Subjects: Bondi terror attack, government legislative agenda, National Reconstruction Fund projects.

ROD CORFE, HOST: And it is time for us now to say good morning to Senator Tim Ayres. How are you doing?

 

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Mate, I’m really good. Good to be on the show.

 

HOST: All right. Did you get a bit of a break?

 

AYRES: Yeah, a bit of time with family after Christmas. I hope all your listeners had a good break. I know we’ve been watching on the East Coast, how hot it’s been. I’m thinking of Bourke but plenty of the rest of western New South Wales has really been baking. I hope your listeners have been all right through all of that.

 

HOST: Well, people are going and saying g’day to each other today and going, “Isn’t this weather beautiful today,” because we’re just about 26 degrees at the moment, which is quite a surprise.

 

AYRES: Beautiful. Yeah, it’s lovely weather. It would be a good day to be in Bourke.

 

HOST: It would be. And, now, we’ve got to talk about it – something happened in December, a tragedy. And the government’s had to respond in many ways.

 

AYRES: Yeah, this has been the worst onshore terrorist event in Australian history. Absolutely terrible event. I know Australians everywhere were shocked and affronted, were grieving and angry that this could have happened here in Australia. Bondi Beach where, of course, I and many of my colleagues spent some time after the event, it’s an extraordinary place but it’s also a very ordinary place, particularly if you’re in Sydney. It’s a place where many of us go with family for weekends and it’s important, too, as a place where this event for the Jewish community was happening where they were entitled to have that in peace and security. And what these two men did was an affront to every Australian. And, of course, the government has worked hard to develop a strong response that makes Australia stronger and is targeted at building stronger social cohesion, making Australia stronger and also making sure that we’re backing in the Australian Jewish community, who deserve to feel safe and secure every day.

 

HOST: Yes. We’re not surprised when it happens on our television and it’s in their own countries, but when they bring it to this country, we don’t need that. We don’t want that from the Israeli side, and we don’t want that from the Palestinian side.

 

AYRES: I think for every Australian, it was a reminder, I suppose, of how precious our democracy is, how important our security is, and I think how important it is that we all work together to deliver a stronger, safer Australia. We’ve responded as a country previously, whether it’s events like this that happened overseas – I think of the Bali bombing – events like Port Arthur, where the parliament really came together to develop an effective response to that. And this time around Anthony Albanese has worked through a careful process. The National Security Committee meeting over and over and over again, listening carefully to the community, developing a tough response on the security front, Dennis Richardson leading a review of our security agencies’ response to this, a Royal Commission that will not drag out over year after year but in a fast, effective well-resourced kind of way, deliver government and the Australian people some confidence about what has been done and what needs to be done.

 

There’s no defensiveness here from government. Our job is to lead in the national interest here, to work out what went wrong and to strengthen our overall security settings from what it is that our agencies do all the way through to the work that, for example, David Gonski will be leading for the government across our education system to make sure we’re eliminating anti-semitism and racism and extremism from the Australian community. We don’t want to import conflict here.

 

HOST: Definitely not. Are you surprised in the way that the federal opposition – or oppositions – are handling things?

 

AYRES: I was absolutely shocked by the way that Sussan Ley and David Littleproud reached immediately to make this a partisan political issue rather than rallying around the national interest, which is what normally happens after one of these kinds of events. You sort of put the partisanship aside and go, “Right, what is it that we need to do here to back Australia?” I’ve never seen a more partisan response. It happened so quickly, too. Out of their depth, I think. I’ve never seen leadership of the Liberal and National side so weak, misdirected. When you start backsliding, sometimes you just lose your footing, and these guys have lost their footing.

 

They called for the parliament to be convened quickly to pass legislation to implement Jillian Segal’s report in full and to deal with the issues. When the parliament came back they said, “Oh, this has happened too soon. This is too complicated.” The National Party voted against all of it – every reform. The Liberals could only bring themselves to vote for half of it. I mean, this is the most shambolic, hyperpartisan, out-of-touch response, and they are paying the price for that internally themselves now. They’ve become captured by more and more extreme elements, fascinated with imported politics from overseas, preoccupations that have got nothing to do with the interests of ordinary Australians.

 

Watching it in the parliament here all we can do as a government is focus on delivering in the interests of Australia and Australians. And I think, you know, even your listeners who don’t – you know, some of whom don’t traditionally vote for us, I understand that, but just have some confidence that we are, as a government, going to continue acting in the national interest and introducing reforms that make Australia stronger and more secure.

 

HOST: We’re hearing from Senator Tim Ayres, Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science. And it is the first sittings of parliament from today?

