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PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Thanks for joining us here at Kyilla Markets. Kyilla Community Markets is much loved by my community of Perth, and every Saturday morning, you see families here out doing what they love to spending time together. And you see lots of little kids who, throughout the week, are spending their time in early childhood education, but on the weekend, they get to come here and spend time with a petting zoo, with their family and friends. And I think you would struggle to go as you go around the Kyilla Markets, you would struggle to find a single family who wouldn’t think that our early childhood educators are worth every cent. That those 200,000 people who educate our youngest minds, who care for our children, and who make sure that all of working Australia can get to work each day, people will say they’re worth every cent. For the invaluable work they do building up the next generation.

And that’s why I’m so pleased to be here talking to families in my community about why we’re investing in a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators. Recognising the work they do, making sure we lift their wages, but also recognising the professionalism of this incredibly important workforce. And I again challenge – you will not find a parent who doesn’t think those early childhood educators are worth every single cent. Surprisingly, though, we did see from Peter Dutton, the Leader of the Opposition, this week absolutely zero support for raising the wages of early childhood educators. He would not even go out of his way to say that he supports it.

We have got huge contradiction that has come out of Mr. Dutton’s visit to Western Australia. What we saw when he was here is that he was saying one thing about production tax credits to back our Critical Minerals industry, which we know needs that support to get off the ground and help with the transition to a Net Zero economy. But then we saw with Mr. Dutton’s Treasurer saying that he doesn’t support Labor’s plan for production tax credits. Now I would have thought that Mr. Dutton can spend as many days as he likes here in Western Australia, but if he really wants to show that he supports Western Australia’s resources industry and Western Australia’s economy, he could just come out and say that he thinks that childcare workers deserve a pay rise. He can just come out and say his Shadow Treasurer is wrong and that the production tax credits would be good for the Australian economy and good for our environment, now and into the future.

We will be back in Parliament on Monday, back doing the work and making sure that we deliver those things that we promised at the last election, making sure we take responsible action on cost living. While delivering, as we have. We have turned two Liberal deficits into two Labor surpluses.

We will continue the work that we’re doing in making sure that we’re bringing down people’s HECS debts, and putting more money back into our education system, and also the work that we’re doing to make sure we take responsibility when there are big challenges. As we’ve done with the legislation that will be introduced next week by Minister Murray Watt to clean up the CFMEU construction division. And I would urge every member of parliament to make sure that they vote for that legislation. I urge every House of Reps member and every senator to back it. That is urgent and we need to clean up that CFMEU construction division.

And in a few weeks time, before I take your questions, I’ll say, obviously, we’ve had the Prime Minister here yesterday announcing that we will be welcoming the Cabinet here to Western Australia at the start of September. Continuing that deep engagement with Western Australia across the full breadth of the Commonwealth’s agenda. I’m looking forward to welcoming a number of my colleagues here to Perth. And I will put the invite out to them now – they’re always welcome at the Kyilla Community Markets. Over to you.

JOURNALIST: The educators were looking for a 25 per cent increase. They’ve only got 15. Is there still more room for the Government to help support these workers?

GORMAN: I was at Marjorie Mann Early Learning Centre yesterday in Mount Lawley, and as I walked in the door, the first thing one of the educators said to me was, ‘thank you for that 15 per cent pay increase.’ I think they recognise that we’ve also seen increases in award wages, and this is a government that’s backed increases for working people through award wages. They’ve seen money come into their pay packets, from Labor’s tax cuts, which came in a month ago. These pay increases, the first down payment of which would kick in on 1 December. They welcome that as well. We think this is what is both affordable, but also necessary to back our early childhood educators. And that’s feedback I’ve had.

JOURNALIST: Will the Government implement the recommendations from the Murphy Review? Most notably banning gambling ads within three years?

GORMAN: We are working through the incredibly important report that our dear friend and our late friend Peta Murphy delivered. Making sure that we do take serious action to reduce the completely unacceptable harms of gambling. It destroys lives, it destroys people’s futures. And there is more the Government can do, and we are working through that at the moment. But I would just note that this government has already introduced BetStop, the strongest exclusion register seen in Australia, We’ve banned the use of credit cards, when it comes to ensuring that you can’t use a credit card for online wagering. Again, really important reforms. We’re committed to reducing the harms, particularly of online gaming. I look forward to talking to you and others more about the government response to that report.

JOURNALIST: If the government does implement those recommendations, will it provide compensation for companies that lose out big money, on these gambling ads? Like – there are jobs on the line.

GORMAN: Our focus, is of course, on reducing the harms of gambling. We know that it does and can destroy lives, and there’s more the Government can do to reduce the harms of gambling. As for the specifics of the policy that we put forward, I’ll leave that to Minister Rowland. Consultation is ongoing. We’ve been really open about that. We talking to all those involved, making sure that we get this right. Because it will be a really serious reform. There was a high, ambitious sense in that really powerful report from Peta Murphy and the committee. We will continue working through it to make sure we get this right for those that we protect, but also for the community large.

