Topics: Government’s wasteful spending, Labor’s homegrown inflation, National Accounts 

 

E&OE   

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: 

Time to talk to Shadow Treasurer and Member for Hume Angus Taylor. Angus, do you know who works in your office?  

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

I do. But Bill Shorten clearly doesn't know who's working in his office. $620,000 in two years, can I give you a little bit more on this. He's done 28 speeches in that time. So assuming she wrote all of them, and maybe that's right, that's over 20,000 bucks each speech that we're all paying for. And it gets worse. Because there were already two speech writers within a team of 201 media and communication staff members. So this is just extraordinary. And it's another example of the government waste alongside the $450 million failed referendum and you see tens of millions being spent on a spin unit in the Treasurer's department. You're seeing grants being given to the CFMEU. We're seeing waste wherever we're looking now. And this is a government that's not take responsibility for it. We all pay for it and worse than that, this is what causes inflation. Government waste, government spending drives inflation, fuels inflation. $315 billion of extra spending since Labor came to power, $30,000 for every Australian household. This is killing us right now as we see inflation going up, not down unlike all our peer countries around the world.  

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: 

Well, and that's the point. We've seen now three, third monthly increase in inflation, in three months now. 3.6% inflation is sitting at, it's just it's getting to a point now where I mean, the Fair Work Commission has decided to raise the minimum wage by 3.75%. And nobody would begrudge lower wage earners more money in their pocket, but it would make more sense for government to try and drive the cost of living down rather than try and pay for it at the back end, which is going to be even further inflationary.  

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

No, it's exactly right. What we need is a government that does what is necessary to fight and beat inflation to fight this collapse we've seen in Australians' standard of living. 7% down since Labor came to power, and Australians all see it, the purchasing power in their pay packets has gone backwards, the purchasing power in their bank accounts has gone backwards. And this is a government that's not taking responsibility for it. We know it's homegrown inflation, we know it's being caused by the government, and waste and the sort of waste you've seen from Bill Shorten with the speechwriter is a good example. Wasted spending is something that only the government seems to be able to do because I tell you what, households right now can't waste their money, they can't afford to.  

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: 

The other thing, and it was an absolute train wreck interview on A Current Affair with Bill Shorten last night, the other issue was the amount of extra money that is being spent on administering the NDIS when the costs are blowing out so dramatically, and a suggestion that he's had to double the workforce to try and weed out the rorts. I mean, the rorts are so obvious to everybody else, I wonder why it's taking such a massive workforce to actually address it. And they don't seem to be actually achieving anything yet. 

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:  

Well, that's right. And we've been very clear to the government, we want to see the NDIS succeed. I think all Australians want to see the NDIS succeed. But it has to be sustainable. And we've reached out to Bill Shorten and to the government on multiple occasions, multiple budget in replies that Peter Dutton has said this very clearly, we want to work with the government to make sure this is sustainable. And that means there can't be waste in the system. There can't be rorts in the system. And we will do whatever is necessary to work with the government to make sure that doesn't happen. But Bill Shorten seems to be more focused on spin than substance. And this is a pattern across the government. Not only do they not take responsibility, they try to spin their way out of it. We've seen this with Andrew Giles. We've seen this with the Treasurer trying to explain why inflation is going up, not down. We're seeing it with Bill Shorten. We see it with the Prime Minister, he promises to take responsibility but frankly, every day in Question Time, he refuses to answer any of the questions that are given to him.  

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: 

Extraordinary. What are we expecting from the National Accounts? 

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

Well, it's pretty grim. We're seeing population growth, of course, 2.5% or so a year and economic growth is nowhere near that. So we're going backwards. Households are in recession. They have been for three quarters. Treasury didn't seem to understand that yesterday when questioned on this in estimates sadly, but we are going backwards, badly. And the expectation of all economists across the board is that we're going to continue to go backwards and we'll see that later this week. There is a better way, Stephen. Getting back to basics, which I think most Australians understand, where we make sure we make ends meet in government just as households are doing now. Bring pressure off inflation and interest rates, make sure our workplaces are competitive. All those basics, we all understand. But this government just seems to be going in a different direction.  

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: 

Do you still feel like we're heading towards an early election? 

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

That's up to the government. I mean, they don't seem to like being held to account, I have to say, which is the whole point of your editorial. So who knows when they're gonna go to an election. That'll be up to them. And it will be driven by politics, not what's right for Australia. It seems to be the case with all their decisions right now.  

 

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: 

Extraordinary. Angus, good to talk to you. We'll catch up in a couple of weeks.  

 

ANGUS TAYLOR: 

Thanks Stephen.   

 

ENDS.