SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
MINISTER FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING
WEDNESDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2025
SUBJECTS: Reserve Bank rate cut; wages data; Whyalla Steelworks; Clive Palmer; Epping incident.
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Let's bring in the Finance Minister, Katy Gallagher, live from Cairns, for her thoughts. Welcome.
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Thanks for having me on, PK.
KARVELAS: Opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor says that that rate cut that was announced by the Reserve Bank, which clearly has been the biggest story across our country, was the result of sacrifices made by Australians rather than any policies put in by the government. Do you accept that view that it is actually Australians that have done all the heavy lifting?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think it’s been a shared effort between Australians and the policies of the government to make sure that we are getting inflation back down into band. And I must say I am rather surprised when Angus Taylor talks about inflation under our government when it was under his government that it went so high and was increasing at the last election, and we have got it down from having a six in front of it, to a two in front of it now, which has led to the Bank feeling able to cut interest rates, which we believe is deserved for all those Australians who have been doing it tough. But it has been a shared effort and no thanks to the Opposition, really, for all of the criticism that they’ve made talking Australia down.
KARVELAS: I spoke to Bridget McKenzie a little earlier and she says that actually, if you look at some of the metrics – pay packets, for instance, are growing very slowly, they grew at the slowest rate in almost three years in the December quarter – and that wage gains are really easing. I just want your assessment of what today’s data says to you? What is the health of the economy at the moment given that wages data?
GALLAGHER: I think from what you see from the national accounts, PK, that growth in the economy has been subdued. We’ve been dealing with a global inflation challenge and that has led to the Reserve Bank increasing interest rates, which has put downward pressure on consumption. And you have seen that in the growth figures across the economy. But what the Opposition don’t say is that we have continued to see growth, continued to see low unemployment unlike many of our comparable countries, we’ve got wages moving again, and interest rates peaked lower than they did in other countries. So, I’m not saying the last couple of years have been easy for Australians, they haven't, and that is why our cost-of-living help – which I will also say, the Opposition has opposed every measure that we put in place to actually deal with the cost-of-living pressures – but that that has been recognition of some of the struggles that Australian households are under. Our key priority was to get inflation down and we have got it down back into the target range and that is from an economy health point of view, a really significant achievement.
KARVELAS: But given wages have slowed to the slowest rate in three years, that is pretty difficult then for workers, isn't it? In terms of keeping up with the cost of living, that’s a pretty dire state?
GALLAGHER: Well, we’ve seen wages growth now for five consecutive quarters and we’ve seen wages grow faster than any other year under the former government. And that is because they wanted to keep wages low, whereas we have been trying to invest and deal with some of those structural problems with wages, particularly with women's work and with minimum wage employees. So, we have seen a slight coming off on the wages data, but it is still real wages growth, and some of that issue is to do with timing of agreements and how they come in and out of being expired. But we are seeing continued wages growth, we want that, we want more jobs, and we want growth in the economy, because that is going to help people with those household pressures along with some of the cost-of-living help that we have in putting in through our budget.
KARVELAS: Is the message here that the economy is really struggling and what does that mean for cost-of-living relief for people in coming months? I know you have been working on the Budget with the Treasurer. Energy bill relief, of course, is one of the issues that has to be considered. Should voters expect to have energy relief extended for them?
GALLAGHER: Well, it won’t be any surprise that I’m not coming on the show to talk about what is in the Budget, but I can confirm that we are always thinking about what more we can do to help households with cost-of-living pressures. That’s why we did the tax cuts, the energy bill rebate, investment into Medicare, cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines. All of that has been targeted to help households without adding to the inflation challenge in the economy, and you would expect us to continue to focus on that. You know, make sure that inflation is coming down and continues to trend down, but at the same time not take our eye off the fact that the job isn’t done. It isn’t. We recognise households are still under pressure and so you would expect the government to continue to focus on that.
KARVELAS: I’ve got to ask you about a story that’s broken this afternoon, a pretty significant development. The South Australian Government, of course, taking the extraordinary move of forcing the Whyalla Steel Works into administration. So, taking control. I know that the Prime Minister is going to be making his way there, it’s been confirmed by the South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas that they’ve been in talks. Are you looking at bailing them out? What’s the Commonwealth’s intervention going to look like?
GALLAGHER: We’ve been working and talking with the South Australian Government. Obviously, there has been a lot of uncertainty for the workers and people of Whyalla. We see a bright steelmaking future for this country, a lot of our industry policies are targeted to making sure we are doing more here. I know Ed Husic has been involved, the Treasurer has been involved, so we have been closely in communication with the South Australian government. And the PM’s going there I think overnight, and you know will have more to say when he has had that visit with the Premier. But we have an interest as a country in ensuring that places like Whyalla have a strong and bright future and so you would expect the Federal Government to be at the table as part of those discussions.
