Patrick Gorman MP Speaks on Sky News Newsday

TOM CONNELL, HOST: Joining me today, the newly appointed Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Patrick Gorman. A good day for you, I suppose. One of those days you can sort of relax a bit. There's no big decisions or anything like that. Bring the kids along. Did you have to explain to the difference between the Prime Minister and Assistant to the Prime Minister?

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: I did bring the kids along, and there was a lot of families at Government House this morning for swearing in of myself and my colleagues. And it was an excellent morning. And thanks to Her Excellency, the Governor General for swearing us all in and the team at Government House. I've got a seven-year-old who has taken a little bit more of a more of an interest in the election this time. Leo has built himself a little Lego tracker of the seats. So, we've got a big red bar, a smaller blue bar -

CONNELL: He's coming for my job. I'm a bit worried about this.

GORMAN: I think your job is going to be safe, Tom.

CONNELL: By seventeen he'll have it all figured out.

GORMAN: He can count to 100, so you never know. You might find yourself with a bit of competition in the future, but he'll probably be in the streaming online influencer era rather than the good broadcast media era that you and I celebrate.

CONNELL: Alright, I guess the only thing about family is, and I know it's almost hackneyed, but especially for a Perth MP, such a strain on the family, is that something that you know, do you sort of think to yourself, how many years you could do this?

GORMAN: Well, I think what you have is everyone who chooses to step into political life has a family around them who give something up, which is time and some level of anonymity. And I'm really fortunate that my wife Jess is an incredible support and has encouraged me, not just supported me, but encouraged me to do the job that I love, which is to represent my seat of Perth, but also take on responsibility supporting Prime Minister Albanese and others.

CONNELL: And even back in Perth, you say anonymity - someone comes up, you've always got to talk to them. You can't ignore anyone. Can you say 'go away? I'm just having breakfast with the family. You know, what's the issue? Talk to me about the roundabout or the council issue.' Whatever it might be.

GORMAN: Well, you know, back in Perth, I get to talk to my constituents. If I'm having lunch here in Parliament, it's often members of the press gallery to come up and -

CONNELL: Who's more annoying?

GORMAN: Well, of course, any MP would say they'd rather talk to their constituents, and I think you'd respect that. But you do give up a lot, but also, I think it's an incredible opportunity to make a contribution to the country, and that's what I think was in the heart of everyone who's been sworn in this morning. That opportunity to, and we talked about it during the campaign, about building Australia's future, but that really is what it's about. Elections and government are about the future, and having, particularly all of those young Australians there at the swearing in reminds you that you do have some intergenerational stewardship.

CONNELL: Well, on that because everybody's talking about tax reform, and not just 'we've changed the income tax bracket,' you did last time. That is not major tax reform that addresses how much the economy has shifted. The reliance on income tax, if you're talking about intergenerational. You've got this big majority. Are you going to use it?

GORMAN: Well, we obviously commissioned the Intergenerational Report that looks at some of those big demographic challenges that Australia has. We've got the work that Treasurer Chalmers has done to try and make sure that we are getting a fairer share of revenue in a range of areas, such as the work we did last term on the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax. We will continue to look at things where there are sensible ways of making sure that we've got a fair, sustainable tax system.

CONNELL: Does essential mean not bold, because for all those changes, our reliance on income tax only increases. That hasn't really been addressed. So, does sensible mean not willing to be bold?

GORMAN: Well, 'bold' is a term that you will choose to use when you see the Budget each time. But what we've said, and we said during the campaign, is that every Budget cycle we look at what are the needs for Australia now and into the future, and I think you see the economic team that was sworn in this morning. Again, you've got serious, deep thinkers, and people like Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher who actually have exactly what you're talking about, which is a record of tax reform. That's what we did in our first term. And you talk about bold, there's nothing more bold than what Prime Minister Albanese chose to do when it came to making sure we had a fairer and -

CONNELL: Yeah, because it broke an election promise. But I guess the other element of bold is willing to say, 'we want all these things, here's how we pay for them.' 'The budget is not balanced,' or 'there will be some winners and some losers to this policy, it will be a net benefit.' Is that the bold you're willing to be?

GORMAN: We'll do what's right for Australia. You want me to sit here and outline what will be in the next Budget -

CONNELL: I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, you know, if you've got a big majority, you can be a bit more bold, you can afford to take the risk that you could lose seats. No government says, 'yeah, let's lose 10 seats. That'd be great.' But you've got that that margin, you can say, this might annoy some voters, but it's better for the country.

GORMAN: But there's also a path that I think we've walked very well in the first term, which is the path where you can explain to voters the decisions that you're making, and then when you come to election time, they say, we respect the decisions you've made, we see where you're trying to take the country, and we want to walk with you. And again, I would point out another one, which is the Critical Minerals Tax Incentive, which I would call actually, the 'Mining Jobs Tax Incentive,' which is all about making sure that we do set Australia up for that future.

CONNELL: But it's spending money. You're not going to lose any votes spending money -

GORMAN: It's creating new industry -

CONNELL: My point is, you're never going to be unpopular spending money. NDIS final question today, do you see this as major work to be done, that it's not sustainable right now or not, or is it just tinkering?

GORMAN: What I think about when I think about the NDIS, is the idea that we have in Australia, we are really fortunate, not just to have the National Disability Insurance Scheme, but to have broad based support across states, territories, political parties for this incredible thing that has gone from an idea to an institution at the heart of government, making sure that we really don't leave anyone behind. There is, and we've been really open, there is work to do to make sure we continue the work of stamping out where we've seen fraud. Continue the work where we're making sure that we have people who are eligible for the scheme able to get into the scheme in a reasonable fashion. And make sure that it's sustainable.

CONNELL: Let me ask you this, finally, you mentioned about people being left behind. What's your message to Ed Husic?

GORMAN: My message to Ed Husic is, I welcome what he has said, in terms of saying that he wants to continue to make a contribution. He is someone who has made a range of different contributions throughout the last term of Parliament, I know he'll continue to do that. Obviously, my private exchanges with Ed, stay private, but I welcome the fact that Ed said he wants to keep finding a way to make a contribution. We've got a lot of people who are going to make a range of contributions. We've had the swearing in of the Ministry today, but if you look at the Caucus room that I sat in on Friday last week, there are people who can make contributions in a really wide range of ways.

CONNELL: Does he have a right to be miffed though? He seems to be?

GORMAN: You can use whatever term you wish, Tom. I think any day you're elected to the Parliament of Australia is a day where you can walk into this building, honoured to represent your community.

CONNELL: Might be a bit harder when you used to walk in as a cabinet minister and you're no longer. Anyway, got to leave it there. Appreciate your time today. Thank you. We're here in the next parliament. We'll talk to you throughout the term. Patrick Gorman, thank you.