David Littleproud - Sunrise - Australia Day
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW
Well, Woolworths have pulled a stunning backflip on its decision not to stock Australia Day merchandise throughout January. The Supermarket giant has confirmed it will once again make room for themed products like flags and thongs, inflatable lilo thongs, saying it will be celebrating Australia Day as a team and with our customers. Woolworth's decision not to stock themed items last year sparked of course that fierce backlash and even calls from our political leaders to boycott stores. With their take, let's bring in Nationals Leader David Littleproud and journalist Deb Clay.
Morning to you both. And thank you for getting up so early on New Year's Day. David, let's start with you. I mean, last year Peter Dutton was saying we should boycott Woolies altogether. This was such a huge story. Now here we are, New Year's Day. What do you make of this backflip?
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Yeah, well look, they're slow learners, Woolworths, they've got to realise that they don't set the moral compass of this country. The Australian people do. And they haven't worked out that Australians don’t like being told what to do, particularly about their national day.
And I think this more broadly goes to the fact that I think we're over this argument about Australia. I think we've made mistakes in our past, but you can't change our history. Our history was etched over 220 years ago. We can't change that, but we should celebrate what we've become. We've been mature enough as a country to face up to the mistakes we've made without having to actually be told about them, but to actually live up to them ourselves.
So we've achieved a lot and I think that goes to the heart of what it is to be Australian. We are fair, we're honest people and when we get it wrong, we will right that wrong. And that's what we've done. And I think this goes to the broader argument, let's give up this annual argument about when Australia Day should be, let's just celebrate who we are. We should have our chin up and our chest out as Australians. We're better than anyone else and we'll continue to be better than anyone else if we continue to stick together.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW
But David, I think people of course are proud of being Australian. But yes, we are over this argument each and every year at this time of year. Maybe it is time for some bipartisan support to actually change the date because it's not going anywhere, this argument. And we're frankly sick of having it.
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
But nor can you change history. You can't change history. Some of the foundation blocks of our nation were formed when the British settled here in Australia. And look what we've become. We can't change that history, but we can live up to the mistakes we made during that time, which we have done. We've done that without having to be asked. And that's why I think we should be proud to be Australian.
We have been honest with ourselves to say, yep, we didn't quite get it all right. But look what we've become. We've got a country better than anyone else in the world, but we don't leave anyone behind where there's disadvantage.
We as Australians expect their governments to fix it, that's where there is bipartisan support. And I think we should continue to acknowledge our mistakes, but more importantly think about what we've achieved. We, in this country, we put ourselves down too much. Just for one day of the year, we should say yep, this is where it all started. It wasn't perfect, but geez, we've done a great job. And we should be proud of that and we should respect those that obviously were impacted. But that was over 220 years ago.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW
But I mean Deb, I think that the conversation continues about what that date should actually be. What do you make of Woolworth's backflipping on this decision?
DEB CLAY
If you look at their rationale a year ago that it was due to declining sales, I find that really interesting to analyse if you take that at face value, I personally believe that there were people in top management who didn't want those products on the shelves. But if you take it at face value, that's pretty ruthless in itself because you know, when you look at it, people want to have a choice in the way that all of the supermarkets treat their suppliers. They are pretty ruthless. Like if the suppliers aren't competitive when it comes to price or if you go into those supermarkets and you don't perform, you will not be staying on their shelves.
So I think that what we saw was that there were some Australians who reacted very emotionally and this just gives people, it enables them to have that choice at the supermarket.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW
It would be interesting to have an analysis of sales post Australia Day and see if that changes.
DEB CLAY
And see if the items then stay on the shelves, because that's another decision.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW
Moving on. A raft of changes and rising costs are coming into effect from today. Everything from passports rising to $412 to health insurers resetting their benefits and tolls increasing. In some states, even the alcohol tax will go up in February. David, I don't want to put all of this on you, but I mean that passport cost is extraordinary. The most expensive in the world. In some other countries it's about $27.
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Yeah, I mean things are just getting out of control. The cost-of-living crisis is hurting everybody, even those that want to go overseas. But I think it's important to understand that it's not just that. Also what comes in is the fuel efficiency standards this year. That means that you're going to pay a tax on the purchase price of a car, a Ford Explorer is going to go up by over $6,000 on the purchase price and phase up to nearly $18,000. Even your little RAV4 is going to go up by over $2000, $3,000 in 2025, going up to over $11,000.
And then there's a Scope 3 emissions that's going to add $2.3 billion onto the cost-of-living. Because you know, Australian farmers are now going to have to report their emissions profile, which they don't even know how to do to their banks, because the government's forcing it, which means your food price is going to continue to go up because farmers can't afford to pay for the administrative cost of that.
So this cost-of-living crisis and while there has been some reprieve in terms of the indexation of much of the support that families get through social security, that's not because of the government's initiative, that's just indexation, that's locked in.
This cost-of-living crisis continues and we just need some common sense. Get back to some basics and make sure we pull the policy levers that doesn't use your money to drive down your cost-of-living. And that's what I think the next election will be. And that's what I think Australians will feel, particularly after they get their credit card bill after Christmas.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW
Yeah, it's going to be a huge issue of course for both sides of politics as we head into the next election. Deb, I want to get you on this final topic. Fans of the Aussie Band, ACDC, outrage that the iconic childhood home of Malcolm and Angus Young has been demolished. So there it was and now it's a blank slate here. Fans wanted it to be memorialized either through a museum or selling off parts of the home. You can see from the big high rise behind it that probably developers have got hold of it and it's gone.
DEB CLAY
Exactly. And I don't know if you've ever put a DA through council, but it's extremely difficult. And yet you have this decision. I mean ACDC, they are arguably the most successful Australian band globally. And this is what they're given. You have fans from all around the world coming to visit this location. This is an incredible iconic story and it just makes me feel so sad to see that big gaping hole.
EDWINA BARTHOLOMEW
Maybe they kept a couple of the bricks at Burwood Council and the Council Chambers there to memorialize this site. It's a very Sydney story, isn't it? Thank you Deb. Thank you David as well. Happy New Year to both of you.
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Happy New Year.
