Doorstop with Liberal Candidate for Parramatta, Katie Mullens - Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Topics: Labor’s cost of living crisis; struggling small businesses; childcare; nuclear costings; flags
E&OE
KATIE MULLENS, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR PARRAMATTA:
My name is Katie Mullens, and I'm the Liberal candidate for Parramatta for the upcoming federal election. It's been a fantastic morning here in Parramatta with our Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, who's made time to come to Parramatta and sit and listen to small businesses, restaurant owners and young families just across the road here at ALEX&Co, talking about the struggles they're facing under Labor's cost of living crisis. My job as a candidate is to make sure that people in Parramatta are heard, and that's why I brought the Shadow Treasurer out here today to listen to the concerns of people so we can make decisions and policies that will really impact change for the people of Parramatta. I’ll hand over to Angus today. Thank you so much for being here.
ANGUS TAYLOR:
Well, thank you, Katie. Wonderful to be here with Katie in Parramatta, because Katie has a background as a lawyer here in Parramatta, working with small businesses and families around this area, and like so many of our candidates and Members of Parliament, she's working in the private sector, working with small businesses, working with hard working families, and understands the challenges that are being faced. And of course, we heard exactly that this morning from a bunch of small business people who are really struggling with Labor's cost of living crisis. They're seeing customers who are finding it harder and harder to come in and buy their goods and services. We're seeing the cost of everything they're buying going up, inflation continues to rage. There's no sign of prices coming down anytime soon, and it means that families in this area and right across Australia are really struggling to make ends meet. Now we know that's right from the economic data. Now, of course, we see this on the ground, but the economic data backs that up, we've seen seven consecutive quarters of GDP per person going backwards, seven consecutive quarters of a household recession. We've seen the biggest drop in the standard living of Australians, the real disposable income of Australians in our history, in our history. The worst collapse in living standards of any of our developed peer countries around the world. This government has had its priorities wrong. It's made the wrong decisions, and that's made life worse for hard working Australian families and small businesses, and that's exactly what we heard this morning, and it's why we need wonderful candidates like Katie in the Parliament fighting hard for hard working Australian families.
Now we have a test for the government coming up in the coming days. They've had three failed budgets, three budgets where they could have taken us and given us a plan to restore our standard of living, get us back on a pathway to prosperity. Three times they have failed. They have a MYEFO coming up, a budget update coming up in the coming days, where they can map that pathway back. And there are three clear tests for this government. The first is whether they will map out a plan to restore our standard of living. Right now, we don't have that. We haven't been seeing it. We've seen our standard of living collapse under this government. They need to fix that. The second thing they need to do is give us a pathway back to prosperity, so young Australians can hope and believe that they'll be able to buy a home, own a home, build up their careers over time and get ahead, and that pathway to prosperity, that hope is disappearing fast for all Australians, and particularly young Australians. And we know one of the reasons why our prosperity has been going backwards, our standard of living has been going backwards, if this government thinks the answer to every problem is more government. Well, it's not, it's not. We need a private sector, business-led recovery, but that means we need to have fiscal guardrails in place where this government lives within its means, just like every single family and hard-working business out there has to live within their means, this government is absolutely failing to do that. We've seen forecasts coming out from credible economists, Chris Richardson, Deloitte Access and others, saying that there is red ink, as far as the eye can see, from this government. They have completely ignored the basic fiscal guardrails that were put in place under Peter Costello. They've got rid of them out of the budget, and the result is they're replacing hard working private sector small businesses with more government. That is not the way to make this country more prosperous. That is not the way to make sure we have a restoration of our standard of living in this country.
