TRANSCRIPT - RADIO INTERVIEW - 6PR PERTH LIVE WITH OLIVER PETERSON

TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
6PR PERTH LIVE WITH OLIVER PETERSON
MONDAY, 5 MAY 2025

Subjects: The Albanese Government’s election win; Tom French will be a fantastic representive for the people of Moore; Senator Michaelia Cash's comments on working from home; authenticity in politics; Labor's excellent performance in Western Australia; close counts but optimism about the outcomes for Trish Cook and Josh Wilson in Bullwinkel and Fremantle; representing WA in Canberra; the transition away from live sheep exports.
 

OLIVER PETERSON, HOST: Joining me in the studios is the federal Member for Perth, the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, one half of Pat-Cash in Question Time. Patrick Gorman, congratulations. 

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, Oly. And if I can say to the people of Western Australia through your programme; thank you very much for having faith in Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister and the Labor team. It was really great to see the support for myself and colleagues here in the West, but we also saw that across the country, and I think that's because Labor put forward a plan about building Australia's future, about actually looking to what are the challenges people have now, but also having a bit of hope for what's next.

PETERSON: Did Saturday night's results exceed your expectations?

GORMAN: If I'm honest, Oly, yes, it did. I mean, you can see on the numbers that obviously we have not seen a parliament and a Labor win like this for many, many years. I felt pretty good out there. And I've been in your studios talking about that, saying I feel good when I'm out and about in Western Australia, and I've been to Durack, Forrest, Moore. I launched Tom French's campaign at the start of the election period, and it felt really good everywhere I was. But I didn't know if that was the feeling nationally. It turns out that it was. And I think again, that's because we really spoke to what it was that Australians wanted to see from their government, and we spoke to them honestly.

PETERSON: And Moore has been picked up by Tom French. Did you believe that you could win it? Obviously, you went in there with a fighting chance. But was this one of the 'nice to haves' column on Saturday night?

GORMAN: Well, the Prime Minister had been really clear in some of his public commentary for more than a year that he thought that the seat of Moore was winnable for Labor, and that we had a great candidate in Tom French standing for us, and he'd run a couple of times before, so he knew what he was up for, and he knew what it was going to take if he were to get over the line. And he is an incredibly hard working person. He started his career as a sparky, he retrained as a lawyer. I mean, that's pretty impressive, two tough fields, two tough qualifications to get. I think Tom is a really good fit for the people of Moore. And obviously you said you've seen a little bit of the Liberal Party's infighting in that seat, where they'd removed Ian Goodenough. A lot of us know Ian, there's not that many Western Australians, we all got to know him. That did seem like a pretty brutal piece of politics, at a time where the Liberal Party was focused on fighting amongst themselves, rather than actually getting out there and putting the case to win a few more seats.

PETERSON: Is that also in a lesson for all the politicians, of all the political parties, incumbency is obviously worth so much and Goodenough had been the Member there for Moore for the Liberal Party for some time now. He obviously still ran as an independent, if he was still there the outcome of the election in Moore may have been a little bit different, but the importance of incumbency, Patrick, as politicians, do you think that that might be a lesson that your opponents might learn from that seat's election?

GORMAN: I think you always want to show the Australian people that you are focused on them, not just focused on yourselves. When it comes to incumbency, I really believe that every election is its own contest, and while as an incumbent, you often have a really good sense of your community and the things that they expect. You've got to be able to take those community values and turn them into national results. One of the things that I think that really shone through for me is that I do question whether some of those Liberal and National members were really actually out there doing the doorknocking, and whether they were passing that feedback back, because if they were passing it back, it's hard to understand why it took so long for the Liberal Party to adjust their position on things like work from home.

PETERSON: Well, it's interesting you say that, because Michaelia Cash was on the programme a couple of hours ago now, and I asked her that question, was she consulted on it? She said no, and she didn't want to take that policy to the Australian people if she was consulted on it, so maybe that was all the decision making being done from the Opposition Leader's office without consulting his shadows.

GORMAN: Look, I'm always cautious after an election where you see people will sort of blame everything on the leader. And you know, I feel for Peter Dutton at a personal level, he's not even now in the parliament to defend himself. And obviously you see some staff members lose their jobs when something like what happened in Mr. Dutton's own electorate happened. But I think you've got to take collective responsibility, I think for Senator Cash and others to pretend that they weren't sitting around the Shadow Cabinet table or weren't out there publicly defending these policies. I'm a little bit sceptical. I think your listeners would be a bit sceptical if we start to see over the next few days, all of those Liberals simply blame Peter Dutton and not take any personal responsibility. You've got to take personal responsibility in this business.

PETERSON: A lot of people have pointed out this afternoon how gracious the Opposition Leader was in his conciliation speech on Saturday night, wondering where that was from. I made some comments earlier, Patrick, the Prime Minister has always given us a side of him, and that's obviously who he is. He's a bit of a dork in terms of, he likes to wear his Rabbitohs hat, or -

GORMAN: You can say that Oly, I don't know if I'll echo those sentiments.

