The Hon Peter Dutton MP
Leader of the Opposition
Federal Member for Dickson
Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Shadow Attorney General
Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Senator for Western Australia
Senator James Paterson
Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security
Senator for Victoria
Mr Manny Cicchiello
Liberal Candidate for Aston
TRANSCRIPT
Doorstop, Rowville, WA
13 January 2025
TOPICS: Coalition’s commitment of $7.5 million to boost Crime Stoppers and keep Australia safe; Labor’s cost of living crisis; Labor’s bulk billing failures; ; Australia Day citizenship ceremonies; anti-Semitism; nuclear energy; Victoria’s sobering-up centres.
E&OE
MANNY CICCHIELLO:
Good morning everyone. I’m delighted today to welcome our Leader, Peter Dutton, to Aston. Can I say yesterday’s launch in Melbourne was absolutely fantastic. Peter’s vision for Australia, and his strong leadership, I truly believe in his vision. Let’s get Australia Back on Track.
Today in Aston we’ve met with some local residents who have suffered, been victims of crime, and we welcome Peter Dutton’s announcement to increase funding to Neighbourhood Watch. I’d like to now hand over to Senator Paterson for some remarks.
JAMES PATERSON:
Manny, thank you very much for having us here in Aston and for the way in which you champion your local community and stand up for them.
The stories that we have heard this morning from victims of crime here locally, are absolutely harrowing. The truth is, as we know, that Labor Governments – state and federal – are soft on crime and community safety has gone backwards on Anthony Albanese’s watch. Whether it’s the 280 violent non-citizen criminals which he released into the community – 65 of whom have already gone on to offend against other Australians – or the unprecedented anti-Semitism crisis that we’re now facing in at community, it’s clear that Australians are less safe under Labor.
I think the crisis of anti-Semitism is perhaps the worst on Anthony Albanese’s record. It was over a year ago now, on the 14th of October, that Peter Dutton first wrote to Anthony Albanese and called on him to convene a National Cabinet to deal with the crisis of anti-Semitism. If the Prime Minister had have acted then and taken this crisis seriously, maybe things would have been different, maybe we wouldn’t have had synagogues and cars being firebombed, maybe we wouldn’t have our Jewish community in fear, but that failure of leadership is one of the many reasons why we need to get our country back on track, and our support for Crime Stoppers today is just the first part of how a Dutton Coalition Government will do so. Michaelia?
MICHAELIA CASH:
Thanks, James. Keeping our community safe is a fundamental priority for Peter Dutton and the Coalition team. That is why our partnership announced today with Crime Stoppers is just so important – an additional $7.5 million over three years to them, to ensure that they can continue to do their great work.
This is, without a doubt, one of the most well-respected charities in Australia. It’s been in operation since 1987. As Ian Stewart, the National Chair of Crime Stoppers, said today, without the community, the police are often powerless, and that’s the link that Crime Stoppers provides. The community are able to provide information to the police if they want to on an anonymous basis, to assist them in solving crime, and the statistics alone speak for themselves. In 2023, there was around 10,000 charges laid as a result of calls to Crime Stoppers and around 4,000 arrests made. For every dollar that we invest in Crime Stoppers, you get around an $11 return for the Australian taxpayer.
So, as I said, keeping our community safe, it should be a fundamental priority of the Government – it clearly has not been under Labor – but under Peter Dutton, we will ensure that keeping our community safe is our fundamental priority, and our partnership here today with Crime Stoppers is evidence of that.
Ian Stewart, the National Chair of Crime Stoppers will now say a few words.
IAN STEWART:
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Crime Stoppers Australia absolutely welcomes this commitment announced by Peter Dutton of extra funding for Crime Stoppers into the future.
Crime Stoppers provides two primary services to the community of Australia. The first, of course, is a channel of communication where individuals who have information about crimes that are being committed or are concerned about particular suspicious behaviours can contact the police anonymously, if they choose, and Crime Stoppers provides that service. The second service we provide is a campaign service in conjunction with our local police. Whether that’s a national campaign or a local campaign, that looks and targets priority crime that occurs around the country. We’re very, very proud of the success we’ve had. You heard Michaelia Cash talk about some of the stats that have come, and we’re absolutely proud of that record.
