Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for the Public Service
MATTHEW DORAN, HOST: Let’s bring in now the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Pat Gorman, he joins us live from our Perth studios this Friday. Pat Gorman, welcome back to Afternoon Briefing. How worried should people be about the arrival of boats, considering that we are seeing this announcement today – or this development – today about a situation in your home state?
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE: Well, what I’d say to your viewers is, of course, there is an operation underway, and I can’t comment on operational matters. That’s been a long standing position of a range of governments over the last decade. What I would also note is that when it comes to Operation Sovereign Borders, all of those pieces of that operation are in place and have been in place for a number of years. That includes turnbacks of boats, where safe to do so. And also the really obvious statement that if you arrive in this manner into Australia, you will never be settled in Australia. The only way into Australia is with an Australian visa. There is no other pathway. And I think it’s really important that your viewers know that policy has been long standing. And it’s one that we implemented, we implement every day of the year. And when it comes to sort of some of the thuggish politicisation from Peter Dutton – I think people deserve to be better than that. Mr. Dutton knows that’s exactly the same policies that were in place when he was a minister, exactly the same policies when it comes to regional processing. That’s all the same. And while, again, I can’t comment on the precise operational matters that are happening now, I hope I’ve just outlined for your viewers, the broader policy settings, which have applied for many years.
DORAN: You’ve had a front row seat to Question Time all throughout this week. The Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has been a focus of the Coalition’s attacks during that hour or so in the House of Representatives, questioning his capability in the job. Do you think that sort of attack from the Opposition sort of sends a signal to would be people smugglers around the world that there are concerns around Australia’s border security arrangements?
GORMAN: Oh look, I did sit in Question Time, all of this week. I was surprised that we didn’t really get any questions on cost of living from the Opposition. We obviously spent most of the week in Parliament working through delivering Labor’s cost of living tax cut for middle Australia, that was our priority to help. Here in WA, 1.2 million Western Australians will get a bigger tax cut out of that plan. When it comes to the sorts of signals that the Opposition wants to send, well, it is a democracy. And obviously we have democratic mechanisms that they can choose to use. But in terms of the message that comes from the Government, the only way to get into Australia is with a valid visa. If you don’t come with a valid visa, you will be regionally processed and you will never settle here.
DORAN: You’ve taken us to the issue of the tax cuts. And of course, that legislation did pass the lower house and still has to go through the Senate in the next couple of sitting weeks or so. But much has been made about whether or not a revision of this policy – and not using the term ‘broken promise’ – but a reshaping of this income tax policy opens up a discussion about other parts of the tax system for reshaping. Negative gearing concessions on properties and things like that. Do you accept that changing a position on one key part of tax does open you up to to criticism or attack on on others and whether or not you are planning that, as well?
GORMAN: I think the Australian people see through those scare campaigns, Matt, I really do. Because they are clearly just politically-motivated smear campaigns from the Opposition who haven’t wanted to admit that they are actually voting for Labor’s tax cuts, which they campaigned for weeks and weeks saying they didn’t want to happen. In fact, indeed, it was here in Western Australia that the Deputy Opposition Leader said that they would ‘absolutely’ campaign and roll back the tax cuts that they then found themselves voting for just yesterday. And so when it comes to all of those things, I think the Australian people know why on this very targeted and specific tax measure, we explained a shift in position because we needed to do something different given the cost of living pressures that Australians are facing. We’ve explained that really carefully, why we changed it. The Prime Minister went to the Press Club. He’ll be here in Perth for Cabinet next week. It’s great to be hosting the Prime Minister and my colleagues here in WA. I’ll be holding my regular Parliament in the Park mobile office tomorrow in Joondanna, listening to people. And again, explaining why, given the pressures and what we’re hearing from the Australian people, while we changed that tax package to help more people, and indeed, here, 80% of Western Australians, better off. I think that was worth doing.
DORAN: What happens if you’re hosting one of those Parliament in the Park events that you’ve just pointed there, and you’re hearing from people in your electorate that they are struggling to get into the housing market, they’re worried about the way in which prices have gone through the roof, worried about whether or not investors are snapping up homes that first homebuyers could otherwise access? If you’re hearing that sort of messaging from the public, would that prompt you and your colleagues to then consider changes to other tax concessions, like negative gearing, if that is the message that you’re you’re hearing from the public?
GORMAN: Well, what my constituents are saying to me is they want to see us investing more in social and affordable housing. That’s what we’re doing. I’ve actually just come from a meeting with the wonderful State Minister for Housing, John Carey, talking about these very issues for here in the Perth CBD, and across WA. I’m pretty engaged in what we need to do to get more homes built. Obviously, it is a supply issue that we are facing here in the West. And when it comes to our agenda for getting more people into homes, what I say to West Australians is we’re actually taking something’s been a really successful program here. That’s called the Keystart Program, a shared equity scheme. We’re trying to expand it for Western Australia and also take it national with what we call ‘Help to Buy.’ That’s going to see us helping more Australians into homes that they own, giving them that benefit of security in a home they own, but with support from the government in a shared equity arrangement. That’s our priority. We’ve been really clear about that. The legislation is in the Parliament right now. And I’d really urge the Greens and other parties, who are coming up with all sorts of other ideas – maybe just start by saying that ‘I’ll vote for the idea that’s actually on the table that will help more Australians into their own homes.’
DORAN: Just finally, you have mentioned that Cabinet is going to be in the great state of WA next week. A big issue that has been facing West Australians over the last couple of weeks or so is the issue of this live export ship which is still stranded there. We know Labor has a policy to phase out the live export trade. Given that has been occurring over the last couple of weeks or so does that put this thing back on the agenda and sort of speed up any of those deliberations for the government?
GORMAN: We’ve been going through a very careful process, recognising that we need to consult thoroughly with industry, consult thoroughly with those who operate in this space, recognising that it’s a long standing industry for Western Australia. But our election commitment reflects where community expectations are up to, which is that it’s time for this part of the industry to come to an end. There are great opportunities around more processing of meat here in Australia, more value adding. I know I’ve spoken to some who’ve chosen for economic reasons, not policy reasons to shift from cattle, shifting to grain, huge opportunities there as well. We want to make sure that we work with industry here in WA on this transition. I’m confident between the Federal Government and State Government, we can do that. But when it comes to the Cabinet meeting here in WA – the Prime Minister got engaged yesterday, but he’s always been engaged in Western Australian issues. He’s very thoroughly interested in what’s happening here in the West and it will be great to have him and all my colleagues here.
DORAN: I think there might be some high fives in your office after workshopping that line. Pat Gorman, thank you.
GORMAN: Thank you.
