HOST, KENNY HEATLEY: Joining me live in studio is Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres. And we are very grateful for having you come in. Thank you so much.
AYRES: Look, Kenny, good to be on the show.
HOST: In November 2023, Infrastructure Minister Catherine King announced that any future funding of infrastructure projects would require a 50-50 funding split with the state. Why has the Government decided to backflip on that now?
AYRES: The case is strong in Queensland with the Bruce Highway. The levels of deaths from road accidents, the level of serious injury, the productivity impact it has on the Queensland economy, the impact it has on all those towns all the way up the Bruce Highway means that we've just got to get on with the job. Haggling with the Queensland government over these questions is not the answer. There's been a lot of talk about the Bruce Highway. Successive Liberal National Party Governments in Canberra have failed to fund it. The roads continue to deteriorate. This is the right thing to do. It's the right thing for Queenslanders and we're getting on with the job.
HOST: Does it mean now that NSW, Victoria and Western Australia and potentially other States and Territories will now come with their hands out wanting more money for their infrastructure projects? Will your Government now agree to an 80:20 funding split with other states?
AYRES: My experience of watching these things over many years is that state governments have always got their hand out for extra resources from the Commonwealth. That's not a new development, Kenny. I think the case for this particular piece of infrastructure is really strong. It's of national importance. It has been very difficult to achieve reform for this particular piece of road infrastructure that's important economically for Queensland for truck transport, absolutely critical, but also for families and workers who are travelling along that highway. This is the right thing to do.
HOST. So, you're saying it's a very isolated-
AYRES: Yeah, it's just an overwhelming case that this needs to get done. Tony Abbott never funded it. Malcolm Turnbull couldn't find Queensland with a map. Scott Morrison. Well, the less said about that period, the better. You only got funded if you were a marginal seat. The Prime Minister's up there this week announcing this very important piece of road infrastructure because it's in the interest of Queensland, that it gets fixed.
HOST: I want to ask you about the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has stepped down as Prime Minister and leader of his Liberal party in Canada. This is another progressive incumbent leader who has fallen on his sword. Are you worried that this international trend of incumbent governments falling to more conservative parties because voters are punishing them over the cost-of-living crisis, are you concerned at all that this may play out here this year?
AYRES: No, I reckon in Australia we've got some pretty stark choices in 2025. Sometime over the course of the first half of this year there'll be a Federal Election. On one hand you've got a Government that has acted on the cost of living questions, kept prices down as far as is possible, delivered budget surpluses designed to put downward pressure on inflation that the Liberals and Nationals could never do in government. We've moved on those things. There is more work to do, of course, on cost of living and inflation. The broader economic challenges in the economy, including in my area, a Future Made in Australia, rebuilding manufacturing. On the other hand, we've got a reckless, arrogant, Peter Dutton-led Liberal National Party show that is proposing at the only costed policy that they've got out there, costed in inverted commas, I have to say, would lead to a massive hit for the Australian economy. $1200 for every Australian household every year in additional cost.
That means at the end of every quarter you've got to find an extra $300 or $400 to pay for Peter Dutton's reckless and arrogant nuclear policy and it would also mean manufacturing floods offshore, the end of Australian manufacturing because Peter Dutton is so committed to a reckless and arrogant nuclear reactor plan.
HOST: Just on that, Treasurer Jim Chalmers claims Australia will be $4 trillion worse off by 2050 under the Coalition's new plan, but the Treasurer has also criticised Peter Dutton's costing figures, saying that, you know, it makes assumptions about productivity and growth figures and things like that. But isn't that $4 trillion figure making the same assumptions.
AYRES: No, it's not. If you look at the Liberal’s and National’s costings, they acknowledge this point too because they've had to. If you introduce the most expensive form of power into the mix, it retards growth, it lifts costs and it means that manufacturing floods offshore. So, in the Liberal zone model, the economy is smaller and there's no room for electricity intensive manufacturing. So the steel industry, Aluminum industry, will close under Peter Dutton's own model. Now that has a big impact if you're in Gladstone or you're in Newcastle or you're in the Illawarra, those existing facilities that rely upon energy policy certainty and an electricity system that's big enough for the manufacturing sector. So, that policy has a terrible impact on household costs.
What I'm most concerned about here is those existing facilities being forced offshore, just like the auto industry was under Tony Abbott. All of the new investment being deterred. The message from Peter Dutton to the manufacturing sector is don't bother knocking, go offshore somewhere else, because there's no room in Peter Dutton's economy for manufacturing.
HOST: We've got to get going in just a sec. But just quickly, why won't the Prime Minister call the election?
AYRES: Well, the Prime Minister will call the election when he thinks it's the right time for Australia. This parliamentary term runs through until May. It's open to the Prime Minister to call it all the way through, then he'll make judgements. It's unlikely to be the subject of announcement on a morning breakfast show like this one, as good as this is. There'll be a stark choice for Australians - a poorer, weaker, less secure Australia under Peter Dutton or good jobs and a government that's actually focused on the national interest under Anthony Albanese.
HOST: Ok. Senator Tim Ayres, thank you so much for your time.
AYRES: Good to see you.
ENDS.