More money for us means more services and a safer Australia. So, thank you for allowing me to speak today and I am happy to take any questions. Thank you.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks very much, Ian.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here today. Can I start by thanking Ian Stewart for being here. Ian, as you know, is a former distinguished Commissioner of Police in Queensland, one of our most decorated police officers in our country’s history, and now gives his time back through Crime Stoppers and does an amazing job. The crimes that are prevented, the crimes that are solved that he referred to, it makes a big difference in the fight against crime in our country. Ian, I want to say thank you very much to you, to the Board, for the work that you do.
The announcement today of $7.5 million will significantly augment the funding provided to Crime Stoppers so that additional work can be done and so that they can help meet some of their costs, which, like every organisation, every business, are rising. We can help police solve more crimes if people can contact Crime Stoppers, whether it’s a family member or it’s a neighbour, somebody in the workplace, if you know that snippet of information, or if you saw something on the weekend, then please call Crime Stoppers and provide that information to that service.
Manny, I want to say thank you very much to you. You made reference before to Neighbourhood Watch, which was a very significant part of our roundtable discussion, bringing together local residents. One lady who had been involved in the local community as an IGA store manager for over 20 years, has been faced with a machete and masked bandits who have changed her life. So when we talk about crime that we see on our television screens of a night-time, sometimes we just move to the next story, or you go to the next channel, or whatever it is that might be going on and you move on, but for those victims, people live with that psychological impact for the rest of their lives. Sometimes we forget about that in relation to crime and particularly crimes against the person. That’s why our commitment today is incredibly important.
I’m also very proud to be here with James and with Michaelia as well, who are a very significant part of our national security team and a lot of the work that we’ve put forward in our plan to get Australia Back on Track is about keeping Australia safe. It’s making sure that we can have a well-managed migration programme so that people know when they come to our country they’re welcome like in few other places around the world. We have been an incredible beneficiary of migration to this country, but if people commit crimes as non-citizens in our country, against Australian citizens, then they can expect to have their visas cancelled and for those people to be deported.
We know that in our getting Australia Back on Track policy document and the objectives that we put forward, it’s a reflection of our conversation with and the fact that we’ve listened to Australians from one end of this country to the other over the course of the last two and a half years – in my case, over the last 23 years – of listening to Australians and the priorities that they have, there’s no higher priority at the moment for Australians than the cost of living pressures that they’re facing under this Government.
The cost of power has gone up, the cost of food, the cost of insurance, people’s mortgages have gone up on 12 occasions under this Government and there’s no blue sky ahead, and the Prime Minister forming government after the next election in concert with the Greens and the Green-Teals will just be a continuation, in fact, a compounding of the problems that the Government’s created over the last two and a half years.
That’s why there is a better way, and our team is prepared to take government, and over the course of the coming months we’ll detail those policies and information, which I think will be crucial to Australians in the decision that they need to make about what is in their families’ best interests. How can we help back small business? How can we help grow a stronger economy? How do we help alleviate the pressure that families are under at the moment, and that’s exactly what we’ll be focussed on.
I’m happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Just on the money – maybe one for Ian. What will the money actually go towards? More call takers? More offices with his sort of commitment? And also, would you hope that there’s a bipartisan announcement made and something from federal Labor on this too?
IAN STEWART:
Look, obviously, we have been funded in a bipartisan way for many, many years, and while we welcome the commitment that’s made by Peter Dutton in the last couple of days to extra funding, yes, we would hope that potentially the current Government might match that similar commitment, because the more money we get, the more campaigns we can run, the more support we can provide to the police agencies both locally and nationally.
Those campaigns can target specific crimes, and during the roundtable today, I listened to some of those same harrowing stories about cybercrime, about violent crime, and these are exactly the sorts of campaigns that we’ve had great success in. Underpinning nearly every one of those crime types is the scourge of drugs and methamphetamine, which I know is a priority crime type right across Australia.
So, that’s where the money goes, and, as I said, the more money we get, hopefully the safer Australia will be with the community’s help.
QUESTION:
How do you feel about how states are responding on issues like bail at the moment. Peter Dutton talks about bail being the issue. Do you, as a former Police Commissioner, have a view?
IAN STEWART:
Look, I’m here today to talk on behalf of Crime Stoppers Australia, and really we provide, I think, a very successful service and our job is to encourage people to assist the police and to assist them by providing that information – anonymously if they choose to. So, it’s very, very important for us to retain our credibility very much in a bipartisan way, to make sure that we can provide those services. Thank you.