Let me finish with a comment about childcare. We understand that there'll be an announcement from the Prime Minister today on childcare. But the problem we're facing in childcare is this: it is has become increasingly difficult for young families to access childcare in this country. It has also been less affordable over the last year. We've seen out of pockets increase by almost 11% in the last 12 months alone for hard working families who are accessing childcare, an 11% increase in out of pocket costs for hard working families. We know that from the Bureau of Statistics. It is very clear that this government is doing nothing to make childcare more accessible and more affordable for hard working young families. That's what we need to see from this government. We haven't seen that in what we know of this announcement today. We'll wait to see the details. But frankly, this is not solving the problem that this government said they were going to solve. They promised cheaper childcare. Australian families are paying 10.7% more in out of pockets in the last 12 months. That is not cheaper childcare, that is not more accessible childcare. So many Australian families are suffering this government's failure to live deliver on the promises it made before the last election. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible] subsidies for parents who don't work?
ANGUS TAYLOR:
Well, you know, the point is, we want to see more accessible, more affordable childcare, and there's nothing in this announcement that makes childcare more accessible and more affordable for hard working families. In fact, the risk is it will make the situation worse. We've got supply constraints in this sector that haven't been solved. Any young family who's looking to get into childcare now knows just how hard it is to find the childcare that they want, and Labor thinks the answer is to put more demand into the system. Well, so many times, time and time again, we see Labor thinks the answer to every problem is to throw more government money at it. We need more supply, and all this is going to do is make it more difficult to access childcare and less affordable for hard working families who are already paying an increase of 10.7% in out of pockets in the last 12 months.
JOURNALIST:
So you're not open to subsidies for families -
ANGUS TAYLOR:
We're not open to a failure to solve the problem. I mean, this is the point about Labor, is they, time and time again, fail to solve the problem because they don't understand what the problem is. The problem is really simple. It's got more difficult to access childcare, and for hard working families, it's less affordable. A 10.7% increase in out-of-pocket costs is an extraordinary increase in just 12 months, and now Labor says they're going to put more demand on the system. They're going to put more demand into the system, without solving that underlying problem. And this is classic Labor. They put a band aid on a bullet wound every single time. They don't go to the source of the problem, they deal with symptoms and that's why we never see these problems solved. That's why we're seeing so many families right now struggling to make ends meet. That's why we've seen a record level of insolvencies in this country. This government doesn't see how to solve the problems, and so they don't solve the problems.
JOURNALIST:
Are you saying that for taxpayers to pay for childcare subsidies for parents that don't work, is a waste? What's your opinion?
ANGUS TAYLOR:
I'm saying that the underlying problem we're facing right now in our childcare system is not accessible and it's not affordable. For hard working families, many hard working families are struggling to get access to childcare they need and they've found that the out-of-pocket costs are going up at an extraordinary rate, 10.7% in 12 months. Now this is not going to solve that problem, and as I say, it's what we see from Albanese time and time again is a weak Prime Minister that's focused on his interests, not the interests of hard working families.
JOURNALIST:
Labor says this is about education access for all kids. Do you agree or disagree with that?
ANGUS TAYLOR:
Well, Labor says a lot of things. They try to spin everything. I mean, we see this Treasurer try to spin the fact, and this Prime Minister try to spin the fact that somehow families are better off under Labor. They're not. Families are worse off under Labor. I ask people around my electorate and around Australia all the time, are you better off or worse off than you were two and a half years ago? I get a very consistent answer back. This is a government who has failed Australian families. They try to spin everything. They think that's the answer to every problem. You can't spin your way out of an underlying problem like this. The problem is clear. This government doesn't seem to understand it and as usual, it's not coming up with the solutions.
JOURNALIST:
Just on the costings for the nuclear plan. Have you seen that?
ANGUS TAYLOR:
If you're patient, you'll get the answers you look for. But I can give you a sneak preview. I can give you a sneak preview right here and now, the cost of our plan will be lower than Chris Bowen's. That I can absolutely assure you. And the reason is we need in this country, low emissions, zero emissions, baseload power coming into the system in the coming years and decades. The cheapest way to do that is to put baseload, zero emissions, clean nuclear generators in sites where we already have transmission, that have long lives, that don't need backup, that don't need extra transmission. That will be a cheaper pathway than Chris Bowen's renewables only plan.
