Welcome to The Nightline. It’s all about your calls, your world, and your take on things. Time for Canberra Conversations with Senator Paul Scarr. Welcome Senator.
Senator Scarr
Great to be with you. My favorite time of the week, and it comes around so quickly.
Cheralyn Darcey
I think it’s because it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We’re getting there, aren’t we? It’s barreling down to the end of the year. On that note, there are a lot of things that are hurting average Aussies, including this interest rate thing. Interest Rates remained stuck at the highest level in a decade. Senators and households are being asked to absorb an average of now $1,800 more a month than they did only a few years ago. Senator, you’ve argued the government has boxed the Reserve Bank in. What exactly do you believe has stopped the Reserve Bank from cutting rates and giving Aussies the relief that they urgently need now?
Senator Scarr
The biggest issue is out of control government spending, and the Labor Government is spending at record levels and to be frank, a lot of that spending is not making the lives of our Australians any better. A lot of it is wasteful and is not positive, and that’s putting pressure on interest rates and inflation. So, last week, we saw inflation go up to 3.2% a year. The Reserve Bank of Australia has a band of between two and three per cent. So, it was no surprise on Melbourne Cup Day that we saw the Reserve Bank of Australia keep interest rates where they are. So, that means we’ve had twelve interest rate increases and only three decreases. So, Australians are doing it tough, and your listeners will know that just from their own experience in their own communities.
Cheralyn Darcey
Well, moving on to the Australia Post pay packet news that we had. Aussies are waiting longer for their mail. Local post offices are closing left, right and center, or reducing their hours, and now we’re hearing that stamp prices are rising. At the same time, we’ve been given the news that executive bonuses have almost doubled and total leadership salaries have jumped into the millions. So, why is this tolerated during a cost-of-living crisis when Australians are getting less?
Senator Scarr
It’s a good question, and the Labor Party was very critical of remuneration for Australia Post when they’re in Opposition, but we’re now seeing these extraordinary increases in Australia Post executives with pay rises of up to 34% with total salaries for their top executives now hitting 7.8 million dollars, so this is really disturbing, because, as you say, we’re getting our mail less often, we’re seeing post offices close, the services people have received from Australia Post aren’t what they used to be, and they’re getting these record high bonuses. So, I think there’s a lot of questions there for Australia Post to answer and for the relevant Minister to answer.
Cheralyn Darcey
So, do you think they should be intervening now? Should the Minister jump in?
Senator Scarr
They need to look at it. It’s difficult in some respects, because the way Australia Post has now been set up is as a corporate entity. So, a lot of the accountability is as a board level for Australia Post, so the Chairperson of the Board has responsibility. But I really think there needs to be some earnest discussions with the board of Australia Post.
Cheralyn Darcey
The CFMEU corruption allegations. There have been multiple attempts to launch an inquiry into fresh corruption allegations involving senior figures. Why do you believe the government keeps blocking these inquiries into these profoundly serious allegations?
Senator Scarr
I’m getting a lot of good questions today, and that’s another good question. This is such an important issue for the Australian people, and in my home state of Queensland, every single major infrastructure project, everything from highways through to hospitals, through to university campuses, even Ronald McDonald House was the subject of unlawful conduct by the CFMEU. The government then put in place an administrator, and we supported an administrator taking control of the CFMEU, but we’ve now seen these disturbing allegations of misconduct come out of the CFMEU whilst it’s under administration, and we’re all left scratching our heads wondering, is the change that needs to be made, is that change happening under this administration? That’s why it needs a parliamentary inquiry, that’s why we need a committee set up so we can get them to the bottom of what’s happening. This is so important when we’re facing such a crisis in terms of infrastructure and housing supply. We need our construction industry to be at its absolute best, and that means we’ve got to find some way to fix the CFMEU.
Cheralyn Darcey
Something that is part of Canberra Conversations every single week is energy bills and emission promises. Australian were promised significant savings on their power bills. I don’t know about you, Senator, but I just got mine. I can’t see it. When Australians see prices rising again, while being told to just trust in the plan, how should the government rebuild this confidence?
Senator Scarr
The existing Labor Government plan in terms of their all-renewable rollout is simply not working. It’s not working, and people are seeing that in their power prices, in their bills, and we’re also seeing it with businesses under so much pressure, businesses shutting down and jobs being exported overseas. So, we need a new approach. The Coalition is in the process, over the next two weeks of finalizing our position with respect to energy policy. As I’ve said many times in your show, fundamentally we need to bring those electricity prices down. We need reliability in the grid, so the light stay on, the power stays on, and then we need to do what we can to reduce emissions, but electricity price, electricity costs have to be the first priority, and we can’t have this ridiculous policy of Net Zero at any cost. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s just not working for the Australian people.
Cheralyn Darcey
Do you feel that strong climate goals can be reached without driving up energy prices and risking regional jobs?
