TRANSCRIPT - RADIO INTERVIEW - ABC PERTH - THURSDAY, 1 MAY 2025

GARY ADSHEAD, HOST: Patrick Gorman Member for Perth, he is the Assistant Minister for the Prime Minister as well, and he joins us on the line. Thanks for your time, Patrick,

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Thanks for having me on the program Gary.

ADSHEAD: Just your reaction to the costings put out by the Libs, the Coalition?

GORMAN: Well I think anyone who's heard it, and you can see it on the ABC's own website, these are both savage cuts, and even the ABC reports "Coalition election promise costings reveal worse budget bottom line for two years compared to Labor's." And it's amazing that the Liberal Party have managed to find a way to put income taxes up, to make student debt higher, but still have bigger deficits over the next two years. I mean, this is an embarrassing day for Peter Dutton and it's no wonder, that he's left it so late, so late in the election campaign where, in my electorate of Perth, Gary, some 30 per cent of people have voted, not knowing just how bad the Coalition's numbers are.

ADSHEAD:I mean there's a bit of semantics in that, because we know that oppositions don't tend to do things until sort of 48 hours, or three days before an election, do they? I mean, that's something that the Labor Party would have done as well. But the other thing to point out is that according to these costings, they say that they'll be $21.8 billion better off after those two years.

GORMAN: But look at what they're cutting to get there. Here in Western Australia, I was out with Premier Roger Cook yesterday, out in Midland, out with our candidate Trish Cook for Bullwinkel, out there at a Housing Australia Future Fund site where 120 new homes are going to be built. Their proposals, their savings, mean that those homes can't proceed because they're going to close the Housing Australia Future Fund. And for any of your listeners that work in the resources industry, and who are thinking, 'where's the next wave of growth when it comes to the resource industry?' We know it's in critical minerals. And again, these costings released today confirmed we'll see savage cuts to the investments that the Labor government has put forward for critical minerals, making sure that we have the minerals the world wants. At a time where people are looking around the world for a secure supply chain, and Australia should be part of that, and supplying the critical minerals that can help the world, not just Australia, but the world, get to net zero. And they're cutting that as well. It is an extraordinary set of savage cuts, and ultimately, it's a con job on the Australian people.

ADSHEAD: They talk about cutting public servants, you talk about cutting consultants. Is there a difference?

GORMAN: There's a significant difference. Public servants doing the core work of the public service are there to make sure that your listeners, when they get to retirement age can get their pension. When they have a new bub come in to their life, can get the services they need, such as Paid Parental Leave. Or if they served in our armed forces, they can get their entitlements as a veteran. That's what our public service is there for, and cutting 41,000 public servants, I think all of your listeners know what that means for them. It means slower payments, it means huge backlogs, and it means more time sitting on the phone on hold because there's no one to answer the call.

ADSHEAD: Someone's messaged through, because I did ask Jacinta if she knew how many public servants there were in Canberra, the suggestion is around 68,000. So if that's right, 41,000 either through attrition or cuts, would be pretty extraordinary. Is that, I mean, to be honest with you though, Patrick, has this stuff just played into your hands? That that's where they look for savings, things like cutting public servants, who of course, when they make that announcement, it means that public servants get nervous, and so do all of their families.

GORMAN: We've got thousands and thousands of public servants here in Western Australia who work for the Commonwealth. In my electorate we've got the Medicare team on Wellington Street. We've got the Australian Tax Office team in Northbridge. We've got the Department of Home Affairs keeping our country safe and secure, further over in West Perth. We've got 1000s of public servants here in the West, and I think they know - because they've seen this play before and they didn't like the ending - what we know is that when they cut the public service, the cuts aren't just in Canberra, they're across the country. And the workload gets harder for the public servants who stick around. Rightly, public servants are proud of the work that they do. I really don't like the way that the Coalition talk down the public service. Public servants are people who rock up to work trying to do something for their country, and the idea that it's an easy saving, some $17 billion of cuts, I think it's just deeply disrespectful from Mr. Dutton.

ADSHEAD: Can I ask you as well, another cost saving they said that they'll make, or certainly a revenue that they'll make, would be a vaping tax. Now, that's where they would slug, I think, per millilitre of vaping liquid, around $1 and they say that would raise in total, about $3.6 billion. Is that something that the Labor government have considered?

GORMAN: Our goal, and Minister Mark Butler, the Minister of Health, has been really clear. Our goal is to get kids off vapes. We want to make it harder for people to get ahold of those vapes. We've put in serious restrictions in the three years that we've been in office, because we know that they're not good for people's health. So I don't think of this as a revenue thing. I think of this as a health question. And I think it tells your listeners a lot that the Liberal Party would choose a few billion dollars over the restrictions that we've put in place to make sure that we get kids off vapes so they can have a long life, a great life, and not waste their own money on these sort of products.

