TONY ARTHUR: Well, every Friday morning, Angus Taylor, the Federal Member for Hume and the Federal Energy Minister, joins us for a chat here on Breakfast on ABC Illawarra and today is no different. Mr Taylor, good morning.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Good morning, Tony. Thanks for having me.

TONY ARTHUR: Firstly, in your capacity as Energy Minister can I ask you is our energy supplies, are they guaranteed and safe? Will the lights stay on?

ANGUS TAYLOR: They are in very good shape. We're seeing a surprisingly small reduction in demand, but supply has been very strong. It's a good time of year - this is not the time of year when we expect big surges in demand - but regardless of that, our generators are doing extremely well. The companies have spent an enormous amount of time making sure their workforces are safe and secure, and able to continue to do their jobs so we're in very good shape on electricity, on gas, and on liquid fuels. In fact, the world is awash with petrol and diesel, and particularly jet fuel of course, for obvious reasons.

TONY ARTHUR: And certainly very cheap in Sydney at the moment, they were talking about it that-

ANGUS TAYLOR: And very cheap.

TONY ARTHUR: However, John Anderson, former deputy prime minister and former leader of the National Party federally, was critical on Q+A on Monday night, saying we only have a handful of days' worth of reserves of oil, fuel and we should have a lot more. How much have we got it? Are you comfortable with it? And are you trying to get more?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well according to the IEA, who monitors these things, we have over 55 days' worth of supply in our supply chain, which is a good number. We think it needs to be higher. We want to get it up towards the 90 days in total. In fact, when you include on water, a fuel that is arriving in Australia, it does get up towards 80 days. But we've got to keep working on this. Right now though we have an enormous amount of fuel. All our storages are either full or close to full in Australia for the obvious reason that demand for liquid fuels - petrol, diesel, jet fuel - has fallen away. And so there is an enormous amount of supply. But longer term we are working to increase those fuel supplies, we think that's a very, very important point. Keeping our refineries open of course is the great challenge at the moment because their demand has fallen off sharply, and this is a real focus for the Government. John Anderson is right to say it should be a focus for the Government.

TONY ARTHUR: National Cabinet failed to reach a consensus yesterday on whether schools should reopen or not. As we know, the Prime Minister is strongly in support of the schools reopening. But parents and teachers and some of the state and territory leaders are not convinced. Who is right?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well the medical experts are very clear on this - they say schools are safe. And everyone agrees that schools need to remain open for essential workers - people who need to be able to get their kids to school. The good news is we have the New South Wales now working towards moving back to face-to-face teaching early in the next term, which is good to hear. Look, we do think that schools can move safely back to face-to-face teaching. Obviously precautions need to be taken, particularly for teachers who are in vulnerable categories. Teachers are doing amazing work during this time, I'm seeing it myself - it's been very difficult for them - and we do need to look after those vulnerable teachers. But we do think it's safe and the medical experts, more importantly, think it's safe to move back to face-to-face teaching. We'd like to see that as soon as possible.

TONY ARTHUR: What about the question Leigh Sales put to the Prime Minister last night from a grandmother who is also the principal of a primary school? She said: ‘I can't understand why I can't hug my own grandchildren, but the Prime Minister wants me to turn up at my school and open it, and be in contact with lots of other people's grandchildren’.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well it's very clear from the medical advice - I mean, there's no ambiguity here and in fact it was agreed at National Cabinet that schools are safe. We know that this virus behaves very differently amongst kids, amongst people of younger ages, than it does with older people. And so their advice has been clear all the way along, and our position is too. Look, it is enormously important if we're going to get the country moving, on the road out, and we have to start talking about a sensible road out of this, schools are absolutely central to that because it's so difficult for people to get back to work and get back to some element of normality without being able to have access to the schools for their kids for face-to-face teaching.

