TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MEMBER FOR SYDNEY
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
ROCKHAMPTON
1 MAY 2021
SUBJECTS: Women’s policy, Brittany Higgins, COVID-19, Australians stranded overseas, The Budget, Childcare, Consent education, Resources, Renewables.
BRITTANY LAUGA, QUEENSLAND ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Good morning, Brittany Lauga - State Member for Keppel, Assistant Minister for Education. It's great to be here today at Kershaw Gardens in Rocky with the Shadow Minister for Women and the Shadow Minister for Education, the Honourable Tanya Plibersek, a great friend of central Queensland, and a great friend and fighter for - not only the labour movement - but also for women right across this country. It's also great to be here with Ashleigh Saunders, the originator of our Enough is Enough women's group here in central Queensland. This is our first meeting we've had together since the first Enough is Enough rally that was held a few weeks ago, and it's great to be here again continuing the conversation with local women about ways in which we can improve the quality of life of women in central Queensland, but also how we can stop this awful domestic and family violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault and violence against women in our region. Firstly, it would be great to hand it over to Ashleigh.
ASHLEIGH SAUNDERS, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH FOUNDER: It was amazing that Tanya Plibersek could join us today to hear the concerns from women in central Queensland. It's not often that regional Queensland women get together like this and have our voices heard about input on issues affecting us.
JOURNALIST: Can you tell us a bit about the rally - the Enough is Enough rally - and how's the support been in central Queensland since you had that rally?
SAUNDERS: It has just continued to grow. At the time when we started it, it did seem like a hot topic across the nation but it's just continuing to grow and grow and grow every day in central Queensland. It's amazing.
JOURNALIST: And the Scott Morrison and Brittany Higgins meeting, what’s your response to that?
SAUNDERS: It's words. It's words, and that's all this Prime Minister is good at is words.
JOURNALIST: Talking to you a couple of weeks back, you said you had 450 members in that group. What are the numbers at the moment?
SAUNDERS: We're close to 500 now, so every single day there's more and more people joining the Facebook group, and more and more people getting involved in the issues that are affecting women in central Queensland.
JOURNALIST: What's on the agenda next for you?
SAUNDERS: Well, we've put together a longer campaign. It was amazing talking to Tanya today about those issues, getting some information from Tanya about how we can progress those as well as some guidance on that. There is a list of issues that are mainly affecting women in central Queensland, and we will be looking at taking those issues further to our federal Member, and continuing what we started.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN: It's wonderful being here in Rockhampton with Brittany Lauga and Ashleigh Saunders. And it was terrific to hear from local women this morning about the way they feel they've been let down by the Morrison Government. Women raised concerns about cuts to emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence, cuts to legal services, the fact that women have seen pay cuts. When you've got less money coming in, it's harder to keep yourself and your children safe if you need to leave. Women were complaining about cuts to healthcare services and education. What we heard overwhelmingly is that these women here in Rockhampton and across central Queensland have had a gutful of empty promises from the Morrison Government. Frankly, they have had a gutful of Michelle Landry who talks a big game when she's here in Rockhampton, but goes to Canberra and behaves like a pussycat while these cuts are happening. She doesn't just tolerate them, she cheers them on. This isn't personal, this is about saying- it's not saying: 'Michelle Landry's a bad person'. It's saying she supports bad policies that hurt the women of central Queensland when she goes down to Canberra, and just peacefully goes along with the Morrison Government's cuts to women's services.
In contrast, Labor has proposals that will make childcare cheaper for 97 per cent of families; that will give women experiencing domestic violence ten days paid domestic violence leave; that will see pay increases, particularly in female-dominated caring industries; and that will commit to 12 per cent superannuation over time, so that we don't have women retiring into poverty. Older single women are the fastest growing group of people moving into homelessness today. That is completely unacceptable. Any questions?
JOURNALIST: Brittany Higgins said after her meeting with the PM Scott Morrison that she hopes Scott Morrison will do the right thing, do you have faith that he will do the right thing?
