Doorstop interview - Canberra

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Good morning. Good to see you all here on the final Friday of the sitting year. You will have seen yesterday, the Government managed to get the Senate to support over 30 different bills that were aimed at helping Australians with their immediate challenges, but also starting to build Australia's future. At the beginning of the week, we had a large list of legislation all designed to help Australians with cost of living pressures, to build more homes, to tackle a range of different safety issues for kids and families across the country. And it's very pleasing to see that yesterday we were able to pass those bills with the Senate support. There were some really important bills in the package that were passed yesterday, in particular, the Build to Rent legislation which will help build about 80,000 new homes across Australia. Other cost of living measures such as removing payment surcharges when people use their cards to pay for things at the shops, also other issues involving a social media age limit, anti money laundering reforms. So, a range of different issues that matter to Australians. It's good to have that done, and obviously the House is considering that legislation now. It's a good way for the Government to end the year, but more importantly, it's a good way for Australians to end the year with that real cost of living support for them in their time of need.
 
JOURNALIST: Is this it - the decks are clear, the government's ready to take the country to an election?
 
MURRAY WATT: Well, obviously, we have managed to pass a substantial amount of the Government's reform agenda yesterday, but there's still big things that we want to get done. Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed legislation to put forward production tax credits for our critical minerals industry, a key part of our Future Made in Australia agenda. Obviously, there's still work to do on things like electoral reform as well, so, it's certainly our intention to come back here in February, and there'll be plenty to do if and when we do return.
 
JOURNALIST: Much has been made this week of the issues around proposed EPA. Does the Albanese Government want an Environment Protection Authority?
 
MURRAY WATT: We absolutely do, and of course, we made an election commitment to put in place an EPA at the federal level. But the reality is, like all legislation, we do need the support of either the Opposition or the Greens and the crossbench to pass that legislation, and up until now, we haven't been able to get that support for the legislation that the Government has put forward. I think it's staggering that the Opposition hasn't been prepared to back in legislation that not only creates an independent EPA, but goes a long way to streamline the approvals process that the mining industry is looking for. And equally, it's pretty staggering that The Greens Party is not prepared to vote for an independent EPA. We want to make sure that we can overcome these blockages, but the reality is, we don't have the numbers to do it on our own, and we'll have to keep pushing for that in the new year.
 
JOURNALIST: Yesterday was a remarkable day in the Senate, seeing dozens of bills passed in a very short period of time. Is this good governance? Is this how a Parliament should run - a big crunch of bills like this on the last day of the year?
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well, we would of course prefer to pass lots of bills every time we come here for a Parliamentary Sitting, but again, we don't have the numbers as the Government in the Senate, and we have to work with what we've got. We have seen this Senate be particularly obstructive and unwilling to pass legislation. That's why we haven't been able to get quite as many bills through every other sitting week that we've been down here. But I think it's also important to remember that pretty much all of the bills that were passed yesterday have had scrutiny through Senate Committees, so it's not as if they were introduced one minute and passed the next, there has been an opportunity for scrutiny. It's not unusual for a large number of bills to be passed at the end of a sitting calendar. But yesterday was a particularly big effort, and congratulations to people like Katy Gallagher, Penny Wong and the Prime Minister for getting it done.
 
JOURNALIST: The Greens say they secured about half a billion dollars in funding for social housing energy upgrades and social housing in agreement for passing such a large number of bills. Is that a fair characterisation of the deal?
 
MURRAY WATT: Well, I mean, obviously it's always in the interest of The Greens Party to try to take credit for things that Labor Governments do - that's their business model, and the program that we have agreed to put more funding into is a Labor Government program that has been running for some time now. So, it's something that we've always agreed to put more money into as the time arises. We've agreed to do that here. I'll leave it for The Greens to do their usual grandstanding. What we're focused on as a Labor Government is passing progressive reform, and that's what we managed to do yesterday.
 
JOURNALIST: Government Ministers have been asked the question over the past few days, are you feeling better off than you were three years ago? Are you feeling better off than you were three years ago?
 
MURRAY WATT: Look, I mean, I'm obviously a very well paid person, and I don't have any cause to complain, but even I notice when I go and do my family grocery shopping, the bills are higher than they used to be. I noticed that my mortgage repayments have gone up. And as I say, I'm a well paid individual, so I'm fortunate enough to be able to cope with that. Many Australians are doing it really tough right now, and that's why we've put so much effort into supporting them with cost of living relief. Every single one of our cost of living relief measures has been opposed by Peter Dutton and the Coalition. Every single wage rise that we've helped facilitate through our changes to workplace laws was opposed by Peter Dutton and the Coalition. And I think as we get closer to the election, rather than people wondering whether they're better off than they were three years ago, I think we'll see people wondering whether they'll be better off in three years’ time under a Labor Government, or under Peter Dutton and the Coalition, who've promised to cut their pay and remove the cost of living relief that we've provided and is helping people get through.