THE HON BARNABY JOYCE – SHADOW MINISTER FOR VETERAN AFFAIRS
TED O’BRIEN – SHADOW MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY
ANDREW WALLACE- FEDERAL MEMBER FOR FISHER
Topics: Veteran wellbeing centres, Sunshine Coast heavy rail, Fadden by-election, robo-debt, nuclear energy, Sunshine Coast population growth
E&EO..
Ted O’Brien
We are so delighted to be down here in the beautiful Cotton Tree in this cold winter on the Sunshine Coast, together with my friend and colleague, Andrew Wallace, member for Fisher. We have another friend and colleague with us, of course today, being Barnaby Joyce, our former Deputy Prime Minister, but also now our Shadow Minister for Veterans Affairs. As a lifestyle capital, the Sunshine Coast attracts more and more ex-Servicemen and women. We need to make sure that they are looked after they have served our nation and as a nation, they too deserve to be served right back. Under the Coalition, we had a wellbeing center committed for the Sunshine Coast to help the wellbeing of Veterans. What the Coalition offered, Labor took away. This is typical of Labor trying to strip the Sunshine Coast, trying to strip Coalition seats of something that has been deserved. The Sunshine Coast is one of the main areas for Veterans in Australia, and it is important that we have that wellbeing center recommitted by Labor. They’ve taken it out of their budget, it needs to be committed, and our veterans deserve it. Let me pass on to Andrew Wallace.
Andrew Wallace
Well, thanks very much Ted. I love Cotton Tree and it’s just such a shame that I don’t have it in my electorate, it’s one of the most beautiful parts of the Sunshine Coast. It’s great to be with you and great to be with Barnaby. Today we are talking about something serious and that’s the welfare of our Veterans and as Ted said, our Veterans have given us so much. When we were in Government, we committed to Veterans wellbeing centers across the country and the Sunshine Coast would have been the beneficiary of one of those but unfortunately, the Labor Party has ripped that out. What we’ve seen with the Labor Party now in Government is a callous disregard for our Veterans. I have seen Veterans who are working really hard in the absence of Government assistance, like Peter Kennedy, from Young Veterans who we’ll be spending a bit of time with later on today. Who’s taken the bit between his teeth, and really having to build an almost like a private wellbeing center for Veterans because the Government won’t stump up for them, which is a great shame. The Sunshine Coast is home to around 12,500 Veterans, we’re one of the largest Veteran populations in the country and of course, why wouldn’t we be with such a beautiful spot. So many people want to call this home, and in particular veterans do, it’s time for the Sunshine Coast, to have that opportunity for Veterans but the Labor Party need to stump up. The Labor Party need to restore the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Minister of Veterans Affairs back into cabinet, where we had them, around the Cabinet table where the decisions are made, where those big financial decisions are made in government. Matt Keogh should be in cabinet where he has the opportunity to shape the direction of the financial direction of Veterans Affairs and we’re calling on the government to do just that. Barnaby.
Barnaby Joyce
Well, it’s Thank you very much to Andrew, to Ted. We have the member for Fisher, the Member for Fairfax. For myself, I had the great honor of representing this state as the Senator, for eight years seven months and 1 day and it’s great to be back in Queensland, back on the Sunny Coast. Why is it great to be on the Sunny Coast, cause look at it, what a beautiful place to live. If someone has served our nation, put their life on the line, signed on the dotted line to have people take shots at them. Then they’re also entitled to live here, and we have to have the support structure here to look after them. Whether it was the Sunny Coast, we were going to build a wellness center in, whether it was Wide Bay, whether it’s Mackay all these areas under the Coalition we’re gonna get wellness centres and under Labor, all of them are gone. Now the Labor Party talk about and I’m absolutely certain that they do have a love of their nation and are a supportive of the Veteran community. I’m not saying that for one second, but they just don’t seem to have the capacity to back that up in some standard ways, such as having a wellness center here on the Sunny Coast or having a Minister in the Cabinet. Now Minister Keogh seems like you know a decent sort of guy but the problem he’s got is he hasn’t got that line of sight of the Treasurer, the line of sight of the Prime Minister, because he’s not in the same room and that’s why Veterans are missing out. What we’re doing here with both Andrew and with Ted, and yesterday with Llew is getting around touching base, making sure that the Veteran community knows how serious we are to go to the next election. However, close that may be or far off that is with a policy that respects and reflects them and what they want. This morning, we had a workshop with Veterans, with returned Servicemen, Ex-Servicemen, and Servicewomen. We did the same thing yesterday, we’re doing them up in the Hinterland, and we’re doing them on the Coast. We’re making sure that this will be the area, the second biggest area where Veterans go to in Queensland. Gold Coast comes number one, then we got the Sunny Coast and then within the Brisbane regions, and of course Townsville but this has such a huge reason to have a wellness center. We’re here to show the people of the Sunshine Coast, that we respect the service that they’ve given and respect the decisions they make about where they want to live. If we want people to join our Armed Services, we have to show the Australian people that we look after them on the way out.
