THE HON ANGUS TAYLOR MP
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR HUME

TRANSCRIPT

JOINT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW

PAGE, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

Thursday, 13 August 2026

E&OE...

LIBERAL SENATE CANDIDATE FOR THE ACT, MR NICK TYRRELL: Welcome to Canberra, welcome to Villaggio here. We’ve spent the morning with Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, Anne Ruston, chatting with Canberrans, older Canberrans, older Australians who are very concerned about the cuts to their private health insurance rebates and the uncertainty that that gives to them and their family about not only their ability to afford private health insurance on fixed incomes, but also the impact that might have on their families and the rest of the community about longer waiting lists at hospitals.

And they were coming clean with us this morning about the impacts on their family, but what we haven’t heard from is the ACT Government coming clean about the impacts on our health system here in the ACT. We’ve heard from Queensland, we’ve heard from New South Wales, and we’ve heard from Tasmania about the impact on the health system of these cuts to private health insurance for older Australians, but I’m still waiting to hear what the impacts will be from the ACT Government.

So, looking forward to hearing that, but I’m also looking forward to hearing from Angus Taylor here this morning and Senator Ruston about what they’re going to do to fix this mess that Labor’s created.

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SHADOW MINISTER FOR AGED CARE, SENATOR THE HON ANNE RUSTON: Thanks very much, and it’s great to be here at Villaggio and actually speaking to the people that this policy, this ill-conceived policy that the Government’s put forward to remove the additional rebate for over 65s for their private health insurance. We hear their stories, the real-life experience, the real-life impact on older Australians of this decision.

They tell us that they have, for all of their lives, one lady today said that had been, had held private health insurance since she was 15. She didn’t tell me how old she was, but I’m telling you that is for a while. So, she has paid all her life and now at a time when she’s on a fixed income, she has no scope to be able to change her budget, she is now going to be hit with another cost burden in the middle of a cost of living crisis that this Government is seeking to put on her.

So, the ridiculousness of this policy, though, is that even though the Government is using a tricky accounting trip to stick some numbers on their budget bottom line, the taxpayers of Australia will ultimately pay more for this move than they currently are now because older Australians who can no longer afford to pay for their private health insurance, older Australians up until now have actually been self-funding their own health care, because they’ve been paying into their private health insurance, will be forced into the public system — and we know that that just means longer wait lists to get access to surgeries like joint placements, cataracts, heart surgeries and the like.

It also means that there will be more ramping at your hospitals, more pressure on the public health system, and we will see more people having to pay for our public health system, and yesterday, just a little anecdote to just dispel the Government’s argument that this is somehow intergenerational inequity. We heard yesterday from a very, very large private health care provider and hospital, a not-for-profit charitable organisation, that they believe this decision will within five years, see the end of private maternity services in this country. That is not intergenerational inequity. That is actually forcing all Australians to pay the price for Jim Chalmers’ tricky accounting trick to stick money on his budget bottom line.

So, Angus, we don’t stand for that, and Angus will tell you why.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION, THE HON. ANGUS TAYLOR MP: Good on you, Anne. Great to be here with you and with Nick again here in Canberra on this beautiful morning talking to a group of older Australians here at Villaggio about the challenges they’re facing with a Government that simply doesn’t understand that they want to continue to live independently — but to do that they need good health care services, they need access to private health insurance, and they need a public health system that works for them.

And of course, this $11 billion hit to private health insurance for older Australians, that’s what it is. That’s what the Government’s coming after. It’s going to hurt older Australians. It will make it harder for them to get the procedures they need, to get access to the medical care that they need. But it will also have a broader impact on the health system in this country.

It will put more pressure on the public health system, longer wait lists, more ambulance ramping, and raise the costs of the system and, as Anne said, ultimately that will be paid by taxpayers. All this is doing is cost shifting by Labor that’s run out of money, so it’s coming after Australians money and sadly here it’s older Australians.

This is a Government that sees fit to give home deposit subsidies to people who aren’t Australian citizens and yet it’s ripping away support for health insurance for older Australians. It’s a Government that simply has its priorities wrong.

Now, talking of wrong priorities, we see from the Reserve Bank, we saw the decision, of course, earlier this week on interest rates, but we see that they have made very clear that we are facing a lost decade of productivity. Now, productivity really matters for prosperity, for rising incomes, for keeping inflation down, bringing it down, for pushing interest rates down. That’s how you get those outcomes which every Australian wants.

