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
ABC Radio Perth – Drive with Gary Adshead
TOPICS: Federal election 2025, cost of living, cost of housing, petrol excise cut
28 March 2025
E&OE
Gary Adshead
The Federal election will be held on May the 3rd. Michaelia Cash the shadow Attorney General – Senator thanks for joining us.
Senator Cash
Great to be with you Gary.
Gary Adshead
Then, all right, okay, here we go. When it’s all said and done, yes, we know that there’s some cost of living, sugar hits. There’s the excise on fuel. It’s come from your side. There’s the tax cuts that are promised next year from the Labor the following year, 15 months’ time, I think that housing and the in-affordability of a home for people these days is becoming a massive issue more and more by the day. What is it that you will do that would speed up the process of people getting into their own homes?
Senator Cash
Yeah, look, it is a really good question, but also, you are right. It is absolutely an issue that is troubling Australians. So basically, we have made it very, very clear we will cut the migration intake to free up housing and restore what you and I both know as the great Australian dream of home ownership. Peter Dutton has made it clear to Australians he wants to be the Prime Minister for home ownership, for home accessibility and for home affordability. We’re going to cut the permanent migration program Gary. We’ve set it by 25%. We are going to ban foreign investors and temporary residents from purchasing an existing Australian home for two years. We are going to set stricter caps on foreign students, because what that does is relieves the stress on rental markets. And you might recall, last year in Western Australia, we announced that we will invest $5 billion in essential infrastructure. What that will do is it gets stalled housing projects off the ground, and the modelling shows it will unlock half a million homes. But then the other part of it is this, we will allow first home buyers to access up to $50,000 of their superannuation for a home deposit, because ultimately, it’s your money, it’s your super. And we believe that allowing a young person in particular to access this money will give them an asset for life.
Gary Adshead
The housing situation, of course, we want to say it will free up homes. The downside of curtailing the number of the migration and the number of people coming into the country, and that’s sort of what feeds into the economy. The economy can it cope with that.
Senator Cash
So when you look at what happened under Anthony Albanese, and it’s one of the reasons that you now have the housing affordability and accessibility issue in Australia. So in the first two years, the government brought in a million people through the migration program. Now that’s 70% more migrants than in any other two year period in Australia’s history. And I think Australians do understand, because even our polling Gary is telling us this, they’ve put one and one together, housing and migration together, and they know it equals housing affordability and accessibility crisis under Mr. Albanese. So they know that there are consequences. But the other issue is also this. After three years in power, this is also another reality for Australians – Mr. Albanese, yes, he talked a big game on housing, absolutely. But the reality is this, his government hasn’t delivered a single additional new home built under their failed housing policies. So that’s the record that Mr. Albanese has to stand on. We have been very clear under Labor migration will continue to put pressure on housing. It then puts pressure on infrastructure. It then puts pressure on services. So what you need to do is cut the migration tap. You free up housing. And as I said, you restore the great Australian dream of home ownership.
Gary Adshead
Now, on that gas reservation policy, in some way, you’d have to agree that sort of quite a Labor thing to do, isn’t it, in terms of a gas reservation policy, and indeed the market here’s talking about the energy producers. I was speaking to Samantha, she’s come out and said that this is wrong. This could be damaging, that you will make people stay away from investment, and you’ll affect supply challenges that are already there by creating a reservation policy, which must be adhered to for the East Coast. Do you accept that this is a gamble?
Senator Cash
No, absolutely not. And I mean, as you know, in Western Australia, we’ve had a domestic gas reservation policy for some time. Ultimately, gas is key to our country, Gary, as it is around the developed world. It’s key to manufacturing. It’s key to making electricity. You know, it’s key to getting the lights on. And I think what Australians also understand is energy is the economy. And you know, at the very centre of Labour’s cost of living crisis is the skyrocketing cost of energy. The reality for Australians as we go towards that May 3 Election Day is they are now paying some of the highest power prices in the world. And in fact, if you look at, say, comparable economies up to three times more than other comparable economies. This affects everybody. It is not just home owners and renters who are paying higher power bills. It’s our farmers, it’s our business owners, it’s our cafe owners. It’s our manufacturers as well, you know, and across the economy, what then happens when you have Labor’s energy crisis, it costs more to grow food, it costs more to produce goods, it costs more to store the food and the goods and to deliver those services. And then what happens? It’s all passed on to the Australian people. So, you know, Peter’s been pretty upfront. This is all about ensuring Australian gas for Australians. That’s it.
