Press conference in Rippon Lea Estate, Victoria, with Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek

Subjects: Funding for heritage places; nuclear energy; impact of inflation; government policy on domestic violence. 

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: ... here at Rippon Lea, and we are also today announcing a $400,000 grant to look after the Royal Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne. These are just two examples of the investment that the Albanese Labor Government is making in protecting our heritage places around Australia. Each year we invest around $30 million in protecting, rehabilitating and upkeeping our fantastic heritage places.

Australians really value their natural environment, and they really value the culture and heritage of our country. And being able to help community organisations, the National Trust, and other organisations to protect and care for places like this and, very importantly, keep them open to the public is a great opportunity for the Commonwealth.

And I know, just as Josh has said he has been a visitor here many times over the years, he also as the Federal Member for Macnamara has been a really strong advocate in making investments like this in his local community. And today we are announcing $100,000 for Rippon Lea, but I think the last time we visited we were at the Elsternwick Golf Course, which we are rehabilitating into a chain of wetlands which will provide beautiful, much-needed green space for the people of Macnamara and also habitat. You wouldn’t imagine how many threatened species and Australian animals and plants you can still find in the heart of a [indistinct] place like Macnamara, but you can. And we’re helping Josh to protect those as well.

Any questions about the heritage investments that we’re making?

JOURNALIST: Could you maybe talk us through what sort of a return you expect from investments in heritage listings like this?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, you know, the best return we make on investments like this is making sure that special places like this are protected for future generations, and keeping them accessible to the public is particularly important for me. I know that so many volunteers have contributed to making this place the success that it is but also to making sure that people have the opportunity to visit, to feel a sense of ownership and vibe about this place.

Our investments are really about making sure that Australian history, Australian culture is protected and preserved for future generations. I really think this is such an important part of expressing our Australian identity. We’ve got 65,000 years of Indigenous history and culture here in Australia, and that’s why we’re listing places like Murujuga and we hope Cape York on the World Heritage List. We’ve got an incredible history of first contact and colonisation. That’s why we’re looking for World Heritage nomination for the Parramatta Female Factory, looking at that convict heritage, for example.

We’ve also got extraordinary examples of art and architecture through periods like this, through the gold rush years here in Melbourne. This phenomenally rich example of the art and architecture of the time deserves to be preserved, has to be preserved, for future generations because it tells the Australian story and because it is unique, it is beautiful and we want future generations to be able to enjoy it just as we do now.

JOURNALIST: And just on another issue – the EU’s Energy Commissioner has spoken about considering nuclear power in the energy mix when countries are deciding on their sort of renewables future. I guess, what is your response on that, and will you be considering that in the future?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we won’t be considering nuclear power. And the reason is we’ve got the world’s richest resources of solar and wind and pumped hydro. And we are embarking on this energy transition in Australia. We’re going to get to 82 per cent renewable energy in Australia without having to resort to nuclear because we are rich in solar, we are rich in wind and these other cleaner, cheaper resources.

One of the problems with nuclear – I mean, if you ask Peter Dutton where will it go, how much will it cost and when will it be ready, he can’t answer any of those questions. Nobody wants a nuclear reactor in their backyard. And even if you can deal with those problems of location, the water needs required, what we do with the waste, the question of the cost of nuclear energy prohibits it here in Australia.

We have to make a transition now. Our coal-fired and gas-fired power plants are coming to the end of their natural lives. And 22 of them have told the previous government that they were closing on a particular date. The previous government did nothing to prepare for those closures. We need as a Labor government to manage that transition to cheaper, cleaner renewable energy so that our homes and businesses are paying less for their energy [indistinct] climate change.

Nuclear energy is a distraction. It’s a distraction that Peter Dutton is engaging in because he refuses to take responsibility for the energy transition that we need today. On the one hand you’ve got Peter Dutton [indistinct] energy laws, what are we going to do [indistinct], and it won’t be available for decades to come in this country. What is Peter Dutton’s solution for tomorrow or next week or next year? We’re engaged right now in transforming energy grid, introducing – so far, as the Environment Minister, I’ve ticked off on enough renewable energy to power 3 million homes in Australia. When would Peter Dutton be able to say that the first bit of nuclear energy would be available to power the first home in Australia? He cannot answer that question.

