Zoe McKenzie MP
Shadow Cabinet Secretary
Shadow Assistant Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations
Federal Member for Flinders
TRANSCRIPT – 3AW Weekend Breakfast with Darren James
Saturday, 14 March 2026
Topics: Nepean by-election; state government funding and taxation inequality for the Mornington Peninsula.
DARREN JAMES: See, when I come down to the Peninsula and broadcast, I look around and Zoe McKenzie’s there and this is no exception. Federal Member for Flinders, you love this area so much. When you hear that we’re broadcasting down here, Zoe, you turn up.
ZOE MCKENZIE: I self-invite. Why not?
DARREN JAMES: I think that’s a marvellous thing to do.
ZOE MCKENZIE: I love it. Well, you’re here so often which is beautiful too, thank you.
DARREN JAMES: Now, let’s get to the issue. I didn’t know this. This magnificent new building that we are sitting in here was given an egg, zero, from the State Government.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, so …
DARREN JAMES: To build.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Indeed. So, interestingly we have sort of sister buildings now. So, this beautiful one here in Sorrento with the best view, I think, on the southern Mornington Peninsula. And of course, it has a sister building which is a larger terminal on the other side, Queenscliff.
DARREN JAMES: Right. So basically, they’re the same, aren’t they?
ZOE MCKENZIE: They’re the same in style.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Quite different inside, may I say. It feels really different here, and I think they’ve done a great job in making sure that they respect the traditions of this pier. We’ve got blokes out there fishing as you can see, but, you know, to have sort of pizzas, and casual dining and an ability to sit here as the sun sets, it’s just superb.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Queenscliff’s a bit more hub and bustle, may I say. It has proper function areas, you can do all sorts of stuff over there. But it got $10 million in public funding, and this side got nothing. So, Searoad had to fundraise, you know, make the money itself to build this building here. But that is as you know, the story of the Peninsula. A week ago, the committee for Frankston and Mornington Peninsula released a benchmarking survey that showed all the differences between all the benefits and the public money that’s given to the other side, and didley-squat that’s given here. In part, because we’re metro Melbourne, can’t you tell? DJ, can’t you see metro Melbourne buzzing around here?
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, look at us.
ZOE MCKENZIE: But over there, apparently, it’s the regions. So here, we pay about $225 million in payroll tax because we’ve got city-based payroll tax at 4.85%. Over there, um, heaps less ‘cause they only pay 1.21% in payroll tax because it’s regional Victoria. And you see those kinds of disadvantages across the board. 83% of our territory has no access to public transport. So, at the moment with fuel prices, people can’t get on a bus. They can’t get on a train. They’ve got to fill the car, right? And on the way down here from Canberra yesterday, I noticed fuel was, I think diesel’s $2.60.
DARREN JAMES: Yes, it’s getting up there.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Absolutely. So, it’s quite brutal how different the treatment is between the other side of the ditch, so the Barwon region and around Geelong and Queenscliffe versus here. And this terminal, as we’re sitting in it, is proof point of that.
DARREN JAMES: So, one side gets funding by the state government of $10 million, this side gets zero.
ZOE MCKENZIE: And the rest, and remember, we pay all the metropolitan taxes as well. So, your cladding levy, different rates of land tax here as well, and obviously land is pretty valuable down here, so people are paying a fortune in land tax. Stamp duty taxes are higher over here as well. And then we have the Airbnb tax, which you might recall, is a 7.5% impost on every short-term rental down here, raising tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and being spent where? Not here.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: That’s the problem. So, we’re very good at helping fill the coffers, but we’re not very good at getting our fair share back. So, in part, we’ve got an amazing candidate down here, Anthony Marsh. I’m going to spend the rest of the morning with him.
DARREN JAMES: Former mayor, isn’t he?
ZOE MCKENZIE: He has been the mayor.
DARREN JAMES: He was on with Jacqui broadcasting from this very spot.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Oh brilliant. Oh, lucky him.
DARREN JAMES: Yesterday, yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah. So, he’s you know, fighting to make sure we get our fair share. And I mean, whilst a by-election’s painful for everyone, by golly, it throws attention onto our area and what we need, so I’m really grateful for that aspect.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, it’s just simply not a fair ball game, is it? From what you’ve just been saying.
ZOE MCKENZIE: It’s not a fair ball game at all.
DARREN JAMES: I didn’t know that. I saw you on YouTube doing this thing. Where was that? That was in Parliament, wasn’t it?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, it would have been, yeah. I’ve been speaking about it a lot recently in Parliament.
