Speaker 1: My This is Paul Burray to ask me an effect
Speaker 1: with Peter Dudhead Gay and welcome to a special edition
Speaker 1: of Paul Murray Live. An opportunity for you to spend
Speaker 1: an hour with the man who would like to be
Speaker 1: the next Prime minister. Yes, minions of people have already voted,
Speaker 1: but far more still yet to make the decision and
Speaker 1: yet to walk into a polling booth. Peter Dutton joins
Speaker 1: us in the man Cave here this evening.
Speaker 2: Peter. It love you to see you, Glad to see
Speaker 2: you too. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Now, as you know, we started the campaign in your
Speaker 1: home electorate in Dixon. What I wanted was not questions
Speaker 1: from me, but questions from as many people who watch
Speaker 1: the show as possible in your local electorate. The People's
Speaker 1: Forum was a great example to be able to sit
Speaker 1: there opposite a prime minister. But that's one hundred people
Speaker 1: in a room. This is questions from all over the
Speaker 1: country and I want people to be able to see
Speaker 1: see how you respond, but also to give you a
Speaker 1: little bit of time to answer questions that people are
Speaker 1: sincerely invested in. Put simply, it is about them, not me.
Speaker 1: So let's start off. We're going to have a collection
Speaker 1: of questions around the country, including let's start that Allan,
Speaker 1: who's going to be joining us live now from the
Speaker 1: mighty Gold Coast in Queensland.
Speaker 2: Alan, good evening to you mate. What is your question
Speaker 2: for Peter.
Speaker 3: Dat Good evening, Paul and mister Dutton. Thanks for joining
Speaker 3: Paul Murray live.
Speaker 2: Thank you all.
Speaker 3: Labor is spending lot like I'll do that again. Labor
Speaker 3: is spending like kids in a candy store, building up
Speaker 3: massive debt.
Speaker 2: I have this cheeky blue cap. Well, good man, how
Speaker 2: about's got it go?
Speaker 3: Saying Elbow's debt got to go to add fire to
Speaker 3: the coalition sha A campaign. Most importantly, this escalating debt
Speaker 3: should be paid off as soon as possible. My question
Speaker 3: is what is your plan to stop our grandkids inheriting
Speaker 3: a budget black hole?
Speaker 2: Well, well, and it's a it's a great question.
Speaker 4: Firstly, you know these figures, but this government spent an
Speaker 4: extra four hundred and twenty five billion dollars, which means
Speaker 4: that they're the biggest spending government in four decades now.
Speaker 4: When that last happened, labor thrust us into recession and
Speaker 4: as we're seeing with the ratings Agency now they're warning
Speaker 4: that this government spending is going to result in the
Speaker 4: prospect of a downgrade of our credit rating, which of
Speaker 4: course means that we pay more for that one point
Speaker 4: two trullion dollars worth of labor debt, and the interest
Speaker 4: payments go up, and it means you have less to
Speaker 4: spend on the essentials and on defense and other areas
Speaker 4: of expenditure. Which said that, we, as John Howard did,
Speaker 4: want to look at the budget, identify where the for
Speaker 4: tax players who are paying more than ever in tax
Speaker 4: and working harder than ever, where the money is not
Speaker 4: being spent appropriately in the budget, where we can find savings.
Speaker 4: We've said, in relation to the public service, they've increased
Speaker 4: the size of the public service at a rate three
Speaker 4: times that of Kevin.
Speaker 2: Rud and Julia Gillard.
Speaker 4: So there are ways in which we can identify the
Speaker 4: savings and get us back to balanced budget, which is
Speaker 4: what a liberal governor always does, add it to the
Speaker 4: economy more effectively, and that'll allow us to get us
Speaker 4: back into balance, get us into surplus and then start
Speaker 4: to pay down labour's debt. But it's not going to
Speaker 4: happen overnight, as you know, John Howard, inherited ninety six
Speaker 4: billion dollars worth of debt in ninety ninety six, and
Speaker 4: you've now got over a trillion.
Speaker 2: Dollars worth of labor debt.
Speaker 4: And it'll take time to grow the economy to make
Speaker 4: sure that we can keep the essential services running. And
Speaker 4: we've committed to all of that expenditure. But your point
Speaker 4: is well made, but labor will always tax and spend.
Speaker 2: Good only Halan, thank you, mate. Guess the ground for
Speaker 2: me in the.
Speaker 1: Gold Coast, beautiful part of Australia. Sophia has a question
Speaker 1: for you as well. Hurst comes from moss Vale in
Speaker 1: New South Wales.
Speaker 2: Let's have a look.
Speaker 5: My name is Sophia Flight and I'm a psychologist student
Speaker 5: from mos Val. The question I would like to ask
Speaker 5: mister Peter Dunn is during the budget reply you announced
Speaker 5: a four hundred million dollar investment into youth mental health
Speaker 5: services aside from the National Center for Excellence in Youth
Speaker 5: Mental Health and the Medical Research Fund, how are you
Speaker 5: planning on expanding treatment access to youth mental health across
Speaker 5: the nation?
Speaker 2: Sophia thank you very much for your question.
Speaker 4: Look, I think it's an incredibly important discussion and as
Speaker 4: you identified, we very early on announced additional funding for
Speaker 4: mental health services. We need to make sure that we
Speaker 4: can get people the support that they require. The government
Speaker 4: fairly early on cutback. In fact, they cut in half
Speaker 4: the number of psychology sessions that people with complex needs
Speaker 4: could access from twenty back to ten. Services we've adounced
Speaker 4: and we did it again fairly early on. So we've
Speaker 4: already announced this, but we'll increase the services back to
Speaker 4: twenty and that will provide younger people, but older people
Speaker 4: as well with the clinical support that they require. It
Speaker 4: means that we can provide support to young people, as
Speaker 4: you point out, through the Headspace sites and through the
Speaker 4: Medical Research Future Fund bringing money into research, which is
Speaker 4: incredibly important, not just the primary care services but also
Speaker 4: the support around research. I think that's something that we've
Speaker 4: believed in, as you know, for a long time, and
Speaker 4: is a really significant benefit to try to find new
Speaker 4: care models, to try and find ways in which you
Speaker 4: can provide support. A lot of young people as well
Speaker 4: are really being harmed online, and we've led the call
Speaker 4: in relation to making sure that the media companies are
Speaker 4: careful in the amount of harmful content that our kids
Speaker 4: are viewing online and all of that. I think adds
Speaker 4: up to a much better picture than what the government's
Speaker 4: offering in the run up to this election.
Speaker 1: The issue around mental health, use mental health. I know
Speaker 1: that it's something that you've spoken about in budget and
Speaker 1: reply spoken about it as a dad. Why is it
Speaker 1: important as a matter of public policy for you?