JOURNALIST: Is that compensation or that support, is that consideration, though, at the moment? Is that something the Government’s looking into, I guess? We’ve seen compensation or some kind of transition from other industries, for example, mining, coal mining, or whatever it might be. Will we see that replicated if a government does something about gambling?

GORMAN: Well, obviously, we’ve done a range of reforms already, and that’s been done in partnership with those who provide some of these online products. We’ve done that in a way that we think that’s good for the Australian community. That’s who I serve, the Australian community –

JOURNALIST: Specifically to the parties that will lose out, is that on the table?

GORMAN: What I will say is, you’re taking me down a path which I’m not going to walk down, which is to rule in or rule out measures. We will continue to consult on the final response to that inquiry. That is the appropriate thing for us to do. It is appropriate in order for us to come to final conclusions. And we will continue those conversations, but our goal is really clear: we want to make sure that we reduce the harms that we’re seeing in communities. This gambling addiction, gambling harm, doesn’t discriminate. If you can do this online, then it can reach into the lounge rooms and studies of people anywhere in Australia, including here in Perth. We want to get it right.

JOURNALIST: What did you make of Paul Keating’s comments that the Prime Minister had put Australia on a path to become a US protectorate in Asia? And his comments that Australia should celebrate the rise of China?

GORMAN: I’ve always had a view that I respect the leadership Paul Keating provided for Australia when he was in office. But now, 30 years on, I think some of those comments don’t really deserve a serious response.

JOURNALIST: When he says we should find our security in China, is he out of touch?

GORMAN: The whole point to what we are doing is: we acknowledge Australia faces some of the most challenging strategic circumstances we’ve seen since World War II. I’ll acknowledge that what we’re doing is trying to ensure that we lift our defence capability. And that’s the work that’s been done by a range of our Ministers, including my West Australian colleague, Matt Keogh, who has got a really important role in getting more defence personnel in, to serve our nation. And I want to pay tribute to everyone who makes that really important decision to have their career in service to the nation by serving in the Australian Defence Force. We have always got to act in our national interest. Simple as that. We recognise that our national interest is in maintaining the rules-based order that has served us so well. Maintaining free trade routes throughout our region. We are a trading nation. We need to make sure that we have the ongoing freedom of navigation that has served to date many very important industries here in Western Australia very well. We make decisions in the Australian national interest. That will always be our guiding principle, but I’m not going to respond to Mr Keating further.

JOURNALIST: Are you concerned about the disproportionate affect that Labor’s migration policy will have on our WA regional universities sector?

GORMAN: We have got great regional universities here in WA. You’ve got the UWA Albany Campus, the University Centre up in Geraldton, and regional education makes a really important contribution to making sure that more and more Australians get access to higher education, specifically university degrees. And everything we’re doing is about getting more Australians into university. If you look at what Minister Jason Clare has said in his response to the Universities Accord is that we have a goal of getting, by 2050, 80 per cent of Australians with a tertiary qualification. That’s a huge jump from where we are now. It’s a really important goal to continue to look at how we get more Australians into higher education.

When it comes to the concerns that you raised around how do we deal with these complex areas of making sure all the universities take their shared responsibility to make accommodation available, particularly when it comes to our international students. I’d point people to the really successful story of what we’ve seen here in Perth, with the new ECU City Campus. What you’ve seen there is a big new university going into the heart of the city, but also a lot of investment in new accommodation for those students.

We will continue to consult with all of the university sector, including regional campuses and including regional universities, to make sure that we do get this right. We hope that some of those reforms will be kicking in on 1 January 2025. It’s about getting more Australians into our universities, and it’s also about making sure that we have more graduates from our university and higher education sector. I mentioned before that we’ve got investments around HECS debt. Around reducing the debt which has gone up quite significantly. We’ve got huge investments when it comes to 20,000 new Commonwealth supported placements. We’ve got huge investments into the TAFE sector. Where of course we now have 500 000 Australians who have been through a fee-free TAFE course. These new qualifications will open the doors of opportunity. We will continue to invest and continue to consult on those changes.

JOURNALIST: Caitlyn [Rintoul] in the West Australian today, she talks about workplace incidents. We have lost seven people on the job. That’s in just five weeks. WorkSafe obviously investigating, but what do you think needs to happen there?

GORMAN: Every Australian should be able to go to work and come home safely every day, no matter what industry you work in. That report, I think, is very sobering reading on a Saturday morning that there are families, in those last few weeks, where a loved one hasn’t come home. We have very high safety standards in Australia, but they’re only as good as every single one of us in the workplace. In terms of enforcing them, everyone has responsibility to ensure safer workplaces. That means employers hold a lot of that responsibility. Workers working alongside each other have some of that responsibility. Trade unions play a really important role in making sure that workplaces are safe. But, Australia’s journey of having safe workplaces – they are safer than they used to be – but we are still on that journey. We want to keep having discussions about what else it can be, whether it be what else employers can do to ensure safe workplaces, or what else government can do. Minister Watt will continue those conversations to improve [inaudible]. Thinking through our responsibility as the Commonwealth to ensure a safer workplace as is appropriate.

