E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
TV INTERVIEW  
CHANNEL 7
MONDAY, 10 AUGUST 2026 

Topics: Newspoll; Podcast.

NATALIE BARR: Let's bring in Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning to both of you. Tanya, so, Labor remains neck and neck with One Nation, but it was only late last year, in the final Newspoll of the year, that you guys were hovering around 37%. One Nation were just 15% in the primary vote. That's a massive change around. Are you worried about by how much ground you have lost in less than a year?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, it's certainly a change and we've got a bit of time between now and the next election to right that. And that's why we are absolutely focused every day on making a real difference in people's lives. It's why we've invested in tax cuts, up to $3,000 on average. In Barnaby's electorate, 75,000 people will get a tax cut. It's why we're focused on helping people into a home of their own again. In Barnaby's electorate, that's about 2,300 people. More than 3,000 people have taken up the home battery program in Barnaby's electorate. These are all things that One Nation would oppose. And they've got a leader who says that Australians are paid too much, they're lazy, and they should be easier to sack. So, we're very focused on making a real difference in people's lives. Just today we've got the new bulk billing figures out. Bulk billing's up 12% in Barnaby's electorate and there's an extra about an extra 13 bulk billing GP clinics in his electorate, and the Tamworth Urgent Care Clinic's seen more than 33,000 people. $20 million saved on medicines because of changes we've made as a government in Barnaby's electorate alone. So, we're focused on making a real difference to people's lives so that we can take some of that pressure off.

BARR: And Barnaby, Anthony Albanese is still the preferred Prime Minister, double the support of Angus Taylor, about 15 points ahead of Pauline Hanson. How do you plan on closing that gap and making sure that the vote for One Nation isn't just a protest vote?

BARNABY JOYCE: Well, it sounds like Barnaby must be doing an incredibly good job in his electorate. So, I thank you for the advertising, Tanya, but obviously when you—

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: They’re all things you opposed.

JOYCE: -- give lines like that, give lines like that, it means that, there's no authenticity in it, Tanya. It just means you're blurting out the lines.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I'm proud of what we do.

JOYCE: Obviously, what's happened is people don't believe in the authenticity of Labor beyond socialism. They're very good at socialism. They're very good at taking away the rights of our land, they’re very good at intermittent power and putting the price of power up through the roof. They talk about they've fixed the housing crisis. Have you seen it? They talk about they've fixed the power prices. Have you seen it? It's just not authentic. It's blurting lines. It's prepared.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: What's your plan?

JOYCE: Prepared by central office before Tanya comes on television.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: What's your plan?

JOYCE: Our plan is to get rid of the climate change department, to start thinking about the people rather than about the United Nations, rather than about sort of airy-fairy ideas which in Tanya's electorate are probably very popular. But with people who are struggling—

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: They’re just slogans Barnaby.

JOYCE: --people who are struggling, people who are struggling to pay their power bills, to pay for their groceries, to get ahead in life, it really hurts them. I was down at the coal miners the other day in Barnaby's electorate and they're being pushed out of a job because of the safeguard mechanism which the Labor Party believes in because they're going to change the weather, going to change the rain. Change the rain.

BARR: Tanya are you worried that this isn't just a protest vote. It seems to be solid now. Poll after poll, we sit here week after week and One Nation is there, 25 to 29 up there with you?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I think it takes a while for people to catch up with the difference in their own lives. Like Barnaby is talking about power prices, for example, in his electorate, the local power provider, the prices have gone down 7 per cent, the default market offer.

JOYCE: They say it's going down, it just defies reality.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, Barnaby, like that is actually what people get as a default market offer. That's not made up.

JOYCE: Obviously heavy industry must be coming back to Australia. Tanya--

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: --in the real world,

JOYCE: Which major company? Which major heavy industry is coming back? [inaudible]--

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And you talk about, you go on about coal.

JOYCE: [inaudible]

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: The reason that coal fired power is so expensive is because there has not been a single day--

JOYCE: Because you created laws that make it expensive.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: --without unplanned outage. The coal fired power stations keep breaking down, Barnaby, because they're 50 years old.

JOYCE: [inaudible]

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It’s like driving a 50 year old car. They break down and they're expensive to fix.

JOYCE: Look at the power prices and look at your intermittent power of solar and wind and work it out, the correlation. The fact you have hurt people, you have hurt people.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: The reason power prices are coming down is because of the increase in renewables.