DARREN JAMES: You were emotional about it. You were outraged, and with every reason. I didn’t know that tax, that payroll tax thing, we pay 4.85%…
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yep.
DARREN JAMES: …this side and on that side, 1.21%
ZOE MCKENZIE: Correct. So, they pay about $65 mill per year in payroll tax, and we pay $290 [million].
DARREN JAMES: And that’s just, is that a cash grab? Why is that? Just because it’s designated regional…
ZOE MCKENZIE: Because we’re metro. Because we’re metro here, which means we pay the higher rate of everything.
DARREN JAMES: When, when was this area designated metro?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Apparently, it’s always been metro, but we only really, really, fully, painfully realised it in Covid. So, here we have those ridiculous, you know, 5 kilometre rules, even though most of my 5 kilometres, because I just live down the road from here, was the water. But over there in the freedom lands, in Geelong …
DARREN JAMES: The freedom lands …
ZOE MCKENZIE: …and Queenscliff, they could do whatever they wanted.
DARREN JAMES: Good morning to the freedom land. How do you feel over there free with paying no taxes, or less taxes? Anyway.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, less taxes indeed.
DARREN JAMES: That’s crazy stuff. So, you said you just came back from Canberra.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yep.
DARREN JAMES: How often is the commute for you?
ZOE MCKENZIE: So, it depends on the time of year. At the moment, we’re in a really intensive parliamentary sitting period. So, five out of six weeks are up in Canberra.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: So, this forthcoming week I’ll be home, which is fantastic, and then the week after that we go back for another fortnight. So, it’s pretty intense. And then you have a bit of a gap before the budget and the budget’s in early May.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, you were here while I was talking to Wally from …
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah.
DARREN JAMES: Detroit, Michigan.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Indeed.
DARREN JAMES: That’s what I like about you.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Indeed.
DARREN JAMES: What a great song.
ZOE MCKENZIE: It is a great song. I just hope there’s going to be aviation fuel to get him here and get him back.
DARREN JAMES: That’s a good point. We’re running out, aren’t we?
ZOE MCKENZIE: No, indeed we are.
DARREN JAMES: Now, I used to rock at the shop, the shop-O. Where did you grow up and enjoy yourself?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Well, my summers which were the kind of fun times were always down here. So, Portsea front, Sorrento front …
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, you were a Mornington girl, weren’t you?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, I was saying …
DARREN JAMES: You’d have hung out at the Dava a bit, I reckon.
ZOE MCKENZIE: No, no, no, no I grew up in the city, because Mum was a surgeon in town, but all my summers were down here, and we sort of decamped for two months, as we all did. And I was saying to the CEO of Searoad Ferries last weekend, when I was here looking at this, I said, jeez, mate, we’ve come a long way from when we used to jump off the jetty…
DARREN JAMES: That’s right.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Into the wake behind the ferry. Remember the fairies go from Sorrento to Portsea?
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Like as little kids would all just jump into the wake. You wouldn’t, obviously do that today, children do not jump in the wake …
DARREN JAMES: No, but crazy stuff when we were kids.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, it was fun, huh? I loved those days. Anyway, so like, rocking out, concerts, fun, you know, music, whatever it was, it was always down here.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, and in the movie, The Man with the Golden Gun, the opening scene is with Scaramanga at his hideout in the cliffs of somewhere, I think it was Thailand where it was shot, but I wanted to have a hideout just down at the Portsea back beach, like he did…
ZOE MCKENZIE: Totes.
DARREN JAMES: When I was sort of a young teenager.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Did you used to go to, like the underage discos at the Portsea Surf Life Saving Club?
DARREN JAMES: Oh yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Oh yeah.
DARREN JAMES: We went everywhere down here.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah.
DARREN JAMES: Because this was the holiday place, wasn’t it?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Totes. Yeah, we used to walk. I don’t know how we did. We’d walk down there and then we’d walk back. But that was, you know, that was epic.
DARREN JAMES: Did you ever get down to the Rosebud foreshore on New Year’s Eve?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Absolutely not.
DARREN JAMES: Around midnight?
ZOE MCKENZIE: No. How would I have got down there?
DARREN JAMES: Well, I don’t know, we used to walk …
ZOE MCKENZIE: What, on the 788 bus, the same bus we have now? That hasn’t improved in frequency much since.
DARREN JAMES: I remember when I was first courting…
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah.
DARREN JAMES: Mum had a had a caravan at Dromana.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Bless. I love it.
