E&OE

 

PETER FEGAN: On the line we have Angus Taylor, one of the Coalition MPs that was caught in the crosshairs of Bowen's gas sprays. Angus Taylor, have you heard from Chris Bowen this morning?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: I haven't heard from Chris Bowen, Pete. Thanks for having me. But Chris doesn't send me birthday cards or Christmas cards. The fact of the matter is electricity prices and gas prices were substantially lower under us than they have been under Labor and that's Chris Bowen's failure. We need more Australian gas working for Australians. It's great to have an export market. It's incredibly important to Queensland and to the rest of the country. It's a good thing. But we need to make sure enough Australian gas is working for Australians. Chris Bowen's never understood that. At the same time, we've got to get more gas out from under the ground. Chris Bowen's never understood that either and that's the reason why today we are going to see electricity prices up to another 10% for Australian east coast households and you know, this is completely disastrous under an Energy Minister who hasn't got a clue. You know, the only person lying here is Chris Bowen because he just never gets it right.

 

PETER FEGAN: Yeah, and he's been called out. But how's this? And I'll ask you a personal question if you don't mind because there is a way around this. Have you got $30,000 spare Angus Taylor at the moment?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, it depends what you're talking about.

 

PETER FEGAN: Okay, well here's the catch, right? If you've got 30 grand, you can get some panels installed on your roof and Chris Bowen will drive a truck around and he'll drop a battery off. What you do is you hook it all up. We don't know how it's going to go just yet, but all we need is the 30 grand up front. It's a pretty good deal, isn't it?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: I mean seriously, the idea that this is the answer for backing up our system as more and more renewables come into the system is just nonsense. We need more gas. You know, batteries can play a role, that's fine, but most people aren't going to be able to afford that kind of cost. You're absolutely right, Pete.

 

PETER FEGAN: I don't know what suburbs they are being means tested in, but I would think that it would be probably Double Bay, some round Bondi, Coogee, maybe some in Hamilton here and Brisbane or some in Ascot. You know… I don't know. But they're not, certainly not being means tested in Western Sydney and out in the suburbs of Brisbane because people can't afford it. I'm telling you that right now.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: No and that's why we have gas. Because gas can be turned on and off quickly and it can back up our system and it's there when we need it and we need more of that in our system. I've been saying that for years, Pete. Labor and Bowen have never bought it. He's now realising the consequences of his complete failures on gas.

 

PETER FEGAN: Okay, well, you're not off the hook just yet because the ACCC warned the domestic market needed to have a review into regulations quite some time ago. This isn't the first time the ACCC has poked its head in. So, the shortage of gas, I'll ask you this now. Did you have your hands in the pot when you were in power? Because you were pumping a lot of this overseas, not a lot to the domestic market because it's good brass for you guys. Who's to blame here?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Look, you're absolutely right that this has been a challenge for a long while and contrary to what Chris Bowen said, when I came into the job as Energy Minister, it was averaging, the gas price was getting up to $20 a gigajoule and in the last year it was down well below 10. So, we managed to get more gas into the system. What we need now, and we've needed this for some time, is to formalise getting enough access to Australian gas. Australian gas working for Australians and Chris Bowen has completely failed on that and that's why we took that policy to the last election and it's why it's just urgent now that it be done. It's not easy…

 

PETER FEGAN: Why didn't you do it when you're in power, though? Why do you only do it in an…

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Because we were getting more gas into the Australian system…

 

PETER FEGAN: But not enough. If there was enough in the Australian market, we wouldn't be an issue now though, would we? If you had enough during your time in power, we'd be all right.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, our time was different from this time and this time is not getting enough gas into the system and that's why we took that policy to the last election. I mean, we did see a substantial reduction in gas prices and we need a substantial reduction now and that's why, you know, it's incredibly important now we see more east coast gas being reserved for Australians. Not in 20 years’ time. It has to be done now and that won't just bring down gas prices, importantly, that'll bring down electricity prices. That's why it's so urgently important. It's why we took the policy to the next election and it's why it's the right answer.