If we are to break the cost of living crisis in this country, the standard of living crisis in this country, we need stronger productivity, and yet we see from the Reserve Bank today, we see that we will not return to the productivity levels of 2022 until 2030.

That means no new prosperity for this country for eight years. This is a complete and utter disaster. Australia is a country where people expect to be able to get ahead, where they expect to be able to work hard and on the back of that hard work see reward. But that cannot happen with an economy that is broken, and that’s why our plan is to fix our economy and to protect our way of life.

Now, I’ll make a comment on one other related issue. We see Labor announcing a $2.5 billion subsidy for Tomago, in the Hunter Valley, the aluminium smelter in the Hunter Valley. This is a $2.5 billion admission of failure on energy policy in this country.

The reason they are having to do this is because electricity prices are too high. Chris Bowen has absolutely failed to deliver what he said he was going to deliver. Australians are paying the price, and the only way to keep manufacturing in this country is through Government subsidies. This is a true admission of failure.

We want to see aluminium smelting prosper and succeed in this country. I was the Energy Minister that saved the Portland smelter working with colleagues, Dan Tehan and others, and we did it without Government subsidies like this by making sure that we had low enough electricity prices so that manufacturing in country could survive and not be sent offshore.

Sadly, Labor’s net zero wrecking ball has caused this. Labor’s net zero wrecking ball has caused this situation, and the result is taxpayers are going to have to stump up again for Labor’s failures.

Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Mr Taylor, have you ever had a conversation with Dallas McInerney about providing $15,000 and then $3,000 in monthly donations for Liberal Party work?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Look, I’ve already commented on this. I’m not going to give out that... [interrupted]

JOURNALIST: No, I’m asking you a specific question. You have not answered that specific question.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: I have already answered questions on this, I’m not... [interrupted]

JOURNALIST: No, you haven’t answered this question, you’ve just been asked whether you provided money. I’m asking you whether you’ve had a conversation with Dallas McInerney about providing money for Liberal Party work?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Can you let me answer the question? I have said all along I’m not going to give a running commentary. I’m going to let the Commission... [interrupted]

JOURNALIST: But this isn’t a running commentary, I’m asking you specific questions, I am not asking you for a running commentary on ICAC. I’m asking you specific questions.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Well, and I’m giving you a specific answer... [interrupted]

JOURNALIST: You’re not giving me a specific answer.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Well, I’m giving the same answer I’ve been giving all along. I’m not going to give a running commentary on this. I’ll let the Commission do its work. No payment was made. I was clear about that... [interrupted]

JOURNALIST: But no payment was made to who? So, no payment, you have given no money to Dallas McInerney. So just confirming, you’ve given no money to Dallas McInerney?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: You get to ask the questions, I get to answer them, and I’ve answered the questions... [interrupted]

JOURNALIST: But you didn’t answer that question.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Happy to take other questions.

JOURNALIST: Mr Taylor, the Greens have said the National Anti-Corruption Commission to hold public hearings like what we’ve seen in New South Wales. Do you think that would be a good idea?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Oh, that’s a matter for the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask you about your comments a couple of weeks ago about public servants saying they serve themselves and that you want to shake things up across the APS beyond just the housing and climate bureaucracies. You mentioned a few acronyms of agencies that you think need to be cut. ATO, ASIC, NOPSEMA, AEMO. Can you give any more detail on which other agencies?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Oh no, we’ve given a lot of detail on this, I actually gave that detail in my Budget-in-Reply speech. I said we need to see streamlining of regulation in this country to make it easier to invest in this country.

Look, the point... [interrupted]

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: If I may finish, the points I have been making for many years in fact is that we need more investment in this country, more investment by private enterprise if we’re going to see rising productivity.

That is central to our plan to fix the economy and to protect our way of life. And if we’re going to see more investment, what we need is regulation that encourages competitiveness, productivity and investment in this country, and that’s across all regulators, whether it’s the ATO or ASIC or APRA, you name it, they need to be more investment friendly. That’s how we’re going to fix our economy. That’s we’re going to avoid a lost decade where prosperity hasn’t gone forward for, between 2022 and 2030. That’s what we’re on course for at the moment under this Labor Government that is completely failing Australians and Australians are angry, they’re frustrated.