Ted O’Brien
Any questions?
Journalist
Barnaby, I might just ask you.
Barnaby Joyce
Here comes the questions that got nothing to do with veterans.
Journalist
I was going to say what discussions have you had with the current Minister and the Department about trying to get Labor to stump up in this case?
Barnaby Joyce
Well, we’re engaged with them all the time, we made it a point of our debate of you know what’s happened to the wellness centers, and also what’s happening to the wellness centers in Coalition Electorates. This has been part of the process right from the time of the election, it became apparent that the wellness centers were being stripped away from Queensland, from Coalition seats. This should be bipartisan and blind to politics who want to see them invest back in wellness centres, they’ll probably say it’s about $5 million that is on the table to get this one done. Now I’ll give you an example of where they’re about to blow $300 million and that is on a referendum, that quite obviously, the more we see is going to fail. They should be freeing that up and spending (INAUDIBLE) $300 million, and therefore you’ve got 60 wellness centres that you can use that money for. Or actually use it to go back to appropriately train to look after people in Aboriginal Communities but we’re about to blow $300 (INAUDIBLE) $5 million for wellness centres.
Journalist
Do you feel like your opposition is making headway with the Government in terms of getting a wellness center whether here or in other parts of regional Queensland?
Barnaby Joyce
I don’t think that we make headway when with the Labor Government, especially when even the Minister is not in the cabinet, we have to do half the lifting for him, because just watch Parliament. The Minister of Veterans Affairs is sort of halfway back, he’s almost sitting up there with the media he’s so far back. That’s a sign to everybody when they see it, they don’t believe that people who are on the frontline should be represented by person who’s on the front bench.
Journalist
Taking a different line of questions now, is David Littleproud safe as Nationals leader?
Barnaby Joyce
David Littleproud is safe, David Littleproud you know this is the amazing thing. We get a story though that had nothing to do with it and then all of a sudden that starts the rabbits running and then we get a story about ERC which I’m not a part of. Then people come and ask me questions and then we’ve even got people doing the numbers for a job I’m not even going for. I want to say, I am flattered, apparently, they’re already counting numbers I’m not even going for the job. It is a marvelous feeling but no, everybody can just cool their rockets, he’ll be fine.
Journalist
Perfect that’s all the questions I have for you Barnaby. Ted I might go to you next if that’s okay. To begin with Ted, the 90 days, I’m just gonna take you first to the 90 Day hold on infrastructure projects from the Federal Government. I think that comes up end of the month. What are you hoping to see after this audit 90 day audit of major projects, including some big ones on the coast?
Ted O’Brien
Well, firstly, it’s ridiculous that Labor decided to have a 90 day review of infrastructure. I mean here we have 1.5 million people coming to Australia in addition to our current population, we’re in the midst of a housing crisis and the Government decides to put infrastructure spend on hold. Now, we know very well on the Sunshine Coast, that the Coalition had fully funded $1.6 billion for a rail through to Maroochydore and also, well over $100 million for the Mooloolah River interchange. Those two at least need to be confirmed we need to get on them, every day we delay on infrastructure, it costs more, therefore we get less. This is typical Labor, they don’t know how to manage the economy, the hold back on infrastructure, and they beat up on the Sunshine Coast.
Journalist
The State Transport Minister, is actually on the Sunshine Coast today briefing that $14 million for the business case but still not actually funding to actually build the rail, what’s your take on that?
Ted O’Brien
Well, Labor at both the state and federal level, refused to put real money into getting stuff built. They’ll spend money on reviews and media releases and the Minister was show up on the Sunshine Coast but are you delivering money that will build stuff, Labor doesn’t do that, we’ve been waiting for years as a community. We have united as a Sunshine Coast regardless of political colour, we deserve this infrastructure nothing less. More and more people are coming to the Sunshine Coast and Labor at this state and federal level are ignoring us as a community. It’s not good enough. If Minister Bailey is coming to the Sunshine Coast, come with your cheque book or come with a shovel.
