Assistant Minister for Social Security, Assistant Minister for Ageing, Assistant Minister for Women
KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Welcome back to the program. Joining me live in the studio is the Assistant Minister for Women, Kate Thwaites. Budget Reply tonight, they've leaked one thing and that is the fuel excise reduction. Is that something that will be well received by voters? Is it? Would Labor have been smart to match that?
KATE THWAITES, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY, AGEING AND WOMEN: I think what voters see from the behaviour of Peter Dutton and the Liberals in the last couple of days is that if they vote for them, they're voting for higher taxes. Peter Dutton and the Liberals have said they will take away a permanent tax cut that our Government has put into the Budget. So, when we're having conversations about what the choice is in this Budget and what the choice is in this election, we've been really clear, as we have been all along, about cost of living support that we are providing through tax cuts, through energy bill relief. At every stage this has been opposed by Peter Dutton and the Liberals and now they are saying they will take tax cuts away from Australian people. So, they're actually saying they are for higher taxes Kieran.
GILBERT: But in the short term, the fuel excise being halved, that's short term, as in people will feel it immediately and it's actually more in terms of the dollar saving compared to a tax cut.
THWAITES: Well, short term's the operative bit there. What we are talking about here is an ongoing permanent tax cut that eventually adds up to $50 a week versus Peter Dutton standing for higher taxes. Now, this is the Liberal Party, you've done this for longer than I have Kieran. You know that they sell themselves as being the people who will always bring your taxes down. They have very clearly said, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, that they are going to be the party that brings your taxes up. So, people can trust us to deliver this tax cut. We've in fact just legislated it and now they are saying they will take it away. And I think when we're having conversations, when people turn their mind to the choice in this election, where is the money for Peter Dutton's promises coming from? Is he going to be cutting Medicare? You know, he has said and he has form when it comes to Medicare, we do not know where he is going to get the money to pay for his promises and I am worried that it could end up being from Medicare and healthcare.
GILBERT: On the fuel question, though, you would agree that that is a potent issue for many Australians right now. It's part of the overall mix in terms of cost of living. It's something that it will be welcomed by a lot of people as they're filling up the bowser. It's 14 bucks a week for one tank, you know, double that for a family every week. That's sort of, that is a lot more than this tax cut. And when people are trying to feed their kids and get by today that, you know, we say it's short term, but at least a year of support that'll be well received.
THWAITES: I think when people look at cost of living challenges, and there are absolutely cost of living challenges for people in my community and communities right around Australia at the moment. And our Government knows that. And again, that is why we are providing permanent tax cuts. Not temporary sugar hits, not temporary relief, permanent tax cuts, alongside the other cost of living relief we've provided alongside measures in this Budget. If I go to my portfolio of women, measures that will help Australian women save on necessary healthcare, we have just listed for the first time in more than 30 years, an oral contraceptive drug on the PBS. Now, I've had many women come up to me and say what a difference that is going to make to them and their budget. So, we absolutely will continue to support women Australians with cost of living relief where their household expenses are.
GILBERT: And you know, all of those measures, a lot of noble ideas and a lot of great ideas, but the debt just continues to stack up. Do your voters raise that with you? Has the Government given up on paying back the debt?
THWAITES: Well, we absolutely are focused on responsible economic management and we have demonstrated that over our Budgets, where we have provided cost of living relief, where we do continue to provide cost of living relief, and where we are investing in services that are critical to our country. And I come back to Medicare, I come back to women's health. So, these things that Australians rightly expect to be there when they need them and to be delivered when they need them.
GILBERT: But they don't want us to keep putting everything on the credit card either, do they?
THWAITES: Well, then our question is, what is Peter Dutton cutting? So, is he cutting services for Medicare to pay for his promises? Is he cutting more jobs? Is he cutting our investments into supporting Australian women? Just last night the Senate passed a bill which will allow us to do more work to improve equality for women at work. Asking companies with more than 500 employees to set and meet targets to achieve gender equity. Now, this is a big thing for Australian women. It helps them earn more. It helps us do that work to drive the gender pay gap down.What we've seen is that Peter Dutton and the Liberals opposed that work. They continue to stand in the way of these things that do actually support Australians, Australian women with cost of living relief.
GILBERT: But when you talk about where will Peter Dutton cut, isn't it also the question, where will the Government look to find some structural improvement in the Budget? Because any economist would tell you that if you look at the next 10 years, there needs to be some structural shift in the way our expenditure going. You know, climbing NDIS expenditure, climbing defence expenditure, aged care, it's across the board.
THWAITES: I think if you look at some of those measures and the work our Government has done in those spaces, if you look at the NDIS, the work we have done to make sure that it's sustainable into the future, because it is a really important program that so many Australians with disability, their families, their carers rely on, we're doing the work to make sure it's sustainable into the future. Aged care. We had a whole royal commission neglected by the Morrison Government. No work done for almost a decade into aged care and into fixing the problems in aged care. Our Government has reformed that to make it sustainable, to make sure that older Australians have their rights respected there in aged care.
GILBERT: Sustainable is the word, though, isn't it? Sustainable's the word. If you want to look after the most needy, the most needy in terms of the severely disabled or whether it be in aged care, to have it sustainable, we can't be paying ever increasing amounts of interest every year, surely?
THWAITES: Again, this is where I say our economic track record stacks up, that we are doing the work on sustainability, on responsible budget management, the work that the Liberals never did when they were in government. They neglected both providing services, but they also didn't do the work on the economic sustainability side. So, again, Australians know when they go to the polls this time they are looking at Peter Dutton, who will promise them higher taxes, or our Government with tax relief, cost of living relief, massive investments for Australian women, particularly women's health. We are a Government that understands that Australians want this support and we are doing it in a responsible way.
GILBERT: Assistant Minister for Women, Kate Thwaites. Appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon.
