TRANSCRIPT - Interview with Simon Love Sky News on the Hour

SIMON LOVE: Well, Federal Parliament returns this week with fierce debate expected on both the superannuation changes announced by the Albanese Government and also the nation's national security. With a very busy sitting week expected, joining me now live from our Sydney studios is the Manager of Opposition Business, Paul Fletcher. Mr. Fletcher, I really appreciate your time here on Sky News. Thanks for coming in. I want to get your thoughts on this revelation that was revealed on Sunday Agenda this morning. So the Minister, Tony Burke, he has announced that the Government is going to intervene in this McDonald's workplace dispute. Do you think there is any risks for the Commonwealth in doing this at all?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well, we do know that this government has an interventionist bias. But look, I will leave detailed comments on these matters to our spokeswoman Michaelia Cash on workplace relations matters, you're right to say that this week in Parliament will be a very busy week of course. Labor's had a train wreck week in relation to superannuation. We saw the Treasurer floating all kinds of a flying, all kinds of kites in relation to superannuation. They've now said they're going to increase the tax on superannuation when they promised there wouldn't be new taxes on superannuation. So certainly that's one of the issues that we will be pursuing in the coming week in Question Time. Question Time is an opportunity to hold the government to account and that's something that we take very seriously. We know that Australians are doing it tough. We've had nine increases in interest rates, nine successive interest increases and interest rates. We need to see a plan from this Government to deal with rising interest rates, to deal with inflation. And instead what we're seeing is a series of broken promises. So we will be asking questions about all of these issues in the in the coming week.

LOVE: So if the laws are brought forward on the superannuation changes potentially this sitting week or in the next couple of weeks. Will Coalition MPs be granted a conscience vote on it given that we did see some of the MPs from Liberal Party were supportive of some form of policy change in the superannuation space before it was announced on Wednesday.

FLETCHER: Well, the sequence of how these things work is that legislation needs to be prepared. It's very clear this Government's make it up on the run. So almost certainly they haven't even started work on preparing the legislation. What we do know from what I've said is that this is a measure that will be included in the Budget, but it's clear there's a whole range of details that just have not been thought through. What will be the implications for younger Australians? Because the Treasurer has said that this is not going to be indexed so that 3 million cap not being indexed means that in real terms that will hit more and more people over time. But the fundamental point is that this is a broken promise. It's a broken promise. Mr. Chalmers. Mr. Albanese both very clearly said before the election that they would not be changing the rules in relation to superannuation. Of course they also told us before the election, in fact on 97 occasions that Australians could expect their energy bills, that power bills to be going down by $275. In fact they've only been going up and they've been going up by very substantial numbers. Mr. Albanese called the Parliament back together in December, supposedly had a plan to fix it. That's had no impact to date. So we'll be asking questions about that. The fact is that last week we saw yet another broken promise from a government that is racking them up at a pretty remarkable rate.

LOVE: Andrew Bragg on Sunday Agenda, he urged his Liberal colleagues, even the ones who don't support the Voice, to support legislation that would bring on the referendum. Do you think that's fair enough and why won't Peter Dutton just allow a conscience vote on that issue?

FLETCHER: Well, look, we've been very clear in relation to the Voice. We're approaching it in a spirit of goodwill. But we've said that we want to see the details and that's very important. Now the Prime Minister keeps referring to the Calma Langton report, which was that very detailed piece of work that was conducted over the term of the previous Parliament under the supervision of then Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt. Now amongst the things that propose was regional and local voices. We don't yet know from the Prime Minister, from the Labor Party, whether regional and local voices will in fact be part of the model. So what we're doing as a responsive Opposition is calling for the details to be provided so that we can make a judgement on those details. We're not going to make a judgement in advance of knowing what the precise model is. When you make a change to the Constitution, that's a very significant measure. What we also know is that the history of changes being passed in referendums it's a high bar. A majority in a majority of states. The history is that Australians need to be persuaded . And quite a number of times in our history referendum, proposals have not been passed. So the Government needs to be doing this.

LOVE: We're just talking about with Mr. Fletcher. I guess we're talking about legislation to allow the vote. If you get the details, surely can you trust the Australian people to make such a decision just to bring on the vote?

FLETCHER: Well, there's a couple of pieces of legislation. One of them deals with some issues in terms of mechanics. Then, as you rightly say, there'll be the piece of legislation which effectively authorises the referendum being taken to the Australian people. But the Government itself is saying there is more work to be done before that bill is ready to be introduced into the Parliament. So our principle as an Opposition is very clear. We wait and see what the latest and looks like once the government has, with all of its bureaucratic resources and has finished preparing the draft, it then gets introduced. That is the point at which we shall have then the full text of the bill. Unless the government chooses its share, with us earlier, that doesn't happen very often and that's when we do a detailed analysis and arrive at our final position.

LOVE: We're just about out of time, but it's good to get your thoughts very quickly, Mr. Fletcher on Aston. John Howard's been speaking to for Sky News about the importance of the '01 by-election for him. Do you think Peter Dutton will be able to hang on to be, say, given that even Anthony Albanese was in the seat yesterday thinking Labor's got a good chance?

FLETCHER: It's an important by-election We're not taking it for granted. We've got an outstanding candidate in Roshena Campbell, clearly Peter Dutton himself has been there on a number of occasions, as have many other colleagues. We're campaigning hard, but we don't take this election for granted at all. It will be a challenge. Every by-election is a challenge and we'll be highlighting the importance of holding the government to account on matters like delivering on its promise of $275 reductions in power bills. What's its plan to deal with rising mortgage interest rates? These are issues we believe that the electors have asked and will be having paying attention to and will be certainly seeking to highlight those issues.

LOVE: No doubt. And Paul Fletcher, Manager of Opposition Business, really appreciate it's on that interview with John Howard. Coming up shortly. I'm sure you'll be interested in that one, but thanks very much for coming in today. 

FLETCHER: Thank you.