Senator Scarr
I think we can do things, and we have done things. We’ve brought down our emissions, and the Coalition brought down our emissions whilst we were in power, and we didn’t have electricity prices at these ridiculous levels. But from my perspective, we’ve got to trust in technology. We’ve got to trust in innovation, and we shouldn’t be imposing taxes on our electricity suppliers and on our users of energy. We shouldn’t be adding additional impulse upon them. We’ve got to be practical, and we need to have common sense. What everyone’s electricity bill is telling them is that the current approach, Labor’s current plan, is not working. So, we really must bring some common sense back to this debate, in my view, and I’ve spoken previously, I’m a fan of nuclear power. We’re the only one of the Top 20 economies in the world that doesn’t use nuclear power for electricity generation. If we’re going to have nuclear powered submarines, which we will, in ports all around Australia, then why aren’t we using nuclear power for electricity generation? Especially, when technology is getting better and cheaper every single day.
Cheralyn Darcey
Senator, while we’re here, before we move on. There is growing attention on what’s happening inside the Liberal Party itself. Sarah Henderson, this morning, has publicly said she can’t support the way things are under Sussan Ley, and she’s warned support is falling, especially without a clear Net Zero position. Voters are watching closely, and they do want clarity. So, do you believe concerns about party direction and leadership are increasing amongst your Liberal Party colleagues?
Senator Scarr
From my perspective, I’m absolutely focused on doing the hard work required in Opposition to hold the government to account, and to develop a suite of policies for us to take to the next election. That’s our job as an Opposition. Sussan was only elected leader five or so months ago, and from my perspective, Sussan needs to be given a fair go, and I’m absolutely doing everything I can, including over the next two weeks, in terms of finalizing our policy with respect to energy and emissions reduction, I’m going to do everything I can to be positive, to be constructive and to do the right thing, as I see it by the Australian people.
Cheralyn Darcey
The Bulk Billing situation. Now, I got a letter from my doctor, Senator and my doctor said they’re not going to be part of the government’s bulk billing plan, and they outlined their reasons, and they said that they felt that it really didn’t go far enough, and it only covered a very small amount of the actual services they give, which surprised me. It really surprised me. They said it doesn’t cover long appointments, it doesn’t cover biopsies, it doesn’t cover so many things, and they said, we can’t afford to implement the government’s new plan. The Australian people were promised that they didn’t need their credit card to see a GP and said bulk billing rates would be falling and average out of pocket costs would be rising. Family clinics say they’re struggling with higher costs of running a practice, and they can’t implement this. So, what needs to change so Australians can afford to see a doctor when they need to?
Senator Scarr
Well, it’s not working. In your example, I’d love you to provide the details with respect to that, because we’re maintaining a record of those sorts of responses from GP’s, and there is a website that your listeners can go on. It’s www.HowMuchDoYouPay.au. That’s the website that we’ve set up for listeners to provide feedback with respect to what the position is with their out-of-pocket expenses when they see a doctor. So, we were promised before the last election, remember Albanese went around with his Medicare card and said, that’s all you will need. Is your Medicare card, not your credit card, right? It will be free to see a GP. Now, we find out of pocket costs are already at a record high under Labor, and the average out of pocket cost to see a local GP is now $49.14, so people are either putting it on their credit card, or in many cases, they’re not going to see their doctor because they can’t afford it, and that’s even more disturbing, because they’re not getting that preventative health care and assistance which they need, and that means their condition can deteriorate, and then they ultimately may need to go to a hospital, whereas if they could have seen their GP, it would have saved them that that issue, right? So, better for their health, better for their goodwill, and it just leads to extra costs on the taxpayer, it doesn’t make any sense to me.
Cheralyn Darcey
What do you think needs to change so that Australians can afford to see their doctor when they need to?
Senator Scarr
Well, we’re in the process of looking at all our policies in this regard. We’re looking at things like the supply chain in terms of GP’s coming into the system, so that there are more GPs in the system. I think that’s an important thing, especially in regional and rural areas. I get feedback from communities across Queensland with respect to issues in terms of being able to see a doctor. I think we need to be realistic about the cost-of-living crisis and how it actually impacts upon small family practices, because they’ve got to pay the additional rent, they’ve got to pay the additional electricity we spoke about, and all the other additional costs. So, I think the government, needs to put themselves in the position of those small family run practices that are providing health services to Australians all over the country, and we need to be realistic about what the policy should be to make sure they can bring their prices down.
Cheralyn Darcey
Senator, thank you so much for this week, and we look forward to talking to you next week, particularly after you’ve had your meeting that we’re all waiting to hear the outcome.
Senator Scarr
Okay, well, you’ll get the current update next Friday when we catch up, always look forward to it.
Cheralyn Darcey
Thank you so much, Senator.
Senator Scarr
Take care.