DARREN JAMES: The young ones call it something different now from courting, but when we were doing that, in the middle of winter in Dromana, you could have a meal at two places. A place called the Monks Tavern …
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yep.
DARREN JAMES: which was a restaurant where there’d be two people, or the Dromana hotel with Ray…
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, nice.
DARREN JAMES: Ray Stella. Do you know Ray?
ZOE MCKENZIE: No, I don’t, but I love the Dromana Hotel.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, it’s great.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Beautiful. But how much, how good is it now. Like the food choices we have here, thank heavens for those 8 million tourists to come, because …
DARREN JAMES: Well, that’s the other thing. There’s a lot of tourists that come down here, isn’t there?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah. So, 8 million come every year. 2 million stay over.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: But that means you and I get to eat at the most beautiful venues all year round, right?
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Because, yeah, tourists feel the coffers over summer. Thank you, tourists.
DARREN JAMES: Things, things have changed. We’re talking with Zoe McKenzie MP, Federal Member for Flinders. Oh, by the way, Jess Wilson, Leader of the Opposition.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah.
DARREN JAMES: She’s coming. She’s gonna try and get down here at 11:20 because she wants to tell me something.
ZOE MCKENZIE: She does want to tell you something … it’s going to be a good day.
DARREN JAMES: I hope it’s not. I hope it’s not about the fact that our daughter stole her boyfriend in grade four at Mont Albert Primary School. I hope she hasn’t got any issues still there. That’s my major that’s my major concern.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Okay. I’ll tell her to bring it up, I’m about to see her.
DARREN JAMES: I hope she’s not storming down here and getting out of her system all these years later. But anyway, that aside, she is making a big announcement this morning.
ZOE MCKENZIE: She is making a big announcement.
DARREN JAMES: What’s the announcement?
ZOE MCKENZIE: I can’t tell you …
DARREN JAMES: Come on.
ZOE MCKENZIE: You tried to get it out of me, but it’s a super special secret, but it’s a great day for Nepean.
DARREN JAMES: So, she’s making the announcement in Sorrento.
ZOE MCKENZIE: I can’t tell you where she’s making it, it may give it away.
DARREN JAMES: Is it on the Peninsula?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yes.
DARREN JAMES: 20 Questions.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah. She’ll be down here all morning. So, she should be here almost by now. I think they’re going to be at the Woolies in a few minutes in Rosebud.
DARREN JAMES: Is that where she’s making the announcement, Woolies?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Nah. But anyway, so, she’ll be here shortly. Tell you all about it. You’ll get the scoop, my friend.
DARREN JAMES: I can’t wait. I’m so excited. So, is it going to be, out of ten, is it going to be a five, six or seven announcement, or a 9.5 announcement?
ZOE MCKENZIE: 9.78.
DARREN JAMES: Lead story news? Channel seven and nine?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah. It should be.
DARREN JAMES: Really?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
DARREN JAMES: Wow.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah. I know. Now look at you. Now look at you.
DARREN JAMES: So, you’ll be here from a federal level …
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah.
DARREN JAMES: Backing the state Leader of the Opposition.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Always, because I spend all the time talking to those guys about what we need. You know about the state of our roads in particular, like you’ve seen Peninsula Link, it’s ridiculous. So, you know, down here talking all the time about what we need. What we need in terms of investment across the board.
DARREN JAMES: So, if, if this was an international conflict, are you on the battleship with Jessie, and you’re loading up all the artillery that you have.
ZOE MCKENZIE: We are, totes.
DARREN JAMES: And pressing Let’s Go Boys?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Let’s Go Boys, indeed. No, no, of course. This is really important for the Coalition to hold this beautiful seat and to look after it, because we don’t get anything. It used to be Labor’s most marginal seat, most marginal seat between 2018 and 2022. Do you think they did anything for it? Nip and tuck and not much else.
DARREN JAMES: One of my mates. You might have heard him, listening to him at the Dava, or one of your … remember Stylus, Summer Breeze? No, you’re probably a bit too young.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Nah.
DARREN JAMES: Summer Breeze.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Oh yeah, I do.
DARREN JAMES: Peter Cupples, the captain …
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah.
DARREN JAMES: Is coming downtown. He’s doing a show, whereabouts Cupps?
PETER CUPPLES: At the Kooyong Tennis Centre, my friend. How are you? Good morning, well, everybody.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, you too. Now, when is this happening?