JOURNALIST:
Thanks, Angus, just back on the childcare issue. So, you're saying that this is not going to increase access for parents. Labor says, by scrapping the activity test, we're going to get 66,000 extra kids into daycare. So how do you marry that up?
ANGUS TAYLOR:
Rob, the point I'm making is very simple. Hard working families right now are struggling with access and affordability of childcare. This is not going to solve their problem. We've seen a 10.7% increase in out-of-pocket costs in the last 12 months under Labor. Labor promised cheaper child care, they haven't delivered it. We’ve seen a 10.7% increase in 12 months, as I say, in out-of-pockets and access is a major challenge. The risk with what Labor is proposing here is they will displace hard working families from child care centres, and that we don't solve the underlying problem, which is access and affordability for families who are really struggling with it right now.
JOURNALIST:
So the Prime Minister is aware that there's not enough childcare, so there's not enough staffing, and apparently, in this press conference, in this speech he's going to make, he's going to address those issues. So, I mean, we don't know what that is yet, but -
ANGUS TAYLOR:
Well, this is the problem, Rob. This is a government and a Prime Minister who spins a lot and does very little. This is a government that thinks you can spin your way out of every problem and yet they fail to. This is why Australians are worse off than they were two and a half years ago. It's a Prime Minister that promised a lot before the last election. Promised cheaper mortgages, promised cheaper electricity he promised cheaper childcare and yet, what we've seen in childcare, for instance, just in the last 12 months alone is this sharp increase in out-of-pockets. He has not solved the underlying problems that Australians are facing.
JOURNALIST:
So what would the Coalition do to make access easier and drive down costs?
ANGUS TAYLOR:
Well right now, we're all trying to guess what the government's policy is, Rob and we'll continue to try to guess that, and we'll announce our policies all in all, in good time. But what we're not going to do is announce policies that risk making the situation worse and fail to deliver and to address the underlying problems.
JOURNALIST:
Peter Dutton says that he's not going to stand next to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait flag. What's your opinion on that, will you be?
ANGUS TAYLOR:
Let's be clear about what Peter Dutton says, he says when he addresses the nation, when he does press conferences he'll stand in front of an Australian flag, as I do and that's because both Peter and I are proud of our flag and we believe that all Australians can unite under the Australian flag. That's what we believe, and I believe it very firmly. This country wants to unite. It doesn't want to be divided, and we should unite under our flag. It's a very simple proposition, and it's one I firmly, firmly agree with. It's not to say that the Aboriginal flag doesn't have a role. Of course it does. But when the Prime Minister addresses the nation, and I want Peter Dutton to be the Prime Minister after the next election of course, I think the Prime Minister should address Australians in front of the Australian flag,
JOURNALIST:
Talking about division there. Do you not think that by not, by saying this, by saying that he's not going to be standing next to it, but that is creating division, not acknowledging?
ANGUS TAYLOR:
Well, I think what divided Australians was a failed referendum led by this Labor Government that was wanting to divide Australians based on race, and I think it did during the referendum. Unfortunately, that's what divides Australians and Australians took a very strong view on that. We saw that at the referendum they took a very strong view on this issue. So I believe in uniting Australians, and I think an important way we can unite Australians is to all be proud of our wonderful flag, a wonderful nation, the greatest nation on Earth and I think every single one of us should be proud to be part of that.
JOURNALIST:
Do you worry about isolating those communities?
ANGUS TAYLOR:
They are part of the great Australian community. It's not isolation, it's uniting communities. That's what I want to see. I believe every single Australian should be treated as equal before the law, before our nation, as a citizen, and the best way to represent that and to articulate that is for our Prime Minister to stand in front of Australian flag when he addresses Australians. Thank you very much.
ENDS