JOURNALIST: Just on the economy, can I ask what sorts of stories or experiences you’re hearing from people in your electorate about the impact of inflation and those interest rate increases?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I think a lot of Australians have lived and been doing it tough in recent times. And one of the reasons that they’ve been doing it tough is we’re coming off the period where real wages have been going backwards. The previous government said that low wages are a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture. Mathias Cormann said that before he went off to Europe to do his job at the OECD. He said low wages are a deliberate design feature of our economic architecture.

So for a decade wages were kept artificially low in Australia. Australian families suffered from that. We now have the impact of the global economy pushing inflation in Australia. That’s been tough for people. We’ve seen interest rate rises. That’s been tough for people. That is changing with the Labor government. We’re seeing real wages increasing. We’re seeing inflation moderating. We’re seeing growth in the economy. We’re seeing strong employment and we’re investing in a whole range of measures to help take the pressure off the family budget – cheaper medicines, more bulk-billed visits to the GP, cheaper child care, more paid parental leave, free TAFE, energy bill relief. We’re investing across the board to take pressure off family budgets and, very importantly, we’re helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they concern with the tax cuts.

JOURNALIST: And just on the issue of domestic violence, some advocates have said that – well, they’re raising concerns that the Commonwealth hasn’t gone far enough. Do you think – or how much more do you think the government needs to do on that issue?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, while a single woman is frightened in her own home at night because the person whose supposed to love her most breaks into a violent rage unpredictably you can never say we’ve done enough. While anyone is frightened to walk to the shops at night because they’re worried about being assaulted by a stranger you can’t say that we’ve done enough.

I don’t wonder that Australians are angry and that Australian women in particular are furious about the fact that we are still frightened on the streets at night minding our own business or in our own homes because we’re threatened by the people that we live with. While ever that happens Australian governments should be doing more.

But it is important to acknowledge as well that the $2.3 billion that the Australian government had already invested in the second national plan on violence against women and their children is the most a Commonwealth Government has ever spent on addressing violence against women and their children. And it includes important measures like the $280 million that we had already committed to behaviour change programs for men and boys and some money put in for primary prevention to stop violence before it happens. That’s an important investment, and it should be acknowledged.

And then yesterday’s addition to that of close to a billion dollars to do things like make the leaving violence payment permanent, that’s a really significant investment. For too long people have asked, “Why didn’t she leave,” when what they should have been asking is, “Where would she go?” We’ve taken that trial payment to help women and their children escaping violence, we’ve made it permanent. We’re investing an extra billion dollars in it, but we’ve also taken the time of assessment for eligibility for that payment from close to a month to just a few days. It's pretty hard to say to someone, “You’re leaving violence tomorrow and in a month’s time we’ll give you financial support.” That’s what the previous government was doing.

We are also, of course, investing in new emergency accommodation, more housing for women and children trying to escape domestic violence. That question of where would you go and who would help has always been at the heart of responding to domestic violence. And for the first time in a long time we’ve got an Australian government that’s doing that.

JOURNALIST: How long does it – I mean, how long does it filter up to individual politicians, the pain on the streets, that we’re seeing at these rallies and the fact that, you know, one woman every four days has died this year? Like, you’re bombarded with political questions all the time, but as a person how does that affect you?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we’re all human and, like most Australians, most of us know someone who has been affected by domestic violence or sexual assault. And of course it’s not an abstract issue for many of us. In fact, I know it’s not an abstract issue for the Prime Minister either. He’s spoken before about the violence his mother experienced when he was growing up. Of course it’s not an abstract issue.