Gary Adshead
How do you do it, given that you’ve got people like the Australian energy producers saying that the Queensland down to Victoria choca block? Yeah, couldn’t take any more.
Senator Cash
And so, yeah, it’s a really good question. So I saw Peter Dutton was also asked about this today, and literally, this is what he said, after the energy producers actually dismiss the plan, they’re saying it would cause oversupply. And Peter basically looked them in the eye and said, Well, that’s good. Why is it good? Because you see oversupply, as we all know, in anything, it brings down prices. And that’s exactly what we want to do. And Peter basically said he is not there to argue for the gas companies. He is there to argue for consumers, for mum and dads across Australia, for small businesses, and in particular the 29,000 who’ve gone broke under Labor. So what we will do Gary is we will immediately introduce an east coast gas reservation policy. And what that does, it means a proportion of that gas has to be delivered to the domestic market, similar to Western Australia. You’ve got to fill your domestic quota before you can actually start to the export. And what it shows is it’ll secure it’s around an additional 10 to 20% of the east coast demand – gas, which would otherwise be exported for users in other markets, for consumers in other countries. But we’ve been clear, it’s our gas. It needs to be for our people. Australian gas for Australians.
Gary Adshead
I mean, yeah, I keep saying, yeah, but it’s lunacy to think there will be importing gas from Qatar and other countries.
Senator Cash
Well, you look at Victoria, I think Victoria is, actually Gary, a really good case in point, because that is exactly, exactly what is about to happen in Victoria. I mean, who would have thought that in a country that actually has an abundance of gas? Hence, the irony of the comments made by the gas industry that you have a state in Australia that has literally been crippled. You know that that’s a different conversation altogether, but their energy prices have literally crippled that State, and ironically, they are going to have to look to import gas. It is unacceptable, and we have been very clear, this plan prioritizes domestic gas supply. It addresses shortfalls. And what does that do? Reduces energy prices for Australians. This is all about ensuring Australian gas is for Australians. And if the energy producers or the gas companies want to argue against us, we say, go for your life, because we’re backing in Australians and lower energy prices.
Gary Adshead
Last question. You would see with what Labor are doing with the $5 5 a week after 15 months right? They’re saying that tax cut, as you know, whatever, that’ll disappear before you even get to get your five bucks. But they’re also saying the excise bringing down the price of the excise by 25 cents – they’re also saying that it’s just a sugar hit. Would you consider the excise and doing something structural around excise and road user charges to make that go away forever?
Senator Cash
So what we’ve said in the first instance is in understanding the pain that Australians are going through, you’ve got to give them tax relief. And the best way that you can get immediate tax relief to them is to reduce the price of per litre you know that fuel excise, and that is what we’ll do. Peter said, bring in that legislation on day one, so that that benefit to Australians, halving the fuel excise per litre, starts immediately. But what we’ve also said is this, in the first instance, yes, it’ll be for a 12 month period. However, we will monitor the situation and we will review it. And we’re also working with the trucking companies to ensure that the benefit is also passed on to them, because you are right, they pay the road user charge. So the answer is, in the first instance, let’s get the cheaper petrol flowing to Australians, because that’s across the economy, and everybody knows in particular in a state like ours, Gary, I mean, how many SUVs do you see out there every single day? Because we are such a big state. I mean, people don’t hesitate in WA to jump into their car in Perth, drive down to Bunbury, do some business down there, drive back to Perth. Tradies, they could be filling up two to three times a week. Now, $14 is what we sort of, say is the average you’ll save every time you go to the bowser on average. If you’re doing that two or three times, that is a significant saving to you. But what we’ve said is, yes, 12 months in the first instance, because we also plan to get inflation under control, unlike Labor. But yes, Gary, we will review it.
Gary Adshead
All right, I’ll let you catch a plane, Michaelia.
Senator Cash
Great to be with you.
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