LAURA TINGLE, PRESENTER: Monique Ryan, welcome to 7.30.
MONIQUE RYAN, INDEPENDENT MP: Thanks, Laura.
LAURA TINGLE: The climate wars seem to have taken off again. How important are climate and energy issues to voters in your electorate and has that changed at all since the last election?
MONIQUE RYAN: Climate and energy is one of the biggest issues in Kooyong. It was in 2022, it still is.
There are other things which people are talking to me about every day on the streets of Kooyong but many people thought, hoped, that the climate wars were over.
It’s become very clear in the last few days that that is not the case and I’ve been hearing just in the last few days again about how concerned people are about the Liberal opposition’s current posturing on this position, and how discombobulated they are by the relative incoherence of the Liberal Party’s position.
LAURA TINGLE: Simon Holmes a Court from Climate 200, which helped fund a lot of the campaigns of independents at the last election, has been saying in the last 24 hours that, in fact, there’s been a flurry of extra money in post-Peter Dutton’s comments, and that this is something that’s going to help win votes in Liberal seats. Is that your assessment too?
MONIQUE RYAN: I haven’t thought about it that way. I guess I’ve thought about it in terms of what it means for this country, that the Leader of the Opposition and someone who postures himself as a potential alternative prime minister for this country, is proposing to go to the next federal election without a coherent and well circumscribed position on how we’re going to attack or address climate change.
This is, I think, essentially an act of extraordinary irresponsibility in terms of his economic management and what I’m hearing from businesses and investors is that this is something which is causing significant alarm and that’s been reflected in the media this week.
We’ve heard the Business Council of Australia, the AIG, the Energy Council and the group of climate change investors all saying that they want certainty about what the Liberal Party’s climate targets will be at the next federal election.
We’ve actually now got to the point where coal and gas companies are asking for certainty and what they’ve come out and asked for in the last 24 hours is for the Liberal Party to confirm that it will stand by the legislated target for action on climate change by 2030, which is the 43 per cent reduction.
Basically, business needs certainty and that certainty has been stripped away by Peter Dutton’s actions in the last five days.
LAURA TINGLE: You do hear this talk from pollsters about a growing scepticism about renewables and about voters actually thinking that, well, nuclear sort of seems it might be cheaper and it’s not dangerous.
What’s your sort of sense? Do you think the message is cutting through about the Coalition’s policy as being about uncertainty?
MONIQUE RYAN: In Kooyong, I can tell you that constituents understand the situation, and they know that we need to take active, immediate and effective action on fossil fuel industries.
We need to decrease our carbon emissions and they know that, at this point in time in this country, which has the most incredible resources in terms of wind and solar, the cheapest forms of energy are those which come from renewables.
They know that by increasing our wind and solar and by looking at new technologies like hydrogen and expanding our access to those, we can have the world’s cheapest energy.
Now, people in Kooyong also know that nuclear is a possibility, but they understand the limitations with that technology and the fact that, to effectively bring it in by 2040, 2045, would be impossible in this country. It would be too slow and too expensive.
LAURA TINGLE: One of the other issues that Peter Dutton’s been highlighting since the budget is immigration. Is that something that’s of great concern to voters in Kooyong?
MONIQUE RYAN: Well, I guess what is of concern to voters in Kooyong is the cost-of-living crisis and one of the most obvious parts of that and issues with that is housing and housing availability.
But I think people in Kooyong are also very conscious of the fact that we are a country of migrants, that the migrant experience and immigration to this country has been incredibly important to us – certainly much of our economic growth in recent years has been contingent on that.
It’s a very accepting community and there are real concerns in my community, at least, about immigration being used as, basically, a tool for dog-whistling and a tool, potentially, towards a loss of social cohesion. There is a real risk that that could happen.
And I think it’s particularly a risk in the hands of Peter Dutton, who is not a man who’s frightened to exacerbate social division when he thinks that that might be to his ends.
LAURA TINGLE: Peter Dutton seems to have a particular mark on your name. He’s attacked you reasonably regularly. He says you’re a “Green” and that, more importantly, he says that, “It’s absolutely certain that Monique Ryan would support Anthony Albanese in a minority government.”
To what extent do you see his politics now – and to some extent, even, the Labor Party’s politics – as being pretty much focused not so much on each other, but on the prospect of both parties losing seats to independents and the Greens?
MONIQUE RYAN: That’s an interesting question. I think Mr Dutton seems to have only one mode of attack, which is full-frontal. In my instance, add venom to the attacks. But it’s an interesting sort of thing.
Those of us who are crossbenchers in this parliament – and I think this is true both of those of us in the House and the Senate – are really focused on policy. We’re focused on trying to get things done and we feel a great sense of urgency.
Not only just about climate change, but also about addressing things like the cost of living, which is such an immediate and apparent problem for members of our electorates.
And so, there’s kind of pointless climate wars or culture wars that Peter Dutton seems intent on at the expense of policy formulation and presenting an alternative government – it seems an incredible waste of time.
LAURA TINGLE: Finally, we’ve seen this proposal from the South Australian Premier overnight for a total ban on all sorts of political donations, which sounds great at one level. But I’m just wondering whether it would actually hurt independent campaigns disproportionately more than it would hurt the major parties. Do you see it as a possible threat to the rise of the independents?
MONIQUE RYAN: At a time where one-third of Australians voted for small parties or independents at the last federal election, I think it’s really important that we keep in mind the fact that we have to help newcomers have the ability to access our political system.
We want to make it fair for everybody. We haven’t seen that in the past. We’ve seen it in Victoria, for example, the electorate reform in recent years has made it incredibly difficult for independents to win election and to stay in parliament.
So, whatever reforms we see, I think it’s really important that we ensure that we try as much as we can to level the playing field.
LAURA TINGLE: Monique Ryan, thanks so much for your time tonight.
MONIQUE RYAN: That’s a pleasure, Laura.