Opening Remarks: Full Ministry Meeting

Welcome everybody, and welcome to some of the new faces who are here around the Cabinet Room of our Government. It's an incredible privilege to be a Member of Parliament, to have the great honour of being in government elevates that, because that's how you can actually make change. And to serve in the Executive of the Government is an incredible honour, and I know that all of you won't take it for granted and will work each and every day. Our priority is, of course, cost of living relief. We understand that so many Australians are doing it tough. That's why we have delivered a tax cut for every Australian. That's why we've delivered $300 energy price relief. That's why we're very pleased wages are growing again, unlike the former Government that had low wages as a design feature of their economic architecture. In addition to that, we've got Cheaper Child Care, we've got Fee-Free TAFE. All aimed at taking pressure off the cost of living, whilst, of course, and making sure that it's designed to put downward pressure on inflation. Inflation peaked, of course, in the March 2022 Quarter before we came to office, at 2.1 per cent in that one quarter. Now we've seen it halve, effectively, since we came to office. We want to see further moderation in that. But one of the ways that we're assisting is, of course, turning Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses, and we've done that two in a row now, which is a great achievement of our economic team's leadership, but also of everyone who has had the honour of having portfolios and making sure that we look at ways of ensuring that every single dollar of taxpayers' money is wisely dealt with, rather than some of the policies that we saw from the former Government. We, of course, as well, want to make sure that we promote social cohesion and that we bring the country with us. So I spoke again at the State Conference on Saturday about the principles that I outlined before the election, about no one left behind, but also no one held back. Supporting that aspiration of Australians for a better life and a better future, whilst making sure that we look after those people who are vulnerable, whether that be in the NDIS or in aged care or other service delivery as well that Labor Governments will always seek to look after people. We live in a changing environment as well, and the transition we're seeing in the global economy to net-zero presents us with an incredible opportunity to seize the new industries the transition presents us. There's nowhere you'd rather be in the world with the resources that we have under the ground that will help drive the economy this century, as well as the best solar resources in the world in the sky that we're blessed with. And as well, we need to make sure that our labour through our workforce, receives the education and training, the first days in early education, right through school, TAFE and universities as we go forward. How we do things is important as well. We seek to bring the country together, our opponents, particularly led by Peter Dutton, is someone who division comes as his natural instinct. We've seen some comments today from Barnaby Joyce that are unworthy of any Australian, let alone a senior Member of Parliament, and that's a test for Peter Dutton. Whether that's acceptable or whether he has his fifth reshuffle, which should occur today as a result of those comments by Barnaby Joyce. It's one thing to use extreme language of Whyalla being wiped out, and roasts and other statements that he's made due to his obsessive opposition to any climate action, but it's another thing to speak about literally, people being wiped out, and there's no place for that in Australian politics. We do not want to go down the road that we've seen some other democracies go with that intense polarisation and division in this country. And so we'll see whether Peter Dutton is up to that test today. But for everyone here, particularly for people with new portfolios, congratulations. This morning was a great occasion with Her Excellency at Yarralumla, and I congratulate everyone, and I do acknowledge as well here the fact that we're sitting in a room where Linda Burney and Brendan O'Connor graced us with their presence at every Cabinet meeting. Brendan, for a long period of time through Shadow Ministries and Ministries and Linda, of course, is such a champion and received a very warm reception, of course, both of them at the Sydney Town Hall on Saturday. And I also want to acknowledge Senator Carol Brown, who people would be aware has had a health issue that she is dealing with, dealing with positively it must be said, but she needs to look after herself. She'll continue to represent the great state of Tasmania as a Senator in the lead up to the election and beyond as well, and will continue, just wanting to prioritise that. So I thank those three for their service and look forward to getting on with the agenda. We're the first Government in a very long period of time, we tried to get some research done through the library, and they couldn't find a government that had gone more than two years without any changes at all to the Ministry. That's a credit to the work that everyone did here. But with Ministers stepping back, obviously there always needs to be some changes as a result of that, and that's been done, I think, in a way that reflects well on the stability of our Government and the Caucus processes being respected as well. So, I thank you, for everyone who's played the role in that. Thanks very much.