E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
CHANNEL 7 SUNRISE
MONDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2026
Topics: Polling; Pauline Hanson’s comments.
NATALIE BARR: Let's bring in Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning, Tanya. Once trust is gone, can you ever win it back?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, Nat, I mean, this is about the budget and we're the party making hard decisions to get the economy back on track. That's why we're increasing wages, it's why we're cutting taxes. It's why we're the ones making real change. The big contrast here is with One Nation just doing Gina Rinehart's bidding. We've seen now that Barnaby's having sleepovers at Gina's, he's being flown around the country in the private jet because he's doing her bidding. She's more than just a friend. She is One Nation's biggest donor. So, when it comes to same jobs, same pay, making sure people who work in mining, for example, get paid the same, she says no. Gina says no. So, One Nation says no. When it comes to attacking Andrew Hastie, Gina doesn't like him. So, One Nation doesn't like him. They attack Andrew Hastie.
BARR: But Tanya, was it the policy or was it “for the 50th time no”? Which was roughly the quote that the Prime Minister said when he was asked before the election, will you touch negative gearing? Was it the so-called lie?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Nat, the easiest thing to do in politics is nothing. And what we saw is a real problem with young Australians locked out of the housing market. We could have done nothing, as the previous government did for years, waiting for housing to become more and more unaffordable, waiting for more young Australians to be locked out of the housing market. We could have just sat on our hands and done nothing. Or we could tackle the problem and that's what we decided to do.
BARR: Or could you have taken it to an election?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, that's another three years of people being locked out of the housing market. Is that fair to young Australians?
BARR: OK, Barnaby. We could have 18 months before an election. You know, you have got lots of support now, but you need a lot more support. You're 94 seats behind, basically, or so. And for you to be effective, you need to do a deal, I guess, with the coalition. Is that what you're thinking of doing?
BARNABY JOYCE: Well, we've seen the alternative socialist government. It's going very badly. Debt through $1 trillion now. They lied. And when they lie, it's hard to come and unlie. They lied on the price of electricity going down or $275 back, they lied about falling off a stage, they lied about not saying that they insulted the Japanese Prime Minister. Then they lied about a whole range of promises they made before an election as a reason for people to vote for them. Of course, people don't take them seriously anymore. So, any promise they make now, people say, whatever, you know, knock yourself out, who cares? We just don't believe you. Now, of course we want the socialist government removed. As they socialise farmers, private land assets. As they socialise the risk that people take to go into small business, making the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, a 47 per cent equity holder. If a small business succeeds in building up from nowhere, they. If you find a mining precinct and you're trying to develop, develop that. If we want to go to the mining industry once more, if you're in England, maybe 50 per cent cap, 15 per cent capital gains tax, New Zealand zero. Australia, well, starts at 30, goes to 47 per cent . These are all dramatic changes that no one was ever told about. And if we can work with people in such a form as to give confidence and supply so that they remove the socialists, we'll have that negotiation and they need to give us confidence and supply. So, we're the government, that'll be part of the negotiation.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Okay, so, Natalie, Barnaby went to the people of New England at the last election saying he would stand as a National Party member. He lied. He keeps talking about going to elections, saying what you're going to do. You lied, Barnaby. You said you'd be a National Party member. That's what people voted for, you lied.
BARR: Barnaby. She's right, isn't she?
JOYCE: What happened there is people asked. People asked me to leave. See, it's a big difference. If the Labor Party asks you to leave, they at the Labor Party ask you to leave, Tanya. Like leave. They think maybe that you've had your run and it's time for someone else to sit in the seat of Sydney. Then of course you will take that on board. I wasn't asked to leave once. I was asked to leave multiple times. And you saw it. Don't leave your electorate because they don't believe in you. It's a let, you now have to step down because you have, you know, it's time for move on generational change and just directly telling you to go.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: So, the people who know you best don't trust you.
JOYCE: I don’t quite know how’d you deal with that.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: So, the people who know you best don't trust you.
JOYCE: Well, I've just heard that what is the case is that you went to an election, you lied. People have called you for lying and they're smacking in the polls. And if I was the government and my polling was in the 20s, I'd be really worried. I think all your colleagues should be really worried. I think the other people on the back bench of the Labor Party should be really worried because I'd say they're up for the high jump and they're on the way to go to work stacking shelves at Bunnings.
BARR: We're just going to move on to something else. Barnaby, you have defended Pauline Hanson for comments she made about Anthony Albanese's mother where she said it was not on for her to live in Housing Commission her whole life. The PM's mother, Marianne, was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis from about her early 30s. For many years she couldn't work. Apparently, she struggled to even open a can because her hands were crippled. Because of that, should Senator Hanson either withdraw those comments or apologise, Barnaby?
JOYCE: Well, I've said quite clearly that I don't know the Prime Minister's mother. I'm sure she's a very, very good woman and you know, the circumstances of Mrs. Albanese, the Prime Minister's mother is a story about her life, but the whole log cabin story of living in a Housing Commission home that the Prime Minister rolls out over and over again for a person who owns multiple houses and good luck to him and God bless him, he's about to go live in a $4.5 million house on the Central Coast. It just doesn't wash. It was interesting the first time. Interesting the second time.
BARR: That's not what I'm asking.