Speaker 4: It's important because I have a fundamental belief that particularly
Speaker 4: children and adolescents should be able to live the best
Speaker 4: life that they can. Paul A really sincerely, you know,
Speaker 4: put a lot of work into child protection over the
Speaker 4: years and funded these trained center account of child exploitation
Speaker 4: and similarly for kids with mental health issues as well
Speaker 4: or health issues more generally. I think that's why general
Speaker 4: practice is so important, and making sure that you can
Speaker 4: form a relationship with a practice or with a doctor,
Speaker 4: getting that early intervention and providing a pathway to better
Speaker 4: health is essential, and otherwise kids are missing out on
Speaker 4: the joy of childhood and they're being robbed of that.
Speaker 4: So from a values perspective, it's something that's very important
Speaker 4: to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where the
Speaker 1: conversations in their own lives, the evidence that comes out
Speaker 1: from a report, the conversations that we have with police
Speaker 1: or medical professionals. I often talk about I don't mean
Speaker 1: this in a derogatory way. I say this as a
Speaker 1: parent whose heart breaks for the generation that my little
Speaker 1: girls are, you know, ten and seven. But it's like,
Speaker 1: sometimes the kids are not all right, and it's not
Speaker 1: just about you know, old school kind of oh, you know,
Speaker 1: cement and harden up. There's something that we truly need
Speaker 1: to deal with. It's not because there's something wrong with them.
Speaker 1: It's because clearly we know more about the way our
Speaker 1: brains work than ever before, which means we've got to
Speaker 1: help more than ever before. And you know, you've been
Speaker 1: consistent since the very start of this term about people's
Speaker 1: access to telehealth when it comes to your mental health,
Speaker 1: your ability if you can't leave home to be able
Speaker 1: to talk to somebody, to advocate for things like the
Speaker 1: kid's helpline.
Speaker 2: These are really vital things.
Speaker 4: I agree, And you know, my time as Health Minister
Speaker 4: and the Bok building rate was about eighty four percent.
Speaker 2: It's now down to seventy seven.
Speaker 4: So it's harder to get in to see a doctor,
Speaker 4: people paying forty three dollars out of pocket on average.
Speaker 4: Now it's the case that people are not making doctor's
Speaker 4: appointments because they can't afford the initial consult or, they
Speaker 4: can't afford the follow.
Speaker 2: Up period a minute.
Speaker 4: That's the reality of the cost of living pressures in
Speaker 4: people's lives. Over the last three years, whilst we talk
Speaker 4: about thirty thousand small businesses closing, two hundred and seventy
Speaker 4: two of them have been general practices because they face
Speaker 4: the same input costs pressures that every other business does.
Speaker 4: So yes, and we've put more money into providing support
Speaker 4: around research, and I really think that side of it
Speaker 4: is incredibly important. As health mian As to we created
Speaker 4: the twenty billion dollar Medical Research Future Fund and that's
Speaker 4: been drawing down on the earnings to look at research
Speaker 4: into kids cancers and brain cancers, et cetera, where I
Speaker 4: think as a country we're underdone in terms of the
Speaker 4: amount of money that we spend in research, particularly on
Speaker 4: some of those difficult cancer types. And generally early intervention
Speaker 4: can provide a better health outcome regardless of what the
Speaker 4: condition might be, and that's why I think general practice
Speaker 4: is incredibly important. But the government's got the scare campaign
Speaker 4: out there as they always do around medicare, But the
Speaker 4: reality is as people realize in their own lives, it's
Speaker 4: harder to get into a doctor and it's more expensive
Speaker 4: than it's ever been.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Look, you know we all know our own life circumstances.
Speaker 1: If you're paying attention to the reality of life versus
Speaker 1: some of the stuff that appears in the media, well
Speaker 1: then I think again the tenor of some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that's been set in and around the election seems
Speaker 1: pretty obvious about what is not true and what is
Speaker 1: an obvious focus. Now, I'm not going to tell Australia
Speaker 1: where our next guest comes from, but she's live right
Speaker 1: now and Levina wants to talk about something sensitive and
Speaker 1: that is of course domestic violence. Out of respect for
Speaker 1: her and her circumstances, again, we're not saying where her
Speaker 1: location is. But what's your question for Peter Dutton tonight
Speaker 1: on this special version of Paul Murray Live.
Speaker 2: Levina.
Speaker 6: Thanks Paul, thanks for having me on. I think there's
Speaker 6: a common theme that ALBO makes proposals, but that's all
Speaker 6: they are. No houses are built. DV is at its
Speaker 6: worst despite worded funding. How from your experienced perspective as a.
Speaker 7: Former prospective policeman, would your government help women, children and
Speaker 7: men understand and support women escaping violence, and additionally, just
Speaker 7: educate without ideology demonizing boys about healthier, respectful relationships.
Speaker 6: So how would you approach this.
Speaker 4: Well, Levina, thank you very much for talking to us
Speaker 4: about what I think is one of the most important
Speaker 4: topics we face as a country. We need to make
Speaker 4: sure that in our own families, in our own lives,
Speaker 4: we're instilling those values into our own kids. I mean,
Speaker 4: in our own experience of raising our sons, we've always
Speaker 4: instilled in them a very young age respect for their mother,
Speaker 4: for Kiralei, respect for their grandparents, for their aunts, for
Speaker 4: their sister, and we've always been really consistent with that.
Speaker 4: And there are many families where that works and others
Speaker 4: where it doesn't, even when you've passed that on to
Speaker 4: your kids. I think one of the big concerns at
Speaker 4: the moment that I've got is the financial pressure that
Speaker 4: families are under and the fact that that can lead
Speaker 4: to domestic violence.
Speaker 2: And it's not an excuse by any.
Speaker 4: Stretch of the imagination, but it's an indication of the
Speaker 4: pressure that families are under, and in many circumstances, when
Speaker 4: there's a separation, you've then got two households to run,
Speaker 4: so it becomes even more difficult. I think the family
Speaker 4: court system is clunky, would be the polite way to
Speaker 4: describe it, and I don't think in many cases it
Speaker 4: works for either party. So we've announced additional funding in
Speaker 4: relation to how we can streamline some of those services,
Speaker 4: get matters out of the court and resolved as quickly
Speaker 4: as possible. We need to provide support to police who
Speaker 4: are responding. We were up in Cans just the other
Speaker 4: day and whilst we were there speaking there were six
Speaker 4: what they call Code two jobs which meant to domestic
Speaker 4: violence jobs where it required lights and Sirohn response, so
Speaker 4: pretty serious matters and that was just in that short
Speaker 4: period of time. So the incidence continues to rise. There's
Speaker 4: a lot of effort that we've put into reducing knife
Speaker 4: crime and a lot of effort that we've put into,
Speaker 4: as I say, protecting young women online as well. So
Speaker 4: I think there is it's a whole of government approach
Speaker 4: that needs to be applied to it. But there's nothing
Speaker 4: more confronting than going into a household, into a house,
Speaker 4: into a home where you know you've got a woman
Speaker 4: being held down.
Speaker 2: On the floor and I can.
