase in manufacturing. I mean, they're investing their so-called manufacturing funds into PsiQuantum, a quantum-based business out of the United States. This is the stuff we've been very clear about all the way along and it is important that every dollar of taxpayers' money is earned by a hardworking business person.

PETER FEGAN:

Could you believe the Clean Energy Council put out that yesterday? We had Chris O'Keefe on the program that was trying to sell, Chris and I go a long way back, trying to sell to us that 70% of Australia want clean energy?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

70%! 90% of Australians want more affordable energy bills. That's what they want and that means more energy supply coming from all fuel sources right now and that means we do need to make sure we get more gas coming into the system. We do need to make sure we sweat out our coal-fired generators and make sure that we're not missing, we're not lacking supply in the marketplace in the coming years. I mean, these are the crucial things you've got to do. The idea that it's a renewables-only answer, which is what you hear from the Clean Energy Council, of course they would say that because they make money out of it.

PETER FEGAN:

I just couldn't believe 2,500 respondents. If you put that survey out to 2 million Australians, there would be, I think, the strongest, the strongest respondents would be coal and nuclear. It would be.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah.

PETER FEGAN:

Let's call it for what it is and I'm a fan of coal. I think we should be putting coal before anything, but let's be brutally honest, 2,501 people that were probably from the inner cities, inner left cities of Sydney and places like that. It wouldn't have been out in country Queensland.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Honestly, there's no one who loves a push pole more than that mob.

PETER FEGAN:

Yeah. Hey, let's move on. It's 22 and a half after seven. My guest in the studio this morning is the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor. I wanted to talk to you about this. Now, I cannot believe this. It's been revealed that a Sydney-based religious leader attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, along with other Australians, even posting for selfies besides posters of other terrorists and filming his coffin. I mean, this sort of stuff doesn't pass our character test here. And yet again, we have the Prime Minister shrugging his shoulders, just going, ASIO will deal with it. We need leadership on this.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Absolutely, 100%. I mean, the leadership we need on anti-Semitism in this country, and what happened over a year ago now, of course, October 7, the year before last, it needed leadership from Anthony Albanese and all leaders in Australia, because what happened was completely unacceptable and we do not, as a country, want to see that imported into this country.

PETER FEGAN:

No, I mean, I'd say, no, you're not welcome back here again. Why can't we have, why can't this leader, why can't this Prime Minister be staunch on it and stop saying, ASIO will do this, we'll do this. You're the leader. Stand up and say no.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Yeah, and this is the weakness of Anthony Albanese, I think, has been one of the stunning revelations for Australians over the last couple of years. He is not someone who stands up for what's right. Forget the short-term politics, which is what he's obsessed with. Just stand up for what's right. That's what Australians want right now. We're living in a difficult economic time, and they want strength of leadership. I think we have that with Peter Dutton. We've done a lot of leadership from Opposition over the last two and a half years, and we'll continue to do it, because we're lacking that from Anthony Albanese.

PETER FEGAN:

Before I let you go, are you and Jim Chalmers politicising Treasury? Or is it just Jim Chalmers? I mean, to me, it looks from the outside that there's a lot of politics at play here, I mean, particularly on spending.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, he's the one who chose to use the Treasury Department, his department, as a dirt unit, wasn't us and that, you know, we talk about adding public servants, and when you are adding public servants to use them as a dirt unit, I mean, this is a complete misuse of taxpayers' money. It's completely inappropriate. It is a politicisation of Treasury. Look, he unashamedly said he's got – he is using Treasury to do Opposition costings. That's using it as a dirt unit.

PETER FEGAN:

I don't – and also, just on that dirt unit, I don't begrudge the Prime Minister for buying a four-and-a-half –million dollar investment home, I don’t. It’s a good story the PM’s come from housing commission and he’s made it and he makes good money. And I don’t Peter Dutton for buying shares and I don’t begrudge him for having a property portfolio. I mean, more broadly it doesn’t look good when you’re trying to sell cost of living measures, but you can’t stop people from making money.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

We are the party of aspiration. I come from the party of aspiration. We believe in Australians having a go and getting ahead. That’s what we want to see more of, not less and I think we should celebrate it. Peter has had an extraordinary career. He came from a basic upbringing, a wonderful family of course, who ensured that he had an opportunity, and he got ahead, and I think that’s what we want to see a whole lot more of in this country.

PETER FEGAN:

Very, very quickly Shadow Treasurer, when are we going to see the election, I’m saying April 12.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Look, I’m only guessing because this is one of Anthony Albanese’s decisions, not ours and the thing about him is he’s probably flip flopping in his own mind right now.

PETER FEGAN:

I don’t think anyone knows! Look Shadow Treasurer great to have your company in the studio today and we’ll catch up very soon.

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Good to be with you.

 

ENDS.