PETERSON: You know, he's got his dog Toto and whatnot. He shows a bit of a personal side of himself. Peter Dutton probably only ever showed himself in white shirts and trousers, or with a tie in a suit. So you can't sort of reframe somebody in the middle of an election campaign. You've got to be real, you've got to be authentic.

GORMAN: Yeah.

PETERSON: And I think the first words out of when the Prime Minister called the election was something along the lines of, are you ready? He said he was born ready. He wasn't being arrogant about it, but he was, he was ready to rock and roll. And he's got a huge appetite, which you know better than most, to work very, very hard and maximise each day.

GORMAN: Well that's what you want to see, isn't it? You want to see your elected members, be they the prime minister or your local member, working their guts out to make sure they are both being available for people, but also working to make sure that we do deal with the challenges that are put before us, whether it's from global inflation, whether they're challenges that come from particular policies, challenges that come up from time to time. But also you want to see your elected members being upfront with you. I think that the Prime Minister wearing a polo shirt as you're wearing now, being like, yes, I sometimes wear a polo shirt, that's just being upfront with people rather than trying to pretend you're something you're not. And I think also it means that you can be yourself. That's what people want to see in politics, is people want to see a level of authenticity. And I don't know why we don't see a bit more of that from other parties. But I think if you look at the Labor team, it is a talented team, it's a diverse team, and people who actually are really comfortable with being themselves and being, be it ministers, elected members, and actually getting on and doing the job.

PETERSON: Do you see it still to be decided in Western Australia, close count in Bullwinkel, before you arrived to have a chat to us this afternoon, is that looking as it's going Labor's way, Patrick?

GORMAN: This is going to go right down to the wire. I've actually just come from the count centre in Canning Vale, where we were scrutineering another 2000 postal votes that have come in. And I want to say thanks to the hard working people at the Commission, but also the volunteers who are there scrutineering that vote. My expectation is that once all the votes are counted, the lead that Trish Cook has at the moment will be maintained. We've got all of the absent votes yet to come in. And what I've seen in previous elections in that area, they tend to slightly favour the Labor Party. I think we'll see if people are hitting refresh on the results every few minutes because they're so engaged. I think we'll see that it'll bounce around a little bit because it is so close, but strong preference flows for Trish Cook, I think she can take some real credit for that as well. She really campaigned hard on who she was. She's a local nurse, lives in the Hills, lived there for 20 years, local councillor. She bought her full self to the campaign, and I think people connected with that.

PETERSON: Fremantle's also still too close to call. Kate Hulett's giving Josh Wilson a run for his money, has that surprised you?

GORMAN: We knew when you saw a campaign like that, that came in both late, where there wasn't enough time to necessarily apply proper scrutiny to the candidate, but also a lot of money came in to that campaign from Climate 200 and others into the seat of Fremantle at the very last minute. Which is what we did see in Fremantle. We saw that happening. We could see it on Facebook, you could see it on YouTube. They were spending huge amounts of money, but what Josh has on his side is that Josh is a fantastic local member. Josh Wilson is one of my best friends in the parliament. I've seen him work his heart out for that community, and I'm really encouraged, from what I've heard from some of his team today that they are getting a strong preference flow. You know, Greens voters ignoring the Greens how to vote card and instead preferencing Josh. Liberal voters who were encouraged by the Liberal Party to put the Climate 200 independent in ahead of Josh, but ignoring that and going, actually no, we know Josh, and you've actually got to choose. They're choosing to preference Josh. I think over the days ahead, we'll see Josh's primary vote increase a little bit and I'm  quietly confident that when the caucus meets in a few days time, Josh Wilson will be in that room.

PETERSON: So hypothetically let's say, hold on to Fremantle, you've picked up Moore, you may even pick up Bullwinkel. So there's plus two potential seats from Western Australia pre election. It's a staggering result locally for the Australian Labor Party, built off the back, Patrick, of the success of the McGowan-Cook Governments and the election results for the state Labor Party. What is it about how well organised Labor is, or how good Labor is at campaigning in WA? It used to be your job.

GORMAN: We're focused on the people of Western Australia. We listen to them, we respond to their needs, and we try and get practical things done. Many of your listeners will remember the energy bill relief, that we put through people's Synergy accounts over the last year or so. The Liberal Party said that this was wasteful spending. We've backed making sure that we have the people so when you call up, if you're trying to get your pension sorted when you get to the retirement age, we've made sure there's enough people to answer those calls in the public service. The Liberal Party said that we were wasting money on public servants and they were going to sack them. We focused on the things that matter, and we also focus on the future. If I think about what we've done in collaboration with the Cook Labor Government, delivering our free TAFE program to make sure we've got the skills and that young Western Australians have the opportunities of the future. The work that we've done on housing making so that now over this term, we'll be able to put in our policy to mean that with a 5 per cent deposit, first home buyers can buy their first home. But I do on this programme, Oly, also want to say thank you to my friend Roger Cook. Roger has gone out of his way to support our federal team. I went out of my way to support the state team at the state election. We work really well together, and because we work well together, and some of your listeners remember when the dominant vibe was all about the fight when it came to the State Government and the former Liberal Federal Government. That fighting didn't achieve anything. We're better when we work together. That's what I want to keep doing, and that's what I think delivers for Western Australia.