Speaker 4: Picture this as I tell this story at West End
Speaker 4: in Brisbane many years ago as a police officer, and
Speaker 4: this like just punching into his wife, his partner on
Speaker 4: the ground, and you know, kids screaming and blood on
Speaker 4: the walls and holes in the wall. It is just
Speaker 4: their horrific circumstances. And as a police officer, you can
Speaker 4: go to PARF a dozen to those events a night,
Speaker 4: and I'm absolutely passionate about making sure that we can
Speaker 4: reduce that violence because I believe solemnly that somebody's home
Speaker 4: is their sanctuary and you should be safe in your
Speaker 4: own home and it shouldn't.
Speaker 2: Be a place of fear.
Speaker 4: So I'll do whatever I can to make sure that
Speaker 4: we protect women and to reduce domestic violence and the
Speaker 4: violence against men in some circumstances as well, which is
Speaker 4: a part of the reality.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Levina, I really sincerely appreciate it. Just just
Speaker 1: again to this question that Levina was asking as well
Speaker 1: about educating men and conversations that blokes have to have. Now,
Speaker 1: I understand that these topics are fraught with difficulty, and
Speaker 1: I say this because it applies to me and my mates,
Speaker 1: and I would assume it's yourself and your mates that
Speaker 1: we would die for the women in our lives because
Speaker 1: we loved them right.
Speaker 2: And anyone in anywhere was a threat.
Speaker 1: So this conversation about educating our boys is really important,
Speaker 1: and I think that in many ways it's the example
Speaker 1: we set for our boys as much as sort of
Speaker 1: public education is there as well. And again, I don't
Speaker 1: want anyone to take this part of the conversation out
Speaker 1: of context. It is a bigger, complicated one. But where
Speaker 1: do you sit about that concept of how we bring
Speaker 1: up the next generation?
Speaker 4: No, well, I agree with that absolutely. I think the
Speaker 4: standard you walk past is the standard that you accept.
Speaker 4: So it's within your friendship group, it's within your family setting,
Speaker 4: it's within the environment.
Speaker 2: That your children are exposed to.
Speaker 4: And I think that's absolutely essential and it's taken for
Speaker 4: granted in many of our families because that's the way
Speaker 4: that we were brought up, But in many circumstances that's
Speaker 4: not the case. And I also think there's an element
Speaker 4: of drug use that's involved now as well, just mind
Speaker 4: altering drugs that are more prevalent now than when I
Speaker 4: was a policeman. And you see some of the footage
Speaker 4: on TV where you've got three or four police officers
Speaker 4: trying to wrestle some guy to the ground who's not
Speaker 4: that bigger bloke, who's as high as a kite and
Speaker 4: just develops a strength. And when you put that person
Speaker 4: into a domestic setting and something triggers a reaction or
Speaker 4: there's a violent reaction, you see the sort of violence that.
Speaker 2: That abores all of us. So the past acceptance now
Speaker 2: of so called.
Speaker 4: You know, drugs that are freely available and part of
Speaker 4: a social set, I think that is a bigger influence
Speaker 4: than what we realize in some of these domestic violence
Speaker 4: matters as well.
Speaker 2: Well, and in New South Wales.
Speaker 1: I mean the stats and I talk about this a lot,
Speaker 1: which is that you know, it's about six point something
Speaker 1: offices a day every day Monday, Tuesday, Christmas to Hate
Speaker 1: Good Friday are assaulted when they go to work. And
Speaker 1: part of that, of course is the attacks on paramedics,
Speaker 1: male and female emergency workers a little and that it
Speaker 1: is a huge issue, and I'm really glad that it's
Speaker 1: part of the national conversation and it has to be.
Speaker 1: It truly does have to be confronted, and of the
Speaker 1: belief that you will Jason is now joining US. Jason
Speaker 1: joins US now from North Adelaide in South Australia. Jason,
Speaker 1: We've got Peter.
Speaker 8: Duttonbild to prominstunity, especially in military supply chains, and currently
Speaker 8: with USD coupling from China for these resources has them,
Speaker 8: but red and green tape stop us from opening these
Speaker 8: minds all too often. So my question is what are
Speaker 8: the hurdles currently in place from stopping Australia to take
Speaker 8: this opportunity. What are the risks involved with an Alberanezy
Speaker 8: bank government continuing and what would could the coalition government
Speaker 8: do to advance this opportunity.
Speaker 4: Jason, thanks, thanks for the question. I think it's an
Speaker 4: absolutely vital one. There's a huge opportunity for Australia to
Speaker 4: increase the exports. We know a company like Rio Tinto
Speaker 4: pays ten billion dollars a year in royalties and company taxes.
Speaker 4: We don't fund hospitals and we don't fund policing, we
Speaker 4: don't fund education, et cetera. Infrastructure that without that revenue.
Speaker 4: So there's an enormous opportunity for us to expand it.
Speaker 4: But when you speak to companies now, they're moving capital
Speaker 4: out of Australia into Africa and into North America, into Asia,
Speaker 4: and they just see Australia as a sovereign risk under
Speaker 4: this government the time that it takes. For example, a
Speaker 4: Northwest Shelf extension which tennya polibisk delayed the announcement of
Speaker 4: that decision until after the election, till the thirty first
Speaker 4: of May, which will tell West Australians that they're not
Speaker 4: going to proceed with that project. The fact is that
Speaker 4: that had been with the Cook state government for six years,
Speaker 4: a project that was well known and all of the
Speaker 4: environmental considerations had taken place six years. It had been
Speaker 4: with the Cook government for a decision. They said yes,
Speaker 4: gave it a tick of approval and then that triggers
Speaker 4: a referral to the federal government and then their processes start.
Speaker 4: Why if you're a company looking at investing in a
Speaker 4: project where you've got.
Speaker 2: Six or eight or twelve years delay.
Speaker 4: Why would you be holding capital at risk when you
Speaker 4: could move into another country where you've got the ability
Speaker 4: to get a return on your capital straight away. So
Speaker 4: first point I'd make is that we need to condense timelines,
Speaker 4: and we've advised the WA government and the people of
Speaker 4: Western Australia. More broadly, as a national policy, we get
Speaker 4: to have the approval times for those projects. We're going
Speaker 4: to defund the Environmental Defender's Office, which has been disgraced
Speaker 4: in matters that they've joined in the Federal Court. The
Speaker 4: Labor Party funded the Environmental Defender's Office. They can go
Speaker 4: and take an action against a project even if approvals.
Speaker 2: Have been granted.
Speaker 4: And this is a Labor Party's way of saying that
Speaker 4: we've got everything under control to try and stop mining projects.
Speaker 4: Nudge nudge, wink wink to green voters inner City Sydney,
Speaker 4: in Melbourne, but they're killing the economy. And to your
Speaker 4: point about the defense supply chains and the assurances that
Speaker 4: our partners need, the Americans are bending over backwards to
Speaker 4: do more with Australia, and we should be doing more
Speaker 4: in the guide of weapons space, in the autonomous vehicle space,
Speaker 4: and we have an abundance of these natural resources and
Speaker 4: I think there are many ways in which we can
Speaker 4: add value to the relationship. When we struck the deal
Speaker 4: with the United States on ORCAS, it was always my
Speaker 4: belief that we could add more to the overall output,
Speaker 4: the industrial capability and output in ucas, which would make
Speaker 4: us a more valuable partner and not just a Mendican party.