TONY ARTHUR: But isn't it going to be an enormous logistical challenge? Say all the kids went back at the same time, how are we going to social distance? We're going to need a classroom the size of an assembly hall to accommodate them all.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, the operational side – of the schools are managed by the states as you well know - and that of course, that is exactly the work that the states are working their way through. But look, we've run face-to-face schools for a long while, we know how to do it well. We have to transition this back in a sensible way - but it is important. This is one of these issues, if we're to start moving the country back slowly - it won't happen overnight, that's for sure - towards more normal situation. We're doing extremely well on the health side with this virus - schools are central to that - and the good news is we're seeing the New South Wales Government making strong and positive steps in that direction.

TONY ARTHUR: This is Breakfast on ABC Illawarra, 7:21am for this Friday morning. I'm Tony Arthur and with us this morning, Angus Taylor, the Federal Member for Hume and the Federal Energy Minister. The Prime Minister said yesterday there'll be no easing of restrictions for at least four weeks, and before any easing can happen we need three things: a more extensive testing regime, local response capability to lock down local outbreaks, and better virus tracing capability. But there's been a big civil liberties reaction in regards to the idea of an app which could track people's movements. Is Government off the mark here with this idea?

ANGUS TAYLOR: No, I think this is an important part of it. Tracking, testing, and targeting of outbreaks - all three of those things are absolutely essential if we're to get a road out of this as quickly as we reasonably can. Ultimately, we have to use the best technology we have, the best medical advice we can get, a very careful targeting of outbreaks - all of the sorts of careful, well-thought through approaches we've taken which has made Australia one of the leaders in the world in the treatment of this very, very difficult situation in recent weeks and months. We need to keep going down that track, and that means making the best use of the technology that's available-

TONY ARTHUR: But how do you address concerns that people-

ANGUS TAYLOR: The work is proceeding on how this app would work. These are technical issues that are being worked through. I note that the intent is that it would be voluntary - and that's very, very important. As a former Minister for Cyber Security and Digital Transformation, you know, consent is extremely important in these things.

TONY ARTHUR: So you would say to people who are concerned that this is just a Big Brother tracking move eventually could turn into, just don't download the app if you don't want to be-

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well I'm saying, you know, you're jumping at shadows at this point. The work is being done and I understand, only too well, the importance of privacy and managing these sorts of technologies very, very carefully. It's something that the Government is dealing with and working its way through. You know, we're not going to put this thing out there until we know it's ready and we know it is right. The Attorney-General is working through the privacy issues - they are very, very important, there's no question about it. But we have to bring our best capability to bear to give us a chance of getting out of this without more outbreaks, without loss of life, without harm, but at the same time making it as speedy as is reasonably possible to get businesses and jobs back on track. Australians are worried about businesses and jobs, and rightly so. We need to get ourselves back on our feet as quickly as we reasonably can and that means bringing our best innovations, our best capability to bear to make that happen.

TONY ARTHUR: Now, until yesterday it was expected that Parliament wouldn't meet again until August, but the Prime Minister said yesterday, Parliament may return in May. How would that work?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, we've had two sittings of Parliament since we've had social distancing in place. We've had to manage it very carefully. It means less people can go than would normally be the case. There's social distancing in the Parliament - you see it on the TV. It's the first time ever I've watched Question Time from my office - it's an extraordinary situation personally to see that but we have managed it. The important point here is as we find our road out here we're going to find clever ways of getting things done, and we're doing it now. I mean, the way I see people connecting with each other, both socially and professionally, you know we are. We're a very enterprising nation, we're very enterprising, innovative people, we find ways of doing things - we've certainly done that with the Parliament in the two sittings we've had and I'm sure we're capable of doing that again. And we have to, as parliamentarians, we're saying that we have to find a road out here - we have to be part of that. We have to, obviously, be role models for how we do things and that's very, very important in this journey that we're on right now.

