Transcript - Joint Media Conference
Angus Taylor - Leader of the Opposition
Ben Small MP
Date: 21/04/26
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ABC Host:
We're breaking in to take you live to Western Australia now where Opposition Leader Angus Taylor is answering questions.
Angus Taylor MP:
We know, we know they are out there. Whether it's existing basins where there's more potential or new basins like the Taroom or the Beetaloo, we know they are there but we've got to get the incentives right to get those explorers out there exploring, to get the oil and gas companies drilling and to make sure Australian oil and gas is working hard for Australians.
Reporter:
Are you open minded to making gas giants pay more tax?
Angus Taylor MP:
Well you know there's a proposal around for a 25% tax which would close down the gas industry and that is the intent of that tax.
Now right now we need more oil and more gas. That way we get affordable energy in this country. That way we have the fuel security we need for trucking businesses like the one we're here talking to today, MGM. But if we're going to have that, we need to give businesses the incentive to get out there, the explorers to get out there, the small companies to get out there and drill and explore and find those reservoirs. They won't do that with one of Labor's big taxes. But that's what's being talked about. I don't know what the government's got in mind. No one seems to know what the government's got in mind, themselves included. We see a thought bubble a day. We'll see what they actually do in the budget. This budget needs to restore Australians' standard of living, protect their way of life and bank the windfall that is coming from the inflation that every Australian is paying for. It needs to be a transparent budget that doesn't just use the windfall as a slush fund for the Treasurer, but banks that windfall for the future of all Australians.
Reporter:
Ed Husic says that gas companies are essentially crying wolf when they say that it will hurt investment. What do you say?
Angus Taylor MP:
Well, I'd just say to Ed Husic, do you want to shut down the gas industry in this country and do you want to have no fuel security in this country? That's the question for him. He needs to answer that question.
Reporter:
How will the fast track approach you are planning to take in oil and gas industries impact the South West or other regional areas?
Angus Taylor MP:
Just say that again, I lost that.
Reporter:
How would the fast track approach you are planning to take in oil and gas industries impact the South West region?
Angus Taylor MP:
Well the South West, as you heard from Ben, is dependent on the resources sector just like much of Western Australia, just like all of Australia. And so we need to see fast track projects. This government changed the Environmental Protection Act to make it harder for oil and gas projects to get approval. We want to see a fast track process for good projects. Of course environmental protection still matters, but for critical projects, projects of national significance, there needs to be fast tracking and that should include oil and gas projects so we have the fuel security we need, so we have the energy affordability we need. Chris Bowen thinks that you don't need oil and gas. He thinks it's not necessary anymore. Well, we're seeing the consequences of that right now. It's been a complete disaster for this country. We need to turn that around and that means fast tracking critical projects.
Reporter:
Mr Taylor, Roger Cook and Murray Watt will be signing an MOU on bilateral assessments and approvals under the new EPBC today. Now, Murray Watt has said your criticisms of the Act are embarrassing because you worked in government for 10 years and did not reform the Act and voted against the current reforms. He says your party was too busy backing Sussan Ley and chasing One Nation. How do you respond to those comments?
Angus Taylor MP:
What a load of fraud. I mean, seriously. Look, this is the government that carved out oil and gas from being able to get accelerated approvals just before a fuel and energy security crisis. That's what they did. And we opposed it, and we were right to oppose it. That was bad legislation. It's not our job to make bad legislation slightly better. It was bad legislation. And the result is just before a fuel security crisis began, just before it began, this government was making it harder to get oil and gas out from under the ground. I mean, it just tells you everything you need to know about the Labor government.
Reporter:
The South West has multiple renewable energy projects at various stages of development and progression right now. What does that landscape look like under a future Liberal government?
Angus Taylor MP:
We want all technologies and all fuel sources in this country, and that includes oil and gas. That includes coal. That includes uranium. We want the lot. Chris Bowen thinks he knows better. He thinks he can deliver affordable, reliable energy and fuel based on his favourite fuel types. Well, he's failed. He has absolutely failed Australians. We want them all in the mix. And we want to make sure that projects that can help our fuel security and energy security get done quickly. And that's what we've announced in the last 24 hours.
Reporter:
Does all energy include nuclear?
Angus Taylor MP:
Sure. I've said uranium. I mean, we will remove the moratorium. We've said that many times.
Reporter:
Your local member has been active in his opposition to several of those projects, particularly offshore wind plants before Geographe Bay. Should they go ahead?
Angus Taylor MP:
Well, if they're bad projects, they shouldn't go ahead. Of course, of course. And Ben has been very clear on that. I don't know if you want to—
Ben Small MP:
Yeah, I will. Thanks, Angus. Chris Bowen's proposal for offshore wind in Geographe Bay is a peculiar form of madness because on the government's own numbers in the CSIRO GenCost report, offshore wind is three times more expensive than even onshore wind. So, we are technology agnostic of course and we're happy to see the lowest cost mix of energy in Australia that delivers affordable energy for households and businesses.