Speaker 4: And we were just taking from the arrangement between the
Speaker 4: US and the UK and our country. We've got an
Speaker 4: enormous ip within intellectual property and capability within particularly the
Speaker 4: communications space in this country, and that is really valued
Speaker 4: by the Americans and others, and that all requires critical
Speaker 4: minerals and investment into different components. At the moment, we've
Speaker 4: got defense industry companies closing down in this country because
Speaker 4: the governments ripped eighty billion dollars out of defense. And
Speaker 4: our proposal, as you know, is to put twenty one
Speaker 4: billion dollars more into defense over the next five years.
Speaker 4: If we do that, I think we've got a much
Speaker 4: better chance of keeping our country safe but also being
Speaker 4: a really good partner in ally to the United States,
Speaker 4: the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries.
Speaker 1: Good stuff more with Peter Dunne in the moment, ask
Speaker 1: me anything tonight. The questions are all from you, a
Speaker 1: little follow up from me here and there. But the
Speaker 1: idea is we're getting to as many people around the
Speaker 1: country as possible, and you're spending an hour with the
Speaker 1: alternative Prime Minister, Peter Dunton more in a sect.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
Speaker 1: We are here with Peter Dunton a little session we
Speaker 1: call Ask Me Anything. It's well basically like a giant
Speaker 1: nationwide pub test, a giant nationwide opportunity for you to
Speaker 1: ask whatever question you'd like of the man who'd like
Speaker 1: to be prime minister. More than three million people have
Speaker 1: already voted, eighteen million all up, meaning there's still plenty
Speaker 1: more votes out there. All right, let's get into the
Speaker 1: questions that come from all over the country. They come
Speaker 1: from the people who watch this show, and we very
Speaker 1: much appreciate them coming in. Beverly and Dudley have got
Speaker 1: a question for us this evening. You're in tweettheads, mighty
Speaker 1: tweettheads go and say good ay to twin towns and
Speaker 1: seagulls for me. Beverly, what's your question for Peter Dutton?
Speaker 9: Hello Peter, Hello Paul. The focus seems to be focusing
Speaker 9: on what can be achieved in city areas. You know,
Speaker 9: what's the best for the city. What we want to
Speaker 9: know is what can you do to stimulate development in
Speaker 9: all the regional and rural areas. You know, in housing jobs,
Speaker 9: essential services, some decentralization of things.
Speaker 2: Beverly, thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for
Speaker 2: the question.
Speaker 4: My mum and dad won't be happy with me conveying
Speaker 4: the story, but I do remember as a kid, if
Speaker 4: we were the Gold Coast on holidays and this is
Speaker 4: before Bi Jocky Pedis and Joe sort of knocked out,
Speaker 4: didn't allow the pokies in Queensland, we were able to
Speaker 4: drive down to the border and we'd have to sit
Speaker 4: in the car with one parent while the other went
Speaker 4: in and played some pokes, I presume. So you just
Speaker 4: remind me of that story. So sorry mum and dad
Speaker 4: for relaying that. But it's a beautiful part of the world. Look,
Speaker 4: it's a really really important to question that you raise
Speaker 4: because our party instinctively wants to provide support to people
Speaker 4: from regional areas and you've got huge both where you
Speaker 4: are as well, so infrastructure is required. One of the
Speaker 4: things that we've worked on really closely with David little
Speaker 4: Proud as a Leader of the Nationals is on a
Speaker 4: fund where we can provide additional support for infrastructure in
Speaker 4: regional areas, so upgrades around airports, around health services, infrastructure
Speaker 4: upgrades and I think sometimes, particularly probably most acutely in
Speaker 4: the energy debate, people in cities just expect people in
Speaker 4: regional areas to take the solar farms and to take
Speaker 4: the wind turbine projects etc. Let that spoil your amenity
Speaker 4: and bad luck to people in regional areas well. That's
Speaker 4: not how we think. We want to make sure that
Speaker 4: we can take care of people in regional Australia and
Speaker 4: in remote parts of the country as well. So there
Speaker 4: is a real desire to do what we can to
Speaker 4: upgrade that infrastructure through the fund that we've announced. But
Speaker 4: in addition to that, there's a lot of money that,
Speaker 4: as you'd be aware when we're in government, that we
Speaker 4: put into try and hence it's health services and trying
Speaker 4: to track specialists into regional areas, putting more places into
Speaker 4: regional universities in medical school so that we can get
Speaker 4: more doctors who graduate and are more likely to then
Speaker 4: stay on and practice in regional areas and instead of
Speaker 4: coming back to the cities. So yeah, I think it's
Speaker 4: a very very good point, and we're instinctively in our
Speaker 4: DNA in the Liberal National Parties wanting to provide support
Speaker 4: to people in regional and remote areas people.
Speaker 2: You mentioned your mum and dad. How is dad? He's
Speaker 2: really good, thanks bout.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's back home and he turns eighty on Monday,
Speaker 4: so I think we're going to try and get a
Speaker 4: run together for a stake. But yeah, he's good and
Speaker 4: he'll be watching tonight. He's a big fan of Paul Murray.
Speaker 1: I love your dad. Good on your mate. All right,
Speaker 1: I love the dad's mum's of Australia. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to Ken. Who's got a question for you this
Speaker 1: evening that we're doing Ask me anything here on Sky News.
Speaker 2: What's your question, Kenny?
Speaker 10: Hi, Peter As there is no motor industry left in Australia,
Speaker 10: there's no need for it. The prices of all popular
Speaker 10: cars will soon reach levels where this insidious luxury tax
Speaker 10: kick seeing.
Speaker 2: Will you please remove it? Ken? It's a great question.
Speaker 4: It's a fair point you make in terms of the
Speaker 4: just to go back a step, I guess the tax
Speaker 4: was imposed in the first instance in part to try
Speaker 4: and protect Australian industry and that's gone and we're now
Speaker 4: import vehicles from all countries, including China, and there are
Speaker 4: many lower cost vehicles coming into the market. It's a fair,
Speaker 4: fair request to see the tax removed. It's just a
Speaker 4: question of what services you then cut if you haven't
Speaker 4: got that tax, you haven't got that revenue, or what
Speaker 4: new tax you put in its place. And it's a
Speaker 4: fair point that you make. But I don't think there's
Speaker 4: any prospect of it being shifted at any time soon,
Speaker 4: would be my honest answer to you. And it makes
Speaker 4: a difficult day for the Toyoda land Cruiser which is
Speaker 4: captured by it.
Speaker 2: And that's a.
Speaker 4: Vehicle that's readily adopted by people, particularly in regional areas,
Speaker 4: who need a bigger vehicle safe for to drive on
Speaker 4: country roads and the full drive aspect obviously, and a
Speaker 4: lot of self under retirees and others who are telling
Speaker 4: a caravan around the country.
Speaker 2: So there's there's an argument for us to have a
Speaker 2: look at the way which it applies.
