Transcript - Doorstop Interview - Perth - Monday, 14 March 2022
PATRICK GORMAN, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Brilliant to be here at Riverside Gardens in Bayswater with the Mayor of the City of Bayswater, Filomena Piffaretti. We're here to make an exciting announcement about protecting and growing this beautiful riverside area, and make sure that we can fulfill the City of Bayswater's vision for an urban forest here in Bayswater. What we know is that Bayswater is sort of the garden city of Perth. It is an important part of the inner east, but we don't have enough trees. This makes our houses hotter, it means that we don't have as many beautiful places for people to play, and it means that we don't put as good a quality water back into our riverways as we otherwise could have. And that's why I'm proud to announce, as the Federal Member for Perth, on behalf of Anthony Albanese and the Labor team, that an Albanese Labor government will invest $200,000 in the City of Bayswater's initiative for an urban forest here in Bayswater. That means about 6000 trees will go right here. We're going to see this start to look like the native bushland that it once was. For many years, it was a tip. Currently, it's a green open space, but getting more trees here will mean that we have more birds flying overhead, we have more native animals, and it will mean a beautiful new facility for the people of Bayswater, and for people who want to visit this part of the inner east from all over WA, and indeed interstate. I might hand over to the Mayor to say a few things, and then I'll have something to say about the Prime Minister's upcoming visit.
FILOMENA PIFFARETTI, MAYOR OF BAYSWATER: Thank you, Patrick. The City of Bayswater welcomes Federal Labor's funding commitment of $200,000 towards our Urban Forest Strategy. This funding will help us continue our commitment towards increasing tree canopy and supporting the biodiversity along the Swan River.
GORMAN: And if we can just thank the Mayor for their strong advocacy. The City of Bayswater has been banging on the doors of politicians in Canberra and here in WA for this project, time and time again. The other person who's banging on the door in WA is the Prime Minister. We know that he's going to arrive tomorrow. The Prime Minister is doing his annual apology tour to Western Australia. This is what the Prime Minister does every year. He comes, he says 'I'm really sorry about everything we've done over the last year, please vote for me'. And while I'm here in Bayswater, talking about a comparatively small announcement, I'm sure we're going to see the Prime Minister both try and hoover up the cash, with his $14,000 a head fundraiser, and also splash the cash when it comes to trying to buy the votes of Western Australians. But the Prime Minister does have a lot of work to do on his apology tour. Over the last year, we've seen the Prime Minister call West Australians cave people, he refused to denounce Barnaby Joyce's comments that Western Australia was like North Korea, and he tipped in a million dollars into Clive Palmer's court costs after his High Court challenge. The Prime Minister has a lot of work to do here. Myself and the Federal Labor team are not going to give him an inch while he is here in Western Australia. We'll be watching everything he does, because we know this Prime Minister only acts in his own political interests. I am very sceptical about what he'll have to say while he's here, but it's going to be fascinating to watch. I might throw it over the questions.
JOURNALIST: Anthony Albanese has drawn level with Scott Morrison as preferred Prime Minister for the first time in two years. Labor still holds a commanding lead in the polls, this is another unlosable election, isn't it?
GORMAN: What I know is that we've seen huge political volatility, not just here in Australia, but around the world. And, for me, Labor has only won government from opposition once in my lifetime, so I know it is an incredibly hard challenge. And what we're seeing with the Prime Minister's visit to Western Australia this week is that the election campaign is really only just getting started. We know that people have been distracted through crises here in WA with the spread of Omicron, across the country with the awful floods that we've seen in the East, and indeed international crises in terms of Ukraine. So, there is no such thing as a certain election, I am definitely not going to rest on my laurels. I know that it is incredibly hard for Labor, from opposition, to win. Like I said, we've only done it once in my lifetime. So, polls come and go, but we're just going to work every day for the next 60 days, till that likely May 14 election, to make sure the West Australian people know what sort of a choice they have.
JOURNALIST: Do you think it could be won or lost in Swan, Pearce, Hasluck?
GORMAN: I've always said that Western Australia is a battleground state. For the first time in a long time, there is a lot of things in contention in Western Australia, and people have a very clear choice when it comes to what they choose, or how they choose to vote in Western Australia. We can have a Liberal Morrison government who continues to take Western Australia for granted, or we can have the sort of partner we need in Canberra under an Albanese Labor government.
JOURNALIST: And do you think it's the wrong time for Scott Morrison to be flying to WA for his campaign trail, given the current flood crisis over East?