JOYCE: Still making excuses for it. Still making excuses for hurting people.

BARR: Well, yeah, let's leave it there with, with the power because [inaudible]

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: What you hear from Barnaby is no solutions, just a lot of complaints. No solutions.

BARR: Let's look at something else.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: The Deputy Prime Minister for years has no solutions—

JOYCE: Oh you’re the government, Tanya.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: --just a load of complaints.

JOYCE: You're the government, Tanya [inaudible].

BARR: It's a problem now and it has been for a long time. Let's look at this, Japan's former ambassador to Australia has slammed comments and a gesture made by Anthony Albanese where he referenced melons gifted by Japanese PM, Sanae Takaichi, on that controversial podcast with comedian Nikki Osborne. Here is a reminder of what he said.

[excerpt plays]

BARR: Tanya, the former ambassador has said this morning this was insulting, unthoughtful, and that the last thing the Japanese PM was expecting was quote, "to be so casually mocked by Australia's leader". Do you agree?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, No. I completely disagree with that interpretation of what the Prime Minister was saying. I completely disagree that he was in any way making the suggestion that you're proposing, or that the former ambassador is proposing now. No way.

BARR: I'm not proposing it. The former ambassador is.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, no. And I think I'm really glad that you played that because I think people can make their own minds up.

JOYCE: They have.

BARR: Hang on a second. Barnaby.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Barnaby, your leader did a podcast with a convicted criminal who kicked a police officer in the head. So, I don't think you're on very strong ground on the podcast story—

JOYCE: We’re talking about our team, we’re talking about your leader actually. We’re talking about your leader.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: --but on this, on this issue, we have. Yeah, and you don't want to talk about your leader because you want to try and knock her off.

JOYCE: It's not really a matter of how you see it. It's a matter of how--

BARR: Okay. There's an allegation we might get to. Barnaby--

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It is 100% wrong, and we have--

JOYCE: --they see it.

BARR: Hang on a second. Barnaby. Can we just wait a second? Tanya, we've got the former ambassador saying, the Prime Minister, please enjoy these melons without thinking about a woman's anatomy. That's a former ambassador to Tokyo saying that. This isn't me saying this or the media.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, I think he is 100% wrong. And we have an excellent relationship with Japan. Japan is a very important strategic and economic partner. It was a very successful visit.

JOYCE: Stupid thing to say.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And I think the former ambassador is wrong in his interpretation.

BARR: So, it wasn’t a stupid thing to say?

JOYCE: That's a really dangerous thing to say, Tanya. It's not how you see it, it's how they see it. And they see it as an insult.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: He's a former ambassador.

JOYCE: Tanya, you’ve just got to be really careful. And I think you're really sort of, you know, really sort of. I know you're doing the best job you can on this, Tanya, but it's just like the Kylie Minogue comment. Completely wrong. Completely. He's trying to be clever. It wasn't clever. Our fourth, the fourth biggest economy in the world, an absolutely vital strategic partner in our defence. And this stupid puerile comment to get on the right side of the kiddies on a podcast where someone's dressed up, I don't know, some sort of elephant fighter or whatever. I don't know what she's doing. And it just demeans the office of Prime Minister and it certainly has created a massive problem with one of our major partners. And he can't make. I know in your heart, Tanya, you know it's wrong, okay? And if you came out now and said, yeah, that was a stupid thing to say, you should have apologised for it, people say Tanya is telling the truth.

BARR: Tanya. It was in the same podcast as the Kylie Minogue shag comment. Do you think he should have actually said those words?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, which words are you talking about now, Nat? You're going back to Kylie Minogue.

BARR: The melons. No, we're on the melons comment now.

JOYCE: I think it was the next comment.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I think it was a lovely gift.

BARR: She brought the two melons and they were beautiful, with the hand gesture.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, I think it was a lovely gift.

JOYCE: Would you have said that Tanya?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I don't. I don't do comedy. I stick to, I stick to interviews like this.

BARR: Was it funny?

JOYCE: Very good advice for the Prime Minister.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I think it was. I think it was a complete misinterpretation from the former ambassador. A completely unnecessary interpretation of what the Prime Minister said, and I think people watching it for themselves can make their own minds up.

JOYCE: They do. They do watch it and they have made up their own mind and it is inappropriate.

BARR: We’ll leave it there.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: In your view.

BARR: Thank you. We'll see you next week.
 

ENDS