Speaker 4: It's pretty crude the way it applies to vehicles of
Speaker 4: that nature at the moment, So I can't pretend to
Speaker 4: that we're about to abolish that tax.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, something that Ray Hadley was talking about
Speaker 1: before was something that you have been focused on the
Speaker 1: past few days, which is there is going to be
Speaker 1: significant price rises on some cars as a result of
Speaker 1: the government's position when it comes to trying to essentially
Speaker 1: introduce a carbon tax on what they considered to be
Speaker 1: the high meeting vehicles.
Speaker 2: Well, we've said we're.
Speaker 4: Not going to go ahead with that tax, and on
Speaker 4: a Forward Ranger it's four hundred dollars. A lot of
Speaker 4: highlus about twelve thousand dollars, and we're going to scrap
Speaker 4: that tax. And Prime Minister has been out and proud
Speaker 4: of the fact that cars are going to go up
Speaker 4: under his government for many young Australians. For many Australians,
Speaker 4: I mean, it's probably the second biggest asset to purchase
Speaker 4: in their lifetime. And where I just I don't understand
Speaker 4: the argument about where people are supposed to find a
Speaker 4: lazy fourteen thousand dollars to pay for a Ford Ranger
Speaker 4: and people are doing it tough under this government as
Speaker 4: it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, also, let's go again further around the country. And
Speaker 1: I'm so pleased. We've got everyone. We've got Victoria, we've
Speaker 1: got tweettheads, we've got it all here. Let's go to
Speaker 1: a question which is coming in via email. This one
Speaker 1: is from Alice Springs and it's from Drew and I'm
Speaker 1: just going to read this one for you here, which
Speaker 1: is in my twelve years in the public service, here
Speaker 1: that we've seen many people come and go, that being
Speaker 1: from the territory, mostly watching people leave the Red Center.
Speaker 1: How would your government support the Northern Territory and remote
Speaker 1: Northern Australia in general terms?
Speaker 2: Well, Paul, a couple of points.
Speaker 4: Firstly, I think Drew, you know, raises a very significant
Speaker 4: concern that we've been trying to address for a while.
Speaker 4: We've been to Ala Springs just hit. A price obviously
Speaker 4: comes from Ala Springs and we've seen the tragedy and
Speaker 4: the circumstances, the crime and the violent crime and the
Speaker 4: death that's resulted, and not just in our springs, but
Speaker 4: in Darwen as well, most recently. It's terrible to see
Speaker 4: we're up in Darwin only a couple of days ago
Speaker 4: with de syndrome, with Leathanocciario the Chief Minister up there.
Speaker 2: They have a big job to do to clean up Labour's.
Speaker 4: Mess, the appointments to the judiciary, the bail laws which
Speaker 4: have been weakened, which is what Labour did in Queensland,
Speaker 4: certainly in Victoria.
Speaker 2: It's led to some.
Speaker 4: Catastrophic outcomes and it's going to take some time to
Speaker 4: turn it around. To Lea's for credit, they haven't been
Speaker 4: in government for twelve months and I think they've started
Speaker 4: to see a change already, but there's a long way
Speaker 4: to go and we will provide financial support. We've announced
Speaker 4: our intention to support the Finocinaro Finochiario government's seven point
Speaker 4: plan and that will go directly to cleaning up what
Speaker 4: is a really bad situation.
Speaker 2: And I mean a lot of young.
Speaker 4: People we've spoken to in in cafes and in not
Speaker 4: just Alice Springs but Darwin as well, in industries where
Speaker 4: they just say, look, you know, I'm not going to
Speaker 4: stay here like we're moving and people are in a
Speaker 4: really desperate situation. I really feel for the Northern Territory
Speaker 4: in what people are going through at the moment. There's
Speaker 4: an enormous opportunity through the gas projects of Beatleloo et cetera,
Speaker 4: to really ramp up the activity and.
Speaker 2: Create the jobs.
Speaker 4: It's a tourism mecca. Alice Springs should be bursting at
Speaker 4: the seams with caravan drivers and at the moment they're not.
Speaker 4: People are just bypassing Alice Springs because they're concerned about
Speaker 4: safety and it's the most beautiful part of the world
Speaker 4: to visit. And we've got a lot of work to
Speaker 4: do to support the territory government to really clean up
Speaker 4: that mess.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Great people too, and with no offense to I think
Speaker 1: Tazzy A part of Tazzy the one place you can
Speaker 1: still let off fireworks. July the first you can still
Speaker 1: do it there. I wouldn't suggest. Look, if you want
Speaker 1: to take a national feel free. It was fun, but
Speaker 1: that'll get you into trouble in the next couple of days.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get to Shane. Who's got a question.
Speaker 1: Shane's in West Perth. We're just back from wa after
Speaker 1: a great show in Cowgooley. What's your question for Peter Dutton?
Speaker 11: Mate a miss Dutton, thank you for your time. As
Speaker 11: a third generation Liberal voter who grew up on a
Speaker 11: farm and has run small business for over twenty years,
Speaker 11: I'm struggling to recognize the party are once proudly supported.
Speaker 11: The Liberal Party was built on values like entrepreneurship, backing
Speaker 11: small business and supporting those willing to have a go,
Speaker 11: values that now seem lost. Small business is the heartbeat
Speaker 11: of this country, yet there's little support, no meaningful policies,
Speaker 11: and no safety net for the people taking all the risk.
Speaker 11: We don't get a guaranteed income, we don't get super
Speaker 11: and at this rate, small business will disappear. When will
Speaker 11: the Liberal Party return to the foundations that built it
Speaker 11: instead of chasing a center left identity that abandons the
Speaker 11: very people who made it strong.
Speaker 4: Well, so I've got a difference of opinion, I might
Speaker 4: say in relation to our support of small business, most
Speaker 4: of us come from a small business background, and our
Speaker 4: instinct is to help We increase the instant asset right
Speaker 4: off from small business to thirty thousand dollars. Labor put
Speaker 4: it at one thousand dollars, and we have done that
Speaker 4: because we know that it helps business invest into capital infrastructure.
Speaker 4: It helps people advance their investment at a time when
Speaker 4: they otherwise wouldn't have done so without that incentive. We've
Speaker 4: announced a twenty thousand dollars deduction for small businesses if
Speaker 4: they're going to spend money on expenses to take.
Speaker 2: Their staff out.
Speaker 4: For example, at the end of the month, if you
Speaker 4: want to go down to a local hotel and take
Speaker 4: your workers, your farm workers out there to celebrate a
Speaker 4: contract or whatever it might be, end of month's sales figures.
Speaker 4: Then you can do that. It's tax deductible. We take
Speaker 4: the FBT complication out of it. We've done that, and
Speaker 4: I think, as we demonstrated when we were in government
Speaker 4: over the course of COVID, we provide a job keeper
Speaker 4: to small businesses, which kept literally tens hundreds of thousands
Speaker 4: of small businesses alive.
Speaker 2: The Labor Party has no interest in small business whatsoever.