 

AYRES: Yeah, we kick off. It’s normally a bit late in the first week, so we’re kicking off at noon today. We’ll be working through legislating this week. We’ve got a pretty busy agenda this year – tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer coming up in July, more energy bill relief, $10,000 bonuses for apprentices, 30 per cent off home batteries so we can cut power bills for every Australian household that picks it up. We have really big initiatives – kids will be going back to school this week - $65 billion to finalise the Gonski education reforms so every public and private school funded properly, not just money being provided to the states but working with them to lift standards in literacy and mathematics in particular.

 

There is no end of reform from those big-spending initiatives to one that I’m particularly fond of, Rod, which is we will be delivering this week legislation which will freeze beer excise for draft beer served in pubs and clubs throughout Australia, because we want to bring Australians together and just give in every corner we turn every opportunity cost-of-living relief that supports Australian families and supports Australian communities. We’re going to keep getting on with the job no matter what the sort of free-wheeling political bin fire that is going on the other side of politics with the Liberals and the Nationals and One Nation. Like, honestly, it’s an embarrassment what’s going on the other side of politics. We’re just going to keep doing our job carefully and deliberately.

 

HOST: And one of those jobs is securing renewable energy and to ensure large industrial sites can keep going?

 

AYRES: This is absolutely central for our future. Tomago Aluminium, for example, is New South Wales’s biggest electricity user. It uses about 12 per cent. It plays a really important role not just providing thousands of jobs in the Hunter Valley and being Australia’s largest aluminium producer – that’s important in economic resilience terms and export terms and making sure that we’ve got a strong, economically diverse economy with industry in it – but it also plays an important grid stabilising role as they can lift and lower their demand to make sure that we’ve got a stable and effective grid.

 

And what they want, what they are demanding, and we are working with them to deliver is low-cost electricity. That will mean more investment in low-cost wind and solar and transmission in regional Australia to deliver stronger blue-collar jobs and more factories in industrial centres like Gladstone and the Hunter Valley. We are very focused – I am very focused – on our industrial resilience and supporting heavy industry and blue-collar jobs, and that means driving more investment into the electricity system.

 

HOST: And recently you also announced the National Reconstruction Fund investing $30.7 million in applied electric vehicles.

 

AYRES: Yeah, well, there’s been a bunch of announcements for the National Reconstruction Fund. It’s a $15 billion fund established last term by the Albanese Government. There’s that investment. There’s also big investments in Queensland for your listeners in southern Queensland – $75 million from the Albanese Government’s National Reconstruction Fund into Gladstone which will deliver 500 blue-collar jobs, 420 of those in construction, 80 permanent manufacturing, engineering and trades jobs in Alpha HPA, a high purity alumina facility. So that is an important part. Of its own merit it will be the world’s largest high purity alumina manufacturer. But, of course, it also builds more economic integration and more industrial diversification in Central Queensland. $75 million which secures Gilmour Space Technologies who manufacture 70 per cent of their supply chain here in Australia, launching rockets from Bowen, Queensland, but manufacturing principally on the Gold Coast.

 

We have got a pipeline of good investments here in blue-collar jobs in regional and outer suburban Australia that are all about rebuilding manufacturing capability with the Albanese Government having the biggest pro-manufacturing policy platform in Australia’s history. I’m privileged to be able to be part of delivering that, working with existing industry, whether it’s Mount Isa, Tomago, smelter facilities in places like Port Pirie in South Australia all through the new industry like Gilmour Space Technologies and Alpha HPA. This is the most pro‑manufacturing government Australia has ever had.

 

HOST: Yes, and we need it. And I know the New South Wales Government is really proud that they’ve been able to open further mining around the Bogan Shire, around Nyngan, an announcement made last week which is going to help the place as well.

 

AYRES: Absolutely. We want to see more resources industry, more mining. We want to see more of that mining sector, our metals and critical minerals sector investing in local production so we’re not just delivering excellent mining technology and the world’s best mining and resources sector but we’re also delivering manufacturing onshore here in Australia.

 

I travelled with the Prime Minister last year and Madeleine King, the Resources Minister, to meet with President Trump and the American administration to deliver that critical minerals deal – $8.5 billion worth of investment straight off the bat in Australian critical minerals production, delivering in Western Australia, delivering in South Australia, building a platform for critical minerals production, the metals that the world needs for new technologies that are all available here in Australia. We are determined to make sure we’re not just digging them up here in Australia but we’re processing onshore and delivering good quality blue-collar jobs into places like Mount Isa and the other mining centres throughout the country.

 

HOST: Senator, I thank you for your time. Have a good day in parliament.

 

AYRES: Thanks, Rod. See you later.

 

ENDS.