Interview with Monique Wright - Sunrise, Channel 7

MONIQUE WRIGHT, HOST:    Well, Pauline Hanson has accused the Prime Minister of abusing taxpayer funds, revealing that he has held secret meetings with One Nation MP David Farley and offered him an extra staffer unsolicited. Mr Farley rejected the offer, prompting Ms Hanson to accuse the PM of trying to meddle with her party using taxpayer resources. But Mr Albanese's office says the same offer was also given to Barnaby Joyce and would have brought David Farley in line with all lower house politicians having at least one personal staffer. Let's bring in Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth now and Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume. Good to see you both. Amanda, we'll start with you. Pauline says that this is a pattern with the private meetings and an extra staff offer coming in addition to senior ministers apparently approaching David Farley with grants for his electorate for the Murray-Darley Basin. Is the Prime Minister trying to woo him over to Labor?

AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS:    Look, I don't think that is the case and quite frankly I think Pauline is jumping at shadows. If she's already having trouble keeping her party together, well that says something about her. Just to be clear, lower house members wouldn't be doing their job if they were not meeting with ministers and meeting with the Prime Minister. And as you mentioned, the offer to David Farley is exactly the same offer that Barnaby Joyce received. Of course, Barnaby Joyce took that offer. But quite frankly, I'm sure every politician wants more resources. That's not the main game here. I think the main game for the Australian people is not how many resources politicians get, but actually focused on the issues that matter to Australians. That's what our government's doing, whether it's cost of living, whether it is ensuring that we get through these turbulent economic times. That's what our government's focused on.

MONIQUE WRIGHT:    Okay, that's not what we're talking about now, though. We'll get to that in a sec. Jane, as we just heard Amanda say there, every lower house MP on the crossbench has at least one additional staff member except for David Farley now who has none. Was it just a fair offer?

JANE HUME, DEPUTY OPPOSITION LEADER:    Mon, it's really important that politicians are resourced appropriately and there's been longstanding conventions as to how that should happen. I think the question here is, for the Prime Minister, is why he was approaching politicians from different parties on an individual basis rather than on the basis of their party. The Prime Minister has famously cut the resources to both the crossbench and to the opposition, breaching longstanding conventions that have been around since the time of Bob Hawke. And it's really up to the Prime Minister to explain why he's cut the resources to those that would impose scrutiny on the government and yet maintained resources for his own side.

MONIQUE WRIGHT:    Okay, but wouldn't David Farley impose scrutiny on the government?

JANE HUME:    He absolutely would, but that should be done through the parties, not necessarily directly one-on-one.

MONIQUE WRIGHT:    Okay, alright. Let’s move on now. More than 78 per cent of Aussies say that they want another fuel excise cut. That's despite the government being under huge pressure to cut government spending. Amanda, as part of the government, are you tearing your hair out at the moment trying to strike the balance and get it right between responsible spending while also giving people cost of living relief that they really urgently need?

AMANDA RISHWORTH:    It is a really important balance that you've highlighted that we must strike. We must be able to support people and we've been doing that through tax cuts and cheaper medicines, more bulk billing. But we do have to take a responsible budget position, managing the inflation pressures that are out there. There is still unfortunately a war going on in the Middle East that is putting pressure. So we are always calculating and trying to balance this. Having a responsible budget is critical, and ensuring that we're able to balance these tensions is really important. We do know people are doing it tough and that is why we are both providing responsible targeted cost of living relief at the same time as trying to balance and ensure that we take a responsible approach.

MONIQUE WRIGHT:    Yeah, but it’s not working, right? Amanda, but it's not working because look at what inflation was this week.

AMANDA RISHWORTH:    Look, of course, it is important that government spending is responsible. As you would have heard the Reserve Bank Governor talk about, there are many pressures on the economy. And of course, we as government have to do our bit. And we're doing that. by taking a responsible approach to the budget at the same time as supporting people that are doing it tough. So it is an important balance and it is an important.

MONIQUE RIGHT:    [Interrupts] But it doesn't seem to- that balance doesn't seem to be working, though. I do need to go to Jane now, because we're running out of time. Look, the Coalition's policy is to automatically slash the fuel excise when oil exceeds US$100 a barrel for two weeks. But just yesterday, we heard you accuse the government of, quote, crisis-level spending without the crisis. So if you were in power today, wouldn't you just be spending a motza on this and doing the exact thing that you're criticising the government for?

JANE HUME:    Mon, actually the fuel price shield would kick in as an automatic trigger when the price hit $100 a barrel. That will help motorists, it will help businesses as well, and it removes the uncertainty from…

MONIQUE WRIGHT:    [Talks over] But cost [indistinct], right?

JANE HUME: … those petrol price spikes. But the most important thing is what you do to pay for it. How do you offset that? Now, we've offered just this week $31 billion of savings that the government can adopt immediately. And that would put reduced pressure on the budget, it would reduce government spending, and most importantly, it would take the pressure off the RBA because that would mean that the government would be using its power, its fiscal balance sheet power, to reduce the pressure on inflation rather than simply relying on the RBA to do all the heavy lifting with monetary policy.

MONIQUE WRIGHT:    Alright. We're out of time, unfortunately, but thank you both for your contribution this morning. Thank you, Amanda and Jane.

ENDS