Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Shadow Attorney General
Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Senator for Western Australia
TRANSCRIPT
2SM Radio with Chris Smith
TOPICS: Stephen Jones quitting politics; cost of living, inflation, election, Sydney terror incident; antisemitism; Nature Positive laws
30 January 2024
E&OE
Chris Smith
Stephen Jones is announcing, as I speak, in front of local media in Shell Harbor, where he sits, that he will won’t be seeking re-election at the next federal poll. In other words, he is AP after 15 years and five elections, he said in a statement, I am announcing that I won’t be standing for re election as the member for Whitlam. I want to express my immense gratitude to my community. Blah, blah, blah. The Assistant Minister used his statement to thank the Prime Minister his family and friends and staff for supporting him through his time in politics. He joins a growing list of labor politicians who have decided to quit politics amid some very ordinary polls. Let’s bring in WA Senator Michaelia Cash on this and more. Michaelia, welcome to the program.
Senator Cash
Delighted to be with you again. Chris, hello to your listeners.
Chris Smith
Rats deserting a sinking ship maybe?
Senator Cash
Oh, look, bring on the election. Give the Australian people the opportunity to actually vote this hopeless government out. I mean, Chris, I don’t know how much worse it can get under Labor. We’re dealing with, yesterday, an issue of domestic terrorism. We’re also dealing with the fact that prices have grown by more than 10% since Labor took office. You have a government that in the entire time it’s been in office, it has now shown to the people of Australia that all of its priorities are wrong. You’ve got to be kidding me. They just need to be moved on, and we just need the opportunity to get Australia back on track.
Chris Smith
I get the sense that there’s a large degree of incompetence at the top level, that this is not a government equipped to go another three years. Let me go back though on what you’ve had to say about some of these issues that are occurring in front of us now, you mentioned the caravan terror threat from yesterday. What’s your reaction to all of that?
Senator Cash
Well, I mean, so many Jewish people are now saying, and this is what’s so devastating – this is Australia under Labor. Welcome to the world we now live in. This is sickening. It is horrifying. I think what shocked Australians is that it’s a grave and it’s a sinister escalation in the insidious rise of antisemitism in our country. But over the last 24 hours, it’s the reaction of our Prime Minister that is confounding us. This is a Prime Minister that has serious questions to answer. He appears on radio this morning. He cannot answer the basic questions that are put to him. When did you first know about this sickening incident? When were you briefed, who is behind it. But more than that, what steps Prime Minister, have you taken to protect Australia’s Jewish community that you have so fundamentally failed since October the seventh of 2023 to me, Chris, that is the biggest worry. You have a Prime Minister who, when it comes to keeping Australians safe, is failing our country.
Chris Smith
In reference to the antisemitism, I think the damage has already been done. It doesn’t matter what he does from here.
Senator Cash
I don’t know how you actually reverse that now without actually moving this government on. And as Peter Dutton and David Coleman have now made clear, the first thing we need to do as an elected Dutton government is clearly reverse Labor’s anti-Israel position in the United Nations.
Chris Smith
Without doubt, without doubt. And that was the major symbol that said to those who were very, very hostile against the Jewish community to go harder. That was the indication that we clearly flagged. I want to talk about some positive news, inflation relief yesterday, and an interest rate drop likely in February. So therefore, does that lead to, say, an April 12 election, which is my tip.
Senator Cash
Look, the Prime Minister will call the election when he calls the election. What Australians are focused on is what they’re feeling. Prices are not going down. They know that – that is their lived experience with inflation under Labor, I mean, yesterday, you would have thought that the Labor ministers thought that the dip in inflation was a reason to re-elect them, and yet the hard economic reality for Australian families is they have experienced the longest sustained period of inflation since the 80s. They have had a huge fall in their standards of living. So that is what the Australian families are feeling. They know each and every day when they walk into that supermarket, Chris and as so many now say, the bag has got smaller and the price has got dearer. This isn’t job well done. It isn’t problem solved, and I can tell you right now, it’s not mission accomplished.
Chris Smith
Yeah, there were too many smirks on too many faces at that press conference yesterday.
Senator Cash
As Peter Dutton said perhaps the Prime Minister needs to get out of the inner city seats in Sydney and Melbourne, which he is so obsessed by, because of his need for Green preferences. Go and talk to real Australians. Go shopping with them. Listen to their choices.
Chris Smith
One quick one before we let you go. I thought we’d sidestepped this additional piece of green tape we were going to be slapped with, but the Prime Minister seems to be betraying our miners nationwide by bringing back the mining industry, damaging nature positive laws. Explain to my listeners what these nature positive laws do and why they should be thrown out.
Senator Cash
Well, in the first instance, let’s be very, very clear, he has duped Western Australians, in particular because he stood in my state and he gave a very clear message that he was taking those laws off the table. So this is a betrayal of breath-taking proportions, and quite frankly, his sneaky smokescreen has now been exposed. You even have the Labor premier of Western Australia saying they will destroy our mining industry and threaten future projects in our state. You have every miner coming out and saying, if you want to destroy our industry, which supports the Australian economy, provides for people’s standards of living, go ahead Mr. Albanese and introduce this additional red and green tape. But you know, let’s look at Chris why he’s doing it. Let’s look at the reason. His instinct, and we all know this because he’s made so many decisions, is to provide support to those who are in inner city seats in Sydney and Melbourne. He’s abandoned the Jewish community. He’s abandoned the salmon industry in Tasmania. He’s abandoned the live sheep export industry in Western Australia. He’s now bringing nature positive, mining negative back onto the parliamentary agenda. It’s not because of principle. It’s because he’s chasing green votes in the inner city, of Sydney and Melbourne. Let’s not make any mistakes about that. This is a Prime Minister who is all about himself and the left, not about the Australian people.
Chris Smith
I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Lots happening around us at the moment.
Senator Cash
Thank you. Talk to you next week.
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