Transcript: Interview with Matt Stephens, ABC Riverland - 27 February 2025

TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Matt Stephens, ABC Riverland

27 February 2025

Topics: The Coalition’s $9 billion Medicare commitment, Labor should legislate to guarantee health funding, grape growers concerns, rural and regional Australia, election speculation

E&OE…………………………………

Matt Stephens: Anne Ruston is the Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care and also a Senator for South Australia. Anne Ruston, good morning.

Anne Ruston: Good morning, Matt.

Matt Stephens: You've been talking a lot about health reform this week. The latest announcement on Medicare bulk billing, primary care, has bipartisan support. Is that a step in the right direction?

Anne Ruston: Look, absolutely. And I think Australians expect from their government to be focusing on the issues that are most important to them. And as I travel around Australia and around South Australia, cost of living obviously is the issue. But underneath cost of living is all the other costs that Australians are facing. And not the least of that is health, and we know that the cost of going to see a doctor has escalated significantly. We know that, you know, bulk billing rates have been dropping. And we know actually Australians are not going to see the doctor because they say they can't afford to. So it's a really important issue, and that's why we've been, you know, absolutely prepared to offer the bipartisan support so Australians can get the certainty that they need. In fact, we even said to the Government, you know, come back in March when Parliament is due to sit, so that we can guarantee this funding for Australians by putting it through the Parliament where we can both vote to say we absolutely are committed to this commitment on primary care. And then Australians can have the comfort that no matter what, they are going to get this investment in primary care and hopefully, going into the future, will be able to get more affordable access to primary care.

Matt Stephens: And health is obviously, you know, one issue that affects the Riverland, but another and one that we've discussed quite a bit this morning is primary production and wine. Both the Federal Member, Tony Pasin and also the Mayor of the Berri Barmera Council, Ella Winnell have hinted that the package that was given to Whyalla for the steelworks is something that could potentially work for the wine industry in the Riverland. I know you've been involved in the inquiry into pricing. The report is due out tomorrow. Are you confident that there will be change for this industry?

Anne Ruston: Well, I mean, obviously I'm not in a position to comment on what's in the report tomorrow because it's a confidential parliamentary document until it's released. But, you know, I think I've been on the record many times and I've certainly been loud in the Riverland about this, is that we have to have a situation where our wine growers and our grape growers particularly are able to be successful because it's been such an amazing industry for our region. And we've seen a significant imbalance in the power between the big players, the wineries and the grape growers. And, you know, if the wineries aren't going to play ball and actually be good citizens in this environment, then sometimes regulation is what is needed. So, you know, I'm very sympathetic to the concerns that I've heard from the grape growers in the Riverland about the fact they need certainty. I mean, providing the grape growers with information about pricing for the next season, you know, two minutes before the grape harvester goes into their vineyards. It's just, it's unacceptable. And I think that the wineries do need to start being better corporate citizens, because it will be in their best interest as well as the growers. So - but obviously, as I say, we'll have to wait to see what comes out tomorrow. But I'm very sympathetic to the concerns of the growers.

Matt Stephens: Do you think the idea of a package similar to the Whyalla steelworks is something that could help the wine industry at this point?

Anne Ruston: Well, one of the things that I really do think that we should be focusing on in the wine industry, apart from making sure that the rules and regulations are fair, there is a fair playing field here, is focusing on overseas. I mean, the success of the Australian wine industry has been built over decades on our export markets, and I think we need to really, really focus on those. I know China had a significant impact when it closed its doors largely to Australian wine, but there are many other markets and obviously we're getting wine back into China now to some degree. We need to be focusing on getting our wine exported, because that's when the industry is successful. So I'm very supportive of focusing on export as one of the areas that we will be able to achieve the kind of success that the wine industry has seen in the past and we would like to see in the future.

Matt Stephens: Anne Ruston is a Senator for South Australia, and the Senate works a little bit differently, Anne, to the House of Reps at elections, and this time around your place is up for re-election. Why is your role in the Senate important for the Riverland and Mallee and even further afield?

Anne Ruston: Well, I mean, the great thing that I like to be able to do is every time I sit around the leadership table or the economic review committee table, when there are policies that are coming forward from the Coalition to put to the Australian people, I can throw not only a South Australian lens across everything, I throw a rural and regional lens over it. And making sure that the interests of my community in South Australia, but, you know, obviously the Riverland is high up there in terms of prioritising, and making sure that our policies are going to be good for the regions. And, you know, one of the things that absolutely I'm completely convinced of is that in just about every metric, rural and regional Australia have worse outcomes, particularly when it comes to things like health or aged care, than they do in the city. So, I'm very focussed on making sure that the issues that are particular and peculiar to rural and regional Australia are considered around that table. So, I like to think I can do that. But equally, being out and about in the regions is the thing that I enjoy doing the most and I'm really looking forward to not having to be in Canberra quite so much so I actually can get out there.

Matt Stephens: Yeah, we don't have any firm idea on when the election will be called. Is there anything you've heard around the halls of Parliament House?

Anne Ruston: About the only thing I can absolutely guarantee your listeners, Matt, is it will be on or before the 17th of May, which is about as definitive - I think the only person who really knows when the election's going to be called is the Prime Minister, and I'm not necessarily sure he knows either. But the one thing I would say is that there's a lot of unfinished business, unfinished business in terms of promises that were made by this government before they were elected, promises that have been made over recent times, including the promise on Sunday in terms of the healthcare announcement, that we could come back to the Parliament in March and we could legislate, so that Australians had greater certainty and the Government could actually deliver on the promises that it hasn't fulfilled. So I'm hoping that they'll come back so that we can get the work done and then go to the election when that's been achieved.

Matt Stephens: All right. Senator Anne Ruston, no doubt we'll talk between now and the at least the 17th of May. But thanks for your time this morning.

Anne Ruston: Thanks, Matt.

ENDS