PLIBERSEK: I hope the Prime Minister does the right thing too. But, I wouldn't say I'm particularly hopeful that he understands what the right thing is in this circumstance. Brittany Higgins has been phenomenally courageous in coming forward, making her complaint public. And all of the changes that wouldn't just help her, but help all of the people who work in Parliament House - and more broadly, changes that would help in every Australian workplace. For Parliament, we plainly need an independent body that investigates complaints of sexual harassment, and support for complainants to take complaints to the police where that's appropriate. Across our Australian community, we need to fully implement the Respect@Work report from the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner. But we also need to address so many underlying issues when it comes to violence against women. Of course we need better respectful relationships education starting very young with children, in an age-appropriate way. We need better support for services, for police, and emergency responders for women who have been sexually assaulted, or for women who are victims of domestic violence. And we need legal changes, because anybody who has been through a legal process after domestic violence or sexual assault will know right now our legal system is broken. It is absolutely stacked against victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and sexual harassment.
JOURNALIST: Can you detail for me exactly what you mean when you say 'stacked against these victims', what exactly do you want to change about our legal process?
PLIBERSEK: I'll give you one example - in New South Wales, only about one in 10 victims of sexual assault go to the police. When the initial reporting to police is so overwhelming and so traumatic for many victims, they don't make a report in the first place. Of the one in 10 that go to the police, about two or three per cent end in guilty verdicts. I think that's an indication that there's something very wrong with our legal system. There are too many rapists walking the streets.
JOURNALIST: Just on India, the ban on travels from India, is it fair to say now that the Australian passport is not worth anything, and that the Morrison Government is abandoning citizens in crisis?
PLIBERSEK: The Morrison Government has failed Australians stuck overseas. Scott Morrison said he would have everyone home by Christmas. We're in May now, and there are 40,000 Australians around the world desperate to get home. Waiting to come home, let down by this Government. It is inexplicable that we haven't opened up federal quarantine facilities. A year ago, senior public servants were telling Scott Morrison that he could open up quarantine facilities - he's done absolutely nothing to make that happen. The reason so many people are stuck in India today is because Scott Morrison has failed on our borders and quarantine, the same way that he has failed on the vaccine rollout. The same way that he has failed on the COVID tracing app - remember that thing? It cost 70 million dollars of taxpayers’ money. And perhaps the greatest and most troubling failure of all, is his failure to keep people in our nursing homes safe. Hundreds of deaths in our nursing homes because of Scott Morrison’s failure.
JOURNALIST: India’s literally running out of oxygen. Is it acceptable for Australian citizens to be left stranded there?
PLIBERSEK: We need to take a pause in getting people home from India until we can make sure our quarantine facilities here are up to scratch for those people who are at risk. But this just shows that if Scott Morrison had properly got his act together a year ago, when he was told that we need federal quarantine facilities, imagine how different things would be now. We would have been able to bring more people back safely at the time that our government promised that they would be home, by Christmas – months ago. The fact that this is happening now shows that Scott Morrison has failed comprehensively to manage the issue of Australians stuck all around the world. He has failed to get them home.
JOURNALIST: What additional support should the federal government be providing to citizens stuck in India?
PLIBERSEK: We are pleased that the Government has sent some medical supplies and support, equipment like personal protective equipment to India. That’s a very good start. I think the most important thing to do would be to talk to the Indian government about what other support Australia could possibly offer. India is a very good friend to Australia, we should do what we can to help. But the really frustrating thing about this is we’re talking about this way too late. Scott Morrison said that he would have Australians home by Christmas, and there are 40,000 Australians stuck around the world. India is the most catastrophic example of that, but Australians everywhere are desperate to get home – and Scott Morrison has failed them.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the Government is doing enough to actually help the citizens that are stuck there. Is there more that could be done for them that are already there?
PLIBERSEK: I know that a lot of citizens who are stuck around the world, and their family members and loved ones who want them back here Australia, haven’t received the support they want to get home as quickly as they could. But the situation in India now - we accept that for the time being the transport will have to stop, because we can’t bring so many sick people back to Australia that we overwhelm our quarantine system. The failure is months ago that Scott Morrison didn’t get this right, didn’t set up federal quarantine facilities when he was told he should.
JOURNALIST: Just moving on to the microbreweries - the Government is offering tax breaks for them. Do you think that’s a good idea?