QUESTION:
You heard from a very tearful mum in that forum just before. Were you moved by that story? And I guess, how does it get to this sort of situation where a mum would prefer to see her son in jail?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Simon, I was moved by it. I think you couldn’t help but be moved by it, and it’s not an uncommon story of, you know with your own kids, they receive equal love, the same education, the same start in life and they take different pathways. In some families, that means that one’s academic, one’s not, one sporty, one’s not. But in Lisa’s family, it means that her fourth child, her youngest child, who’s only 14 years of age, has taken a different path to the other three, through no fault of her or her husband or the family environment that they’ve created. In fact, in spite of it. That young person is now out committing crimes, robbing people’s homes, breaking into houses, stealing cars, etc.. That is devastating for them, obviously for the victims, and I think Lisa’s gutsy call should be one heeded by every person in society – particularly around bail laws.
If there is no consequence, if there is no red line, if there is no ability for the police to have an enforcement mechanism, then these people will continue to commit crimes and the crimes will escalate. It’s a broken windows theory, and the problem is that people, particularly now, are getting a thrill out of social media and they need to continue to increase that thrill. It becomes an addiction for them. That’s why the bail laws are incredibly important. It’s why I think the State Government here in Victoria, as was the case in Queensland, need to listen very carefully to the residents we spoke to today, but to the people of Victoria, because I think Victorians have had a gutful of weak bail laws and the repeat offenders that are cruelling lives and really destroying communities.
I think the Brad Battin approach and the practical way in which he will bring his skill set to the fore, I think will be incredibly important in the run up to the next election.
QUESTION:
What do you make of the fact that Brad Battin’s taken over the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party? Do you feel any sadness that John Pesutto got booted by the State Division?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, look, I wish John all the best, but I’m excited by Brad’s leadership. I think the way that he has demonstrated his commitment over the last couple of weeks to core values and the way in which he’s been able to bring his team together, I think it provides that credible alternative here in Victoria. It’s not just here at a state level, but at a federal level where Labor has let people down. The Labor mismanagement of money here in Victoria, which is resulting in the lack of funds going to provide support to police. I mean, why are we seeing police leave Victoria and be recruited to Queensland? Because of money, of conditions, and because of a frustration with the state government. I think there is a much better way.
At a federal level, Anthony Albanese, has been weak like Jacinta Allan when it comes to law and order, by weakening laws. The numbers of people that we kicked out who had committed offences as non-citizens totalled, during my time as the Minister, about 6,300. These are murderers, rapists, paedophiles, people who have been involved in drug trafficking. Those people aren’t being kicked out by the current Government and as a result, we’re seeing an increase in crime across the country.
There is a better way and there’s a better way of getting our country Back on Track, and that’s if we can change government at the next election.
QUESTION:
You’ve had some pretty key retirements. Do you have a timing on the reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet?
PETER DUTTON:
No, we’ll announce that soon. One of the problems that not every leader has, but I certainly do, is that we’ve got a real depth in our batting order. We’ve got some incredible talent on the frontbench and the backbench and it’s always hard to find a spot for everybody, obviously. But we’ll make that announcement in due course.
QUESTION:
Is one of these people likely going to be Shadow Foreign Minister?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, they’re superstars! And if Manny can get up…
QUESTION:
You can’t pick between the two?!
PETER DUTTON:
…if Manny can get elected, then I can tell you, we are a seat closer to getting government. That’s what matters, because I really want our country to be the winner of the next election. I want to help families and I want to make our community and our country safer, and that’s a key part of our offering at the next election.
QUESTION:
Should the Coalition preselect a woman to run in Bradfield?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, that’s an issue for the preselectors. Again, as you’ve seen in previous contests in Bradfield, you get a great depth of talent and there are a number of good candidates and that’ll be a matter for the preselectors.
QUESTION:
Just on Medicare, the Labor Government says that this election will be a referendum on Medicare. What do you make of those comments and what proposed changes will you be looking at?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think in part it will be.
Look, there are a couple of points to make about Medicare. One is that when I was Health Minister, the bulk billing rate was 84 per cent, it went up to 88 per cent when we were in government, and under Labor it’s at about 77 per cent. So people will be right to mark down Labor at the next election if they’re voting on health. As Health Minister I increased hospital funding, we put more money into medicines, into medical research. I established the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund.
