Interview with Paul Barry, Triple M Limestone Coast - Tuesday 27th June 2023
Topics: Small business, inflation, energy prices, wages
E&OE
PAUL BARRY: It's Paul for you in this morning and it's great to be here this morning. A couple of very special guests join me live in the studio. We have the Federal Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor joining me this morning.
Good morning Angus.
ANGUS TAYLOR: Good morning Paul. Thanks for having me.
PAUL BARRY: Great to have you here and the Member for Baker, Tony Pasin, joins me as well. Tony, good to have you here as well.
TONY PASIN: Morning Paul.
PAUL BARRY: Good to see you, gentlemen. Welcome to the Limestone Coast, Angus. Great to have you here. And have you had much time to have a look around?
ANGUS TAYLOR: I've had a bit of a look around and I’m just blown away by what a magnificent region you live in here. I come from a town a similar size to Mount Gambier. I’ve got to say, though, wandering around town yesterday, you've just got a magnificent town here. You should all be very proud of it.
PAUL BARRY: Yes, thank you. I mean, we are very proud. And Tony you know the town like the back of your hand.
TONY PASIN: I do and it's great to have Angus in what is my hometown. We've been mates for 10 years. We've been colleagues for all that time and as the Shadow Treasurer, I wanted him to visit Mount Gambier and listen to local businesspeople about the matters that matter to them.
PAUL BARRY: Well, the small business forum last night and you both attended. So, Angus, I'll throw to you firstly. What were some of the concerns last night? How did the forum expand? What can you tell us about that?
ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, I mean, I heard what I expected to hear in one sense, which is just how important small business is to this region. It is the backbone of most regional centres like this, like where I live and that was very, very clear in talking to the local businesses. It was also clear they're facing challenges and we've seen really significant workforce challenges over recent times. They're not abating. They're still there well and truly. But inflationary challenges now are hitting hard. The cost of doing business, cost of energy, really been very, very challenging. And of course, we've seen those cost pressures on the customer side as well. So, there's very few businesses now that aren't seeing some change in customer behaviour. That's starting to bite, and those challenges are real. We need a government that's focused on that. There's no question this has got to be the number one priority, dealing with these inflationary pressures, not just being felt by businesses, but being felt by households, which again in time reflects on what businesses are seeing with their customers. So that was loud and clear. And if I take one very strong message away it's that we need an absolute focus on that in Canberra. Canberra can get lost in its own issues, its own bubble, and it's very clear the real issues out here are very different.
PAUL BARRY: The cost of living, of course, when you're talking about energy prices, it affects all of us, as you said, from the business down to the consumer. So how do you address it from your position as Shadow Treasurer? How then did you offer the public?
ANGUS TAYLOR: Inflation is different because it hurts everybody and no one's immune from it. The cost of everything you buy, cost of everything you're using in your business, all being impacted. And so, government needs to treat it as its absolute top priority. We didn't, sadly, see that in the budget, and the result was we saw an interest rate increase just after the budget and there's expectations of more to come. That's not what we want to see. We need to see a focus in this government’s budget, government has got to manage its spending very carefully at a time like this because they can make the situation worse. Everything it spends money on has to be getting an impact, you know, infrastructure investment has to be good infrastructure investment. We need to make sure small businesses are in a position to get through tough times. And so, government has to be very careful with that. $185 billion of extra spending in this last budget. We didn't need that. That's not what we needed. We also need to make sure there's policy focused on getting people into work so that those workforce shortages and school shortages are being addressed. And again, we’re not seeing enough focus on that. Housing is a big part of the challenge there and we, even in regional areas, we're seeing this housing shortage really biting hard. We need a strong focus on making sure those issues are being addressed so younger Australians can get into a House and so businesses can get access to the workers they need to make sure that they've got the skills they need to meet their customer’s needs.
PAUL BARRY: And look, we try and attract people to the Limestone Coast for workers skills of across the board, all sorts of skills we need to get people here. Housing is one problem. Finding somewhere to live is a problem. Rents are also another problem. And I noticed down the street, you do see a lot of empty spaces for houses. Is rent too high in the main street?
ANGUS TAYLOR: Yeah, I mean, I can't comment on the rent. What I will say though is this, I think in general, getting more houses to support the workers we need to allow businesses to get on and do what they do is a job for every level of government. Federal governments do have a role to play and so do the local and state governments. This needs to be a coordinated effort with infrastructure investment to support it. There's no point in having extra housing if you haven't got the infrastructure to support it and the services to support it. This needs to be a coordinated effort. I heard that loud and clear from businesses yesterday. No doubt about it. And younger people struggling to get into a home, but businesses struggling to find workers who've got a home and that's a big challenge.
