Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for the Public Service, Assistant Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
JAYNIE SEAL, HOST: Joining us live now from the 50th ALP National Conference in Adelaide is Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Patrick Gorman. Patrick, thank you so much for joining us. We have heard from our political editor, Andrew Clennell, and also, Cam Reddin, who are both there where you are about the address from the Prime Minister. And a lot of mention about One Nation. Why do you think the Prime Minister spoke so much about that party?
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: We spoke about 135 years of the Labor Party's history, our 50 national conferences and our determination to deliver real change for Australia by uplifting the Australian people. But we can't avoid that when it comes to Australia's great democracy, that we are in a contest. And it's becoming increasingly clear that the next election will not be as it has traditionally been, just against the Liberal Party. But that the Liberal Party and One Nation are looking in all sorts of different ways to strengthen their bonds. To glue themselves together. I have seen that in my home state of Western Australia where Liberal Party and One Nation are inking preference deals with one another for an upcoming by-election. The reality is that we've now got the Liberal-National-One Nation Coalition, and they want to tear down so much of what Labor has delivered. They want to tear down Paid Parental Leave. They want to get rid of the protections we've put in for penalty rates. And they all - all of those parties - want to make it easier to sack working Australians. And so that's the contest we're in and we'll just continue doing what we've been doing for the last four years, which is put forward positive plans for Australia's future.
SEAL: Do you think by, perhaps, putting down another party, that's going to make some voters just fight even more for who they want to be in politics?
GORMAN: I think voters will see the contrast between the sort of party that Labor is, which is a democratic party, where we invite yourselves at Sky News and the Australian media at large into our conference to see how we debate things, to see us formulate new fresh ideas. And they'll compare that to the sorts of things where the Liberal Party have locked media out of their conferences. It wasn't that long ago that One Nation were kicking media outlets out of their press conferences. That is, when they're in Australia of course. So, we're really comfortable with who we are as Labor. That is why we invite the Australian people to watch our national conference. We are comfortable with our values of opportunity, our values of fairness and our values of making sure that aspiration remains a core part of the Australian story. That is what we've done with things like our support for making sure that more Australians can buy a home of their own. And it's what we've done with things like Free TAFE and paid prac.
SEAL: You also spoke about the Liberal, Nationals and One Nation - sorry, the Prime Minister did already, being a Coalition. And the Prime Minister spoke about the conspiracy theories and the candidate chaos. But one thing they all do have in agreeance is nuclear energy for civil use here. And certainly, in the lead up to this conference, Minerals Council of Australia CEO, Tania Constable, warned on closing the door "on coal, nuclear and carbon capture use and storage." She was basically saying that business and households need access to all sorts of energy. So, can you help us to understand why the Labor Government will not even address this? The Labor led uranium deal was announced recently by the Prime Minister. So, looking at for example, the WA uranium mining ban, why would the government not even look at that for exporting for other countries?
GORMAN: The core of this question is, of course, there are huge opportunities for Australia when it comes to both finding new energy sources - not just for Australia, but for the world at large. Now, of course, for a long time Australia has exported uranium to a range of countries, and we've expanded on that arrangement with our friends in India. That is the right thing to do because we are a resources nation, we export a lot of resources. But when it comes to our domestic energy security here at home, what we know is that the fastest energy we can bring into our multiple grids - both the national grid that services us here in Adelaide, where I am, and the grids around the country, including Western Australia - the fastest sources of energy we can get into those grids is renewable energy. That is why we've been backing things like additional battery storage. And the Australian people quite recently were given an opportunity to have a look at the cost of nuclear energy for Australia as a domestic source of energy. They were given that opportunity. Remember current Liberal leader Angus Taylor was the one who did the costings of that policy. And it was going to cost hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars -
SEAL: Well, that's arguable. That's -
GORMAN: I want to get the best value.
SEAL: Yeah, that's debatable because there are a lot of other people that are putting numbers forward. I mean, you can just look at what's happening with renewables and there are facts that those renewable projects have blown out financially. But you're saying in terms of speed, yes, it will take a long time for nuclear power plants to be built. But wouldn't you say, especially when you look at, for example, what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz, we need a balance and a mixture of all different types of energy? When we see what's happening across the rest of the world, we are absolutely, you know, exporting uranium with your Labor led uranium bill to places like India, they think it's okay, so why can't we?
GORMAN: What we've looked to do is to see what it is in Australia's needs for our energy grids. We have had a domestic uranium mining industry for a number of decades now and that continues and we continue to find new customers, as the Prime Minister has done with India. But when it comes to making decisions in Australia's national interest. We will look at how to get the best value for taxpayers' dollars. And the reality is -
SEAL: So, it's not in Australia's best interest - excuse me to interrupt, because we're running out of time. So, it's not in Australia's best interest to have our own civil nuclear energy here for sovereignty? When we've got a third of the world's most uranium and we're seeing what's happening across the world. And we use uranium for AUKUS, for our medical equipment as well. So, we do have it, but not - you're saying, not for everything? And it's best for our security. It doesn't really make sense to me.
GORMAN: I will explain it to your viewers. We have seen a lot of countries who've gone from coal to uranium and are now shifting to add more renewables to their grids. Here in Australia, we also have an abundance of gas energy. The best combination for Australia is renewables with peaking power provided by gas peaking plants and other things. That is the path that all of the advice we've got tells us is the best path for a range of the grids for Australia. But just also to address your earlier point on what we're seeing in the Strait of Hormuz, this is obviously hugely concerning that we're seeing now a twelfth day of strikes after, the sort of, falling apart of the ceasefire agreement. We know that that's concerning Australian households. That is why we're continuing to look for additional ways to provide cost-of-living relief for households. We are watching this very closely. But as the Prime Minister said in his remarks, we also were a government - when this happened earlier this year - we were a government that went out there and secured fuel for Australia. And importantly, secured fertiliser for Australia and for Australian farmers so they could get their crops planted and have confidence that they would be able to plant and harvest their crops. We will always look for the practical things in the Labor Party.
SEAL: Absolutely.
GORMAN: The other thing you'll see on display at this conference this week is we are the practical party and the others have a lot of grievance but very few solutions.
SEAL: I question if it's practical though, when you look at what we've got. Yes, we have more supply as the Prime Minister said in terms of our fuel, but we've had to, you know, source it from other countries. And again, if you look at what we have here, our own supplies of uranium, we wouldn't potentially have to do that down the track. And I do agree with you, it would take some time. But I don't think anyone's disputing that. It's a long-term process and something that would be a very stable scenario - safe, with no emissions.
GORMAN: Again, it's the right path for some other countries and we provide into those energy sources through the natural resources that we mine here in Australia and export to the world. But again, I'll just say, as I did before, we want the fastest way to get more energy into our grids at the lowest cost. And right now that means continuing to use some of the technologies Australia's relied on for many decades, such as gas power plants, but increasingly getting more and more renewables into our grids because it means that you don't have to rely on a feedstock. And that's the thing that is very different about the sort of energy future we can have here in Australia. Where we're not reliant upon having a supply from any other nation. We can be relying on the sunshine that we have, the wind that we have and indeed the hydro resources that we have, and that will give - and of course, Australia - we talk about supply chains, Australia is a key supplier of lithium, which is essential for all of those batteries that are being rolled out around the world, including the household batteries that Labor has been very successfully supporting hundreds of thousands of Australian households install over the last year.
SEAL: We've got to go, we've run out of time. But of course, it sounds like AI's going to be on the agenda and there's that debate as well with our water security, the data centres and copyright laws. But Patrick Gorman, thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of the conference and we look forward to speaking to you soon.
GORMAN: Thank you very much.