JOURNALIST: Locally, down at Hyde Park, you’ve got volunteers today with the Shot Hole Borer. Trying to figure out how many beetles are in those trees, and take action. What are you guys doing to try and address that?

GORMAN: I can’t go anywhere in my electorate of Perth without people raising with me, their concern about the devastating impact of the Shot Hole Borer. It is meaning that we have seen thousands of trees ripped out of our community. We’re seeing people have trees chopped down in their backyards, and we don’t know where it’s going to end. What the Commonwealth has done is we take responsibility for biosecurity at a national level. We provided $19.9 million to the state government to assist with the work that has been done to both track and eliminate the borer. I am pro-elimination. That is the best way to protect both our agriculture industry, but also the parks and communities that we love. That’s what we’re doing.

To the volunteers who are down at Hyde Park today, I say a huge thank you. This will take a whole of community effort to stop the borer. We’ve got to work across local, state and federal government, and the community is a big part of that as well. I’d encourage those who live in this area to learn about the borer, how you can identify whether it is indeed on the trees in your yard or in your local park. And if you see something that looks a bit out of the normal, report it to the local state agencies, because we are all working together to fight this bug. It will have devastating impacts if we can’t get on top of it. That is why I am so pleased to be working with Minister Jarvis, local Mayor Alison Xamon and others to do everything we can to stop this bug.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask about missiles? The HMAS Sydney has successfully fired a SM-6 missile, Standard Missile 6. Why is it important to have that capability, and what can you tell us about, sort of what the targets might be for that, and what’s the reach of the missile?

GORMAN: The Australian Government welcomes the successful testing of Standard Missile 6 from HMAS Sydney. This ensures that we continue our work expanding our defence capability, and indeed, we know that this will now mean that the Hobart Class frigates will have that capability of Standard Missile 6, which will enhance our ability to protect our interests in our region. As we face these challenging strategic circumstances that we have seen the Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Foreign Minister, and others talk about on a regular basis. Obviously, we’ve seen this successful test in the Hawaii area, meaning that we now can begin that expansion of capability across our vessels. That’s an important thing for Australia, as we continue that massive exercise of expanding our capability for the challenges we face in the future. And I’d just like to say to all the Australian Defence personnel involved in that successful test; thank you for making sure that it was done in a safe way and in a way that means that Standard Missile 6 can now be installed across a range of Australian assets.

JOURNALIST: Minister, how confident are you in Labor’s new frontbench and how do you think the Ministers will [inaudible] the coming sitting period?

GORMAN: I spent quite a bit of time with my ministerial colleagues this week, and I know that we are ready to do the work that the Australian people expect of us. And I think we’ve got some fantastic new ministers, we have got Malarndirri McCarthy, Jenny McAllister. We have welcomed, here in WA, Josh Wilson into the Climate Change and Energy portfolio. So there’s a real amount of energy going into the period ahead.

What I hope for the next sitting week, is to see maybe standards a little bit higher than they were when we left Parliament at the start of July. I’m hoping to see some higher standards when it comes to cooperation on the urgent legislation needed for the CFMEU. I hope to see standards a little higher when it comes to getting things like the Net Zero Economy Authority through the Parliament [inaudible]. I’d hope that we also see a bit of a standard in the sort of language that we all use.

I note that since Parliament last sat, we’ve done a reshuffle. We put in new talent and also new focus in some areas where we’ve had ministers take on new roles. But I noticed that the person who didn’t do a reshuffle was Peter Dutton. Now, I can go to a few things that Peter Dutton didn’t do. He didn’t make Barnaby Joyce take any responsibility for the abhorrent comments that he made, comparing ballot papers to bullets recently. So, I’d hope that the Coalition will raise its standards a little bit.

And also when we get back to Parliament, one thing I’ll be pointing out to all of my colleagues, and indeed some on the other side, is that Peter Dutton made a huge fanfare of coming to Western Australia for five days. But absolutely gutless that he didn’t go down to Collie. He says he wants to spend $600 billion for nuclear reactors across Australia, spend tens of billions of dollars putting a nuclear reactor in Collie, but in five days he couldn’t find the time to drive down and back to talk to that community? Now, I think that it’s just hugely disrespectful, not just for the people of Collie, but for all Western Australians. To say you won’t even front up. I think the Australian people have started to see that if they want a government that fronts up and takes responsibility, the only choice is Labor.

JOURNALIST: What are your thoughts about the number of WA MPs in Cabinet?

GORMAN: We are bringing the entire Cabinet to Western Australia. Bringing the entire Cabinet to Western Australia for the second time this year. They’ll be here, working across the full spectrum of things. And you saw here over the last few weeks, a range of ministers, including both the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister. I continue to work very closely with Prime Minister as his Assistant Minister. And I think Madeleine King is doing a fantastic job on behalf of our state. I challenge anyone to say otherwise.

JOURNALIST: So you’re happy with one Cabinet Minister from Western Australia?

GORMAN: We have got a great team in Cabinet. Thank you.