PAUL TURTON, PRESENTER: Pat Conroy has been re-elected as the Member for Shortland and joins me now. Pat Conroy, congratulations firstly.
PAT CONROY, MEMBER FOR SHORTLAND: Thank you very much, Paul.
TURTON: How was the celebration? You had, I guess you were always confident in Hunter and also in Paterson as well, but did you always see you seat as being a safe seat?
CONROY: Definitely not, definitely not. We had our margin halved at the last election, so I was taking nothing for granted. I was optimistic because we were getting very positive feedback on the polls, but certainly until those votes started to be counted, I was very anxious about what the result would be. It’s a tremendous privilege representing 150,000 people in our community, and I am so honoured to be trusted with that privilege for another three years.
TURTON: Can you win four of the 14 undecided seats to rule by majority do you think?
CONROY: I think we’ve got a good chance. It’s not automatic, but I think we’ve had some good early reports from seats like Bennelong, so I think there’s a decent chance we’ll get to 76 or 77 seats. But failing that as Anthony indicated today, we’ve got commitments from a number of the crossbench that they will support supply and not support a no confidence motion, and that obviously gave enough certainty for the Governor-General to swear in Anthony Albanese as our Prime Minister.
TURTON: Pat Conroy, will Labor side with the Greens if it has to, and that raises the spectre of a carbon tax of course.
CONROY: We’ve been very clear that we won’t be doing any deals. We’re forming no coalitions. As Anthony said, unlike the Liberal-National Party Coalition, we are the only party running by ourselves to form government by ourselves. On climate, we’ve made it very clear that the policy we took to the last election on Saturday is the policy we will either get through via legislation. Failing that, we can do things via regulation. So that policy is what we will implement, and the really important thing is despite the Liberal and National Parties’ despicable and unfounded scare campaigns in our community, the people of the Hunter swung behind Labor and increased our margin in seats like Hunter and Shortland.
TURTON: Was this a referendum on Scott Morrison? A lot of your advertising attacked the Prime Minister. Did the election tell us that Anthony Albanese was the least worst candidate in effect?
CONROY: No, I think what it did show was that people were sick of an extreme right-wing government that was more intent on dividing people, and they were open to a government that presented ideas to improve this already great country but in a way that didn’t scare people. So I think Anthony took – and we took – a platform to the election that was bigger than our ‘07 platform for example, but it was relatively modest compared to 2019 and people have endorsed that.
TURTON: Independents have so far won 11 seats. The Greens are on track to take four, possibly five. With several teal Independents as we know winning seats on climate change and anti-corruption platforms and that swing towards the Greens in the capital cities, is that evidence that Australia’s appetite for Labor and Liberal has diminished?
CONROY: I think one of the factors around our low primary vote is that Labor voters in some of those teal seats chose to vote teal Independent rather than Labor because they were desperate to get rid of the Liberal members of Parliament, and there was a risk that if they voted Labor that that Independent wouldn’t have finished in the top two for the preference count. So once you exclude those 15 or so seats, there was actually a swing in primary votes to Labor, and obviously there was a very significant swing of about three per cent to Labor on two-party preferred.
So look, we’ve got to restore confidence in the Australian political system. That’s why our commitment to an Anti-Corruption Commission is so important, as is our commitment to ending the climate wars. The climate wars have been the single greatest failure of the Australian political system, and we’ve made a commitment and I’m confident that this election has given us a mandate to end that.
TURTON: Clearly though the swinging voter wants more progress on climate change. Will you sharpen the pencil on climate targets?
CONROY: Well our policy is to increase the target to 43 per cent by 2030 on the way to a legislated net zero emissions by 2050 which will drive 82 per cent renewable energy, help create 600,000 jobs including 500,000 in regional areas like the Hunter. That’s a really strong policy that also protects our existing industries, and that’s what we will put through Parliament. Other parties have their policies, but we’re forming government and that’s the climate policy that we’ve been very honest and open with the Australian people about.
TURTON: Pat Conroy, you had shadow responsibilities in Opposition. Are you hopeful for a ministerial appointment?
CONROY: I will be nominating for election to the frontbench. Ultimately that’s up to the Labor Party Caucus to select the top 30. I am optimistic, but you can’t take anything for granted. It’s been a privilege to be a Shadow Minister and I am hopeful of continuing as a Minister in the government. But time will tell, we’ll find out next Tuesday.
TURTON: What would you like if you had your choice?
CONROY: Oh after nine years in Opposition I’ll take whatever Anthony sees as befitting my talents and skills such as they are. I’ve really enjoyed the three portfolios I’ve had. The Pacific and international development is obviously a critical area given this Government’s failure around the Solomon Islands, but I also have been very vocal on both defence matters as the assistant defence shadow, and on climate change and energy as the assistant representing a region at the forefront of those challenges. I’d be happy with any of those three to be frank, but I’d be happy with any of the responsibilities. It’s a tremendous privilege. My first honour and duty is to be the Member for Shortland, but obviously being a Minister on top of that would be a further great privilege.
TURTON: Pat Conroy is with me here on ABC Newcastle talking about his victory over the weekend. He’s been retained by voters as the Member for Shortland. What about the issue of a federal integrity commission? How quickly will Labor move on that?
CONROY: Well we’ve committed to legislating it this year and we will deliver that. We’re obviously confident that we will have the numbers either in our own right or there’s obviously a huge number of Independents and Greens who have a similar policy, so I am confident we will get it legislated this year. And importantly, unlike the Government who failed to do anything on it, ours will be well-resourced, it will be independent, it will have the ability to have public hearings, and it will have the ability to investigate retrospectively.
