The Opposition Leader has refused to say which public service jobs he would cut despite flagging that as many as 41 thousands positions are at risk. Peter Dutton is in the marginal seat of McEwen on the northern outskirts of Melbourne where he has met a young family struggling with the cost of living.
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TVTranscript
00:00Peter Dutton is staying on message this morning in the seat of McEwen.
00:06This is a Labor held seat on a 3.8% margin and he's come to Donnybrook to this housing
00:12development and we've just all piled inside here to speak to him and the Xavier family
00:17and they've spoken around the kitchen table about some of the challenges of living in
00:21the outer suburbs.
00:23Peter Dutton has spoken about wages this morning in response to the Prime Minister's comments
00:28about wanting wages to go up.
00:31He's responded by saying that real wages have gone down under Labor.
00:35He does want to see them higher but he's not given any commitment as to how much.
00:40He does say though that he will support the Fair Work Commission's decision on wages.
00:46Mr Dutton was also asked about tariffs.
00:48He has been very strong this morning here and in an interview with Sky News about the
00:53fact that he would stand up to Donald Trump on the issue of trade tariffs.
00:58He's called the Prime Minister a weak leader and he says that he would be strong in the
01:03face of threats from other countries, in particular the US.
01:07He's also been asked a lot about public servant cuts.
01:10The opposition leader has already talked about 41,000 public servants that he says have been
01:17added under the Labor government but he won't, after many questions, commit to which jobs
01:23he would cut if he became Prime Minister, in which departments, where they would be
01:28from, where they would live.
01:29But he has talked about the health department and the education department, potentially
01:34even the ABC as places where he thinks that there is wastage.
01:39I think it's important for us to live within our means as a government and if there is
01:43waste and there is bloating of the bureaucracy then we need to make sure that we're getting
01:50money into more GPs.
01:52We've made a big announcement in relation to mental health.
01:54We've got a $5 billion plan to build 500,000 more homes.
01:59And as the Howard government did when they came in, in 1996, they had to clean up a Labor
02:05mess.
02:06That's the reality of it.
02:07Victoria is a key state as we know both Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese are campaigning
02:13on opposite sides of Melbourne today.
02:15We expect to hang around here just a little bit longer and then potentially fly to a fourth
02:21state for Peter Dutton later this afternoon.