And I share the anger that so many people feel that after so many decades of trying to reduce rates of domestic violence, reduce rates of sexual assault, in Australia we continue to - we do see progress in some areas. I would say that the police and the courts are doing [indistinct] they did 30 years ago when I started campaigning in this area. But we see two steps forward and one step back. On the one hand we spend so much time and energy and money on law reform, better systems responses, and on the other hand we’ve got teenage boys in particular being fed this diet of misogynist extremist [indistinct] online. This has to be something that governments do together with the Australian community.

Yes, governments need to do more. This is not an excuse or any sort of argument that we should be doing less or we’ve done enough. Not for a second. I will always urge us as a government – as a Commonwealth Government, states and territories, local government – yes, we need to do more. But we can’t do it in opposition to the forces that are happening in society. These two things have to work together.

And until we deal with the sort of violent and degrading pornographic imagery that kids are starting to watch – the average first age of viewing pornography online in Australia is 10. Kids are learning their sex education from violent and degrading pornography instead of from their parents and their schools. This is affecting our society and we are fooling ourselves if we ignore it.

So I suppose my argument today is don’t for a minute imagine that any of us in government are satisfied with what we’ve achieved. While ever there is one woman, one person, one child who is frightened at home or frightened on the street, that is not enough. We haven’t done enough. We haven’t achieved what we’ve set out to achieve. But this has to be something that is done with law reform, with systems reform, with extra investment and with social change at the same time.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask one last question on that: it’s been so long since Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech which was so effective for so many Australian women and they felt kind of seen and we thought it would be ushering change, and it’s mildly depressing that not much appears to have as far as misogyny is concerned, what’s your message of optimism for us given what we’re reading and what we’re experiencing, what our daughters – mine is 20 – are telling us?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I’ll come to optimism in a minute. But I really do want to send a message to your daughter who’s 20 and her generation – my daughter’s generation: I’m so sorry that we haven’t fixed this for you yet. This is something that I've been working on all my adult life, and I feel as frustrated as anyone that we have not made more progress. And I won’t stop trying. And I know that my colleagues, like Josh, won’t stop trying.

But there is also optimism. And one of the things that makes me most optimistic is that their generation – this generation of incredible young activists – they take crap from no-one. And I see people like Chanel Contos, like Saxon Mullins in New South Wales, like Brittany Higgins, a whole range of young women who are standing up and saying, “We need this change to accelerate. We need more change. We need it today. We can’t wait,” and holding us – holding us – my generation, to account. And I think that gives me a lot of hope for the future.

One thing we need to be careful of is every step forward that women have ever made in history has been met with a backlash. And we’re seeing that backlash online today – online in particular. We need to tackle that backlash by talking to our sons. Because while the young women are just killing it with the changes that they’re making, they need to take their brothers and their friends with them.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, Minister, just on that – 

JOURNALIST: – that you outlined about, I guess, the frustration – yeah, the frustration of the last couple of decades, what was your response then, I guess, to the criticism over the last week of the deposit after those acquisitions that the Prime Minister had lied at the rally in Canberra over the weekend?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I actually don’t – I don’t want to rehash that at all. I know that the Prime Minister has a strong commitment to change in this area – absolutely has a strong commitment to change in this area. And, you know, he turned up. The last time there was a rally like this outside Parliament House, the last Prime Minister didn’t even bother to show or listen the women who were there demanding change.

I really think your broader question of how I feel about progress is I feel in a lot of areas we’ve made progress; there’s a lot of good I could point to. But I will never be content until we live in a society where people don’t feel the fear of violence, don’t experience violence in the way that they currently do. It’s just – you know, no wonder women at these rallies are angry. The idea that you are not safe in your own home, that you are not safe minding your own business, you know, walking to the shops at night, it is such an outrageous abuse of the human rights of half the population of this country, that the most powerful woman, you know, the most protected woman, the fiercest woman, none of them, you know, no-one is really genuinely safe. While we have statistics that show that one in five Australian women will experience sexual assault in her lifetime and one in three will experience domestic violence; until we change that I won’t be content, and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to be.