So it will be up to the commissioners what they investigate, but they’ll have the ability to look back a number of years and investigate potential corrupt actions which is really important because we need to restore trust in federal politics. At the moment, there’s less oversight of me as a Member of Parliament than there is of the most junior staff member at a local Council, and that’s a completely unacceptable state of affairs.
TURTON: Is there any fear within Labor that any of its members will get caught out in such a – or any future inquiries by such a commission?
CONROY: No, not at all. This is a commission that’s really important, and as Anthony was asked about in the debates, the State schemes have drawn attention to wrongdoing on all sides of Parliament, and we support and welcome that. It’s really important that people have confidence. One of the things I am most scared about in the modern sort-of state of Australia is so many people are cynical about politicians and have such low respect for the political processes, and we need to restore trust in that we don’t want to go down the path of other countries where people don’t value democracy and don’t think that a well-functioning government can improve their lives. We have to reverse that.
TURTON: Pat Conroy, your leader Anthony Albanese came out in support of higher wages. Has the party determined what representations it will make to the Commission in regard to the amount of increase? Should it match CPI?
CONROY: No, we’ve been very open about that we will look at it now that we’re in government – what is the appropriate manner of the submission. Obviously what we’ve said is that we would strongly welcome a decision from the Fair Work Commission to award a minimum wage increase that means that workers don’t go backwards. At the moment under the last Government, inflation was 5.1 per cent but average wage growth was only 2.4 per cent. That meant that the average worker went backwards by 2.7 per cent last year which was the equivalent of something like a $2,500 wage cut. That’s completely unacceptable, and obviously we would welcome the Fair Work Commission giving a $1 pay rise or slightly over a $1 pay rise to low-paid workers.
TURTON: Pat Conroy, what about –
CONROY: Per hour.
TURTON: Yeah, okay. In regard to the Hunter region, given that we’re safe Labor seats again, is the prospect of the voter in terms of what the Government will deliver to them, will they become marginalised in this region? Will they have a lack of effective representation because the seats will be taken for granted by Labor?
CONROY: We certainly won’t be taking them for granted and by the conventional measurements of safe versus marginal seats, they are not safe seats. So obviously Sharon Claydon in Newcastle, that’s considered a safe seat, but Hunter, Paterson, and Shortland are still defined as marginal.
But this gives us a great opportunity having so many representatives from the Government. We have four Hunter Labor MPs. When you include the Central Coast region, we’ve got two additional MPs. So we’ve got a block of six Labor MPs who are passionate about our region, who can fight for improvements and funding for our region. And to give you an example of how that’s worked in the past. It was only having strong local representation that delivered the Hunter Expressway with Joel Fitzgibbon. It was only having local strong representation with Greg Combet and Sharon Grierson that we delivered $40 million for the Hunter Medical Research Institute and over $70 million for the Newcastle Uni both in their energy research institute and moving their campus into the CBD.
Those are a function of having MPs from the governing party who are committed to growing the region, and this is a huge opportunity for the Hunter and broader Central Coast as well to have a very significant number of MPs in the Government Party Room.
TURTON: How quickly can you draw up a cheque for GP Access?
CONROY: We’re going to be acting very quickly to restore that $500,000. That is vital. The clinic at the Mater needs to be reopened and the hours restored to the Belmont and John and Maitland Hospitals. And in addition to restoring the funding for GP Access After Hours, we will be redesignating the region as one of GP shortage which will help solve the massive GP crisis that we’ve got at the moment. That just requires a stroke of a pen from the new Minister for Health, and I am really optimistic that that can happen really quickly.
TURTON: Will we see much of that $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund here? Is there going to be an influx in manufacturing opportunities and industrial opportunities around Newcastle?
CONROY: Absolutely, there’s huge opportunities. First off, we’ve obviously made significant announcements around hydrogen hubs and research and training labs at Newcastle Uni, but the sorts of industries we’ve announced will be the focus for the National Reconstruction Fund to grow manufacturing are things like clean tech, defence, medical equipment, and advanced manufacturing, and we’re at ground zero for those industries in the country.
So I expect us to get a really significant share of that $15 billion which means new jobs for the Hunter region and new industries. And complementing that is our commitment to establishing a Powering the Regions Fund as part of our climate and energy policy that will support existing manufacturers and other facilities with greenhouse gas emissions to invest in new plant and equipment that will drive more jobs. So I am really excited about the potential for the Hunter economy both in existing industries and new industries, and we need that for the thousands of families that live here or are looking at moving here.
TURTON: And just in regard to existing families, existing workers, and existing industries, Joel Fitzgibbon famously after 2019 said that the Labor Party demonised blue-collar workers. Can you ensure that you’ll be looking after those in traditional industries in this region?
CONROY: Well I’m on the record as disagreeing with Joel’s thesis there, but we absolutely support our blue-collar traditional industries, and you just have to look at the swing back to us in a number of areas in the Hunter Valley. I truly think that we’ve rebuilt trust in those communities, and we’ve identified and are fighting for the real issues that affect them, the most significant and apparent one being the issue of Same Job, Same Pay to fight the cancer of casualisation and dodgy labour hire practices that are undermining wages and conditions in the coal industry right now. We will implement Same Job, Same Pay that will absolutely improve working conditions and wages for many workers in our region.
TURTON: Pat Conroy, it’s been good to have you on this arvo. Thanks for taking our call.
CONROY: Thanks again for the honour, and I look forward to further discussions.