Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Shadow Attorney-General
Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
TRANSCRIPT
TNT Radio with Chris Smith
20 May 2024
Topics: Government waste, VIP planes, nuclear power, union slush fund, immigration levels
E&OE
Chris Smith
I have Michaelia Cash with me. As you may know, Michaelia has been in Parliament forever. She was elected to Federal Parliament in 2007. That is veteran status. She served in government in the portfolios of Immigration, Status of Women, Employment and Workplace Relations and more recently in Opposition as Shadow Attorney General. She knows the workings of the Parliament and the party and the issues that we often discuss right here on this program. I’m very pleased to say that she’s with us. Senator Michaelia Cash, welcome to TNT radio.
Senator Cash
It is fabulous to be with you Chris. And I have to say it is a worry sometimes when I do look around the Senate, and I think wow, I’m actually now one of the older ones. You use the term veteran? I like that, but I have to say, it’s been a fabulous almost 16 years actually on the first of July.
Chris Smith
Is that right? At the end of the day don’t worry about veteran – you are retro.
Senator Cash
Retro. I like that – we will go with that – retro.
Chris Smith
I tell you what, this Labor Government has real trouble reading the room and you know, 2023 was dominated by cost of living but all they focused on was this damn Voice and they’ve done the same in 2024. They’ve just ordered two new 737s which will join three Dassault Falcon 7x business jets in the VIP fleet, just what we need. I thought they were trying to cut back on carbon dioxide emissions.? The ADF also operates a modified Airbus A 330 that used by Anthony Albanese for major overseas trips, so he’s got a fleet and a half. They got into serious strife about a month ago and I remember raising it here when the PM and two ministers used two jets to get up to the Hunter Valley saying oh you know the airports aren’t good up here. So we had to take these two jets. It just doesn’t pass the credibility test does it?
Senator Cash
Well, Chris, certainly in relation to the trip to the Hunter that absolutely does not pass the pub test. Why? Because under the Albanese Government and we had always said life would not be easy under Mr. Albanese, but the facts support that. Every single time a person walks into the supermarket, they know that their foods gone up 10%, You know their housing, their rent up 12%, their electricity they are up 18% and 25%. And then you have a good socialist government, because that’s what they are, preaching to the Australian people – you need to be more environmentally conscious. And what do they then do? They forget to practice and they don’t take one. They’re entitled to take one I have no issues with that. But to take two luxury jets – admittedly they weren’t defence jets, but to take two to an environmental announcement – seriously. I mean you’ve got to laugh. But as they say, nothing is too good for the leader of the socialists. But it doesn’t pass the pub test. In particular when as I said, they will preach from high heaven to the Australian people about how they should be environmentally responsible, all whilst implementing policies that have actually caused the cost of living crisis. But they don’t even blink about taking two jets to the same announcement with the same people who are going to the announcement. It doesn’t pass the pub test.
Chris Smith
Hang on are you about to let them off because they purchased two 737s?
Senator Cash
Absolutely not and we’ve been very clear in the first instance it’s a big country, of course, the Prime Minister and the Governor General, they need planes to fly around and we have no issues with that. However, consistent with this government and their lack of transparency, Chris, have they briefed the opposition yet on why they’re doing this? No. There are serious questions to answer. Why are they now saying it is better off paying this money upfront than actually leasing them? We don’t know the answer to that. This is all about ensuring at all times value for the Australian taxpayer. So we have estimates as you know when we return next week to Canberra, we have budget estimates and we will prosecute this. We need to ensure as the opposition we are holding the government to account for expenditure in relation to the Australian people. But I think the more egregious part of this is this government doesn’t consult the Australian people on anything. They just ram legislation through the parliament. The Opposition has not yet received a briefing from them.
Chris Smith
Can we just keep on this green thing because these inefficient green projects that the OM is very overly excited over. I love what I heard from Peter Dutton’s Budget reply speech and I made mention of this on the program last week, where he said he will dump this fake made in Australia series of projects because it’s just a massive subsidy imposed, isn’t it?
Senator Cash
Absolutely. You know, and we’ve been very, very upfront. What you need to deliver in particular to the mining and resources industry in Australia in my home state is very much let’s radically reduce approval times. Let’s get rid of the red and green tape which these companies tell us is costing them billions and billions and billions of dollars per year. It is not a playing field that international people want to invest in when you have to cope with the red and green tape the approval process timeframes under the Labor government. So we will look at structurally changing the way companies do business to get better outcomes whilst upholding of course Chris, the same standards. That is what companies have told us they need – radically reduced approval times for projects, new projects. Let’s get them off the ground. Let’s get people employed. Let’s start delivering to the Australian taxpayer. But also this government’s obsession with red and green tape that puts a stranglehold on so many industries in Australia. Getting rid of that is how you deliver value back to companies and the Australian taxpayer.