Speaker 4: They see small business owners as exploiters of their employees
Speaker 4: and labor, not as people who are the lifeblood of
Speaker 4: their local community. So there's an enormous amount of support
Speaker 4: that we provide to small business. I've given you just
Speaker 4: two examples. But as I say, instinctively, for us, we
Speaker 4: want to create an economy where you can grow. We
Speaker 4: were talking to free shop owners this morning in Naurope
Speaker 4: in Andrew Constance's electric You know, their power bills going
Speaker 4: up by forty percent, and that is as a result
Speaker 4: of the government's renewables only policy.
Speaker 2: We're opposed to that policy.
Speaker 4: If you look at the price of groceries gone up
Speaker 4: by thirty percent, but so too is gas by thirty
Speaker 4: four percent and electricity by thirty two percent.
Speaker 2: Small businesses are feeling that as well.
Speaker 4: That's the reality of a labor government. And the whole
Speaker 4: idea of our East Coast gas reservation is to bring
Speaker 4: natural gas that we're exporting at the moment back into
Speaker 4: domestic use, flood the market with natural gas. We're going
Speaker 4: to bring the price of gas down, the wholesale price
Speaker 4: by twenty three percent. Now that's going to be an
Speaker 4: enormous benefit to cafes, to heavy energy users, including.
Speaker 2: Small businesses and people.
Speaker 4: If Labour's re elected with the Greens will just see
Speaker 4: higher and higher prices. A final point that I'd make
Speaker 4: is that a Labour Greens government spending and taxing is
Speaker 4: going to drive up inflation, which will drive up interest rates.
Speaker 4: And interest rates will always be lower under a coalition
Speaker 4: government and one of the major beneficiaries not just mortgage holders,
Speaker 4: but also small business owners as well, who have got
Speaker 4: a double digit overdraft that they're paying at the moment
Speaker 4: to or alone. It will be cheap but under us,
Speaker 4: So our instinct is always to help and provide support
Speaker 4: to small businesses.
Speaker 1: What about insurance, because obviously this is something not just
Speaker 1: for small business about everything from public liability. But I
Speaker 1: mean the amount people of spending is thousands more than
Speaker 1: it was three years ago. Now that might mean there's
Speaker 1: a lot more people claiming. It might mean that where
Speaker 1: the money comes from, but it just as an extra expense.
Speaker 1: So how can a federal government get involved in that process?
Speaker 4: Well, there's market failure at the moment, there's no question
Speaker 4: about that. Insurance is up by thirty five percent. Australians
Speaker 4: are paying thousands and thousands of dollars more each year,
Speaker 4: as you point out, Paul, And for many Australians they're
Speaker 4: deciding to by a self insure, which is a very
Speaker 4: risky prospect unless you know what you're doing and you're
Speaker 4: a bigger business with a big balance sheet. But for
Speaker 4: some people, they're just making a decision not to renew
Speaker 4: their car insurance and not to renew their house insurance
Speaker 4: and they don't have any choice. They just haven't got
Speaker 4: the money to pay that insurance. Now, there's either a
Speaker 4: market concentration problem or as some of the companies will
Speaker 4: point out, there's a problem around reinsurance. And the reinsurance
Speaker 4: generally comes out of out of London and it is
Speaker 4: having a catastrophic impact. We were in Victoria and the
Speaker 4: Grampians not too long ago with Anne Webster just talking
Speaker 4: to businesses there.
Speaker 2: A local bloke who bought the pub.
Speaker 4: He couldn't settle a transaction because the bank wanted proof
Speaker 4: of the cove note and he couldn't get insurance, and
Speaker 4: he ended up having to change the finance arrangements to
Speaker 4: settle the deal. The transaction couldn't proceed, and the banks
Speaker 4: obviously want the insurance in place if they've got a
Speaker 4: mortgage against that property. So it's having all sorts of
Speaker 4: distortionary impacts in the economy and for local shows and
Speaker 4: other groups who are just facing astronomical increases in their
Speaker 4: insurance as well. It's a huge problem and I think
Speaker 4: it's one that the federal government can have an impact on,
Speaker 4: but at the moment that the government just seems to
Speaker 4: have no interest in it at all.
Speaker 1: Joan has got a question for us Jonas in Bateman's Bay,
Speaker 1: which is in the seat of Gilmore, Labour's most marginal
Speaker 1: and one that is absolutely on the line on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Your question for Peter dunt't mate.
Speaker 12: Labor and the Greens have allegedly been discussing bringing in
Speaker 12: the death and inheritance tax. Is there a possibility that
Speaker 12: you would venture down this pathway if elected to government
Speaker 12: and during your.
Speaker 4: Firm Joan, I think we need to have a serious
Speaker 4: discussion about what is that risk at this election. In
Speaker 4: terms of taxes, Prime Minister went into the last election
Speaker 4: saying there'd be no changes in relation to superannuation. We
Speaker 4: now find out that that's changed. The government has, as
Speaker 4: you're aware, a tax on unrealized capital gains. That means
Speaker 4: in lay terms, if you've got shares, the shares go
Speaker 4: up in value even though you haven't sold the shares,
Speaker 4: you go to pay tax on that paper profit. So
Speaker 4: in some cases people haven't got the cash to pay that,
Speaker 4: because it's like saying to a salaried employee, to a
Speaker 4: doctor or a nurse, or a policeman or a taxi driver,
Speaker 4: well you're going to have to pay the tax before
Speaker 4: you get paid the wage this week. For a business,
Speaker 4: they're going to have to pay for evaluation if they've
Speaker 4: got a farm, for example, in their self managed superfund,
Speaker 4: or if you're a delicatessen, or if you're a mechanic
Speaker 4: and you've got a workshop in your superannuation fund and
Speaker 4: that goes up through the course of the year.
Speaker 2: You're going to have to pay for evaluation.
Speaker 4: And what happens if the share market turns down next
Speaker 4: year and the shares are worth less than what they
Speaker 4: were valued at the year prior, even though you haven't
Speaker 4: sold them. So I think the government's created an enormous mess.
Speaker 4: It is in essence an inheritance tax because it's taking
Speaker 4: money away from people before they can access it for
Speaker 4: their superannuation or leave it to their children. And it
Speaker 4: goes beyond that. The government has done research. As we
Speaker 4: know the Prime Minister doesn't want to acknowledge this, but
Speaker 4: the Treasurer Jim Chalmers has commissioned the work in Treasury
Speaker 4: for negative gearing to be abolished and for the capital
Speaker 4: gains discount.
Speaker 2: To be abolished as well.
Speaker 4: And of course that is the first demand of the
Speaker 4: Greens in negotiations with Anthony Alberanezi after the election. And
Speaker 4: I think there is a lot at risk at this
Speaker 4: election in relation to new taxes that are likely to
Speaker 4: be imposed by a Labour Green's government, and I think
Speaker 4: we provide stability and we've given assurances around no changes
Speaker 4: to negative gearing right from the very first day of announcement,
Speaker 4: we said that we wouldn't support Labour's proposal to tax
Speaker 4: unrealized capital gains. We've been consistent in that and we
Speaker 4: always manage the economy more effectively than labor, and we
Speaker 4: do it in relation to stopping these taxes. And we'll
Speaker 4: do whatever we can to stop Labor from imposing the
Speaker 4: negative gearing changes because it'll drive up rents, it'll make
Speaker 4: it harder for young kids to get into housing, and it'll.