I mean at the end of the day our economy depends on cheap and reliable energy. So, for Chris Bowen to want to put wind turbines in the middle of Geographe Bay, a whale migration superhighway costing three times more than onshore wind is, like I say, a peculiar form of madness that only he can explain.
I mean this is the Minister who was telling us at the outset of this that it wasn't a crisis and that no country in the world wanted more fossil fuels, for his Prime Minister to then jump on a RAAF jet and fly around South East Asia with his begging bowl out asking for more fossil fuels. These guys don't know where they're at. They certainly don't know how to run an economy.
Angus Taylor MP:
Any other questions?
Reporter:
One topic that's been dominating the news cycle and the South West recently is the ban on demersal fishing and the compensation scheme that has just opened. What is your opinion on how the WA State Government has handled that?
Angus Taylor MP:
I might leave that one to Ben as well as a local story.
Ben Small MP:
The WA demersal fishing ban has been appallingly handled by the State Fisheries Minister and the Minister for the South West has been completely missing in action here.
I mean if you took Western Australians on the journey and presented them with difficult but robust scientific evidence, you consulted with them and you engaged with locals that are impacted, I think that they would go on the journey and accept things like bans for demersal fishing during spawning season as a great example.
But for our commercial shark fishermen, who run one of the most sustainable shark fisheries in the world, to have had their livelihoods kicked out from underneath them just weeks before Christmas because 0.4% of the dhufish caught as bycatch are impacted by that shark fishery. I'll say that again. 0.4% of the dhufish taken in this state are shark fishing bycatch and yet those fishermen, weeks before Christmas, had their livelihoods crushed.
It is unacceptable now that some four months after they had their businesses shut down, they're only beginning the compensation process with the government. These are small and family businesses that want nothing more than to be on the water, doing what they do best and providing fresh, locally caught seafood for West Australians.
The reality is that that protein will now be imported, local people will be eating God knows what, caught God knows where, and for no real tangible benefit. So it's for the WA Fisheries Minister to explain to locals here in this impacted community why she's made this appalling decision.
I have had meetings with local commercial fishermen who in 50 plus years in industry advocacy, that is, they have been on ministerial advisory committees, you name it, for decades, have never felt more disrespected than walking out of the door of Jackie Jarvis's office. That is for her to explain.
Reporter:
It is a local issue but my question was, does the federal government have a role to play here?
Ben Small MP:
So I have tried twice to get the federal fisheries Minister to intervene in this absolute mess because we had more than a thousand people turn up to a rally here in Bunbury, absolutely outraged at how the state government has bungled this.
On both occasions Julie Collins has sought to pass the buck and deny any involvement at all. The reality is that the Department of Environment federally has signed off on the sustainability of the Western Australian demersal fishery seven times. They've raised no concerns with the State Government about the management of the fishery and then, like I say, 33 days after their last correspondence on 31 October last year, which only changed conditions around logbook reporting from next year, this fishery was announced as being closed.
So how is it that in 33 days we went from a sustainably managed fishery, according to the Federal Government, to an industry that needed to be shut down in an emergency fashion? These are real questions that Labor simply cannot explain.
Reporter:
What changes to the NDIS do you want to see from Mark Butler?
Angus Taylor MP:
Yeah, well we want to see a sustainable, successful NDIS and right now it's not that. The cost of it is blowing out at a rapid rate. There's lots of evidence of fraud and misuse, abuse of taxpayers' money and money not getting to the right people in the right way.
So success means that every dollar of taxpayers' money is treated with respect. People work hard to earn that money. I think Australians want to see those most in need and those with real need of disability support getting that support, but it cannot be with high levels of wastage and fraud and that's exactly what we are seeing right now.
So we will work with the government for any changes necessary to make it sustainable, to make the NDIS sustainable. We await and see what the government is proposing. I understand Mark Butler will have something to say about that later today or during the course of today. But this is something we stand ready to work with the government on, but it must be sustainable.
Reporter:
You’ve had a call for lower migration, how would that affect regional labour shortages in fields like agriculture, healthcare and other sectors?
Angus Taylor MP:
Well, you know, I said from the day I came into this job that I believe strongly that our migration policy at the moment, the standards are too low and the numbers are too high. And the government itself has completely missed its migration targets. They are about 80,000 higher per year than their own targets, their own targets.
Now one of the results of that is we have a complete mismatch between the housing supply in this country and the demand for housing.
You can't grow the population of Australia at that rate and not have the houses to support it, but that is exactly the situation we are in and young Australians, young Australians are missing out and losing the opportunity to be able to buy a home because there's just simply not enough homes for that kind of population growth.
It got to over half a million a year and the long term is down around or below 200,000, so way too high.
So we need to see a balance in our immigration and if we get that balance right, we'll have the workers we need and we'll have the houses we need for all Australians, including those coming to the country, and that's what I want to see.
ABC Host:
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor there, together with Ben Small, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure, answering reporter questions in Bunbury in South West WA.
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