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
TRANSCRIPT
Sky News – Steve Price
30 August 2024
TOPICS: Albanese weak leadership, Labor’s renewable energy policy
E&OE
Steve Price
Joining me now live from WA is Senator Michaelia Cash, good to see you. Those bush summits, I think this week, wherever they were, Senator, actually spoke some truth to what real Australians are thinking.
Senator Cash
Absolutely, and just look at the disaster that is energy policy under the Labor government. I mean, Chris Bowen is being shown to be both a coward and a con man. Under Chris Bowen and Mr. Albanese, Australians need to understand you are heading towards energy poverty. They promised cleaner energy, Steve, with their renewables only experiment. Well, guess what? Today, Chris Bowen took out the trash, and what he forgot to tell Australians was the recent data shows, since Labor came to office, emissions are now 1% higher. Forget about the cheaper energy they promised, the $275 off your energy bill. Australians are struggling every day to pay their power bills, with some Australians now paying in excess of $1000. And let’s talk about consistency. Well, Mr. Albanese, you need to stand up and advise Australians under your renewables only energy policy – when the sun stops shining and the wind stops blowing, how do I turn my lights on? So Gina was stating the blinding obvious. Under Labor, Chris Bowen is both a coward and a con man, but you’re right – more and more Australians are finding out.
Steve Price
Yeah, I want to get your view on the sense that I get that out in the regions, definitely, but also, I think in suburban Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, no matter where you are, people are now, I think Michaelia, starting to actively question the scale, the cost and the disruption of this rush to solar and wind. They’re saying, “why are we destroying our own country here, for what purpose?”
Senator Cash
Absolutely. And Steve, all Australians should actually have a look at the maps that they saw at the Bush Summit, because they actually show the Australia that we love and hold dearly today, will not be the Australia that we know under Chris Bowen. Again, Labor have put all their eggs in the renewables basket. No other country in the world Steve, is doing that. All the Coalition is saying is, you need a balanced energy mix. We will deliver a policy to Australians that does provide them with the cleaner energy they want, that absolutely will provide them with the cheaper energy they so desperately need, but more than that, will ensure that we have energy security for decades and decades and decades to come. Mr. Albanese is presiding over a country that is on a spiral towards energy poverty. Mr. Albanese doesn’t seem to understand that energy security Steve, is national security, and they are compromising Australia’s national security with their bizarre, I just don’t even understand it, renewables-only approach.
Steve Price
So pull out a map of Victoria, as I just mentioned there, and this came out at the bush summit that was held in Victoria. 70% of Victoria is either going to host a solar farm, a wind farm, or transmission lines. And I can tell the farmers are going, “not here, mate.”
Senator Cash
And what’s worse is – I’m laughing, because it is just so unbelievable. What’s worse is you look at these maps, and you then think, well, okay, perhaps Mr. Albanese will deliver me the cheaper, cleaner, consistent energy. That is just fairies living at the bottom of the garden. As I said, today, is confirmation with the data that came out that under Mr. Albanese’s experiment with Australia’s energy security, emissions under Mr. Albanese’s government are almost 1% higher. That is a fact. Australians are not getting the cheaper energy Mr. Albanese promised them. He lied to them, basically, didn’t he? They are now paying almost, in some cases, $1,000 more. And as for your consistency, again, the simple questions can’t be answered. When the sun stops shining and the wind stops blowing, how do I turn my lights on? Energy poverty is Mr. Albanese’s plan for Australia, and Steve we’re heading there.
Steve Price
Well, to that point, let’s have another quick listen to what Mrs. Rinehart had to say today.
Gina Rinehart
Which services would you like cut without the mining industry revenue and how much more tax would you like to pay? Let’s keep that uppermost in our minds and encourage others to. Why jeopardise this bonanza? Why kill the geese laying the golden eggs?
Steve Price
Well, she’s right, isn’t she?
Senator Cash
Of course she is. She has basically stated exactly what we are committed to in the Coalition. Peter Dutton has made it clear – a strong mining industry in Western Australia equals a strong economy for all Australians. In the last 10 years, the mining industry, despite what the Greens and Labor say about them, have paid around $252 billion in wages to Australians. That’s Australians that wake up every morning and rely on the mining industry for their job. But in addition to that, the mining industry has paid around $357 billion in the last decade in taxes and royalties. So when Mr. Albanese attacks the mining industry, as he is doing, the Greens, they’ve already said, if they are in government with Mr. Albanese, there will be a 40% super profits tax. It’s pretty obvious. Australians need to start thinking very carefully. What services am I now prepared to give up? Is it going to be, I don’t know, my health services? Is it going to be schools? Is it going to be my road infrastructure? Because something has got to give. And when Labor and the Greens look at “where are we now going to make up that money that comes into government because we’ve destroyed our mining industry?” Well, the Greens have said, half a trillion dollars – they are coming after the mining companies and the Australian people. Australians need to wake up. Greens and Labor – again, energy poverty, we’re heading down that path. But more than that, what services do you want cut? Because under Mr. Albanese and the Australian Greens, you destroy our mining industry. You attack them. There’s only one outcome. Money doesn’t go to the
Federal government. The Federal government has to say to Australians, these are the services we are going to cut, and that is going to be Australia’s reality, Steve, if you vote back in Mr. Albanese, or worse, Mr. Albanese and the Australian Greens.
Steve Price
Well, God help us if that happens. I mean, just finally trying to be vaguely optimistic. Is there no adults in the federal Cabinet, that we have a cabinet system of government that have got the courage to step up and say, “listen, guys, we’re going too quick and we’re going too hard. This ain’t going to work.”
Senator Cash
The answer to your question is a very simple “no.” But the reason is this: Mr. Albanese is not a leader. Leadership begins at the top. Mr. Albanese has shown with his backflip on the census question. Last week, he had his ministers out there saying, “well, we can’t go down this path. It’ll divide Australia.” He was leant on by the Greens. He was leant on by a few backbenchers, and this week, “oh, sorry, I’m doing a backflip. And now we will have that particular question.” It does not matter who leans on Mr. Albanese, because he does not know what he personally stands for. Australians need to understand he will go whatever way the breeze is blowing, and that now filters down to the people in his cabinet, his ministers and the Australian Labor Party. With Peter Dutton, though, what do you get? You get someone who is principled, who you may not like him, but a bit like John Howard, guess what? You know Peter Dutton will fight for you. He will stand for you. But more than that, you know what Peter Dutton stands for, and that is the leader that Australia needs, not the insipid and weak Anthony Albanese, who does not know- and shows it every day – what he stands for. That is dangerous, Steve a dangerous place to be, but it’s also dangerous to have for Australians a weak leader.
Steve Price
Michaelia Cash, have a great weekend. Thank you very much for joining us tonight.
Recent Comments