Race for Richmond: Labor determined to win majority government with Justine Elliot

Reporter Mia Armitage spoke with the incumbent candidate for the seat of Richmond, Labor’s Justine Elliot, in the final week of campaigning before pre-polling started. To follow is an edited transcript.

Mia’s interviews with the other main two contenders for the seat of Richmond, The Nationals’ candidate Kimberly Hone and The Greens’ candidate Mandy Nolan are also available.

All three candidates have confirmed they’ll be at tonight’s free Richmond: Meet the Candidates forum in the Byron Theatre, brought to you by Echo Publications and Bay FM Community Radio.

‘I take nothing for granted,’ says Richmond incumbent

Justine Elliot ,what is your best pitch to those people who maybe put you as number two on their ballot forms for the House of Representatives in the Richmond electorate last election? We know, looking at booth results, most of them probably were in the Byron Shire.

Well, Mia, every election is a challenge, and I take nothing for granted. I’m out there every day talking to locals asking for their number one vote. So at this election, there’s a really clear choice. It’s a clear choice between building Australia’s future with the Albanese Labor government or taking Australia backwards with Peter Dutton and the Liberals and Nationals, leaving us all worse off.

I’m really proud to be the Labor candidate, particularly that we’re delivering on our cost-of-living relief for locals, tax cuts for every taxpayer, energy bill relief, cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines, free TAFE, more rent assistance and a whole range of cost-of-living relief that we have delivered.

As the local Labor MP, I’ve been very proud to have delivered more than $3 billion for our region and also, I have a seat at the table. I call the prime minister all the time and speak to him about our issues and what our community needs to have is, firstly, someone who can keep on delivering in a strong Labor government, and secondly, someone who’s got a seat at the table, and that’s me.

I certainly always call the prime minister and I did when Cyclone Alfred hit us just recently, I was on the phone straight away to the prime minister and he was here a day or two later, delivering for our community.

The fact is, if this seat goes to The Greens or any other independents, then Peter Dutton becomes prime minister. So I ask people to think really carefully. Do you want Peter Dutton to be Prime Minister? That’s the reality if you vote Green or you vote Independent

Thanks, Justine Elliot. So you said just then that it’s a fact that if voters put anyone else as number one on their house of representatives form in the seat of Richmond, that Peter Dutton will become the prime minister. But I’ll have to challenge you on that because it’s not a guarantee, of course, that if someone else takes the seat of Richmond, that Peter Dutton will be the prime minister. It’s going to to depend on all the votes all across the country.

But I understand that you are very proud of some of the work that you’ve managed to get done for the people of Richmond. You mentioned there that the prime minister is available for your phone calls. He came to the electorate as soon as he could after Cyclone Alfred.What are some of the achievements you’re most proud of in the most recent term for the people of Richmond specifically, and that could indeed be some policies that have benefited all Australians but how do they benefit the people of Richmond, here on the Northern Rivers?

Incumbent lists projects delivered in Richmond electorate

Sure, Mia, well, firstly, I’ve delivered on all the commitments I made at the last election and of course, one of those major ones was Beacon Laundry, right in Bangalow and they’re the commercial, not-for-profit laundry that provides employment to over 100 people now, people who had difficulties accessing employment.

Also I’ve delivered on all my other election commitments, the new animal pound and rehoming centre at Murwillumbah is under construction. We’ve got the veterans’ hub in Tweetd Heads, really important to have that, we have one of the highest proportions of veterans in our community, so having a specific hub for them in terms of their health needs and advocacy is vitally important. And my other commitment, of course, was an upgrade to the Lennox Head vision,

From the government perspective as well, I’ve been a really strong advocate within the Labor Party about the cost-of-living measures and particularly addressing the housing concerns. Now, in this country, we haven’t had a federal government that’s invested in housing and homelessness before, but the Labor government, we stood up, and we’ve done that, over $40 billion across a whole range of different programs, whether that’s the Housing Australia Future Fund, Help-to-Buy, Help-to-Rent, the home guarantee, and you would have seen, just recently, we announced that any first home buyer can now buy a house with as much as a 5% deposit. This is a game changer for young people, and we are in this space of housing, housing affordability, providing social and affordable housing, directing more funding to the states for homelessness.

That’s what I also bring for this community, delivering and having a seat at the table in a strong majority Labor government, which is in fact under threat, of course, if Peter Dutton becomes prime minister.

We need to win a seat like Richmond, so it is absolutely true that in this seat, if you want a Labor government, you need to vote Labor. If you vote for anyone else. Peter Dutton becomes prime minister.

