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April 22, 2025
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SARAH ABO:
Welcome back to Today, and Australian flags will fly at half-mast today to honour the death of Pope Francis. This is as Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton pause their election campaigns to pay tribute. Joining us to discuss today's headlines is Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth and Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson. Good morning to you both. Thanks for joining me this morning. Amanda, a solemn day for Australia's Catholic community.
AMANDA RISHWORTH:
Oh, look, it is a really solemn day, of course, with the passing of Pope Francis. You know, it's a time that we mourn, but also reflect on the contributions he made. And I know for many Catholics, he was admired for his real commitment and focus to the world's poor. Obviously, taking Francis of Assisi, a well-known person that really did focus on the poor. So it's a very sad day for many Catholics, and for many, they will be reflecting on the huge contribution he made.
SARAH ABO:
Yeah, and it was a 12 year legacy, James, a man sometimes frustrated by the lack of progress he was able to achieve.
JAMES PATERSON:
I think that's right. Although I'm not personally religious, I have great admiration and respect for someone like Pope Francis, who's led a life of sacrifice and service to others, service to his church, to his faith, and to other people. That's a quality that's far too rare today, and it is worthy of that admiration and respect. I have a great empathy for Catholics today who are in mourning in Australia and around the world.
SARAH ABO:
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right there, James. Well, as a mark of respect, our prospective PMs will pause their campaigns today just as early voting gets underway. Amanda, you must be feeling pretty confident as a party as voting gets underway.
AMANDA RISHWORTH:
Well I don't, I wouldn't use the word confident, every federal election is close, you know, I think historically if you look back federal elections are usually very close and closely run contests and we and the Labor party won't be taking anything for granted, we will be putting our best foot forward right up until election day making sure that. Our agenda is clear, our commitment is clear to the Australian people, our investments, whether it's in health, education, whether it is our tax cuts, we will be putting forward our cost of living plans, all of that will be put forward right up until election day.
SARAH ABO:
I reckon the PM could hardly keep a lid on it, he's so excited he's had a dream run so. James, how are you going to turn things around? You've got just under two weeks now, you reckon those ads you're rolling out this week will help?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, unlike the Prime Minister, we're not taking anything for granted. Last week, he was talking about his third term in office, he's not yet even won a second term in office, and Australians hadn't even started voting then. But they will start voting today, and we ask them to contemplate what the next three years are likely to be like if the Albanese government is re-elected. It won't be any better than the Albanian government's first three years, particularly if they're reliant on the Greens and Teals in a hung parliament. The economic pain and financial suffering you've gone through the last three years is just going to continue under a re-elected Albanese government. But under a Dutton Coalition government, you will receive urgent relief.
SARAH ABO:
James, you're going to have to fire up, mate. No one's listening to you. The people out there don't care about all this; they want more action, they want more gusto, they want more charisma. Why aren't you bringing it to them?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, I will tell you what they really care about. They care about getting 25 cents a litre off their petrol and diesel. They care about getting $1,200 off their next tax bill, as 85% of taxpayers will get up to under a Dutton Coalition government. They care about getting energy prices down again because we're going to drive more gas into the domestic market.
AMANDA RISHWORTH:
You're putting taxes up, James, you are putting taxes up.
JAMES PATERSON:
That's not true. We are cutting taxes. We are cutting petrol taxes, we're cutting diesel taxes. We are cutting personal income taxes.
AMANDA RISHWORTH:
No, no, no. You are increasing. You've made a commitment to increase tax for every Australian taxpayer.
SARAH ABO:
We know that taxes are likely to go up under each party because there is a huge debt to pay off in the next few years as we know the deficit, it's all a sea of red. But I just want to get to the last two weeks because, James, obviously, you were likely to announce your big defence spend this week just ahead of Anzac Day. Russia, that is still causing headaches, that saga with Indonesia. Amanda, I just wanted to quickly ask you, I mean, when campaigning resumes, Peter Dutton will be wise to seize on your refusal to clarify that threat posed by Russia. You simply cannot deny that the risk exists in the region.
AMANDA RISHWORTH:
Well, let's be really clear. Let's look at the two leaders. We've got our Prime Minister, that when this issue was raised by an unnamed source on a website, he said he would seek clarification from our friends in Indonesia, and he came back and said, there is no plans to do this. Compare that to Peter Dutton. His reckless chest-beating, didn't get all the facts, went out, played politics with it, and then verbaled the Indonesian Prime Minister. That is how reckless Peter Dutton is, and that is the choice. You have to engage diplomatically in these things. It's no secret that Indonesia has had a relationship with Russia. That is not to say that we can't continue to do what we've done, build our international relationships. When Peter Dutton was last in a position, he laughed at our Pacific neighbours for their concerns about climate change.
SARAH ABO:
We have ran out of time. I do want to just pick up on that. Obviously, security experts say that this is a significant risk, Amanda, but James, Peter Dutton did misstep. Just very quickly, how will you recover from that?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, the Prime Minister still hasn't been clear whether or not there was a proposal from Russia to Indonesia, and in a break from bipartisan tradition on national security issues, he's denying a briefing to the opposition that we provided the then opposition three years ago under similar circumstances in the last election. So the question for the Prime Minister is, what is he hiding? What doesn't he want us to know?
SARAH ABO:
Alright, well, we'll see if that will be revealed this week, guys. We've run out of time. Thank you both for your company this morning.
ENDS