Transcript - Doorstop Interview - Perth - Thursday, 17 March 2022

PATRICK GORMAN, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA: We've got day three of Scott Morrison's annual apology tour to Western Australians. Today, he's splashing a lot of money. Good on him. Always good to see investments in Western Australia. But what Western Australia really needs is a true partner in Canberra, someone who actually works with Western Australians rather than calling us cave people. Cutting deals with Clive Palmer in the High Court. Calling us North Korea, as Barnaby Joyce did just a few months ago. All of these things really make the announcements, that Scott Morrison always does just before an election, feel very inauthentic. And I think if we think about the problem that Scott Morrison has here in Western Australia is that he lacks authenticity when he says that he cares and listens to Western Australians. When it comes to the thing that he has done today, about announcing more money for the Edith Cowan University City campus, what we know about that campus is it's going to look beautiful and that's a welcome investment for the CBD. But that campus is also going to be like every university across Australia; incredibly expensive for working families to send their kids to. I got research from the Parliamentary Library last year that shows that a standard Law/Commerce degree at Edith Cowan University will cost $107,000 by the time the City campus opens up. $107,000 university degrees. That's what Scott Morrison is offering the people of Western Australia. It's what Scott Morrison is offering across the country. And we know when cost of living is skyrocketing, fuel fees are going up, childcare has gone up 39 per cent across the country and now we've got these hundred thousand dollar, US-style university degrees, that's not a vision for Perth city, it's not a vision for Australia. Over to you.

REPORTER: Patrick, is it a bit rich for you to criticise this project when WA Labor is taking the money with open hands and shoulder to shoulder with the PM this morning at the announcement?

GORMAN: Well, state governments have no role in the setting of university fees. I welcome the ECU City campus, I just think that it's a smokescreen. What we know is that people in Western Australia are going to pay so much more to go to that campus than they would have just a few years ago, because of the university fee increases that Scott Morrison snuck through during COVID just over a year and a half ago. So no, I think it's important that we welcome investment to Western Australia.

REPORTER: But you weren't just criticising the fees. I mean you tweeted “don't be fooled by Scott Morrison's shiny new building”. It's WA Labor's shiny new building as well, isn't it?

GORMAN: It is a shiny new building that's going to cost, by the time it's completed, near on a billion dollars. And my criticism is that they can have the shiny new building, and that'll be welcome, it'll be good for the CBD. But the cost to go to that shiny new building will be up to $107,000 for ordinary kids who are in my electorate who want to go to university. Students at Mount Lawley Senior High School, it's just behind us, they've got pay $107,000 to go to that university. So I don't give the Prime Minister any credit for giving with one hand and taking with the other. None at all.

REPORTER: Do you give Rita Saffioti and Mark McGowan any credit for their $49 million investment in the building?

GORMAN: Oh, look, I have welcomed the City Deal. I was very critical of how long it took the Federal Government to put the City Deal together. Let's remember, this was a City Deal that was announced when Malcolm Turnbull was Prime Minister. Now that's a very long time ago now, I think he announced that in 2016, so it's been on the cards a long time. And I know it's the State Government who are advocating saying, come on, you're cutting all these City Deals in other parts of the country, where is ours? I was standing alongside them, fighting to make sure this deal got completed. So of course, you know, State Governments have a responsibility for infrastructure, that's their part of the role. Scott Morrison has a lot more responsibility than that, including the research that I got from the Parliamentary Library, which shows that under his policies, that he put through at the same time he was cutting the City Deal, a Bachelor of Law/Commerce degree at Edith Cowan University is going to cost $107,000 by the time that shiny new campus is open.

REPORTER: The Prime Minister this morning insisted he never called WA cave people, do you remember that comment? Does he owe WA an apology for it?

GORMAN: He does owe Western Australia an apology. The Prime Minister called Western Australians cave people. He told us to get out of the cave. And why he did that, I only think he must have forgotten that West Australians have a vote, just like every other state in the federation. It was incredibly offensive. I called him out on the day that he made those comments. He still hasn't apologised for them. And what we see with this liar Prime Minister, is that he'll say one thing in Canberra, deny it the next day, and then he comes to Western Australia on his annual apology tour and can't even admit what he said just a few months ago.

REPORTER: And are you disappointed at all, obviously, they put those sorts of rivalries aside and were friendly this morning. But is there a point at all that the Premier wasn't with Anthony Albanese when he was here, helping him campaign, but he's happy to join forces with the Prime Minister?

GORMAN: The Premier has got a job to do. He was doing his job today, as he does every day. He has done a fantastic job over the last five years. I think West Australians, whether you're a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal supporter or a Labor supporter, you acknowledge that Mark McGowan has done a fabulous job. And when it comes to the question of what he's got to do, look I'm just glad, you know, I'd hate to have to, as part of my job, have to stand next to Scott Morrison when he's in full campaign mode. But the Premier has to do his job. And what I saw today from the Premier was very clear. He will be out there campaigning alongside Anthony Albanese, he said that very clearly. And we've seen that every single time. I've campaigned throughout the Perth electorate with Mark McGowan. He is a true Labor believer, and he wants, like every member of the state cabinet, like every WA Labor member, he wants to see an Albanese Labor Government, and that's what we're going to work on for the next 58 days to make sure we get that partner the Western Australian needs in Canberra. Thank you.

REPORTER: Thank you.