Speaker 2: Make it.
Speaker 4: Creates an aspect of sovereign risk where people don't want
Speaker 4: to invest into housing, which is the last thing we
Speaker 4: need at the moment.
Speaker 1: When you mentioned Jim Chalmers, yes there was modeling right,
Speaker 1: There's no question about it. Jim Jumers himself had eventually
Speaker 1: come to that last year. But when he was advocating
Speaker 1: in the twenty nineteen election as the shadow Finance Minister,
Speaker 1: he was saying that a housing policy without changes to
Speaker 1: negative gear or capital gainst has a.
Speaker 2: Hole in it.
Speaker 1: Now we've seen the Prime Minister wants to talk about
Speaker 1: what you said ten years ago. They've even Frankenstein quotes
Speaker 1: in order to invent and that was the early part
Speaker 1: of the election. But if we know that that's what
Speaker 1: he believes, then that's what he believes.
Speaker 4: Of course he believes that The Labor Party believe in
Speaker 4: inheritance tax every.
Speaker 2: Day of the week. Pole it's part of their socialist agenda.
Speaker 4: They believe that you've got too much money and the
Speaker 4: person next audio hasn't got enough, and how do we
Speaker 4: find a way to tax you look at labor in Victoria.
Speaker 4: I mean, they nearly destroyed the economy in Victoria. And again,
Speaker 4: if somebody has an approval on a block of land,
Speaker 4: or a farmer has an approval to develop that block
Speaker 4: of land, if the zoning changes and the value of
Speaker 4: the land goes up, you're taxed. And this is a
Speaker 4: quasi inheritance tax. And that's caller for what it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the reality of it, all right, plenty
Speaker 1: of other questions. We go from Bateman's Bay, let's go
Speaker 1: to Geelong and Victoria where we've got Jeff. Who's got
Speaker 1: a question, Jeff, what's your question for the alternative Prime
Speaker 1: Minister for Peter Dunn.
Speaker 13: Thank you for the opportunity, mister Dutton. As a Navy veteran,
Speaker 13: I fully support and thank you for your courageous decision
Speaker 13: to finally increase funding to the Defense Force, which is
Speaker 13: needed to protect our great nation. A major shortfall that
Speaker 13: needs to be considered, though, is encouraging our young men
Speaker 13: and women to join our services. A possible reason for
Speaker 13: young people not wanting to enlist is the treatment of
Speaker 13: our past Defense Force personnel. So my question is part
Speaker 13: of the defense budget going to speed up needed services
Speaker 13: to the men and women who have served our nation.
Speaker 4: Jeff Well, thank you very much for your question. I
Speaker 4: think it's incredibly important, and as Defense Minister is very
Speaker 4: acutely aware of the treatment of some of our veterans
Speaker 4: which had been appalling, and we tried to rectify some
Speaker 4: of those issues. We've got Barnaby Joyce, as you know,
Speaker 4: who's very passionate in this area and very determined to
Speaker 4: provide justice and support to veterans, and that'll be backed
Speaker 4: up with money as well. And I believe very strong
Speaker 4: and I've made this comment publicly in the last couple
Speaker 4: of days, but the highlight of the campaign so far
Speaker 4: for me was going to the RSL in Townsville with
Speaker 4: Phil Thompson and hanging out there with some of the
Speaker 4: vets who were just young blokes who and young women who.
Speaker 2: Were just amazing, and it filled me with pride.
Speaker 4: Thought that we wouldn't take care of them, whether they
Speaker 4: got injured in active duty or in warlike conditions, or
Speaker 4: if they were just injured in training is completely unacceptable.
Speaker 4: So I do want to make sure that we've got
Speaker 4: a better situation for our veterans. That requires funding, there's
Speaker 4: no question about that. And I want to make sure
Speaker 4: that it's an attractive place to continue to work because
Speaker 4: the separation rate is way too high and we invest
Speaker 4: a lot of money in people to train them up
Speaker 4: to be the best in the world, and then we're
Speaker 4: happy to see them go out the door after three
Speaker 4: or four or six years service. That's not something that
Speaker 4: we should tolerate and we should provide every encouragement for
Speaker 4: people to stay on. But in addition to that, make
Speaker 4: it more attractive for other young Australians to look at
Speaker 4: it as a positive career and when they speak to
Speaker 4: the former diggers, for them to tell them, actually, you
Speaker 4: get taken care of and it's a good job.
Speaker 2: So I think it's a really good point.
Speaker 1: You make you like it, no clocks on the screen,
Speaker 1: no music playing, you off just a chance to actually
Speaker 1: answer questions the good people of Australia. We'll get more
Speaker 1: of them in a moment's time here on put Murray Life.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching it.
Speaker 2: Thank you to everyone for these questions.
Speaker 1: Honestly, thousands of people sending us messages and these are
Speaker 1: plenty of people who've got lots of things to ask
Speaker 1: the alternative Prime Minister, Peter Dutton, who could be headed
Speaker 1: to an election win on Saturday. So much has this
Speaker 1: and how of time with the person who'd like to
Speaker 1: be the next prime minister? A chance to see questions
Speaker 1: from your follow viewers of this program, and of course
Speaker 1: that man is Peter Dutton, who's taking those questions.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I know it's busy, I know there's a million people
Speaker 1: pulling in lots of directions. I appreciate that you wanted
Speaker 1: to answer these questions tonight. And Peter is our next
Speaker 1: Peter coming from the Act. Peter, what's your question for
Speaker 1: Peter Dutton? With all this messing around from Albany, easy
Speaker 1: redoing deals with the Greens and preference.
Speaker 6: Vaulting and so forth, why don't we just make the
Speaker 6: how to vote illegal?
Speaker 1: That way nobody's telling you who to vote for, how
Speaker 1: to vote, You're making your own decision.
Speaker 6: For me, that's true democracy.
Speaker 4: Well, Peter, I mean, you don't have to take the
Speaker 4: head of vot kind. Increasingly people don't, but for a
Speaker 4: lot of Australians it's confusing.
Speaker 2: And look, for you.
Speaker 4: Know, a lot of us were political tragics and we
Speaker 4: live and breathe it each day. And for most astrainers,
Speaker 4: though they're just starting to tune in, I'm always amazed
Speaker 4: and you sort of get presented with the stats each
Speaker 4: day from the pulses, et cetera. But the number of
Speaker 4: people who aren't even aware there's an election taking places,
Speaker 4: you think a lot of blissful existence.
Speaker 2: They must lead.
