Sunrise interview with Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek

SUBJECTS: Cost of living pressures, fuel excise, climate, pandemic leave disaster payments

NATALIE BARR, HOST: Thank you, Matt. Well, the majority of Australians have identified the surging cost of living as the current number one concern. In the latest Mood of the Nation report, 68 per cent of people surveyed said the cost of living is extremely important to them, an increase of 10 per cent from last quarter. The main specific issues are grocery and petrol prices, while the cost of electricity is also a concern as new retail price hikes are announced. Joining me now is Labor’s Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek and Nationals MP, Barnaby Joyce. Good morning to both of you. Tanya, groceries and petrol prices are absolutely killing people's weekly budgets. Will your government extend the cut to the fuel excise, which is due to expire in September, saving people twenty-two cents a litre?

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, that was always a temporary measure and it will stay a temporary measure. But we do need to take pressure off families with the cost of living. So we're making childcare cheaper, we're investing in cheaper, cleaner, renewable energy so that over time, power bills will come down. And, of course, we're backing a wage rise for the lowest-paid workers. We know that people have been struggling to make ends meet, so we want to take pressure off their costs, but also help them out with their wages.

BARR: Yeah, but groceries and petrol are the two big-ticket items and petrol is in front of you. Petrol price is going to go up twenty-two cents a litre in two months. So would you think of extending that to help people?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, the excise is not the only influence on the price of petrol. Obviously, it depends what's happening overseas depends on world oil prices. So the excise cut was a temporary cut because prices were going through the roof due to Ukraine. We can't keep that going forever. We've inherited $1.3 trillion of Liberal debt. We can't keep all of their temporary measures going forever, they made a number of measures like this temporary before the election. And sadly, after the election, we're facing $1.3 trillion of debt that we need to do something about.

BARR: Barnaby, a commentator said today that that fuel excise cut was a bomb that you guys put in the budget because you knew it probably couldn't continue. Is that the case?

BARNABY JOYCE: Well, no, that was a measure for the times to try and assist. It was called for. But I just heard Tanya say that power prices will go down over time. Well, over time, we're all dead. Obviously, if they're bringing in this new form of climate emissions reduction target, it's not going to force prices down, it's going to force them up so you can be pious and poor. A lot of these costs are associated with climate targets, global climate targets and domestic climate targets. And the Labor Party reducing the safeguard mechanism is actually going to tax the last two oil refineries in Australia.

BARR: But they’re going up now, in July, you can't blame Labor for that can you? They’ve only been in five minutes.

JOYCE: Yes, you can. It's also a global process. Yes, you can, because obviously, people are reading into this. They say they don't want coal fire power. They say when they want to transition out of it, well, people are saying, well fine, okay, we'll go renewables. Renewables, they sell power in five-minute blocks. Five minutes, you want your fridge on 24/7. And of course, this means renewables have a distinct advantage in being selective in the five-unit blocks they pick. We need power through the day and people think that this is a great trick, but you can see the results in your wallet. You're pious and poor, I hope you're enjoying it.

BARR: Let's look at just quickly, the pandemic leave disaster payments because these are going to be scrapped. Tanya especially casual workers, that's really difficult for them.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, it is really difficult for them. If you're a casual worker and you find out that you're sick and you need to isolate for a week or longer if you're sick and you got no money coming in, I understand that it's really tough for people facing those consequences, but this is another one of those temporary measures that the previous government introduced. It's costing tens of millions of dollars every week and we've inherited $1.3 trillion worth of debt. So it is very difficult to keep things like this going indefinitely. COVID is going to be around for the long haul. We are obviously making antiviral medicines cheaper. We're encouraging people to have their third and fourth doses. Some people still haven't had their third. We do want to reduce the risk of people getting sick and we do want to make it easier to treat people when they do get COVID with more antivirals. But we can't keep measures like this going forever just because of the expense.
BARR: Barnaby our hospital admissions are at the highest they've been for six months. Should this be extended so casual workers don't just sort of come to work when they're sick?

JOYCE: Well, we want to make sure that we keep people in a job. And obviously, look, I concur with where Tanya and where the current Treasurer is. We've got to be careful. We've got to make sure that you get to a point where you have to live with COVID. I'll tell you something you can do to try and help people out. Make sure that foot and mouth does not get into Australia. Otherwise, the food prices are going to go through the roof. If you lose pork, beef, sheep off your shelves, the price is going to go through the roof. And what the Labor Party is doing at the moment is ridiculous. A couple more dogs, a social media campaign and flyers, that's not going to keep it out.

BARR: So we have to beat that up. That is a good warning because it is on our doorstep. So, Tanya, that's something we can talk about when we talk again because that's a huge issue. Thank you very much. Got to go, we're out of time. Thank you.