Chris Smith
But what are we making solar panels for at five times the price of what the Chinese do?
Senator Cash
Well, not only that, Chris, you tell me how do you actually make anything in this country in particular, when as I said, red and green tape strangles everything. You are never getting anything off the ground and if you do, it takes years and years and years, but more than that the industrial relations environment in which you now have to operate you know, this is a bizarre dream by Mr. Albanese he thinks he can just announce something, it sounds good, but when you scratch the surface, if you are not making the actual structural changes to the way we do business here in Australia, quite frankly, it is not going to work.
Chris Smith
Is the Liberal Party doing polling at the moment to select seven areas for nuclear sites as I read yesterday?
Senator Cash
Well we’ve been very clear. There are three things you need when it comes to energy in this country. It is cleaner energy, and that is why you’ve got to put nuclear on the table. It is consistent energy – you know, as an Australian I’m very lucky when I turn the lights on, I expect them to stay on. But also cheaper energy. Mr. Albanese is failing quite frankly on all three. They have a renewables only obsession. It’s an all eggs in one basket approach and that is not how you deliver cheaper, consistent and cleaner energy for the Australian people. But as Peter has said, we are technology agnostic. That is why you need to have nuclear on the table. Do you remember what Peter said on Thursday? Night, and I agree with him. We are the only G20 nation that is currently not signed up to or utilizing nuclear power. So do you want to believe Chris Bowen who says nuclear is bad and trust me or every other G 20 nation that is either signed up to or delivering nuclear power. I’m going to go with every other G 20 nation.
Chris Smith
Chris Bowen has been demonising gas for probably 15 years and all of a sudden gas is his best mate again.
Senator Cash
You know you look at the Albanese government – what they said prior to the election – $275 we will deliver that off your energy bills. Let’s just look at the reality. These are the facts – you are paying 18% more for your electricity, you are paying 25% more for gas. It’s as simple as that. They have demonized the gas companies since they came into power as you and I know how do you get energy prices down in this country? Let’s start by – stop to demonizing the gas companies. But more than that, how about getting a little bit more gas into the market? And yet no, trust Chris Bowen, he knows best for Australians. But at this point in time, it’s a big F for Chris Bowen, because all Australians are experiencing under Mr Albanese is pain, pain or that would a little bit more pain.
Chris Smith
Yeah, I’ve always said about Chris Bowen – I would be really concerned if he was the Assistant Minister for the Arts. All right, a union slush fund – $60 million in last week’s Federal Budget in what has been slammed as a case of blatant pork barrelling. The Productivity Education and training fund – which has me thinking about Julia Gillard for some reason – appears to be nothing but a huge Eddie cashed in disguised as – what is it – a promotion unit for a better workplace or something?
Senator Cash
That’s exactly right. You’re basically giving the unions – and the way you justify giving the unions the money – is you also give some to employers associations – to do what they should already be doing. But interestingly on this one, get this it’s $60 million dollars. That’s a lot of taxpayers money. But worse than that, it is the biggest expenditure in Tony Burke’s portfolio. $60 million, but conveniently, didn’t quite make his Budget night press release. I smell something going on here. But look, you know why they’re doing it, let’s be honest, Chris, we know why they’re doing it. The union’s obviously, are negotiating with the Government on workplace relations. Well, I don’t think they need to negotiate when they write the Government’s workplace relations policy. But look, they’re the biggest donor to the Australian Labor Party. As I said $60 million. I’d like Tony Burke to actually justify that quite frankly. Why is this the biggest expenditure in your portfolio? I would have thought you’d be better off giving it quite frankly, to the Fair Work Ombudsman to work with small business who are drowning, drowning in relation to the changes that Labor have imposed on them by way of their industrial relations and the Fair Work Act changes. Give it to the Fair Work Ombudsman to work with poor small businesses, not to unions, and to employer associations to quite frankly, do what they should have be doing without government funding. But as you and I know, Chris, that was the excuse.
Chris Smith
Yeah, I’d love to follow the money trail if I could, and you won’t get access to it. But I’d love to follow the money trail and work out how much of the $60 million ricochets just before the next election – ricochets back into the coffers of the Labour Party.