Speaker 4: But for a lot of people they get confused, and
Speaker 4: particularly the Senate how to vote card. So I think
Speaker 4: it is best that you take the how to vote
Speaker 4: card from your Liberal and National candidate and please follow it,
Speaker 4: because otherwise you could inadvertently vote for the Labor Party,
Speaker 4: particularly if I mean you look at what Clive Palmer
Speaker 4: has done with his how to vote card. He's preferencing Teals,
Speaker 4: Greens and Labor ahead of Liberal and National candidates. And
Speaker 4: I just don't think supporters of that party would want
Speaker 4: that to be the outcome.
Speaker 2: So please take the card from your Liberal.
Speaker 4: Or National Party candidate and follow it, and that way
Speaker 4: we'll get to the best outcome for our country.
Speaker 1: But also I noticed Sophie film Micah Afternoons presenter on
Speaker 1: four BC. She was talking about her experience at a
Speaker 1: prepole booth that that she felt and this wasn't about
Speaker 1: Team Red Team Blue, but just the whole process is
Speaker 1: running a gauntlet, right, And I get it that. The
Speaker 1: reality is we live in a compulsory voting system. All
Speaker 1: of these things. How do we square that circle where
Speaker 1: for obvious reasons, there are quote unquote low information people
Speaker 1: who need the information, but then there's also the people
Speaker 1: who would like a little bit of a step back.
Speaker 1: Do you think how do you work around that?
Speaker 2: Paul?
Speaker 4: It's interesting because I mean there's different arrangements at different
Speaker 4: prepolling booths and obviously on election day as well. In
Speaker 4: some cases there are sort of standback areas and it's
Speaker 4: hard for people to hand out how to vote cards,
Speaker 4: and there are others where you sort of dodging people
Speaker 4: to get through the line to cast your vote. It
Speaker 4: has to be done in a respectful way. And I
Speaker 4: mean we've started employing security guards because the ETU and
Speaker 4: the CFMAU thugs are intimidating older women on the line.
Speaker 4: So it's not just voters, but it's also the volunteers
Speaker 4: as well who are suffering. So we have to make
Speaker 4: sure that you've got a respectful process. I think a
Speaker 4: lot of people now putting it on their phone as well,
Speaker 4: or they've got it in their pocket and they just
Speaker 4: don't want to take the how.
Speaker 2: To vote card.
Speaker 4: But there's nothing more frustrating when you see a one
Speaker 4: marked against your name on the ballot paper and it's
Speaker 4: invalid and the vote doesn't count. So please make sure
Speaker 4: you're numbering every box if you're voting for your Liberal
Speaker 4: and National candidate.
Speaker 1: Barbara is standing by for us with a question of
Speaker 1: her interest. She's in West Kempsey in New South Wales
Speaker 1: and around the mid North coast there, she joins us, Now,
Speaker 1: what's your question that you would like to ask Taty Dutton.
Speaker 14: The reduction in fuel tax will certainly help pension us.
Speaker 14: However this will likely end after one year. Will your
Speaker 14: government consider raising the pension increase to a good and
Speaker 14: creditable amount. Instead of the four dollars sixty or fortnite
Speaker 14: received this year, two dollars thirty a week would barely
Speaker 14: buy a cup of coffee.
Speaker 4: Barbara, thank you for your question. And it's a fair
Speaker 4: one as well, just in relation to the fuel excise.
Speaker 4: So our proposal, as you know, is to cut in
Speaker 4: half the fuel excise, the fuel tax, so cut by
Speaker 4: twenty five cents a liter, and it's going to be
Speaker 4: of benefit to pensioners and two UNI students into families,
Speaker 4: to delivery truck drivers. We were talking to a charter
Speaker 4: boat operator up in Darwin. He was talking about the
Speaker 4: amount of fuel.
Speaker 2: That he used. It'll be of benefit to him as well.
Speaker 4: So it has an economy wide benefit to try and
Speaker 4: reduce some of the cost pressures that people have in
Speaker 4: their business models and in their households. It costs about
Speaker 4: six billion dollars a year to do that. So we've
Speaker 4: said that we'll do it for twelve months and then
Speaker 4: we'll review it at the end of that twelve month period.
Speaker 4: It's sort of similar to what we did with job
Speaker 4: Keeper during the course of COVID, where we said, okay,
Speaker 4: we meet the initial demand and we don't need to
Speaker 4: block it in year after year because the economic circumstances
Speaker 4: that we're trying to deal with will be dealt with.
Speaker 4: And our proposal is that we give the twenty five
Speaker 4: cent a letter cut and then we do the twelve
Speaker 4: hundred dollars tax rebate that provides support for pension. Is
Speaker 4: also we're saying that you can work more hours if
Speaker 4: you choose to do so, and that won't impact on
Speaker 4: your pension. So that will increase the number of hours
Speaker 4: that people can work. Because as to the point you're making,
Speaker 4: and it's true for self under retirees and people on anewities.
Speaker 4: Otherwise you've got a fixed income and your costs still
Speaker 4: continue to rise exponentially under this government. So it's a
Speaker 4: question of what we can afford to do and how
Speaker 4: we can do it responsibly. And coalition governments normally will
Speaker 4: provide short term support, but ultimately we want to bring
Speaker 4: taxes down across the economy so that we can provide
Speaker 4: further incentive for people to work harder and to receive
Speaker 4: more of the money that they work hard for.
Speaker 1: All Right, our last question, it is a farm one,
Speaker 1: and it's a quick one. Before we'd done tonight. It
Speaker 1: comes from Andrew. Andrew, what's your question?
Speaker 2: Just interested in knowing your immediate thoughts.
Speaker 4: When the Prime Minister said in Parliament they are delulu
Speaker 4: without a salulu. If there's anything sums up the old
Speaker 4: and easy government, it's not a clue they honestly. I
Speaker 4: mean we sort of joke about it, but there's a
Speaker 4: lot of damage been done Paul over three years. I
Speaker 4: really feel in particular for those thirty thousand small businesses
Speaker 4: that have gone break. Somebody's life, savings, a house, their
Speaker 4: dream just shattered, and the government has nothing to say
Speaker 4: about it. People who are working second and third jobs,
Speaker 4: picking up a job at servo on a Friday night
Speaker 4: or over the weekend at the bottle shop just to
Speaker 4: try and pay the bills or the school fees. And
Speaker 4: we shouldn't be making it harder. We should be making
Speaker 4: it easier for people. And I want to make sure
Speaker 4: that we can get a change of govern and so
Speaker 4: that we can help really turn things around.
Speaker 2: And I believe that we can.
Speaker 4: If we manage the economy world, which liberal governments always do,
Speaker 4: we can help deal with the real pressures that labor's
Speaker 4: put in there. So a lot of hard work to
Speaker 4: do between now and Saturday. But I want to say
Speaker 4: thank you very much to all of those who asked questions,
Speaker 4: and sorry to those people who are not able to
Speaker 4: get their question forward. But it's a great program and
Speaker 4: really appreciate your friendship and what you do for our country.
Speaker 2: Mate. Thank you, you good man, thank you, thank you pinion.
Speaker 2: Dat you'll see you're getting tomorrow night. From another edition
Speaker 2: of Paul Murray Life