Transcript - Doorstop Interview - Parliament House
SUBJECTS: Budget 2020; Youth unemployment; University fee increases; Centre for Disease Control; WA Border; WA Secession; Tax cuts.
PATRICK GORMAN, MEMBER FOR PERTH: The test for this Budget is does it deliver on the Government's supposed promise that it will be a jobs budget? Does it genuinely deliver on jobs for young people?
Even before this pandemic we saw youth unemployment at incredibly high rates. 14 per cent and more in Western Australia. The test is does it deliver for people who are trying to retrain themselves for a job. And we know this Government increased university degrees through their university reform package. By forty five to seventy five thousand dollars. Making an arts degree three times more expensive than when I studied an arts degree 15 years ago.
The test of this budget is does it do anything for working families who are struggling with the costs of child care. In a system that has been disrupted. Month by month by month.
The test for this budget is does it actually have a plan to get us through this recession? The Morrison Recession. We know that it's based on some pretty heroic assumptions. An heroic assumption about a vaccine being available next year. An odd assumption about the WA border being in place until the 1st of April next year. And a completely inaccurate assumption about the iron ore price.
So it is going to be interesting to see whether all the numbers in this package actually line up together. So far from what has been leaked out I don't think they do.
Two other quick matters. Labor has announced our support for a Centre for Disease Control. That is something this Government should have already been working on by now. It is incredibly clear we need more coordination between the states. And more coordination on how we get ready for the next pandemic. That, like it or not, there will be another one.
And finally, in my home state of Western Australia the great West Australian newspaper, The West Australian, the paper of record. We've seen some polling today showing 28 percent of Western Australians surveyed supported the idea of WA secession. Secession is a terrible idea at any time. It is even worse in the middle of a pandemic. We do not make this country stronger by tearing it apart.
Secession would have destroyed this country if it was successful at the last referendum in 1933. It's a terrible idea. I've already committed to campaign against it but I know those forces, including many in the Liberal Party, are all for tearing apart this country.
JOURNALIST: Just on what you say is a heroic assumption about the vaccine, do you think there will be a vaccine available by next year, is that likely given some of the commentary we have heard?
GORMAN: I am by nature an optimist. I want there to be a vaccine as soon as possible. As soon as possible. I want it to be safe, I want it to be manufactured and distributed across the world. We have seen some comments from the World Health Organisation on what that distribution should look like.
I just don't think in terms of prudent, conservative assumptions that we normally get from Treasury, that you normally get from the conservative side of politics. It doesn't strike me as a conservative and prudent assumption.
JOURNALIST: Just regarding the Job Ready Graduates Legislation, Rebecca Sharkie and Centre Alliance have noted the benefits to regional education. (inaudible). What's your response?
GORMAN: My message when assessing any piece of government legislation is that unfortunately this government has made an artform of packaging good with bad.
Packaging investment in the regions at the expense of student fees. Increasing the fees for university students wherever they live be it the cities or the regions. Many regional students come and live in my electorate in Perth and study at Edith Cowan, UWA, Curtin University and even Murdoch.
Regional students don't just study in the regions. I say to them and to everyone who is looking at this legislation. If you want to do the best by regional students, if you want to do the best by students across Australia make sure every student can afford to go to university wherever they study and whatever it is they choose to study.
JOURNALIST: Just on tax cuts, does Labor support stage three of the tax cuts that the government has been flagging?
GORMAN: I want to see tax cuts for low and middle-income earners. I want to make sure that people who work really hard in low and middle-income jobs get a tax cut. That's my priority. How it is all packaged together with a $55-dollar tone US Iron Ore price and all these other weird things that are briefed out from the budget, we will wait and see.
But my priority is tax cuts for low and middle income working Australians. Thank you.