 

PETER FEGAN: Let's move on to defence spending. And I've got to say this, I was interested yesterday and I watched with close interest the commentary around Penny Wong and I think it was Ray Hadley that was talking to the News Corp papers in Sydney that really nailed it and it's that Penny Wong has such a burden on her shoulders at the moment. I'd be quite worried that she could handle everything that's headed her way and it's not entirely her fault. So, hear me out here. Penny Wong has to sit down with Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio is going to sit there and say, first things first. Do you actually support the US aggression on Iran to stop its nuclear program? Penny Wong will sit there and say “Well, it did take us a little longer to do so. Yes.” Then he'll probably ask Penny Wong whether she supports Palestine or Israel. She'll sit on the fence. We all know who she supports, let's be brutally honest. Then she'll ask, is Australia gonna spend 3.5% of GDP? And she'll say, “no, don't tell us what to do”. Then he’ll say, “Do you actually support us or not?”. “I don't know”. And then she'll say, “Hey, can we get an exemption on tariffs?” It's not going to go down well.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: It won't go down well. And they're Penny Wong's views. These are things not being imposed on her. That's her view you just described, Pete and it's a view of the world which is dangerous at a time, which is more dangerous than any time since the Second World War. I mean, we've got these authoritarian regimes, whether it's in Iran, Russia, of course, the buildup of the military in the Chinese from the Chinese Communist Party. That is more dangerous than any time since the Second World War. The Prime Minister himself has said this and yet Labor is absolutely refusing to confront it and deal with it, just independent of pressure applied from the United States. The right thing for us to do now is to increase our defence spending. There is no shortage of areas in defence that are being underfunded right now. We're not properly funding drone and anti-drone programs. We're not properly funding our northern facilities at places like Tindal and Townsville and Darwin. We need to have a domestic sovereign missile manufacturing capability in this country. Labor itself has said this. And the worst part of this is that Labor's own Defence Strategic Review is not properly funded. Their own plan is not being funded as it should be. There's no shortage of experts telling us this right now. So, Penny Wong needs to get over to the United States. Needs to get honest with the Americans, needs to have an honest discussion about this AUKUS review and what Labor is going to do to make sure that it comes out the right way and to make sure that the alliance, which is a support to our sovereignty, not an impingement on our sovereignty and make sure that that alliance has the right footing it needs in this very uncertain time.

 

PETER FEGAN: Well, you've got Kevin Rudd over there, don't forget that.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Yeah, great. That makes us all feel terribly comfortable, doesn't it?

 

PETER FEGAN: It does.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: You know, Labor’s got to get serious about this.

 

PETER FEGAN: Yeah, they do.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Labor's got to get serious about this and this is a time when being serious about the defence of our great nation is more important than it's been since the Second World War and Labor isn't serious about it. Penny Wong doesn't appear to be serious about it. Albanese certainly isn't and that's putting us in a very dangerous situation.

 

PETER FEGAN: Angus Taylor, before I let you go, here's a question I want to ask you. You've been quite vocal lately. I've seen you at press conferences. You're on this program and I'm not saying that Sussan Ley's not coming on this show. But what I'm trying to get at is, the government has dropped the ball in the last six weeks. Probably the biggest shockers I've seen in its turn and I haven't heard boo from Sussan Ley.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, like any leader, she's getting her feet under the table and…

 

PETER FEGAN: But she's been in politics for 20 years. She knows what she's doing. She doesn't need to get her under the table. She knows what she's doing.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: To be fair to her, she gave a Press Club speech only a short while ago. There was a lot of good stuff in that speech, including in the area that I’ve just described…

 

PETER FEGAN: Political nerds watch Press Club, mate. Political nerds like myself watch Press Club. Not the average Aussie. We need Sussan Ley standing in front of the average Aussie, not the national Press Club, not standing in front of the likes of Charles Croucher and Mark Riley, who are political experts. You know, they're a different group. They're completely different. We need ordinary Aussies listening to Sussan Ley.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, you're absolutely right that we need to be getting out there and talking about the failures on this government on its foreign affairs, failure on defence, the failure on defence spending, the failure to support Israel and the United States in these attacks on Iran. You are absolutely right. It took a couple of days for Penny Wong to work out which way was up. I mean, it was obvious. Israel is facing an existential threat, an ongoing existential threat. You don't need legal advice on it. It is very obvious that it is the right thing to do to preemptively act on potential nuclear capability in Iran and the Americans were right to support them on that. And we need to get out there and you're right. Explain that to the Australian people and I'm going to keep doing that every day.

 

PETER FEGAN: Good on you, Angus. We’ll chat very soon.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: Good stuff.

 

ENDS