ADSHEAD: Can I ask you whether or not you have a view? And I know some of the criticism that's come from media, so you know, we're a bit inside baseball here, but it's been whether or not the Prime Minister has gone well over and above in terms of the truth when it comes to trying to shoot down policies put up by the Coalition. For example, the nuclear policy being always put at $600 billion.

GORMAN: We'll always put forward our case, both the policies that we put forward and it is my job, one of the things I am elected to do in our system of government is to contest the ideas that are put forward into the nation's Parliament -

ADSHEAD: But truthfully, you'd have to do it truthfully.

GORMAN: Yeah truthfully. And when it comes to nuclear power, Gary, I mean, if your listeners were to go to liberal.org.au and look for the costings of nuclear, they would be looking for a very, very long time, because the nuclear costings were not included in this election costing. And the more that you look at the plan, the more questions you have. I've been down to Collie twice to talk to people there about this plan. They have questions, and the questions always come back to it's a lot of money, and to be saying that $600 billion is going to be spent, but not have all of the detail, or not release the detail before the election. And one of the things that has really bothered me, and I'm glad you've raised it because I get to air it with your listeners, is that David Littleproud, who under Peter Dutton would be Deputy Prime Minister, said last year, they'd done the geological surveys. Now, if you've done the geological surveys, why won't they release them? Why haven't they released this detail? I mean, you know, we're a mining state here in Western Australia, people do geological surveys all the time, it's not that uncommon, but the fact that David Littleproud has said they've done it, but again, another piece of information they haven't released, it's just one more question as to why we're going down this $600 billion path with no real detail. I just think you couldn't put a proposal like this if you're a mining company CEO. I don't see why someone who thinks they should be Prime Minister could get away with it either.

ADSHEAD: Just further though on that, I mean, it's pretty clear that there's been that Mediscare campaign running again though from Labor, because Peter Dutton just very quickly, within hours, matched the $8.5 billion policy that Labor announced. Bulk billing policy. So why do you have to keep saying that Peter Dutton would gut it? Would strip Medicare bare, when he's actually said 'no, I'll match it.'

GORMAN: I think we saw in 2013 that Tony Abbott came out and said 'no cuts to Medicare.' And then the instructions he gave to Peter Dutton, when Peter Dutton was Health Minister, was to cut Medicare. So I don't think it's unreasonable to judge Mr. Dutton on his own past performance. The only person who's ever served as a Minister who has tried to abolish bulk billing for every Western Australian, is Peter Dutton, and he defended it in the Parliament on Hansard. Again, your listeners can go and see it on Hansard. Week after week in 2014 Peter Dutton was there trying to abolish bulk billing, and the budget that they passed in that same year also ripped $6 billion out of the forward estimates for WA hospitals. Now if Mr Dutton or his supporters, his shadow ministers, etc, have a problem with that fact, I think that says more again about them than it does about the Labor Party.

ADSHEAD: Okay, all right, we'll leave it at that one. But then what about the suggestion that I put to Jacinta that there seem to be - and I know we sometimes in the media, we tend to over analyse things, and we look for every sort of gap in a word, or every word in front of a word. But it did seem like at the end of that question and answer that Peter Dutton was going through in relation to education curriculum, that they were softening their view on whether wholesale changes were needed to get rid of indoctrination. What did you make of her answer?

GORMAN: Look, I think your listeners would be very confused about what the Liberal Party plans to do when it comes to education. Are they planning to change the curriculum? Are they planning to leave it as it is? I think you would struggle to know, after what Senator Price said compared to what Mr. Dutton has said, it's very hard to tell. And I think what I heard in that interview from Senator Price, which I think really goes to the core of it, was you were questioning her about cuts and reprioritisations, and she said this, and I wrote it down because it really struck my interest. "Won't know until we've got the keys." Won't know until we've got the keys, when it comes to these questions about cuts and changes and all the rest. And I think actually, the people who are queuing up outside Morley pre-poll, Bedford pre-poll, or CBD pre-poll, or anywhere else in the state. I think they deserve better than that. I think they deserve to know.

ADSHEAD: All right, it'll be over soon, but just before I let you go, the Greens have been talking a good game in your electorate. How are you feeling before Saturday?

GORMAN: Look, I never take anything for granted in an election. I campaign my heart out. I love this community. It's an honour to share the values of the Perth electorate with the nation's parliament. I'll continue to do that if I'm re-elected. I've had a really warm reception on pre-polls last week and this week, really enjoyed being out doorknocking, which I do throughout the cycle, not just at election time. I think the reality is that the Greens Party often talk a very big game, but they're very poor on delivery.

ADSHEAD: All right, I better give them the final word at some point. Thank you very much for that Patrick.

GORMAN: Thanks Gary.

ENDS