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July 7, 2026 12 mins

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Telstra customers across Australia are reporting that the provider's mobile
network has crashed. It's leading to thousands unable to make
phone calls or access the internet. Now joining us in
the studio, luckily or we may not have been able
to get hold of him. It is the Federal Opposition
leader Angus Taylor. Good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Great to be with you, Katie.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Good to have you in the studio. Now, what do
you know of this Telstra outitch?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Not a lot more than that my phone was out. Yeah,
so I haven't been able to get updates just come
back on again. But look, it's a matter of great concern.
It's a big deal when you lose this now, and
we do need to know why. Yeah, why has this happened?

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, you're spot on, I tell you. Barnaby Joyce he
reckons that. Well, he's calling for an investigation into whether
China are behind the outach following this week's missile test.
What do you make of that?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, I'd say two things. One is we do need
to know the answer as to why this has happened.
It's also true that that missile test was provocative, it
was unwelcome, it was intimidating and it's not what friends do.
And frankly, the activities of the Chinese Communist Party and
the PLA, the People's Liberation Army in the South Pacific
is a matter of huge concern and if that's extended

(01:11):
beyond missile tests to other things, we need to know
about it, no question about that.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
And I guess the concern for us here in the
Northern Territory is always you know, our location, our close
proximity to some of these you know, to some of
these other areas, and what it may mean for us.
We know our history shows that we've certainly seen war
on these shores, so we're always, I guess a little

(01:36):
bit cautious. But we've also got our port that is
in the hands of Chinese company land Bridge.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, well, I mean I think that that is a
matter of great concern. Although I'd have to say that
PLA has shown the willingness to go to other parts
of Australia. We had them involved in activities as we
know off the south coast of New South Wales, so
that they are aggressive provocate and this is not welcome.
We need to defend our country better against these things.

(02:05):
There is no question about that. That's why we've said
we need to get defense spending to three percent of
duty p that's a fifty percent increase on where it
is now, alongside normal growth. And if we don't do that,
we're going to continue to see these welcome activities because
in the end, weakness is provocative. We need to portray
we need to be strong, and that includes in the

(02:27):
North where of course we are closer to our Asian
neighbors here than we are in the rest of Australia.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Now, I know the Prime Minister had promised as well
to take back the Darwinport prior to the federal election,
but we're still yet to hear anything new on what's happening.
Would you have expected that to have been the case,
spy now, that it would have come back into our hands.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yes, absolutely, And he's saying absolutely nothing about it. This
is the problem. You say one thing before an election
and do another thing afterwards. It's not good enough. It's just, honestly,
it is letting Australians down. Leading the daw On Port
in a state of great uncertainty. It needs investment, and
who's going to invest when there's all this uncertainty hanging
around it. It needs to be sorted. Our position is

(03:08):
clear and it was before the last election. It needs
to be in friendly hands, in Australian hands, and we
need to see that happen as quickly as possible, and
then we need to see the investment proceeding. That's important
for Darwin and it's important for the nation.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Now, Angus, obviously you've been in Alice Springs in recent weeks.
Now you're in the Top End. Why so much time
in the Northern territory at the moment.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, I'm just getting around all of Australia, but it's
an important part of Australia. I think the opportunity here
is enormous. People who know that they've done it for
a long time. I mean, whether it's in energy or
a defense industry we're just talking about, or agriculture. We've
got to realize those opportunities. And I'm here talking to
people about how we knock down the barriers to make
sure that happens.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yeah, so what are you up to? Who are you
visiting while you're here in the Top ends.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Speaking to a lot of the local businesses. Small business
is being hit hard by Labour's budget and the extra
taxes they're imposing on them. The highest growth businesses will
be punished the most, and we need high growth businesses
here in the territory. So to speaking to housing industry,
I had a round table from across from the Chamber
of Commerce, from right across different sectors this morning, the

(04:15):
cattle industry, energy of course, and just understanding from them
how we knock down those barriers and get things really
moving here.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Now we know that that obviously the Prime Minister and
the Treasurer were forced to walk back some of their
tax reforms due to mounting anger from businesses. What are
you hearing from businesses while you're hearing.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
The NT it's not a real walk back. There's still
huge barriers for investment for small businesses and growing businesses.
That the problem with what they're doing is the fastest growing,
best performing businesses have punished the most. And this is
how labour thinks. Punish those who do the best. They're
often the ones who've made the biggest effort, made the

(04:55):
biggest investments, the biggest sacrifices, take the biggest risk risks exactly,
and you need risk. This part of the world needs
people being prepared to take risks, that's the reality, that's
how it gets ahead. And so punishing those people at
a time when we've just heard biggest hit to our
standard of living, biggest reduction in the standard of living

(05:17):
any developed country in the world since the election in
twenty twenty two, biggest huge hit to real wages. So
that's the purchasing power of your paypacket down five percent
since labor is electric strands are getting poorer, and that
has to be solved by having businesses that are prepared
to invest and take risk, create jobs. That's how you

(05:38):
get rising incomes, that's how you get a rising standard
of living. And in fact, we've seen the exact opposite
right now.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
I mean housing has been a big issue as well,
or it's certainly been high on the agenda. Now we
know it's a tight market, particularly here renting. What could
the coalition really do that you know that or what
could have been done while you're in to maybe ease that,
But what could happen now really, you know, if you're
not happy with what the federal government's sort of announcing,

(06:07):
what elbows announcing, what could we be doing differently?