Labor candidate focused on housing supply to help renters

It is true that the seat is marginal. The Greens have been calling themselves the party for the renters. What are you doing for the renters of Richmond?

Well, first of all, Mia, as I said before, I ran through some of our initiatives when it comes to housing and homeless, part of that is the Housing Australia Future Fund, and that delivers 55,000 social and affordable homes across the country and of course, we need to point out that the Liberals and Nationals and the Greens political party blocked that for a full year.

And Mia, I can tell you when I’m on the ground, door-knocking, speaking to people everywhere, they’re very, very disappointed that The Greens blocked an important housing initiative, particularly that a lot of these homes go to women and children fleeing domestic violence.

When you are speaking with those people, I’m sure some of them would be asking about renters. What do you tell them you’re doing to protect the rights or enhance, indeed, strengthen the rights of renters and to make renting more affordable?

Well, first of all, we need to have more supply, which is what we’re focused on, and we get if we can get those social and affordable homes out. But I’m making that point in the context of the question you asked about The Greens political party. They blocked this initiative for a full twelve months. That’s the issue. We were able to finally get that through and I recently announced that in Brunswick Heads, we have fifteen units as part of the Housing Australia Future Fund that will be built there, and that’s particularly for women and children fleeing domestic violence. So despite The Greens political party blocking that, we were able to get that through.

Also, another thing we have done in government, we have increased rent assistance by 45%, a huge initiative and of course, part of that also is those other initiatives I talked about, Help-to-Buy, Help-to-Rent, the home guarantee, and you would note too that also Help-to-Buy and Help-to-Rent were also blocked by The Greens political party. So it is disappointing and disingenuous for The Greens political party to be lecturing anyone about renting when they are the ones who continue to block it. The majority Labor government gets on with the job of delivering for people in a housing and homelessness crisis that we do have in our region and in this country and we’ll keep on doing that.

And on the note of accessing housing, I’ve also delivered those 26 safe places in Tweed Heads as well, again, specifically for women and children fleeing domestic violence, which, of course, has been a huge focus of mine as the Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence.

Labor determined to end domestic gender-based violence ‘in one generation’, says Elliot

You’ve just outlined a couple of projects that you’ve seen happen as part of that portfolio. What else would you like people to know about your performance in that role, because domestic violence has obviously become a massive issue, and we’ve seen huge rallies here in Ballina, right in your electorate?

Look, ending gender-based violence is an absolute priority for the Albanese Labor government, and we have put this on the national agenda. You’ve seen the prime minister speak about it, the prime minister has had two national cabinets on this very issue for the very first time because we are working really hard to make sure that women and children are safe and we want to end gender-based violence in one generation.

What we have delivered is record amounts of funding, more than $4 billion in terms of women’s safety and that’s to provide more frontline services, more workers, more support services. We’re also working hard to hold perpetrators to account. We’ve also got our ten days of paid domestic and family violence leave, really important and these are Labor government initiatives because we know we have to invest that record amount of funding to make sure that women and children are safe.

And housing is a big part of that as well. Every stage is vitally important, accessing emergency accommodation, frontline services, short and long-term housing but we are a government that is committed absolutely to ending gender-based violence in one generation and again, that’s why I’m asking for people’s number one vote to win this seat for Labor.

One generation. That’s that’s a very ambitious goal, to end domestic gender-based violence in one generation. How?

Well, Mia, it is ambitious, but it’s very important that we do that. We should all be focused on that, working closely together, the federal government with the states and with the community as well, and also part of our funding, a lot of that goes to education and awareness as well. Some of our Stop It At the Start campaigns that you may have seen as well. We need the next generation to understand more about respectful relationships, how people interact, and we fund a huge amount of education and awareness as part of the broader suite of measures that we have.

But the fact is, we all have to keep working to making sure that we achieve this and yes, it’s ambitious but we have to do it, Mia, we have no other option to stop domestic violence and to end gender-based violence in one generation and that’s why we have the major funding commitment, working closely also with the states, with businesses, civil society and the community, we are all in this together for this aim.

Gambling reform conversation not over

Is there still room between now and the election for Labor to come out with a stronger position on gambling reform than what you’ve presented to the public so far?