I think there are magnificent public servants in the city and I also think they want to see our country succeed and I want to enable them, I want to enable them to be able to do their job to ensure that we have a strong economy and a great country again that we can all be very proud of.

JOURNALIST: Mr Taylor, just on Tomago, are you saying that it’s a mistake for the Government to put in this money to make them keep going?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: No, I’m saying it’s a mistake to drive up the cost of electricity through Labor’s failed net zero policies that are a wrecking ball for the economy. I mean, this is the Minister, Chris Bowen, who promised a $275 electricity reduction, and we’ve seen a 40 per cent increase in prices.

Now if you’re an aluminium smelter and I had the privilege of working in that industry before politics. Electricity is one of your very top import costs and if it goes up, the risk is it goes offshore. The industry goes offshore.

I worked very closely with the Portland smelter when their contract came up to make sure they got access to the lower electricity prices we saw when I was Minister. I oversaw a 10 per cent reduction in electricity prices and a 10 per cent reduction in emissions at the same time.

What we’ve seen under Chris Bowen is a 40 per cent increase in electricity prices and emissions have barely moved. This is a complete and utter failure from a minister who doesn’t get it. The key going forward, scrap Labor’s net zero wrecking ball and use our wonderful natural resources in this country, which are ample. We have abundant natural resources. Make use of those to bring down the cost of power.

JOURNALIST: Just on jobs going offshore, you were in Parliament when the car industry wasn’t given a bailout and that, of course, then went offshore. Given how much some of these bailouts are costing now and the comparative price of the car-industry bailout, do you think that it was a mistake to let that go offshore?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Well, look, I’m looking at the mistake we’re seeing right now and the issues we’re seeing right now.

JOURNALIST: What about the car industry?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Well, the number one issue right now is that aluminium and other energy intensive sectors will go offshore if the electricity price doesn’t come down. That’s the truth. That is the reality because they need low-cost electricity. They need to be competitive.

This Government has failed. Its policies have failed. It hasn’t met its own targets and the result is we are continuing to see industry going offshore. Or we’re seeing taxpayer money having to be used to try to get those electricity prices down.

This is an admission of failure by Labor.

JOURNALIST: Mr Taylor, do you agree with Senator Andrew Bragg that working holiday visas should be reduced?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Look. Andrew expressed some of his personal views yesterday. I’ve made clear to him that his job... [interrupted]

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: ...Can I just finish? Is to express the views of the Coalition and the senior team, of which he is a member. When it comes to immigration policy, we’ve made it very clear, it’s here. You can see it, Jack. I strongly encourage you to read it. We need to cap migration in this country based on housing supply... [interrupted]

JOURNALISTS: [inaudible]

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Now, we will see. Let me finish. We will see what housing supply looks like in this country in the next two years. I’m deeply concerned about it. We have seen a collapse in confidence in housing in recent weeks and months since the budget and we are deeply concerned about how many houses are going to get built in the community.

JOURNALIST: So, do you agree with everything that Andrew Bragg said?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Well, we’re going to keep going around.

JOURNALIST: Do you agree though with the net overseas migration figure of 180,000?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: As I say, net overseas migration will depend on housing supply. It will be capped. Our migration will be capped based on housing supply. Jack, let’s see what housing supply looks like over the next little while. I am deeply concerned it’s going backwards.

It’s fallen under Labor already, despite the billions and billions of dollars of programmes. We’ve seen a reduction in housing completions, and we’re now seeing a collapse in confidence.

I was out with a building material manufacturer earlier this week with Nick, and we’ve seen collapse in their demand. What that’s going to mean for housing completions over the next little while is of real concern.

We’ll keep going.

JOURNALIST: Is this freelancing by Senator Bragg? Does that make it more difficult for you to hold the Government to account and also to stem the rise of One Nation?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: I think I’ve said this already. Andrew expressed some of his personal views yesterday and I’ve made clear to him his job is to express the views of the Coalition team.

JOURNALIST: Did you see or read his speech beforehand?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: No.