JOYCE: And now we hear it after years.
BARR: That's not. That's a different subject. Yes.
JOYCE: The issue about whether people should have a long-term position in public housing is a concern. We need public housing as a safety net. It shouldn't be there, sort of in continuum, so that people just basically stay there forever because it makes it tougher for other people. There's got to be a process where people utilise this safety net but then give other people a chance to utilise that safety net. Otherwise, we're just, we're just never going to have enough public housing. It's just not possible.
BARR: And that's a valid point. But do you think Pauline should apologise in this case when basically the Prime Minister's mother, who was an invalid for most of her life, is being questioned for living in public housing? Barnaby.
JOYCE: Well, the issue there is that I'm sure I didn't. I'd actually listen to it. He. She didn't say that she was a bad woman or she. That, you know, that she had done some form of theft or anything like that. The question was put to her about public housing, and I stand by what she said.
BARR: No, it was specific. It was specific to her.
JOYCE: You can't just use public houses. Well, she wouldn't have gone to that interview knowing all the issues around a certain specific case, which is the issue of Mr Albanese's mother.
BARR: Exactly, but now she does. Barnaby, can I just let you know the exact words that Pauline Hanson. Housing Commission houses should not be there for people to live in them for 30 or 40 years. And he said his mother. Yep. He said his mother lived in the same one she was born in for 65 years. Sorry, that is not on to me.
JOYCE: That would make.
BARR: Exactly. Now that she knows, if she is now educated, that the poor woman was basically crippled for most of her life, do you now think that Pauline Hanson, on that time topic, should apologise?
JOYCE: Well, that's. That's really a question for Pauline, for Pauline to answer. I'm not going to start answering questions on anybody else in the Parliament.
BARR: You and her in the party, so I'm just asking you as a senior representative.
JOYCE: I'm going on, I'm going on. What was said, Nat. Was, should you be able to live in public housing for 65 years?
BARR: No. She's specific. She's talking about him. She's not talking about every person in the country. She's talking about, she said his mother.
JOYCE: Well, those details weren't brought up in the interview, were they, Nat?
BARR: No, but now she knows. That's what I'm saying. Now that she's now educated.
JOYCE: How can you make a statement about something that wasn't brought up?
BARR: Well, sometimes we all get things wrong. That's what I'm saying. Do you now think she should apologise? You can say no, I’m just asking.
JOYCE: I'm happy to have this discussion. I'm happy to. I'm happy to have this discussion. That was not the question. Question that was posed in the interview. And so, you're asking for a person to respond to a question that wasn't asked. Well, and, and away from that.
BARR: Because you -
JOYCE: Because it's a question. Because it's a question not asked. You have to then ask that question at a subsequent time. And I, and I believe that to the person you wish to ask the question to, the premise of that question was, should people live in public housing forever. Which the answer is no, because we just don't have enough public housing.
BARR: She was asked specifically about the Prime Minister's mother. If she didn't know, fine, but now this is what's being asked now. So, you don't want to comment? That's fine.
JOYCE: Well, that is a separate question and I'm sure you're happy to ask it, but that was not the question that was asked in that interview.
BARR: But now you don't want to comment on it.
JOYCE: Well, that's. That's a. I've just. I've answered. No, I've answered that. That's a subsequent question. If you pose the question, I'll leave it to Pauline Hanson to answer.
BARR: Do you think we should be talking about--
JOYCE: there's a whole range of--
BARR: --people's decaesed mothers? Politicians, deceased mothers. Is that appropriate?
JOYCE: I think out there in the community, they're talking about a cost-of-living crisis. They're talking about the fact that they feel that they're going backwards. They're talking about the fact that government is massively excessive and intruding in their lives and socialising Australia. And that question, and I'll give you the total respect that you're due, Nat, that is a separate question. You can pose it at a subsequent time. That was not the question that was asked. And the question that was asked was given an answer. Should you live in public housing for the whole of your life? Well, that makes it really, really hard, in fact, impossible for us to deal with the public housing crisis. We have a housing crisis. The Labor Party's overseen that and it will not be fixed if you've got one person living in one house forever.
BARR: Ok, final word, Tanya.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah. Two things. During the whole ten years that Barnaby was part of the government, they built about 300 public housing dwellings. We are building 55,000. We've got an announcement of another $300 million today. 55,000 public housing dwellings we're building. And on Maryanne Albanese, I did know her. She was a gorgeous woman. She couldn't take the lid off a jar of food to feed herself. She needed help doing up her buttons. She spent half her life in and out of hospital. And during that time, Anthony was either on his own or when she was home. He was caring for her, he was doing everything for her. He was cleaning the house, he was feeding her, he was helping her get dressed, he was helping her get up and down out of a chair. That is part of what has made him Barnaby. When you were a kid, you were at a beautiful boarding school. Getting three meals a day, being beautifully looked after. He was the carer in his family. That's what made him
JOYCE: *inaudible* the elitist thing. Socialism.
JOYCE: We can't have any person whose parents work hard and get ahead and send you to a boarding school.
BARR: That's not the point, Barnaby.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It was a question.
BARR: About what?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You were being looked after. Anthony was the carer.
BARR: Okay. I think we'll leave it there. Thank you, Barnaby. Thank you, Tanya
ENDS
