THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SUNRISE
MONDAY, 5 MAY 2025
SUBJECTS: BARNABY JOYCE PROSTATE CANCER; LABOR ELECTION VICTORY.
NATALIE BARR: Labor is riding high after its election victory this morning, with the Prime Minister and his team already promising to get straight back to work today. 7News projects Labor has won 89 seats and are likely to win three more. That's reduced the coalition to just 37 although three more are still considered likely for them. For their take, let's bring in Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning to both of you. We will get to the election in a moment. But first, Barnaby, you have revealed some news you've kept secret during the campaign, that you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer and will have an operation today. How are you?
BARNABY JOYCE: Well, I feel fine. And I suppose that's the problem with prostate cancer, you don't feel bad, you go to the toilet a bit more than you should. And you know, I was very lucky that Dr Miriam Grotowski insisted I get a PSA test. And she used to ring me up when I was on the road and say why haven't you got that test? And I've went and got it. And said, well, bingo, elevated levels. So, then you get an MRI, and they check that, and they say, yeah, there's something there. And then they get a biopsy, and they say, yep, it's, it's cancer, but you're lucky it's early stages, but you've got to do something about it. So, I waited till, obviously, after the election. I didn't want a big circus going on during the election, which inevitably would happen. And literally, straight after this programme, I'm going in the car and I've actually got a flat tyre. Can't help myself can I, I've got a flat tyre on the truck, so I’ll fix that up. Then I'm going straight down the road and straight into surgery.
BARR: Okay, well, look, thanks for sharing it. How long have you known?
JOYCE: Through the campaign.
BARR: Yeah, right.
JOYCE: I just say, look, the big thing is, look, you got to take something positive out of it. If you're a guy and that's about half your audience, I imagine, or, you know, a guy and that's the other half of your audience, make sure if they're, you know, in their 40s, 50s, get a PSA test and just clear your own mind that everything's fine. If you get stuff early, like all like melanoma, like everything else, if you get it early, you're gonna overwhelmingly be okay. But if you, if you're too busy to get checked, then you're putting your family in real strife, because it's not going to be good. It's not going to be good for you. It's not going to be good for your family. And you want to do this beautiful world. You want to live as long as you possibly can, if you if you're blessed to have that opportunity.
BARR: You're right. Tanya, this is a really good health message, particularly for men in their 40s and 50s.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: I agree, and I think it's very brave of Barnaby to share his experience. And I really do think that having high profile people like Barnaby talk about their health challenges is really important to encourage other men to get the test. I know when my colleague Wayne Swan talked publicly about his battle with prostate cancer, it really prompted a lot of people, a lot of men, to go and get tested for prostate cancer. And I think Barnaby, when you talked about your skin cancer diagnosis, same thing. People take more care, because it's top of mind when they see anybody can experience these health challenges. They also see that things are very treatable. I mean, Wayne had surgery decades ago, and his health is terrific. So, it also, as well as prompting people to get tested, I hope it also gives people hope. We’ve got an excellent health system here. If you catch something early, it’s very treatable. I hope you have a long and healthy life after this surgery.
JOYCE: Thank you.
BARR: Yeah, you two need to spar more. We need years more of this. So, you're right. It just might remind people today and prompt them. So, thank you very much. We really, really wish you well.
JOYCE: Thank you very much.
BARR: Election results, Tanya, I've got a note here that you may have the safest seat in this country. Congratulations to you and the Labor Party. What are you guys going to do first?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, it'll be straight back to work. I was at a work function yesterday morning, a charity walk for the Women's and Girls Emergency Centre so women can walk away from violence, fundraising for their excellent work. I'll be around and about today, probably with a box cutter taped to a stick to get some of those posters down. But as a government, we are very focused on - we're very grateful to the Australian people for giving us another opportunity to serve them for three years, we will be straight back to work to make sure that we are absolutely focused on bringing down the cost of living, reducing those pressures on people. The Prime Minister has already said the first legislation will be about dropping that HECS debt on students and longer term, we really want to make sure we return people's faith in us. We will continue to work to make sure that we've got great services that people can rely on, that we deal with the international challenges that we’ve got. Straight back to work.
BARR: Barnaby, this was a moment in history for the coalition, and not in a good way. Who takes over?
JOYCE: Well, you know congratulations Tanya and congratulations to the Labor Party, and congratulations to the Australian people to go through an election without any violence, yeah, and you personally did very well Tanya, so good on you. So, I think there's a there's you've got to learn your lessons from it. We had a very bad day in the office. There's no doubt about that. Both the Liberals, the Nationals, lost the Senate seat. We didn't get back Calare, and the Liberals had a bloodbath, let's be frank. There were some shining parts. We actually got swings to us, substantial swings to us, in Riverina, New England, Flynn, Dawson, so there were areas where things didn't go badly went okay, a lot of other seats had stayed basically where they were. But I would not for one second gild the lily as something went really well for us. As just didn't go as badly as it did for the Liberals, but it’s the first time since 2007 we lost a seat. So, we're not happy about that in the Nationals. What I would say is that we have to really assess things. I would say to the whole nation, I think I can be completely frank, standing here about to go to for surgery and with a Coalition, without a leader, there are certain policies that just don't work, and net zero just does not work okay. It's a great idea, it's well founded, but it just doesn't work. We're doing massive damage to our nation. It's incredibly hard to go out there in the hustings and say, we just believe in a different path to net zero, to the other side. People are hurting. They're looking for something, and we've got China breathing down our neck. I was terrified reading the social media posts that were published in a paper saying that after the Chinese flotilla were going around Australia, that they hope to do to Australia what Russia did to the Ukraine. You know, it just terrifies me. And we always think in Australia that no one's going to come over that Hurrah. No one's going to come over that hill. Yeah, they're not there. Well, they are okay. They are.
BARR: Okay, Barnaby, who’s the leader? Who are you going for? Hastie? Angus Taylor? Sussan Ley?
JOYCE: I think I’ll leave that to the Liberal Party. But, you know, I think that –
BARR: If you were a betting man?
JOYCE: I am. I also know them both very well. I know them all very well, I'm not going to, I'm not going to put the kibosh on one. I'll tell you how you could hurt one of them is with my endorsement on a hill from Danglemah. That would certainly not help.
BARR: Okay.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Particularly bad if Barnaby and I agreed on a candidate. If we could agree on one Barnaby that’d be the end of them.
BARR: Oh okay. Tanya, who do you think should lead the Liberal Party? If you want to throw your hat in your endorsement.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, well and truly a matter for the Liberal Party. I’ll leave it to them.
BARR: Okay, they’ve got a lot of work to do. Thank you very much. Barnaby, before we go, we caught a glimpse of your morning commute just before you arrived. This is quite unique for a federal politician to arrive to a national television cross like this, but that is Barnaby Joyce, very much. We wish you very well today. We thank you very much for spending time with us this morning, and we wish you all the best in your surgery today. Thank you, Tanya. We'll see you next week.
ENDS