So, in terms of being able to manage health, you need to be able to manage the economy so that you can put more money and resources into health and manage it effectively. This is where the Prime Minister has failed. The Prime Minister is talking about the next election and what the next term will look like. I don’t know what this term of parliament has been about for the Labor Government. I mean, what has the Prime Minister achieved over the course of the last two and a half years? These are lost years for our country. They’ve made bad decisions in the health portfolio, in the migration portfolio, in the economics portfolios, and Australians have paid the price for that. That’s why I think we need to really take stock of all of these issues.
Labor will run around with their ‘Mediscare’ campaign, but the fact is when we’re in government, Medicare always does better off. That’s certainly the case during our period compared to this period in government now.
QUESTION:
I’m not sure if you heard but the PM on Melbourne radio said this morning you represent a quote, ‘cold hearted, mean spirited’ and ‘nasty’ style of government. What do you make of that assessment?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, I think you’ll hear this every day from the Prime Minister and from Jim Chalmers and others because they don’t have anything positive to say. I mean, if they had a track record, if they had a two and a half year period of achievement and of success for our country, they’d be talking about that. But of course they can’t. They’d be talking about what they have achieved this term before they start talking about what will happen next term.
The last couple of months, let’s say the last six months of this term of government have all been about what they think they might legislate or do as a priority in the next term of Parliament. Why wait until then? They haven’t had a plan, and since the Voice where they wasted $500 million, they’ve divided the country, they’ve fuelled inflation as the Reserve Bank Governor points out. That’s why it’s not just your power bill at home, it’s not just your grocery bill, it’s not just your insurance bill, but it’s also the farmers’ bills who have gone up. That’s why grocery prices have gone up. It’s why general practice at the moment is suffering because they’re small business owners and 26,000 small businesses have closed in our country under this Government’s watch. Therefore, those small businesses, like general practitioners, are paying more for their electricity, more for their insurance, more for their rents. That’s why they’re finding it more difficult under this Government to provide bulk billing services.
Under our government, bulk billing rates were higher and they will be higher again under a Coalition government because we can manage the health system, we can manage the economy, we can manage national security, and we can get our country Back on Track.
QUESTION:
Just on Australia Day, do you think local governments should – there should be some more signals to them to reinstate citizenship ceremonies back at a local level? And also, you probably would have seen the figures out this morning about sentiments towards Australia Day. What did you make of that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Simon, I think we live in the greatest country in the world and I’m incredibly proud of Australians and who we are. I’m proud of our indigenous heritage, I’m very proud of our migrant story and I’m very proud of the fact that we are a country that should stand up and protect and defend its values. People in uniform have done that over generations. Why government appointments like Stephen Smith would be ashamed of our country is beyond my comprehension.
Why the Prime Minister made a decision to stop councils or to allow the councils to stop holding Australia Day ceremonies on the 26th of January is beyond me. So, the Prime Minister sent a signal to those councils that Australia Day didn’t matter and that it was something to be ashamed of. But the Prime Minister doesn’t talk publicly about that, but that’s exactly what he did.
So, would we reinstate the requirement for councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day? You bet. It’ll be done in the first 100 days and it will be a sign of pride and nationalism in our country. I want us as a population to be united. I want us not to be divided, but I want us to stand up for what we believe in. We will do that again and we will have pride again in our country. And we’ll be our best country if we stand together and we’ll only be able to do that if there’s a change of government at the next federal election.
QUESTION:
On the Prime Minister’s comments this morning, is he ramping up a personal campaign against you and are you willing to go personal against him?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, I just think the personal campaign will continue. But to me, what’s more important is what we can do to help Australians get through the cost of living crisis that Labor’s created. Australia hasn’t experienced a two and a half year period like this since the Whitlam era. If we have another three years of an Albanese Government or an Albanese Minority Government with Green-Teals and extreme Greens, then it will be disaster for our country.
I want to make sure that we can provide support to families, that businesses can flourish, that they can employ more people, pay more taxes, contribute to the economy, so that we can provide funding to Crime Stoppers and other organisations.
The Prime Minister is embarking on the personal attacks because he doesn’t have a positive story to tell about himself. If he had a successful period as Prime Minister, if he’d had a period of achievement over the last two and a half years, he wouldn’t need to continue to make up these lies and throw this mud. People want more from their prime minister, and unfortunately, this Prime Minister, who’s the weakest that we’ve seen since Federation, is leading in a way that makes Gough Whitlam look like a competent leader of our nation.
QUESTION:
Do you support a National Cabinet meeting to address anti-Semitism?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes. Very strongly. I think one of the most shameful periods in our history is unfolding before our eyes at the moment, and it’s the Jews today, who is it tomorrow? If people who have a background of having come from Asia or the Catholics or the Protestants or the atheists, whoever they might be, I mean, are they the target of the next hate crimes? Is that where we’re headed?