Journalist
Taking some other questions. Minister O’Brien, do you think the robodebt fallout is harming Cameron Caldwell chances in the Fadden by-election?
Ted O’Brien
Look Cameron Caldwell will do a wonderful job for the people of Fadden. There is no bigger responsibility in public office than representing your local community and here we have in Cameron, somebody who has been practicing just that for many, many years. Of course, you can never take anything for granted, which is why he like the rest of our team, the Coalition are working hard on the ground. We’ve got to put the people first and that’s what the people of Fadden will get with Cameron in the role.
Journalist
Should Scott Morrison consider resigning?
Ted O’Brien
That’s a decision only that Scott Morrison should take himself. There’s always a special compact between the residents of an electorate and their elected MP. Either the electorate or the MP makes that decision.
Journalist
Now, it’s been a little over 12 months since you’ve been Energy Minister, obviously nuclear is a big thing in Opposition agenda. Do you feel like people are coming around to nuclear in Australia and in your electorate?
Ted O’Brien
I think people across Australia are coming around to the fact that Labor has broken the energy market, they promised lower prices, prices go up. They promised more reliable grid. It’s unreliable, they promised greater investment has stalled. Everything Labor has done to Australia’s energy market is failing, and it’s getting worse, and people are seeing that in their power. So, as we look to the future, it’s pretty clear what we need. We don’t close down baseload power stations when we still need them. We need more gas into the into the system and we need to explore next generation technologies, including zero emissions nuclear technology. Zero emissions nuclear technology, as Peter Dutton has made very clear, needs to be explored and that’s what we’re doing, we’ll have a lot more to say as time goes on.
Journalist
Just a couple of questions for Andrew. Andrew, we learned this week that a bit of discussion about Halls creek potentially, well the development there by Stockland. Looks like an EIS proposal has gone in. How do you feel about a few more houses going there?
Andrew Wallace
Well, I had a briefing from Stockland just last week, on the application that they’ve put in, there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge yet, a lot of community consultation, I look forward to being a part of that process. Listening to what locals have to say about Halls Creek, the Sunshine Coast is absolutely bursting at the seams, we have a housing crisis, as does much of the rest of the country. So, you know, we’ve got some tough decisions to make as a region and I’ll certainly be listening to the views of my community as we move forward. As Minister Bailey is on the coast right now, I want to send a message out to him loud and clear today and also to Jason Hunt. When Ted O’Brien and I were in government, we secured $1.6 billion from the federal government to build rail from Beerwah all the way up here into Maroochydore. Now for over 18 months, the Labor state government has sat on their hands. Jason Hunt the State Member for Caloundra, arguably, the biggest beneficiary of this project has been absolutely and utterly silent about this project. Jason Hunt needs to make a decision, does he support passenger rail into the Sunshine Coast? What is he prepared to do? Is he prepared to get in and support his constituents? Is he prepared to go in and bat for this project? Or is he just going to stay mute? As he’s done on so many other projects, and just hope that this thing goes away. Well, it’s not going to go away, the Sunshine Coast is desperate for this project and the Labor state government need to match the $1.6 billion that we put on the table. And then we can get this project done, before the 2032 Olympics. That window of opportunity is closing, rapidly closing in which we have to get this project done. It’s time for Anastasia Palaszczuk, it’s time for Mark Bailey to stop with the talk, stop with another $14 million planning study enough of the studies just make a commitment, are you in or are you out.
Journalist
You’re heading overseas very soon, can tell us about that trip and what you hope to come up with?
Andrew Wallace
Yeah, look as one of the committee members on the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade and the Vice Chair of the Defence Subcommittee, I’ll be traveling tomorrow to the Solomon Islands and also to PNG over the next seven days. We live in one of the most Geo Politically unstable times since World War Two, if not the most Geopolitically unstable. It’s very important that as Members of Parliament, we engage with our colleagues in the Pacific Islands, to assure them that Australia is a good friend, and that Australia will continue to work with them. A prosperous Pacific is not only good for Pacific Island Nations, it’s good for Australia and that we’ll continue to work with our Pacific Island friends and neighbours.
