TRANSCRIPT - ABC Afternoon Briefing with Greg Jennett

PAUL FLETCHER MP

Shadow Minister for Science and the Arts

Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy

Manager of Opposition Business in the House

TRANSCRIPT

ABC Afternoon Briefing 

12 SEPTEMBER 2024

Greg Jennett: Shadow Minister for Government Services Paul Fletcher joins me now. Welcome back to the program Paul. 

Why don't we start with aged care? A rather significant shake up and breakthrough courtesy of your own side's negotiations with the government. I'm not sure you've had a chance to see some of the cameos that the government's provided about out-of-pocket contributions that people will make themselves moving into the new system.

They seem to range on their examples from two and a half year to 16,000, $500,000. Is that going to be typical, do you think, or will it range significantly higher?

Paul Fletcher: Well, I think the starting point here is that Peter Dutton in the 2022 Budget in Reply speech indicated that he and the Opposition were prepared to look at sensible changes in relation to aged care. It's so important that we have a sustainable aged care system for the future and all of us, or many of us, are likely to need aged care in the future. All of us certainly will get old and so this is very, very important. Older Australians deserve a robust and reliable system of care.

Greg Jennett: You're comfortable with that shift to out of pocket expenses for more people?

Paul Fletcher: Well, let's be clear on where we are. What the Opposition has done is engage in good faith discussions with the government led by Anne Ruston, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, and of course involving the Leader of the Opposition. And we have as Anne, I think has made clear in her public statements, indicated that there are a range of initial elements of the bill that we thought were problematic.

Some significant changes to those have been secured. Things like grandfathering the position of people who are already in aged care or in home care.

Greg Jennett: You're saying that's solely a Coalition, a product of the Coalition?

Paul Fletcher: Yeah, Anne's made that clear in her public statements, and so what we now think is important is that this come into the public domain. All of this has been conducted, outside of public visibility for quite some time. The bill has now been introduced into parliament late this afternoon. We facilitated that and that is now a very good thing because all affected stakeholders can now see what's in the bill. Of course, there'll be a Senate inquiry which will give everybody who's affected the chance to put their views.

Greg Jennett: You'll support it in the end, though?

Paul Fletcher: Well all of this needs to be worked through. There has been significant, good faith discussion between the Coalition, and the government. But these are the government's reforms. It's important to be clear, developed by the government with all the resources of government. 

We have engaged in those good faith discussions and now it's important that it be that it's out in the open that there can be this full scrutiny.

Greg Jennett: Ok. I might take your colleague Anne Ruston around on some further questions there. One deal done. What about Environment Protection Australia? Is that edging any closer in Coalition negotiations with the government?

Paul Fletcher:  We have been clear and Jonno Duniam, our Shadow Environment Minister, has made it very clear that what we expect Labor to do here is to honour the commitment that they made during the 2022 election. That the Environmental Protection Authority, this proposed agency or authority, would be a data gathering body, but it would be a compliance body, but the proposition that it have new powers would be something that goes beyond what government had committed to.

Greg Jennett: And they won't come at that so far, evidently?

Paul Fletcher: Well there have been discussions but we've been clear that there would need to be more progress made than what is presently there. Now again, I'll leave it to Senator Duniam to explain that in more detail. We are conducting ourselves as a responsible opposition. 

We will engage in debate on the merits, discussion on the merits about legislation. We demonstrated our capacity to do that with the National Disability Insurance Scheme, legislative reforms that went through the parliament a few weeks ago after close engagement between the opposition and the government, and that's important. 

But at the same time we're certainly not going to give a blank cheque and as the Business Council of Australia has pointed out today, you know, the stakes are very high here. We're already seeing the minerals sector in particular under pressure. The number of new projects being approved has dropped. The number of people employed has dropped. This government has treated the mineral sector very badly. The mineral sector, the resources sector, is a powerhouse of prosperity for Australia and it's very dangerous to put that at risk.

Greg Jennett: I wonder if Tanya Plibersek might end up walking away from it? You can't answer that question. It's not even a question for you Paul Fletcher. Mis- and disinformation, Michelle Rowland has put what we might describe as mark two of a bill, on that finally into the parliament. The first one was just a draft. Does the Coalition view it as an improvement? You don't seem to be as het up about it collectively as you were about the draft last year.

Paul Fletcher: Well, let's be clear. Uh, Michelle Rowland released an exposure draft of the bill last year that was a complete disaster and it secured a withering array of criticism right across the political spectrum. Very, very ill conceived. It saw totally inappropriate roles for government officials in determining whether conduct was misinformation or disinformation. A dramatic change from the policy direction we'd been pursuing in government. 

So we were very clear we would not sign up to it. It was very roundly criticised. Now, many, many, many months later minister Rowland has come back and introduced just today a new or an amended bill, we're told, into the house.

Greg Jennett: So has she heeded all of that criticism in your view?

Paul Fletcher: It will go through our full, normal process of detailed engagement, and examination of it. I have to say we come at it from a position of considerable scepticism given what a mess Minister Rowland made of this the first time around. But we'll look at it and we'll do that before we express a view.

Greg Jennett: Give you more time to do that. Now finally, New South Wales electoral boundaries were officially settled today. Your electorate significantly altered. It does make Bradfield quite a honey pot for displaced candidates from North Sydney as well. You've got a Liberal Party division in New South Wales that's unable to run itself at the moment. Will your party resource, Bradfield, as though it were a marginal?

Paul Fletcher: I will be campaigning vigorously in Bradfield, both in the parts of Bradfield, that I've had the honour of representing since 2009 and the new parts of Bradfield that will be coming in. That's now been confirmed by the Australian Electoral Commission in the final result of the redistribution.

So areas like Willoughby, Northbridge, Castle Cove, Middle Cove, Artarmon, I look forward to representing the people of those areas. I'll be sad to lose some constituents in areas in the north of the electorate, like Asquith and Hornsby, Normanhurst, but they'll be in good hands with my colleague Julian Leeser.

Greg Jennett: You've got to fight on your hands, though, don't you? What do you estimate the margin to be once you've redrawn it all?

Paul Fletcher: Every election's a fight. No member of parliament has an entitlement to be re-elected. You've got to win the confidence of the electorate, and there'll now be around 125,000 people on the electoral roll in Bradfield. I will be working to make the case to them that the Liberal and National parties have a plan to get Australia out of the economic mess that we're in under the current Albanese Labor Government.

With real incomes down almost 9%, inflation sticky and persistent, it will take the Liberal and National parties to fix this problem. And that's the case I'll be making to the people of Bradfield.

Greg Jennett: All right, I'm sure you'll devote your energies to that. Let's face it, not a whole lot of Canberra sitting time left in this parliament. Paul Fletcher, we'll wrap it up there for this week and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Paul Fletcher: Thank you, Greg.