Senator Cash
Look absolutely – the biggest donor to the Australian Labour Party is the union movement. The facts speak for themselves.
Chris Smith
Now I’ve got a caller on the line who wants to talk about this particular issue which is immigration. And I know your party has made some deep promises about deep cuts to immigration, which is good in that Budget reply. But my argument is that it’s only a temporary cut to the permanent migration number and you could have gone further but that’s let’s go to Syd just before we go to Michaelia Cash and get Michaelia Cash’s take on what’s been announced last week. Syd go right ahead.
Caller
Well, about that reduction in immigration. I mean, we’ve heard some of this discussion about immigration before. And I do wonder whether that’s going to be achieved. I mean, we’ve got Mr. Dutton saying that he’s going to cut the numbers, but he’s got to do a lot more than the Government. So at least it’s a start, and that’s a good thing that we are having that discussion. But I mean, is that actually going to be achievable? First of all, they are going to have to win the election first.
Senator Cash
Syd, that’s a really good point you make. We’d need to win the election. So what is Peter said to the Australian people, you’ve now got a choice. You can vote for the Albanese government which have with their own policies created the housing and rental crisis in this country in the last two years. Syd, they have bought in a million people, almost a million people and they have created around 265,000 homes. But we see in the Budget papers. Let me tell you what they’re doing in the Budget papers. They’re bringing in over the next five years 1.67 million people. That is completely totally and utterly ridiculous – unsustainable.
Caller
I wouldn’t ask this though. In light of what Mr. Dutton has said. I mean, both sides of politics for their various reasons have liked a bigger Australia. So have you guys finally read the room and you’ve gone – well actually we’d like to smaller Australia. In fact, we’d like a more manageable Australia.
Senator Cash
That is a very, very good point because what you are seeing at the moment is an unmanageable Australia. The fact that this morning I have spoken to people who literally were, you know I think it was 30 deep on the weekend looking to rent a property – they didn’t get it, by the way – says that you have a rental crisis in this country and we know that we have a housing crisis. So Peter has said to the Australian people we will stand with you and what we will do is we will cut migration. Why? Because this will free up housing in Australia for Australians. It is one of the levers that we can pull. We should be pulling it as a Government and it stands in stark contrast to Mr Albanese – 1 million over the last two years.
Chris Smith
You could have gone further Senator, this is a temporary cut a temporary cut to the permanent migration numbers which is about 45,000. You could have kind of swayed through the temporary visa numbers do.
Senator Cash
You also though need to balance this with employers who seek labour for the jobs we need them to do every single day – so it is a balancing act. However, what we’ve also said is we will work with the universities in terms of placing a cap on the number of international students who come in. We’ll also look at the humanitarian program and we will take that back to 13,750 – Labor have dramatically increased that. So again, this is what we believe is sustainable. It will absolutely free up more houses for Australians. We want to deliver back to Australians that great dream of homeownership, which under Mr. Albanese, it’s not a dream anymore, Chris. It is a nightmare. Because any young person Chris, I talk to young people every day in my job- you talk to them about homeownership under this government – they look blankly at you. They no longer know what you’re talking about. The feedback I’ve had all weekend being out and about in Perth is Mr. Dutton – he gets us. He gets the fact that you need to do something as a Government to make that dream a reality. And I have had every person I have met backing us in on the cuts to migration.
Caller
Now, my question to all of that is what will the final figure for your cut to immigration be back to the long term average. So you said your cut it back to you said you’ll cut the humanitarian program back to 13,000.
Chris Smith
Is it almost time Michaelia for a baby bonus. It’s almost time to say hey, can we start producing our own Australians now where we don’t have to put pressure on apartments and units etc. You’ll grow up in your own household, and then we’ll get people who are equipped, culturally equipped in terms of academically for the jobs that are ahead. It would be good if we if we had more kids.
Senator Cash
Oh, we’re also Chris, you know, in terms of reducing the migration numbers – what that does say to employers is you really now need to look at your workforce, you need to stop necessarily relying on overseas migration to just fill that job. Start training Australians, and that was very much a focus we had in our former Government and we have said we will continue ensure that people come in under our numbers in terms of labour market demand. However, employers do really need to step up and they do need to start training more Australians investing in more apprentices to ensure that we do have the Labor that we need to do those jobs.
Chris Smith
All right, retro Senator. Thank you very much. You’ve given more than enough time to us. Thank you very much.
Senator Cash
Great to be with you. Hope to do it again.
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