The Prime Minister had an opportunity on the 9th of October to stand up and to send a very clear message that anti-Semitism was not to be tolerated in our country. He chose not to do that. The campuses across the country of our universities where the scenes of hateful crimes, of slogans, of anti-Semitism, and it was tolerated by our Prime Minister for months and months and months. It wasn’t closed down. Now we’re seeing, as James points out before, we’re seeing an attack on Jewish communities, on people’s homes, on their cars, on their places of worship. The Prime Minister says, ‘oh, well, I’ve done everything I can’, which is next to zero.
We’ve got Jewish Australians who are out there saying that they would feel safer living in Israel, a country that’s under the threat of nuclear attack, than to be living in Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane. It’s just completely unacceptable. I have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism, and I promise you that from day one, after we win the next election, we will have a very heavy response to those who are involved in anti-Semitism in our country. That will be very clear, I can promise you. We’re not going to tolerate that sort of behaviour and we’re not going to allow Australian citizens of any background, of any religious belief, of any migrant past to be treated in that way. That is not something that is part of the Australian character.
Just on the other part of your question, I wrote to the Prime Minister in November of 2023 asking for a National Cabinet to be convened. We’re 14 months past that and the Prime Minister still hasn’t responded to that letter. I believe that that’s when the anti-Semitism taskforce should have been established. The Prime Minister should have sent a very clear and definite and strong message to the Premiers and to the Chief Ministers and to the Police Commissioners that we have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism. The Prime Minister chose not to do that and now he’s talking about having a National Cabinet. It should have been held by now and it should have been held well before a synagogue gets firebombed, before cars are the subject of arson attacks, etc. So, would I support additional sentences and measures? Absolutely. If that’s what’s required, if that’s the advice that’s provided to us as a government, we will legislate for that immediately.
QUESTION:
You’ve spoken about Labor’s broken promise of the $275 reduction in power bills as it was based on modelling. If that modelling is wrong, how can you and your opposition depend so heavily on all the modelling for the nuclear costs being accurate when the modelling always turns out wrong in some aspects?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, that’s why we didn’t use Labor’s modeller. That’s the reason. We used a model of who’s been used by Labor at a federal and state level. When you look at the work that Danny Price has done, he’s the Australian leading economist when it comes to energy policy.
The fact is that Labor has punched no holes at all in the assumptions that have been made by Danny Price. It shows that our policy of nuclear power, which is zero emissions, not only will it help us meet our emissions target commitments by 2050, it will also underpin the renewables that are in our system. We strongly support renewables, but we can’t pretend that the IGA that we were at this morning can run their cold rooms 24/7 when intermittent part-time power doesn’t provide that.
So, I can tell you in terms of the economic modelling that we’ve got, I’m very happy with it and I think it shows a pathway forward for Australians where our proposal will be 44 per cent cheaper than what Labor’s putting forward. Those billions of dollars will be put back into keeping our community safe, providing support to Crime Stoppers, putting money into hospitals, into policing, putting money into infrastructure, into the NDIS, into defences.
These are all incredible investments that need to be made for our country, but they can’t be made under Labor because Labor can’t manage money. They have a disastrous energy system which is sending our economy broke and we’ve had 26/27,000 businesses that have gone broke over the last two years. They have created an almighty mess and once again, it will be the job of a Coalition Government to clean that up and get our country Back on Track.
QUESTION:
Very quickly, as a former cop, do you think there should be sobering up centres to try and combat public drunkeness? So, Victoria has them and they’ve hardly been fully used.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, look, I’ve seen the debate here in Victoria and full marks to Brad Battin and others. I think Brad is showing to the Victorian public here that he reflects the view and he stands up for the values of people in the suburbs and the people right across regional – and in fact, the whole of Victoria. Labor can’t manage money. They say that they’ll put money into projects but either the houses don’t get built or the services don’t get utilised because for them it’s just a slogan and a promise. We need a government that can deliver and Brad will deliver that government here in Victoria and we will deliver it at a federal level.
I think the police should be given every resource that is possible so that they’ve got many tools in their tool bag to deal with whatever situation they’re confronted with. If a system is failing, then it shouldn’t be the subject of further funding. The funding should go into systems which will work and provide better safety options for the community.
Thank you very much.
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