TONY ARTHUR: There's been suggestions that our Federal politicians should follow the example of New Zealand and take a 20 per cent pay cut. Any discussions around that?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, there's been a pay freeze and I strongly, strongly support that. You know, ultimately this is a decision that is being made by the relevant portfolio areas and the Prime Minister, of course. But I think it was absolutely appropriate that there be a pay freeze, absolutely appropriate. Look, the truth of the situation here is that there are some sectors that are doing well and some sectors that are doing poorly - trying to make everyone worse off is not necessarily the way forward. But I do understand the sentiment amongst Australians that there does need to be, amongst parliamentarians - and bureaucrats, because this applies to senior bureaucrats as well - that we need to we need to take a share of the pain and I think that's absolutely appropriate.

TONY ARTHUR: I'll take that as a no then. There's been no discussion about any sort of pay cut?

ANGUS TAYLOR: We've been very clear on this, there is a pay freeze and I think that is absolutely the right thing to do.

TONY ARTHUR: Okay. What's your take on the Ruby Princess debacle?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Obviously there's a commission of inquiry that the Premier has now, is putting into place, and that seems to me to be the right way to approach this. There's been lots of accusations and facts running around and ultimately the purpose of the commission of inquiry is to get to the bottom of it. So I'll really leave it to that. I do note that it's in Port Kembla at the moment as I understand it, and of course it's very, very important that it be managed carefully. There's still crew, as I understand it, on the ship and they need to have appropriate medical attention, but also we need to make sure that people on that ship are not infecting locals. Careful management of it, not just in the past where there's been some problems obviously, but looking into the future is also absolutely crucial.

TONY ARTHUR: All right. Just before I let you go, if I can take you back to the education questions. One of my listeners says why does the Prime Minister and the Federal Government even comment on education and then add a caveat states have the responsibility for education, not the Commonwealth?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well it's a fair question - and the reason is this - because education and schools are crucial for getting our economy back going again. Essential workers in so many industries need to have access to the schools to be able to get to work. The schools are an important part of getting to where we need to go and the journey out of dealing with this virus.  Inevitably we have to try to forge some direction on this. Now, at the end of the day the constitutional responsibility and the actual responsibility for the operation of schools lies with the states. So we can give them medical advice and we can try to influence the outcomes but the ultimate decisions are made by the states. We've been very clear on this, and more importantly the medical experts have been very clear, the schools are safe, face-to-face teaching is absolutely safe and that's why we're encouraging a move back to face-to-face schooling as quickly as possible.

TONY ARTHUR: Angus Taylor, you mentioned the strange situation of watching Parliament, the House of Representatives, at work and you were doing it from your office. What is life like for Angus Taylor during COVID-19 lockdown?

ANGUS TAYLOR: I think the biggest challenge is getting out and talking to constituents. Every local member spends an enormous amount of their time out on the streets, so to speak, talking to constituents, people coming into your office, and that's a fantastic way of keeping your ear to the ground, knowing what's going on, getting a good sense of how people are feeling about issues, and what the issues are that we have to deal with. The challenge has been I think, for every local member, to keep in touch with that. I'm certainly constantly seeking to get as much feedback as I can from my constituents - that's been a challenge. It's been nice to spend a little bit more time at home. In my portfolio I have to travel a lot, and it's actually been lovely to get more family time. I think we should all do everything we can to enjoy the family time we can get, that we mightn't otherwise. I think that's been one of the positives, despite the obvious negatives.

TONY ARTHUR: And just finally, could you do without excerpts from Malcolm Turnbull's book being leaked at the moment?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Look, I'll leave that one, I'll leave that one to Malcolm. We've got an enormous amount on our plate. I've got an enormous amount on my plate to make sure we keep the lights on, ensure that there's fuel in the bowser when people go to the petrol station - all of these really important issues. There's no shortage of work for me to do and I'll keep focusing on those things.

TONY ARTHUR: Thank you very much for being so generous with your time this morning, stay safe and take care.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Thanks Tony.

ENDS