Topics: Living standard collapse under Labor; economy; Bruce Highway funding; nuclear energy

 

E&OE   

 

DAVID LIPSON:

Well, the Prime Minister continues his pre-election campaign blitz with a visit to the Queensland seat of Leichhardt today, which Labor hopes to win from the Coalition. The Federal Election must be held before May, but the PM isn't ruling out going to the polls as early as February. Angus Taylor is the Shadow Treasurer and joins me now. Thanks for your company. The PM is touring three states this week in what looks a lot like an official … an unofficial, I should say, election campaign. Peter Dutton’s still on summer holidays. Has Labor caught you on the hop?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, no David and thanks for having me this morning. Look, as you know, I've been out and about, as have many of my colleagues, as has Peter over recent weeks, and I've been making the very simple point that under the Albanese Labor Government's own failing plan for our economy, Australians won't see a recovery in their living standards until at least 2030. That's another two terms of Parliament, and this is on the government's own numbers, which the Treasurer tried to bury in his mid-year budget update and these are the messages that I think really count. Australians are poorer since Labor came to power and the real question that they'll be asking, and we’ll be asking as we go to the next election, whenever that might be David, is whether people can afford another three years of Labor and what's very clear from what Labor put out just before Christmas, tried to bury it, is that we won't see a recovery in living standards for many, many years.

 

DAVID LIPSON:

That’s an extrapolation from their numbers but what will you do …

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

It is their numbers.

 

DAVID LIPSON:

… to sort of turn that around?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

I was just going to say, it is their numbers. Their own numbers are saying that it's a failing plan, and we won't see a recovery in the standard of living until at least 2030. I mean, the truth is that we've seen an 8% reduction, more than that, in living standards since Labor came to power and the numbers they put out before Christmas tell us that the pathway back is not until 2030.

 

DAVID LIPSON:

Sorry. Sorry, we’ve heard that. But what will you do, yeah?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

You ask, what the better pathway is? Well, there is a better way, and it is about freeing up the economy and, in particular, making sure we've got business leading the way, investing, creating jobs, taking risks, driving not just job creation, but the productivity we need to deliver those rising real incomes over time. We’ve seen the exact opposite under Labor and whether you look at the construction sector, we’ve got the CFMEU that has deep links to the criminal underworld, failing to de register that, for instance. Whether it's in the energy sector, where getting more gas into the system has always been a priority, and Labor has failed to do that and has failed to lay out a pathway to large zero emissions base load generators. Whether it's in the financial services sector where they've dragged their feet …

 

DAVID LIPSON:

So that's a lot about Labor. Let's just talk about, specifically about your plans. You mentioned business. So what specifically will you do to sort of improve business certainty in Australia?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we will de-register the CFMEU. We've said that on multiple occasions. We will make sure we get more gas into the system to get the cost of energy to where it should be, as against the $275 claim that Labor made, and it's gone in exactly the opposite direction, of course. We will make sure that in the financial services sector we are freeing up, as recommended by pieces of work, good pieces of work that Labor said they supported, and have absolutely failed in terms of, for instance, getting advisors out into the field so we've got our financial services sector working the way it should. So these are all areas where we have taken strong positions, David, as you well know, and there are many others. We've also said, by the way, on the tax side, that we've got to make sure that there is incentive to invest for business, and that's why we've said there should be permanent accelerated depreciation for smaller businesses, and a higher threshold than Labor has claimed or has gone to and this is critical. If we're going to get rising real incomes, we've got to have the investment. We've got to have the capital stock that delivers that productivity, and that means investment from business and we're seeing businesses right now, as you know, record levels of insolvencies.

 

DAVID LIPSON:

Yep.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

It's the exact opposite of what we need if we're going to see the recovery we need to get back to the prosperity levels that were in place when Labor came to power.

 

DAVID LIPSON:

Can I just clear something up on yesterday's announcement from the government on the Bruce Highway in Queensland? Does the Coalition support that commitment to fund 80% of that state project?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, look, two points I'd make about this. The first is, we have long supported investment in the Bruce Highway. Government needs to be frugal at a time like this, investment in infrastructure is…

 

DAVID LIPSON:

Do you support …

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

… let me keep going. Investment in good infrastructure projects is crucial. We have also said back in September that we think it's appropriate that this one be 80:20, funding. What we haven't seen yet, David is the timeline of when the spending will occur. Labor cut funding to the Bruce Highway in previous budgets since they came to power, and we want to see when this money is going to be spent. Whether it's out in the never, never, or it's real. We haven't seen that yet, and we'll decide whether we support this particular proposal when we see those details, which we haven't yet seen.

 

DAVID LIPSON:

The government's released figures today claiming the Coalition's nuclear energy policy will leave Queensland economy up to 5% smaller. What's your response to that?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Oh, well the thing that's made the economy smaller is Labor. (Laughs) I mean GDP per capita has gone backwards seven quarters in a row under Labor. That's completely unprecedented, David. That's what makes the economy smaller, not lower costs of electricity, which is what our plan will deliver. We've laid that out. 44 per cent. 25 per cent on identical demand assumptions. Whichever way you want to look at it, this is a lower cost pathway for electricity and Labor can make up all the nonsense they like. They're desperate. I mean, this is a government that's been on the back foot, that's got things wrong, that is sending Australians on a pathway to poverty, not a pathway to prosperity and so they're in a state of desperation saying these sorts of things.

 

DAVID LIPSON:

Angus Taylor, we’ll have to leave it there. Thanks for your time.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Thanks for having me David.

 

ENDS.