PETER CUPPLES: Next Friday night, the 20th…
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
PETER CUPPLES: Of March and it’s a dinner show, and you can book tickets online, and you have all that information there at the studio, which is great.
DARREN JAMES: And this is the, is this the Burt Bacharach show you’re doing?
PETER CUPPLES: The one that you love, my friend, yes.
DARREN JAMES: This is the one that I love.
PETER CUPPLES: You know what it’s like.
DARREN JAMES: This man singing ‘The Look of Love’ and Alfie. What’s it all about Alfie and all of the great work of Burt Bacharach. Now, hang on Cupps. The club is normally a private club, but they’ve opened it up to everyone to come in and enjoy your work.
PETER CUPPLES: Yes, yeah. Look, I think it’s a fantastic initiative on their part, because it has been a private club for, well, probably since it started. But yeah, they just want to start doing these shows. I think they’re going to do more of them. So, they need to get the public involved as well. And who knows, they might get more membership out of it as well. So …
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, good stuff.
PETER CUPPLES: No, yeah. It’s a great, great idea. Of course. You remember back when Kooyong used to host, you know, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and Elton John and all those acts…
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, Bowie.
PETER CUPPLES: Back in the 60’s, 70’s.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, for sure. And also a really important function tonight, the MCG being a Pies man. Adelaide, that’ll be a good win, won’t it?
PETER CUPPLES: Well, I knew that was going to be the most important topic we talk about today. Yes, no, you know, I like the way we looked last week. I mean, we didn’t look fantastic. But you know, there’s plenty of room for improvement, and this will be another very, very good test of boys on their home deck.
DARREN JAMES: Check it out. Kooyong Tennis Club, that’s next Friday night. Peter Cupple. I highly recommend it. I’ve seen the show, the Burt Bacharach Show. It’s unbelievable. Your voice is better than ever, and we’ll catch up when you’re down here.
PETER CUPPLES: Thank you, DJ, love to everybody.
DARREN JAMES: No worries, are you up in Queensland still?
PETER CUPPLES: Yes.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, thought so. Yeah.
PETER CUPPLES: I’m coming down for the week. I’ll catch up for a beer.
DARREN JAMES: No worries. Peter Cupples. So where are you going after here?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Up to Rosebud Woolies to catch Jess and Anthony.
DARREN JAMES: Oh, and that’s where you’ll load the firearms.
ZOE MCKENZIE: It’s gonna be a big morning. They’re gonna be all over the place. They’ll come down and be with you. I think they’re gonna be in Blairgowrie later in the morning as well. So it’s, you know, it’s, it’s the highlights tour of the southern Mornington Peninsula.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, good. Your Mum being a surgeon. What would she operate on?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Hearts and lungs. Primarily lungs.
DARREN JAMES: Serious?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, Cardiothoracic Surgeon, yeah.
DARREN JAMES: Still practicing?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Nah, Mum died a year ago.
DARREN JAMES: Oh, sorry …
ZOE MCKENZIE: That’s alright.
DARREN JAMES: I’m sorry to hear that.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, yeah, we talked about it last time when we were at Village Glen together.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah, of course.
ZOE MCKENZIE: But, you know, she was 87 she’d had an amazing …
DARREN JAMES: A wonderful life.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Amazing life.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: And it’s so, you’d be amazed how many people here, actually, knew Mum. So, have been nurses with mum, or anaesthetists with Mum who are now making wine, of course.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: As anaesthetists so often do. So it’s lovely as I go around the Peninsula doing my job. People often, you know, give me anecdotes about Mum and it’s, it’s really kind.
DARREN JAMES: Yeah.
ZOE MCKENZIE: I’m very grateful.
DARREN JAMES: If you’re in Woolies at Rosebud, you may see Zoe hanging around. Lovely of you to call by today, I’ll be down at the… back of the retirement village…
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah.
DARREN JAMES: Next week. You should call in again.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Alright. Let’s go sign up together.
DARREN JAMES: Can we?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, let’s do it.
DARREN JAMES: Are we getting that old that quickly? It’s unbelievable, isn’t it. The Federal Member, the Federal Member performing here live at well, not performing. Peter Cupples performs, and Wally performs, but you perform in Parliament, that’s sort of an act, isn’t it?
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, we do. I’m pretty good on the SingStar, too. Just saying.
DARREN JAMES: Excellent work. What a morning.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Alright.
DARREN JAMES: Lots of announcements. That’s Zoe McKenzie MP. Federal Member for Flinders, broadcasting live from Sorrento at 29 to 10.
ENDS.