Look, Mia, gambling reform is vitally important and of course, when we’re talking about the Murphy review that we had in the federal parliament, that was put forward by Peta Murphy, who passed away, a very good friend of mine, a wonderful colleague, a wonderful parliamentarian, absolutely committed to gambling reform and she was working in Parliament right up until she was incredibly sick and she was absolutely committed to gambling reform and there are a number of recommendations from that review and our government continues to work through all those recommendations of the inquiry into online gambling, particularly in relation to advertisements and we recognize that it’s taking longer than hoped but it’s really critical that we continue to consult and we get it right.

We have to make sure these reforms are correct, but also, since coming to government, we’ve delivered the most significant online gambling harm reduction initiatives that we’ve seen in this country. It includes being the use of credit cards, because you shouldn’t be betting with money you don’t have, establishing mandatory customer ID verification and also launching Bet Stop, the national self-exclusion register, which is vitally important as well.

Alright, yes, Bet Stop. So talk about Bet Stop a little bit, because that’s been in the news very recently and it’s described as not working very well at all, not enough staff and inappropriate staff with conflicts of interest actually having oversight of that program, the ABC have aired the voices of people who tried to join the program and still had, I think there was one who had three booking agents managed to get in touch with him to try to lure him back to gambling and he had signed up to the very scheme you’re talking about, Justine Elliot, so is your party talking now of making some drastic changes, because it sounds like some drastic changes do need to be made?

Well, tens of thousands of applications have been made with Bet Stop so far and significantly, it’s been young people who have been taking up that support as well and we’ll keep on working to improve that. We know it’s important, as well as also the social media ban that we’ve had in place too, and you know, this is a world first, doing and taking this action is a game changer and that’s what our government’s about, being proactive in these areas and we’ll continue to do that and we will continue to consult more widely to get this right.

I mean, I know how important, as a parent, I feel it’s vitally important to have that in place, and it is an issue that many people have brought up and remember again, it’s a Labor government that’s acting on this, and all of this is at risk if Peter Dutton becomes prime minister on May 3, as well as all of the cost-of-living initiatives I’ve discussed before.

There’s a lot at stake at this election and let’s be really clear about what the choice is.

Labor incumbent on Medicare and HECS policies

And of course, a really important initiative is our education plans that we have for young people another policy, free TAFE and this is a policy that has benefited 5000 people in Richmond alone because of the Labor government and this will be cut if Peter Dutton and the Liberals and Nationals get in to government.

We have invested so much in education, we know it’s a game changer for young people. Also, the reduction in HECS debts. This is an issue that younger people talk to me about all of the time in terms of the reduction that we’ve already got in place with the indexation changes and the further 20% reduction if we are re-elected, we are delivering for younger people across the board with cost-of-living measures.

Thanks, Justine Elliot, and do you want to live in a country that has a bill of human rights enshrined in law, one that also protects the rights of children?

Well, Mia, this is an issue that I know Mark Dreyfus, as the attorney general, has spoken about and he continues to speak to many people widely about this issue. I mean, personally, I feel what we are doing as a government is very proactive in terms of providing support for younger people but I know this is an issue the Attorney General consults on.

Obviously we couldn’t cover all of the issues that have been raised in the election campaign so far but you’re welcome to bring any one of those up right now.

Look, thanks so much, Mia and obviously, with the election on May the third, the main issue is about the clear choice people have by building Australia’s future with an Albanese Labor government or going backwards with Peter Dutton and the Liberals and Nationals leaving us all worse off.

I’ve already run through some of those cost-of-living relief measures. The other point I really want to touch on is how Labor’s absolutely committed to strengthening Medicare and you remember when Peter Dutton was Health Minister, he cut $50 billion from our hospitals. He won’t have a GP tax for everybody. Labor in government has increased the rebates for GPs, and we’ve extended that, we’ve tripled it and we’ve extended that also to everybody.

Our aim is that everyone can see a doctor for free. We’ve also brought in cheaper medicines and another election commitment of mine is a new free bulk bill Medicare urgent care clinic here in our region and a new free bulk bill Medicare mental health centre.

So we have this whole range of initiatives in terms of strengthening Medicare. Now remember, Labor built Medicare. We will always protect it and every single day I am out there talking to people about the need to protect Medicare and to stop Peter Dutton becoming Prime Minister.

We can stop Peter Dutton becoming Prime Minister but that means voting one Labor so we can keep on delivering all of the cost of living relief, more housing initiatives and strengthening Medicare. There is a lot at stake at this year’s election.

Listen back to the full interview via Bay FM’s Community Newsroom, aired Friday 25^thApril. Mia Armitage reports for both Echo Publications and Bay FM Community Radio, the latter with thanks to the Community Broadcasting Foundation.