PLIBERSEK: We’ll see the details of the whole budget. What this Government is really good at is dropping out a story here and a story there in the weeks before the Budget. The Prime Minister gets a smiling photo with someone, the Treasurer gets a smiling photo with someone. And then you see the budget on the day, and it has failure at its heart. We need a budget that gets Australians back to work, that sees wages rising, that properly funds aged care, early childhood education, disability support, health care, education – the services that Australians rely on. So we’ll see on the day whether this budget meets that test.
JOURNALIST: What do you think the budget needs to include in order to help the economy recover from COVID?
PLIBERSEK: We need a budget that helps Australia build things, make things, care for people, and that sees wages and conditions improve in Australian workplaces. So of course we need to see support for building things. Not just big projects - roads, bridges and so on, but also upgrading our local communities, fixing our community facilities - our schools, our hospitals, our TAFEs. I mean our TAFEs could really do with a bit of investment. We need to be a country that makes things. So we need to see cheaper electricity prices, we need to use the discovery, the invention, the innovation that is driven by our universities and our private companies to create jobs here in Australia. We need to care for people. So we need to properly fund things like aged care and disability supports. And we really need to see wages increase in Australia. Even the Reserve Bank is saying flatlining wages are holding back our economic growth. Before COVID-19, we had the longest run of low wages in Australian history. We need to see wages improve as businesses’ profits improve. So that the people who are getting an extra five bucks in their pocket buy a cup of coffee on the way to work, take their kids for pizza on a Friday night, and create jobs for other Australians.
JOURNALIST: I’ve just got another question on tax [inaudible] for brewers. Do you welcome that and what should the priority be [inaudible]?
PLIBERSEK: Sorry, I haven’t seen the detail of it. We’ll have a good look at the detail. We’re all for things that help create jobs, but we’ll have a look at the detail.
JOURNALIST: How crucial is it that the Government makes childcare more affordable?
PLIBERSEK: It is so vital that Australia has more affordable childcare. Affordable childcare would take pressure off the family budget. We know families are struggling to afford the childcare bills. But it would also make our economy stronger, by allowing more women, in particular, back into the workforce. So many women tell me that it’s not worth going to work for a fourth or a fifth day in the week – because it just all gets chewed up in childcare costs. If we want women increasing their hours of work, or giving them the choice to increase their hours of work, to increase national wealth and productivity – then we need to make childcare more affordable. Our proposal would see more affordable childcare for 97% of Australian families.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] changes to the curriculum will teach students about consent and respectful relationships [inaudible]?
PLIBERSEK: We absolutely need to be teaching our young people about respect and consent. We can begin to talk to young children, in an age appropriate way, about respectful relationships very early in their schooling. And then as they get older, we talk to them in a more sophisticated way about romantic relationships. Last year, this Government tried to halve Respectful Relationships funding in schools. And it wasn’t until we called them out on it that they actually restored that funding. So of course I support greater investment in teaching respectful relationships. That includes consent education. But we need to make sure that this Government actually follows through – that it’s not just all words.
JOURNALIST: The Labor candidate for the division of Flynn has been announced, Gladstone Mayor Matt Burnett - when can we expect an announcement for the division of Capricornia?
PLIBERSEK: In good time for the next election.
JOURNALIST: How is Labor going to win divisions like Flynn and Capricornia when one half of the Labor Party is utterly opposed to coal mining, whereas these divisions depend upon coal mining for prosperity?
PLIBERSEK: I don’t even know where you get a question like that. I think every single person in the Labor Party understands that mining has been a huge part of creating our national wealth, creating jobs in this country, and it will continue. The resources sector will continue to be a really important part of the Australian economy into the future. But what we also have is this amazing opportunity to be a renewable energy super power. We know that solar’s now the cheapest form of electricity in human history. Are we really nuts enough not to make use of that? The only person who is saying we shouldn’t have cheaper power from renewables is Scott Morrison, who is some sort of denial about this. We can have a strong resources sector, with strong employment, and we can get the benefit of a renewable energy future – that will also support Australian jobs in manufacturing. If you ask anybody around Rockhampton who uses electricity in their business, whether they’re a manufacturer, whether they’re a supermarket that’s running big refrigerators, they’ll tell you what a difference cheaper power makes, and how they can put more people on as their business costs come down. Let’s do both.
ENDS