GORMAN: Scott Morrison's the Prime Minister for the whole country, he hasn't been here for about 280 days, of course it's his right to come here. He could have come sooner, he didn't come after the budget last year, he's made a range of choices around that. So of course, he's welcome to come. But I don't think that in any way he can use the fact that he's here as an excuse for not doing what is necessary in his national leadership role in making sure that the flood recovery assistance gets to those who need it most.
JOURNALIST: It's kind of ludicrous that Scott Morrison is going to be speaking at a business function on Wednesday morning and Mark McGowan is still going to be in self-imposed quarantine, isn't it? That's just a ridiculous situation.
GORMAN: I don't think the Premier would be going to watch the Prime Minister speak at a Chamber of Commerce and Industry function.
JOURNALIST: But don't you think it's ridiculous that the Premier's spending a week in self-imposed, unnecessary quarantine, and we've got the Prime Minister flying in and actually mingling with the public?
GORMAN: I think it's good the Prime Minister is coming here. The Premier's been very clear on his reasons about maintaining faith with people who have had to do that really tough isolation. I've had to do that isolation myself a number of times. It's not easy, I just wish him well. I hope he had a few good things to watch on Netflix on the weekend, and I'm sure he'll be looking forward to the conclusion of that soon.
JOURNALIST: With the Prime Minister flying in, obviously cost of living emerged as one of the key election issues now. Will a Labor government deliver a cut in fuel excise?
GORMAN: There have been compounding and compounding cost living challenges for people, we've seen the increase in the cost of childcare go up about 36 per cent since this government was elected. We've seen increases in university and TAFE costs. We've seen a lot of things getting expensive, and this is just the latest in that round of ongoing increases in cost-of-living pressure. We will wait to see what is in the Budget. We'll wait to see what the Prime Minister has to say. It's not something that we are making any further comments on at this point in time, we'll see what's in the Budget. I think a lot of things over the next few weeks, you'll see that people want to see, where is the Prime Minister's blueprint for the future, post-COVID? Because so far, I don't really feel like we've got one.
JOURNALIST: So, you won't rule out a fuel excise cut?
GORMAN: It's not one of the things we're planning on doing at this point. You've seen that pretty clearly. We've been very strongly focused on where we know there have been long term cost of living pressures, things like childcare, things like education costs, university and TAFE, and the fact that Australians for years and years just haven't had a real increase in wages. If we can give Australians secure jobs, as we've said we'll do as Federal Labor through a commitment to put secure work into the Fair Work Act and make sure we get wages growing again, surely that's the best economic response, whatever the next economic challenges or shocks we have.
JOURNALIST: The state government wants to try and leverage the election campaign to get federal funding for an expansion of the ferry network. They're look looking Applecross, but I'm sure you'd like it to go east?
GORMAN: Well, the great thing is, wherever the ferries are start, they all end up in the electorate of Perth. So that's what that ferry proposal is about. I've been very supportive of an expanded ferry network for a number of years, I've spoken about that before. I've surveyed my community, they are keen to see expanded ferry services because it's good for the CBD, it's good for getting people into the city, it's good for taking cars off our roads, it's a beautiful way to travel. If you've been on the ferries in Sydney or Brisbane, it's a beautiful way to get around. I love the idea of expanding our ferry network. Whether that happens at this election or whether it happens right here or now, I think it's something that West Australians do generally get excited by. I'm excited by it. I'm sure the Mayor of the City of Bayswater would love to see that we have a ferry network that goes further up the Swan River. It's something that we should continue to discuss. It's an exciting conversation for our community, and I look forward to seeing where it lands off the back of the very interesting story on the front page of the West Australian this morning.
JOURNALIST: Do you have any preference on where in your electorate the new stop should be? And will Labor consider pledging some funding?
GORMAN: Well, we'll see what the particulars are. Obviously, there was some enthusiasm around the idea in the paper this morning. I would hope that it's not just something that goes simply the Applecross. That would probably be, I think, a missed opportunity, in my view. I also want to make sure that you make the ferries here in WA, you're not importing stuff. We've seen problems where ferries have been imported from overseas, not fit for local conditions on the East Coast, so there's a range of opportunities and challenges there when it comes to the question of where exactly, I'm not going to say whether it's here at Riverside Gardens or whether it's going to be near the Stadium or whatever else, that's something that will be discussed, and if there's announcements to be made, it will probably be someone more senior than me making such an announcement.
GORMAN: We'll leave it there. Thank you very much.