KEIRAN GILBERT [HOST]: In the meantime, I want to go to the Sunshine Coast. The Assistant Minister for Education and Regional Development, Labor Senator for Queensland Anthony Chisholm joins us now. You heard what Angus Taylor said there and what he said to your friend Jim Chalmers last night. And that's about the buffers in the economy. $1.2 trillion in debt, decade of deficits. Isn’t it right? And won't many Queensland voters think it's appropriate that the Coalition, if they're elected, via attrition - they say natural attrition - will reduce the size of the public service?
ANTHONY CHISHOLM [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: What that means in regional Queensland, Kieran, is less services - and that's going to have an enormous impact on veterans, that's going to have an impact on age pensioners, that's going to have an impact on those on the NDIS. We saw when we came to government, the work that we had to do to repair the damage. We've gone about doing that. We don't want to go back to the bad old days of when they were spending billions of dollars on consultants. These public servants that we brought on are making a difference and that's really important for communities and particularly regional communities.
GILBERT: If you're elected though, and for the regions as much as everywhere else and as I said, you're on the Sunshine Coast today. I'm sure you'd like to stay there for a few weeks, I certainly would. But I'll put to you the same question I put to the Prime Minister in the leaders debate this week and that is have we become more vulnerable in the face of a shock like we're seeing at the moment? I know things have bounced back but it's a lot of turbulence. Have we become more vulnerable in the term of this government because of the baked-in spending?
CHISHOLM: Well, I think they've been important things that we've been spending on. So, we've provided cost of living relief where responsible, but we're also setting the country up for the future with our investments in health. But also, the Future Made in Australia is really important. That's something that we'll be focused on in Bundaberg and then further north in Gladstone, where manufacturing is such an important part of those economies. We want to ensure that it's got a bright future and it's only an Albanese Labor Government that will actually be doing that and focusing on those jobs of the future which ultimately makes the country more responsible.
GILBERT: When you look at the APS, the public service, one of the issues when Jane Hume announced the work from home thing was that 2/3 of the Australian Public Service live outside of Canberra. How many live on the Sunshine Coast but work for the Australian Public Service and would have some of those flexible arrangements? Because if our viewers wanted to know why this has reverberated in seats right around the nation, that's in part because of that dispersal of the workforce isn’t it?
CHISHOLM: It is, and that's a good thing for the country. There's over 500 in the Sunshine Coast region. Across the whole of regional Queensland there's about 5,000. And these people are making an important contribution. Not all of them would obviously be working at home, some would be in the Services Australia centres that we have throughout the country. But what they are doing is doing important work reducing waiting times and providing a valuable service so that everyone in Australia can get access to people when they need it. We've seen this through the recent natural disasters - I was in Hervey Bay, and there was a Mobile Services Australia bus that had come from Emerald to service that community. So, those people are providing a tremendous service across Queensland. You realise that in times of need like we’ve had in natural disasters recently. These are people that are really important and it's only a Federal Labor Government that can be trusted on to protect them.
GILBERT: Just finally, you're undertaking a Senate road trip effectively into the regions. What's your read on the landscape at the moment politically? Just three weeks out from the election - are you going to win any seats in Queensland? Any additional ones I should say, any additional seats?
CHISHOLM: And we're certainly hopeful of that. Kieran. We'll be campaigning hard right across the state. The impression I get from door knocking in Brisbane and Ryan is that there's a lot of people there who have buyer's remorse for supporting the Greens. So, we'll be campaigning strongly there. But we think there's an enormous opportunity in regional Queensland. The Labor Government have delivered for all of Australia across our first term and we want to do that in a second term. We understand how important it is. But the Senate message is one that's important as well. We've got an opportunity to elect another Senator out of Queensland to this election. That will make a tremendous difference to our ability to actually get things passed in the Senate. We were held up so often last time between the unholy alliance of the Coalition and the Greens. Another Labor senator will ensure that we can negotiate and get that agenda implemented and improve outcomes for all of Australia as a result.
GILBERT: Yeah, it's a reminder of how tough it's been politically for Labor federally. You only got one Senator out of Queensland, the Sunshine State, the last election. Thank you, Senator Chisholm. We appreciate your time, and we'll talk to you soon.
CHISHOLM: Thanks, Kieran.
