STEPHEN JONES:
We just want to start to express the sympathy of the entire government and I’m sure the entire parliament to the family of Holly Bowles. We woke to the terrible news this morning that she passed away overnight in Laos. We express our sympathy to the family of Holly and Bianca. As a father of a daughter around about the same age planning an overseas trip I just can’t imagine the anguish of the parents and the entire community. Our thoughts, our love, our sympathy go out to the entire family and to the entire community.
No easy way to segway from that to the other things I want to talk about today. First I want to start off with a story many of you would have read this morning. You’d all be aware that a few weeks ago the government announced its intention to want to ensure that Australians could more readily use their debit card when paying for everyday items without having to pay a surcharge. Debit cards are the new cash. More and more people doing their basic transactions with a phone or a credit card. Debit cards are the new cash. We’ve announced our intention to knock debit card fees for these transactions on the head. We’ve charged the reserve bank with coming back to us with the most effective way of doing it to ensure the costs aren’t past onto small businesses. We remain resolute in that.
Of course, as we announced our intention to do this, the NSW government had brought to its attention earlier legal advice that had been provided to it. It had been provided to the former NSW government that they’d been unlawfully charging citizens in NSW these surcharges. That caused our government to go through and do a bit of an audit of what’s going on in the Commonwealth. As you’d have read overnight, we have similar issue. We will ensure we pass laws into parliament this year to fix the legal issue but, more importantly, we’ve given the department’s one month to ensure the practice stops. So by the beginning of next year, there will be no more surcharging on these debit card fees. Clear policy of the government. We want to ensure that, whether you’re using cash or whether you’re using your debit card, you aren’t charged with these surcharge fees. And we’ll be ensuring that that occurs in the areas of government services as well.
Next thing I wanted to talk about is dodgy charging fees. We need to stop the rip offs. As Australians go into Christmas, they’ll be thinking about buying a concert ticket a ticket to the tennis, a ticket to the cricket, a movie ticket or an airline ticket. And what they’re finding is when they go online to purchase these, there are dodgy fees that are being added onto these purchases at the end of every transaction. So if you go online, as we’ve looked at recently, a family buying cricket tickets for 4, they think they’re going to be charged $80 when they get to check out, they’re being charged $88 for those fees. Movie tickets, airline tickets, concert tickets, we’re seeing the same thing. A clear message to business: stop the dodgy charges. It’s un‑Australian.
We’ve got to knock it on the head. We will introduce laws in parliament next year to ensure that these drip fees, this drip charging stops, together with our laws to ensure that subscription traps and dynamic pricing is also knocked on the head. We want to ensure that these un‑Australian charging practices or knocked on the head so that Australians are getting a fair go over Christmas and well into the new year as well. Happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST:
How did these billions of dollars of federal government fees go unnoticed for so long? Why didn’t you do something sooner?
JONES:
As soon as it was brought to our attention through what happened in NSW where – what happened in NSW is the former liberal government in NSW was provided with not 1 but 2 pieces of legal advice telling them that their charging practices weren’t lawful. And this was flushed out when we made our announcement to ban surcharging fees when the NSW government advised the country that they had access to this advice, that caused us to want to do an audit of our practices and well and we discovered we’ve got some problems dating back over 20 years. They go back to the Howard government. And they’ve been brought to our attention. As soon as we became aware of them, we’ve got to knock it on the head to ensure the agencies follow suite.
JOURNALIST:
There’s been some analysis that shows Australians are worse off now than they were in the last 4 major recessions. Do you recognise how tough Aussies are doing it and do you accept criticism from the Coalition that Labor‘s to blame?
JONES:
We certainly don’t accept any of the criticisms or the basis of the criticisms coming from the Coalition. But can I say this, we know Australians and small businesses are doing it tough. We have made significant headway, when we came into government, inflation was running at 6 per cent. It’s now below 3 per cent, running at 2.8 per cent. Significant progress made. More work needs to be done.
Of course, all of the cost‑of‑living impact would be a lot tougher for Australian households if their wage situation hasn’t improved and wages are up. They’re up significantly. Wages are growing again. In fact, wages are up, superannuation up and prices are coming down. So that’s a good thing for Australian households. We don’t rest on our laurels. We know we’ve got much more to do, but when you contrast that to the situation under the previous government, where we had inflation running under – out of control, we had inflation running out of control and their single economic lever was to suppress wages. We’ve turned that around.
JOURNALIST:
Are the 5 remaining Bali 9 men returning home to Australia and when?
JONES:
I’m aware of the reports on this issue. I can confirm that the Albanese government has been consistently advocating for the cases of the Bali 9. This included conversations with former President Widodo and President Prabowo on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Peru recently. I don’t intend to comment further on these issues, but I can confirm that the Albanese government has consistently advocated for the cause of these men.
JOURNALIST:
One of the 5 men, Martin Stevens, is in your electorate. Have you been in touch with the family? How are they coping? Have you been supporting them in any way?
JONES:
I have spoken to the family many years ago. And I can guarantee that consular assistance is being provided to these men. You’d all be aware that these are delicate issues and I want to ensure that their welfare is maintained so I’ll be adding nothing more to the public speculation. I can confirm that this is a matter of concern for the Albanese government, and we have consistently advocated their cause.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] if they did return and do you think that the view of Australians now in 2024, almost 20 years later, is that they’ve served their time?
JONES:
You’re all good journalists, doing your job, I appreciate that, but I have no intention on commenting further on these matters. I’ve said what I’ve said, and any further questions can be directed to the minister.
JOURNALIST:
Minister, outside of this cause Australia hasn’t been able to receive a custody transfer from Indonesia in the past so how you know, outside of this would the government pull?
JONES:
Thank you, respectful attempt, but I have absolutely no intention of commenting further on these or related matters. We are concerned that we ensure the welfare of these men. We’ve expressed our concern most recently on the sidelines of the summit in Peru. No intention of saying or adding further to those comments.
JOURNALIST:
Is there another government figure that might be available to stand up today to answer our questions?
JONES:
I said I’ve got no intention of commenting further on this and I’m sure the government has no intention of commenting further.
JOURNALIST:
Minister just back on the illegal merchant fees, it’s been reported that the figure is in the billions. Is there a more kind of exact figure and what is the estimate of how much it’s cost the average Australian?
JONES:
I don’t have those exact figures on hand, but you’d appreciate that over a 20 plus year period it’s almost impossible to calculate this. They generally have been fractions of a dollar over lots of transactions, but you know, over a 20‑year period, it’s almost impossible for the government to calculate that. The important thing is as soon as we discovered we had a problem or a potential problem. We investigated it, we got onto it, and we’re knocking it on the head.