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, you know what they're announcing just to be clear
is less houses that's in their own budget papers and
higher rents. Right, that's the last thing we need, and
of course we're seeing confidence being smashed. The alternative is
more supply. That's the key. We've ann ow STA have
five big Housing Infrastructure Fund, which is to break those
infrastructure bottlenecks, whether they're water or electricity or transport, whatever

(06:32):
it might be, to get more houses built, to get
approvals done faster, and then slash the red tape. The
National Construction Cave which builders have to comply with, is
over two thousand pages. I mean, if you're a small business,
how do you comply with two thousand pages?

Speaker 1 (06:48):
But I guess you still need those regulations. So people
aren't building, you know, well kn't They are not acting
like cowboys, I suppose for one of a better.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Word, except that we refuse to let those regulations go
through because what in fact they're requiring is not avoiding
bad billing. It's actually requiring wag palaces. Now, we don't
all need to live in a wag palace, you know,
we really don't.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
It's a palace.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
You know. You've got to have doorways that are so wide,
and everything has got to be up to a certain standard.
Sometimes people want that. Sometimes they don't let people choose.
I mean, you know, people know the house they want
to live in and they can afford. Let them make
their own choices. This has added up to seventy thousand
dollars to the construction of every house, seventy thousand bucks,

(07:35):
and the regulators never remember and the government never remembers
that Australians pay for that. That's why we can't afford
houses anymore. That's why rentals are going up, That's why
it's getting too hard to find our home and that's
why the housing market is in chaos right now. Now.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Look, we've been speaking a lot on this show about
health in the Northern Territory, particularly around maternity services. Now
the reason for that is because the private at the
private hospital, the maternity ward there at the private hospital
closed and what that has meant is that there's been
extra stress on our maternity ward at Royal Darwin Hospital. Now,
it had been flagged that ten million dollars was going

(08:13):
to come to the Royal dah And Hospital. That funding
had been promised, but it's not come to fruition at
this point in time. Like these are the issues that
people here in our electric care about right now, what
would the Coalition do differently?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Well, so I've heard about this issue on this visit
and I'm very happy to take it up and I'll
work with just Centerprice obviously closely over the next little
while to hold the government to account on this. If
they've made that commitment, they should keep it. This is
the problem we've got with this government. They make commitments
and they don't keep them. We know how important health
services are to this part of the world and every
part of Australia, frankly, and when they're committed, they need

(08:49):
to be kept. The key to good health services, of course,
is to have a strong economy where you can afford
to make these investments, and that's what we need up here.
There's enormous opportunity to do that up here. But we
will hold the government to account on this, and as
I say, i'll work closely. Would you Center on that
over the coming months.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
At the moment, what I can see, you know around Australia,
not just here in the Northern Territory, but people are
really they're quite frustrated with the federal government. They're quite
frustrated with Anthony Albanezi over those changes that he'd announced
throughout the budget and you know, much like you're saying,
he'd said one thing before the election and then changed
his mind. But unfortunately, you know, or fortunately I don't know,
that's not resonating for you guys as the coalition. It's

(09:29):
sort of going then towards one nation. Is that what
part of this trip is about? And is that? What
you know? Getting around Australia is about trying to get
your message out to people you know and speaking with
everyday Territorians and every day Aussies, because despite people being
frustrated with the government for some reason, you're not able
to get that message through.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well. I look, the reality is people are angry and
they're frustrated. They're angry, they're going through a grieving process
really for a country that they feel like they're losing.
The country I grew up in where you could work hard,
get ahead, buy a house, start a family, start a business,
all of which I did, all of which I was

(10:10):
able to do. And I never saw the barriers that
Youngestraians are seeing. People feel like that's leaving them and
they do get angry. My message to people is the
answer to This isn't to blow the place up. This
is still the greatest country on Earth. It's just not
being governed the right way.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
And do you reckon a vote for one nation is
blowing the place up?

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Well, I think at the moment they're not offering the
solutions and this is the point. We need answers. We
need a strong plan, strong direction, and crucially we need
a strong team. It's not one person that can do this.
It's a team of people that can turn this country
around and get it to where it needs to be.
And you know, I've got an amazing senity here as

(10:50):
part of my team, in your Center of course, and others.
We had Lisa who running ran in Solomon at the
last election, the biggest wing in the country to us,
we want to do that. We want to win Solomon
at the next election and I am confident that Australians
over time will see that what's needed is a strong direction,
strong plan, strong team. A one person show won't do

(11:11):
it. It's got to be more than that.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Angus Taylor, I can't let you leave without asking you
what did you think of the Prime Minister's appearance on
that podcast?

Speaker 2 (11:19):
I was just off, Yeah, it was just, do you reckon?
It was beneath the office of Prime minister to comment
on that. You can always say, in anyview, if someone
asks you a question which you don't really think it's
right to give an es, I'm not going to answer
that question, do you reckon?

Speaker 1 (11:34):
He was looking for an easy kick and he actually
ended up with an own goal.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
I just I think he lacks a compass, you know, frankly,
I think he lacks a compass. And I mean if
I'd said something like that, my wife would never forgive
me it fair enough, I mean, seriously, it just.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
You'd be in the doghouse. I sure would.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Be, and rightly saying, yeah, this is not something that
someone who either has the office of Prime minister in
my cases buyas to the office of prime minister should
be saying.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
It was a bit odd, a bit of a real misstep,
I reckon. Anyway, Angus Taylor, the Federal Opposition leader, Very
good to have you on the show. Thank you so
much for your time this morning.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Great to be with you.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Thank you
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