CHRIS BOWEN, SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Well, thanks for coming out this morning. The ongoing and long running scandal and saga of Angus Taylor's conflict of interest took a very serious turn this morning. This morning on Insiders under pressure, and under the questioning of Fran Kelly, Angus Taylor said that he had disclosed to the Prime Minister and to the then Environment Minister now Treasurer, his ownership and interest of Jam Land.

Now this is very, very serious, and the main person with questions to answer today is Josh Frydenberg. Josh Frydenberg when he was Minister for the Environment set up a meeting for Angus Taylor with his Department, asked for a compliance officer to be present. We now know, he knew based on what Angus Taylor has said, that Angus Taylor had a conflict of interest. And yet he arranged the meeting. He asked for a compliance officer to be present.

Now did Josh Frydenberg know that the only compliance investigation underway at that time was into a company in which Angus Taylor had interests in? We also know that Josh Frydenberg's office later asked the Department for advice about how to de-list the endangered species that Jam Land was being investigated for and whether they could avoid publishing the reasons for doing so.

Now, this is a first class scandal. It's bad enough that Angus Taylor has not probably disclosed to the Parliament his interest despite the very clear requirement on him to do so. He claims that he did. He simply did not. That should be enough for Scott Morrison to be considering very seriously Angus Taylor's future. That would be enough to see Angus Taylor removed from the Ministry under John Howard, based on the precedent of Santo Santoro.

But this goes even further. A very clear conflict of interest. Angus Taylor using his position as a Member of Parliament to lobby a cabinet minister about a matter in which he was clearly a beneficiary. As somebody with interest in Jam Land, and Jam Land being the only company under investigation at this point. Now, it's very simple, Josh Frydenberg has to front the media today. He has to say whether he knew about Angus Taylor's interests in Jam Land.

If he confirms Angus Taylor's story, then Josh Frydenberg has some very, very serious explaining to do. He has to explain why he got his Department to come into a meeting about a private interest of a Member of Parliament, which he was fully aware of. If Angus Taylor is not telling truth. If Josh Frydenberg says he doesn't know that, then Angus Taylor's position becomes increasingly untenable. But one of these ministers, one of these men, has to explain their actions.

But today, Angus Taylor's the one who has thrown Josh Frydenberg under the bus, and Josh Frydenberg has the serious questions to answer. Josh Frydenberg can't run or hide from this. A senior cabinet minister said he knew he knew about the conflict of interest in relation to Jam Land. Now, he has been exposed by Angus Tayler in relation to this growing and deepening scandal and saga.

Now, of course, the other thing that Angus Tayler said today was that are on track to meet their emissions targets, he seems unaware that emissions have gone up in the last 12 months and have gone up since 2014. But that is bad enough. He's clearly not up to the job of being energy minister. But it would appear increasingly obvious. He shouldn't be a minister at all.
And today, Josh Frydenberg also has very serious questions to answer.

Happy to take any questions.

JOURNALIST: What do you make of President Trump's comments on China?

BOWEN: Look, we've been very consistent. We believe the trade war should be resolved. With goodwill on both sides. And we've said that Scott Morrison, should use this trip as an opportunity to try and lobby for that to be the case. It's in everybody's best interest. I'm not going to get in, particularly, to anything the President says. Obviously, we believe in resolving issues between the United States and China as quickly and as constructively as possible.

JOURNALIST: Is China a military threat?

BOWEN: We're at one with the government on the bipartisan basis about the geopolitical issues in the region.

JOURNALIST: Was the Prime Minister's response appropriate?

BOWEN: Look, the Prime Minister has to speak for himself, the Prime Minister should be putting Australia's views forward, very robustly and thoroughly, both at home and abroad. It's up to him to explain whether he's done so.

JOURNALIST: What do you make of the report the White House vetoed invitation to Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston to the State Dinner?

BOWEN: Look, I think whether Mr. Houston was invited is a matter for the Prime Minister to explain. He seems incapable of answering any question he doesn't want to answer. I mean, that's his modus operandi, he just says it's gossip. He was asked a series of questions by journalists today, in the last 24 hours, he just refused to answer them. Well, he appears to think that level of transparency is good enough.

JOURNALIST: Last question, unemployment rates seem to be on the rise. How should the RBA react?

BOWEN: Well it's not a matter of how the RBA reacts with respect, because we don't tell the RBA how to do its job. The RBA has been calling for the Government to take action on the stalling economy, Josh Frydenberg refuses. And that's the real, the real issue here. Josh Frydenberg is leaving all the heavy lifting to the Reserve Bank. Now what the Reserve Bank does on interest rates is a matter for them. We don't comment on that or advise them on what to do. But if the Government was doing its job, then the Reserve Bank wouldn't be doing all the heavy lifting.

Go the Giants next weekend. Thanks very much.