JOURNALIST: Did he step out of line in doing that, would you reconsider his position in shadow ministry as a result of stepping out of the line?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: I think I’ve answered that question. I’ve made clear to him that his job is to articulate the views of the Coalition team and I tell you what, you can all see that plan here and it’s a plan to axe Labor’s toxic taxes, to bring down the cost of power, to make sure that immigration is in line with housing, to reduce the immigration numbers and to put Australians first, and that is a plan I know our team strongly supports.

JOURNALIST: Has he read the plan?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: I’m sure he has.

JOURNALIST: Mr Taylor, just a question about ACT Liberals, as well as your Senate candidate has called for the ACT Government to audit some of the Commonwealth spending for Commonwealth projects. Are you in support of that and would you also be supportive of the Liberal spending that happened? You know, the promises that were Liberal spent during that time that you guys were in Parliament as well?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: I’m not quite sure what you’re referring to there. Can you just be a bit more clear?

JOURNALIST: Just in regards to the audit that I guess Nick Tyrrell has written to Katy Gallagher about it, calling for Commonwealth spending in the ACT to be, I guess, audited and reassessed.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Well, we want to see every dollar, Nick might want to comment on this, but we want to see every dollar of taxpayer money spent well so that it’s getting an outcome for hard-working Australians.

I mean what we are seeing right now is Australians struggling to make ends meet. Everywhere I go I see anger, I see frustration, I say deep despair in some cases. And you know older Australians here we’re talking to today who are on fixed incomes, there’s no flexibility there. And making ends meet is incredibly hard.

And that means every dollar of taxpayer funding, every dollar that is earned by hardworking Australians and has to be paid in tax, should be treated with great respect.

I don’t know if you want to add to that.

MR NICK TYRRELL: Yeah.

JOURNALIST: Are there any projects in Canberra that you and Angus Taylor would be not in support of, that Commonwealth has spent or promised the ACT Government?

MR NICK TYRRELL: I think what we’ve seen over the last few weeks is a corruption finding that an $18 million contract was corrupted to favour a CFMEU-aligned firm in the ACT. That’s undeniable.

We’ve seen the Deputy Chief Minister resign over it and what we have seen now is after Mark Parton and I wrote to Senator Gallagher, all we’ve seeing is ducking and weaving and dodging over accountability for federal money going into ACT projects.

One example is more than a $500 million project or contract in the light rail that was issued without a competitive tender and the Government has blocked FOI requests to get access to that, won’t share the business case and $300 million of federal money has gone into that, and what Katie Gallagher is saying is nothing to see here, we don’t even want to look.

So, I think Australians and Canberrans expect better out of the Labor Government, out their local Labor Senator and out of the Minister for Finance.

I’m relaxed about what projects the federal Government wants to look at. If the Australian National Audit Office wants to audit any and all projects that have been funded by federal money in the ACT, I welcome it.

And I noticed that Andrew Barr even welcomed the federal Government running the ruler over ACT Government projects with federal money.

So, what is Senator Gallagher afraid of? Why is she ducking, dodging and weaving over this question?

JOURNALIST: Is that federal Government funding as well from a Liberal point of view that’s funded through Liberals as well?

MR NICK TYRRELL: Yeah, absolutely, no question. If the ACT Government is not afraid of an audit over federal money that they’ve received for ACT projects when there’s been a corruption finding that implicated the office of the Deputy Chief Minister, then I don’t know, if the ACT Government’s not afraid it, then why is Senator Gallagher ducking, dodging and weaving over it?

JOURNALIST: Mr Taylor, I just want to go back to something you said about no payments have been made. I just want to clarify, no payments have been made to Dallas McInerney from you, to Catholic Schools New South Wales, to Robert Assaf, to Christian Ellis, to Jean-Claude Perrottet, Charles Perrottet or Jeremy Greenwood.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: I’ve been very clear, no payments... [interrupted]

JOURNALIST: No payments have been made to any of them. Has your wife made any payments?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: As I said, no payments have been made and I’m not going to give a running commentary.

JOURNALIST: Just on another matter, there’s a student protest organised today in opposition to Pauline Hansen and One Nation. What do you think of high school and university students leaving classes to protest?

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Look, this is a matter for them, but I think it’s incredibly important that people who are at school engage in the school curriculum and get on and learn. I mean, that’s the passport to a better life in this country is to have a great education and I want to see people focusing on that.

Alright, thank you very much.

[ENDS]