PAUL BARRY: Tony, you would have noticed this for some time as well. The pressure on say energy, we particularly feel it during the winter months. But of course, we've got things going on left, right and centre. Prices are going up. How do you address that?
TONY PASIN: What worries me Paul is that we're developing a class of working poor in this country. People who get up every morning, work their guts out, only to be poorer at the end of the week, month, and year. That's because they're suffering from the cost-of-living crunch. The reality is government needs to turn every lever it has at its disposal on to addressing the cost-of-living issues. The first and most important of which is their mortgage. Pouring fuel on the fire economically is not helping Australians who are monthly receiving bad news from Philip Lowe, the Reserve Bank Governor, in terms of the increase in their mortgage. But now this government wants to blame him for that. In truth, they're responsible for that. And in terms of energy, living in SA, in the highest energy cost market in the world and staring down another 30% increase, it's this kind of zealous pursuit of ideology in front of real-world practical solutions. So, they're crowding that. And so, when your listeners are hearing about offshore wind projects being the future for energy generation in this country, that's just code for very expensive electricity. I mean, why you would want to put offshore wind farms at a place is inhospitable or is off the coast of Port MacDonnell is beggars’ belief. You do it if you want to be a climate warrior. You don't do it if you want to be an economic realist. I'm someone who's always been agnostic in terms of the form of electricity. I just want cheap electricity because I want people to pay their bills. I want people to be able to get ahead. I don't want the working poor and I want people to continue to live in the greatest country on earth.
PAUL BARRY: Has the recent pay increase then for the low-income earners been enough? Do we need a bigger one?
TONY PASIN: That's completely false, but I'll throw to Gus. But the reality is real wages are going backwards. I mean, it's one thing to get a wage increase, but if inflation's running harder than it, you're actually going backwards.
ANGUS TAYLOR: It's absolutely right. And this inflation is killing any gains that people are making. I'm sure you've got listeners out there who may have had a recent pay rise but are still feeling worse off. And that's because inflation is raging, and it's why I say the number one, two and three priority of this government should be containing inflation. It's not just the job of the Reserve Bank, it's the job of the government and they've got many levers they can pull to take pressure off inflation. And that means when your wages go up, you actually have more money to spend on things, you're not made worse off by higher prices, but everything is being absorbed in these higher prices and people are paying a price for it. The people who are paying the highest price of all are those hard-working Australians who really want to get ahead, who are having a real crack. Because they're feeling the heat, they've got a mortgage. The interest rates are going up, the price of everything is going up. And of course, any wage increase has been completely lost in those increases of prices.
PAUL BARRY: The forum last night. How was the mood of business owners?
ANGUS TAYLOR: You know, one thing I see about people who own businesses in regional areas is they're unbelievably resilient and optimistic despite running into a headwind most of the time. You see that here as I see it everywhere, and that's a wonderful thing to see because the people who create jobs and create opportunities in regions like this are the small businesspeople who are having a crack. So, good on them and we need more of it. But I think it's very clear that they're seeing these headwinds and they want to have a government that's got their back and that it's helping them when dealing with those pressures and right now, sadly, I'm not sure we're seeing it.
PAUL BARRY: OK. Well, look, it's great to have you here. We could talk for a long time and there's a lot of things we could ask you. So, we'll have to make say, a rain check on that though Angus and Tony, but any final words for our listeners this morning?
ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, thank you for having me in Mount Gambier, it's been wonderful to be here.
TONY PASIN: Pleasure. And from my perspective, thanks to Angus for coming. I mean, your listeners can't see, but he broke his wrist two weeks ago. He had it pinned surgically a week ago. Notwithstanding that, he's made the trip, two flights, to come to Mount Gambier to listen directly to the small businesses in this community. Paul, your listeners might not know this, but 98% of businesses in Mount Gambier employ less than 19 people. Our economy is the small business economy, and we need to listen to those small business operators. They're the mums and dads of Mount Gambier. They're the people that volunteer at the footy clubs. They're the people that donate to charities. We need to make sure that sector, the small business sector, is healthy and that's why Gus is here to listen to them.
PAUL BARRY: Absolutely, Tony, thank you for that. And Angus Taylor, thank you for your time. It's great to have you here and can't wait to get you back and we'll have a chat and listen to some Triple M music. I know you're a big fan of ELO. That's a good start. Thank you very much. Tony Pasin and Angus Taylor here at Triple M.
ENDS.