PETERSON: Alright, two messages to read for you, one from Brit, one from Terry, who says, 'we feel as though Labor though, has turned their back on rural Australia, in fact, snubbed their noses. The feeling is a bit dire out here.' And to that, Brit says, 'are you, at a minimum, going to rethink the decision regarding the sheep ban? Especially considering Adam Bandt isn't going to keep his seat. It highlights how unpopular the Greens actually are, or were, really they should consider, thanks.'

GORMAN: Look, we want to govern for all of Australia, every Australian, all of Australia. And build Australia's future. Even in this campaign, it was something that the Liberal Party had a cut for our resources industry. They were going to cut the critical minerals jobs incentives that we had there. But we also announced, and the only party to back this and bring to this election, the only party to announce that we would bring back third tier rail in public ownership was Anthony Albanese and Labor. And I was gobsmacked when we did not see the Liberal Party or the National Party come out and say that they would back that. So we've got really practical plans to build our regions, we've invested in major infrastructure. We've got the Pilbara Hydrogen Hub underway. We've got major road projects to make sure to that people can get around more safely. We'll continue to do that, because a lot of things that we've got, whether it's free TAFE, or our Future Made in Australia plans, they're also about backing -

PETERSON: But the sheep ban obviously stands. That was your policy, the industry is going to be wound up.

GORMAN: We've taken it to three elections. We've won the last two of those elections. We will do exactly what we said we will do, which is to work with the industry so that the sheep meat is proceeded here in WA. I'm really confident for those producers that they have a bright future, and we're going to do the work to make sure that the transition package is rolled out really well. We've got the transition advocate in place. And we'll continue to do that work.

PETERSON: Just not the work though, I'm getting a lot of texts coming through about, they feel disengaged. They want to make sure Labor is going to, the government is going to talk to them. Is that something that you can take back to Cabinet, Patrick, and say, you know, 'WA - it doesn't just stop in Perth,' and you know that.

GORMAN: I'm a big believer in that. I get around the regions, I make sure that I am the member for Perth, but I'm also the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister. I take it really seriously getting out and about to our regions. I also know that the Prime Minister takes it really seriously. We've seen him in Geraldton, he took the entire Cabinet up to Port Hedland, and that was, for some of my colleagues, an eye-opening experience, but a really important eye-opening experience. We've got our Senate team that get around the regions. Senator Sue Lines, who's also President of the Senate, and then you've got newer members, like Varun Ghosh, and then even we'll be adding another Senator in Ellie Whiteaker, who will join the Senate in the middle of the year. And I know that all of our Senators get around. You go look at Glenn Sterle's Facebook page. And I'd encourage any of your listeners to go have a look at Glenn Sterle's Facebook page. He is out there in the regions, recognising that if you've got a job representing this state, whether it's in the Lower House or the Upper House, you get out to the entirety of the state. It's an honour to represent Western Australia in the federal parliament, and it's one that means all of my colleagues get out and about in the regions.

PETERSON: Will there be any other West Australian Members of Parliament from the Labor Party elevated into the Prime Minister's next cabinets?

GORMAN: The Prime Minister has been really clear that they're discussions that we'll have internally over the next few days. I know that sometimes there's policy announcements that you want us to make quickly, or squeeze out of us, or political announcements. The Prime Minister's been really clear that we'll have those conversations internally, but also that we are across the country, oozing with talent.

PETERSON: Are you putting your hand up for more work, Patrick?

GORMAN: I have plenty of work, and I love the work that I get to do, and I obviously have a role supporting the Prime Minister -

PETERSON: What are you going to do if he said, 'hey, Patrick, come be the Minister for Social Services?'

GORMAN: I think I'll just borrow the line that my friend Jim Chalmers used when he was asked about this in an interview yesterday, which is; I think the entire Cabinet should be Western Australians. I'd be very happy with that. I'd be happy if every Western Australian MP was in the Cabinet. But the reality is we have great talent across this country. We've added more talent including, I was down in Bass a few months ago with Jess Teesdale, who's coming in. We've got my friend Rebecca White, who's coming into the parliament. We've got people like Renee Coffey, who won the seat of Griffith. The seat that I know well, because I spent a bit of time there when I was an advisor to Kevin Rudd back in the day. We've got really excellent people. And I could keep rattling off the list, I don't think your listeners will particularly enjoy me playing a Q&A on how many of the newly elected Labor members I can name. But we've got a great team, and I love being a part of that team, and I think it's been one of the absolute honour of my life to be the Assistant Minister to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and the result that the entire Labor team have achieved is a credit to everyone, and also a huge credit to Paul Erickson, the National Secretary, who has helped write history.

PETERSON: Patrick Gorman, thanks for coming into the studios today, and good luck in the next term of Parliament - and congratulations on your re-election.

GORMAN: Thank you Oly and thanks to your listeners.

PETERSON: That is the Assistant Minister of the Prime Minister, Labor's Patrick Gorman, the Member for Perth.