KARVELAS: Yeah, he is absolutely on his way. I put that to Senator Bridget McKenzie and she said the collapse we’re seeing – she kind of sheeted a lot of the blame to your government. She said there are broader economic issues that mean that we’re seeing collapses like Whyalla and predicted there would be more. And that it’s the setting, she said, that’s the problem, you shouldn’t just be stepping in and sort of stepping in to solve the problem after it’s happened. What is your response to that, Minister? Because she suggests the kind of problems that we’ve seen emerge here are as a consequence of the economic conditions that we see across the country.
GALLAGHER: Well, I would say to Senator McKenzie that she should go and educate herself about the situation at Whyalla and some of the very localised and individual issues that have been presented there through the steelworks, and it is quite a unique set of circumstances. It is, as Premier Malinauskas said today, unorthodox for the South Australian Government to be taking or making the decisions they have, but you would understand from our point of view that we want to be part of the solution, not carrying on on the sidelines seeking to sheet blame home as Senator McKenzie does. But this is the case with the Opposition, they will always point the finger and make people's jobs and employment futures you know, political point scoring when it is a time that we should come together and work in the national interest and make sure that the people of Whyalla, the businesses and those workers at the steelworks, get the help that they need right now.
KARVELAS: Minister, I just want to take you to a couple of other issues, today we’ve seen Clive Palmer launch a very interestingly named political party and be very open about it being really almost the lovechild or the Australian version of what Donald Trump has done in the US. He says these Trump policies are needed for Australia and will be popular here, what is your view?
GALLAGHER: Look, I haven’t followed that too closely today, PK. I’ve been on the road. I think the Australian people want good, efficient government that is there to help people when they need a hand, that’s there to provide essential services like Medicare and Veterans’ support and types of services like that. I think that’s what Australians want at the end of the day. I was visiting a Services Australia centre today. I saw a lot of fellow Australians in there trying to transact their business, I think they know what good, funded but efficient services are there for and they are strongly supported by the community.
KARVELAS: It was only a couple of elections ago that Labor was pretty concerned about the role of Clive Palmer had in what some people believe was robbing Bill Shorten of his chance to become Prime Minister. Do you think that Clive Palmer poses an electoral risk for the Labor’s re-election?
GALLAGHER: Look, I haven’t analysed it in terms of you know, political risk. I think the issue with Clive Palmer is we have someone, a very wealthy Australian, a billionaire who’s prepared to pour billions and millions of dollars into electoral processes for his own individual gain. And I think that is why we took the action we did in the last sitting week to make sure that Australian elections aren’t up for sale, that we have strong transparency rules, caps in place, the biggest change to electoral reform really that we have seen in modern times. And the reason motivating behind that, apart from the transparency and making clear where money is coming from, is to make sure that Australian elections aren’t up for sale. Because again, I don’t think Australians want that, they want hard-working politicians with policies, having the arguments, putting the case and seeking support as part of a strong and healthy democracy. And that’s what we’re after, that’s what we will go through the election campaign with, a strong set of policies, an agenda for the future, investing in Medicare, doing all those things, and I really think that is what Australians care about the most.
KARVELAS: Just a final question or something entirely different but something very serious that has broken again this afternoon. A woman has been charged over an alleged assault on two Muslim women in Melbourne last week. Now, Victorian police said they will allege the women were targeted because they were wearing head coverings. This is obviously a pretty disturbing story, the Prime Minister has already been asked about it today, before this arrest and this charge was made. There have been many comments from members of the Arab and Muslim community that they feel like this issue around Islamophobia is not being taken seriously enough. We haven’t really, Minister, seen wall-to-wall coverage of what these women have gone through, is there something wrong? Why are we not giving the focus on what they have experienced, and does it worry you?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think some of the issues we have seeing in terms of social cohesion in the community does worry me. It’s been higher in the last year or so than I have ever seen in my time in public life and that does worry me. I think political leaders need to be very clear about showing some leadership, standing up for unity, standing up for the Australian values that we have all held dear, which is a strong multicultural community where people are accepted across races and culture and religion, and the cases of Islamophobia in Melbourne that I saw reported are shocking, as are other cases where we have seen anti-Semitism and we have seen that in both Melbourne and Sydney in particular. It’s not the Australia that I know, it’s not the Australia that many people know, and I think the leadership needs to come from the top from all political parties to absolutely say how abhorrent this is across-the-board and speak about tolerance and coming together, not seek to divide and point the finger but talk about the values that we should be protecting and holding dear. Which are bringing communities together, standing up against any sort of intolerance that we see in the community, and you know, making us strong community members and leaders in that field. And I’m not sure we’ve seen that in the last couple of months across the board from our political leaders, particularly from the Opposition.
KARVELAS: Katy Gallagher, thank you for joining us.
ENDS
