Topic: Labor reforms, asylum seekers, cutting red and green tape, and opinion polls
E&OE………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Laura Jayes:
…joining me now is Liberal Senator Scott Ryan and Labor MP Amanda Rishworth. Amanda Rishworth first to you, Penny Wong admitted this morning that it wasn’t a unanimous decision to go ahead with these reforms in the Ministry. Do you expect some resistance in the caucus?
Amanda Rishworth:
The ALP caucus is exactly the right place to be discussing these reforms. The caucus will have its discussion about these reforms and a decision will be reached from there. It’s an entirely appropriate place for these discussions to happen and I’m going to let the ALP caucus decide what’s discussed in caucus and my decision will be to support these reforms but let the caucus have a discussion, that’s what you do in a democracy.
Jayes:
So close to an election, caucus isn’t going to go against the Prime Minister who’s been back in the role for less than two weeks.
Rishworth:
Caucus can have its say, members can have their say, and things are always discussed with the Prime Ministers or Opposition Leaders. It’s the right place to have these discussions, many things get discussed and I do believe these reforms will have the support of the caucus but let these discussions take place. We do live in a democracy and these reforms are part of democracy by bordering this democratic party, so let the discussions take place.
Jayes:
Tony Abbott has commented on these reforms this morning. Let’s have a look now.
(Video: Tony Abbott)
Jayes:
Scott Ryan isn’t the point here that Kevin Rudd is trying to breakdown the power of the faceless-men and reform the party? and shouldn’t the Coalition be welcoming such a reform?
Scott Ryan:
Well, Laura we don’t elect a government in order to fix the Labor Party. Yesterday Tony Abbott launched our plan to cut red tape particularly for small business, and yesterday you had Kevin Rudd go out and do some naval-gazing about the problems of the Labor Party. The truth is, it’s time for the people of Australian to choose who the Prime Minister is, not for Lord Kevin of Griffith to try and set-up the rules to ensure the powerbrokers can’t knife him in-the-back again.
Jayes:
Hasn’t Christopher Pyne called for similar measures within the Liberal Party?
Ryan:
There are some different views on how we do things. In Victoria we made some radical changes to the way we do things in our party. Back in 2008, which I was party of, we guaranteed the right for every single member to have a plebiscite in order to choose their local candidate and that process was the process that chose us the candidates in 2010 that won the election, against the odds I might add. So we’ve undertaken these changes in Victoria and we think they have been a great thing. It wasn’t something that John Howard talked about when in office before that. We elect the government to take care of the concerns of people, small business, the health of people, and the health and education system and hopefully one day the Labor Party might turn their attention to border security. Yet Kevin Rudd gets up there yesterday and acts as if fixing the ALP is the somehow greatest problem he faces. We all know Kevin Rudd is just scared of what happened to him three years and a few weeks ago.
Jayes:
Alright, we’ll take a quick break on Lunchtime Agenda. We’ll be back to talk immigration, the asylum seeker issue and much more.
(Video: Ad break)
Jayes:
…First to you Amanda Rishworth, I want to ask you about the comments made by Paris Aristotle. He’s urged the government to reconsider giving asylum seekers work rights if they retain their documents. Are you open to this suggestion?
Rishworth:
I haven’t heard those comments by Paris Aristotle but we worked with the independent panel of Paris Aristotle, Angus Houston and Michael L’Estrange to work out some solutions to the asylum seekers issues, that included the Malaysian Solution but the Opposition just said no. They teamed up with the Greens to make a political point out of this. I call on the Opposition to become more bipartisan on this, to work with the government but the Opposition just continue to say no, they’re using it as a political football. Frankly, their approach is irresponsible the Opposition team up with the Greens, but we want to see a solution. Tony Burke has made that clear but it’s really up to the Opposition to actually work through this in a considered way but they refuse to do so because they want to say no.
Jayes:
Scott Ryan I’ll let you respond to that but Paris Aristotle has also called for more places on Nauru and Manus Island, if those initial places do fill-up and we do have both sides of Parliament agree to give the Malaysian Solution a good go – whether the places needs to be re-negotiated or not, whether the number needs to be higher than 800?
Ryan:
Laura if I could just respond to Amanda there. The Labor Party always tries to hide behind and outside body, some sort of expert-body, and not take responsibility for the choices it took. The Coalition is not going to sacrifice policy on the altar of a false bipartisanship. Now, in this area we have a strong policy, a policy that has been implemented in government that we want to implement again. Last time they were implemented they worked. You can’t solve a problem until you understand what caused it, and until Labor realise it was their laws and it was them that weakened Australia’s border protection that caused this problem, then we are not going to get a solution. We’re not going to help Kevin Rudd come up with a bumper-sticker in order to achieve some false bipartisanship that doesn’t stop the problem. We have a major problem now, Labor said they weren’t going to change the laws, but since then we’ve had 45,000 land unlawfully on our border on boats and that’s a crisis in our border protection regime and Labor have to take reasonability for that…
Rishworth:
…Where are your policies?
Ryan:
…Our policies are clear. We have temporary protection visas…
Rishworth:
Slogans, turn back the boats, that’s not a policy…
Ryan:
…Amanda, I let you talk. Temporary protection visas are a policy. We know what they look like – they were in place last time. Turning around the boats works in other parts of the world, we did it last time, America did it, we’ve had former defence officials based in Jakarta say it does work and we’re going to do it again. This is an area where we’ve got a track record of achievement. Labor’s track record will be…
Jayes:
This will be a major election issue. Scott Ryan since Kevin Rudd has returned as leader and Prime Minister there’s been a nine point boost in the primary election vote for Labor and also on the preferred Prime Minister stakes he’s 20 points ahead. Are you worried about this?
Ryan:
Polls don’t change what the Coalition was always going to do over the last three years. Which is draw attention to the failures of Labor Party policy; we have just discussed that on border protection, we’ve seen today the worst business conditions announced by the NAB survey in four years, the worst in retail in 16 years and to have a positive plan and alternative policies which we’ve outlined and will continue to outline. Polls don’t change what we need to do and we’re going to keep doing exactly what we’ve been doing. When people look at the record of six years of chaos, dysfunction, the pink-bats disaster, border failures, we are confident that people will vote for change and stability in government again.
Jayes:
Amanda, is this just a honeymoon bounce?
Rishworth:
Well look all I heard from Scott was negativity, all negativity. That’s all Tony Abbott can do. It must be…
Ryan:
…that must be today’s talking point Amanda…
Rishworth:
…well no, he said positive polices. No, no you were the one that listed all the negativity. All negativity and no positive plans for the future, you can pull out your Real Solutions plan but there’s absolutely no detail in there. I think that’s what people are responding too, Kevin Rudd is going out there talking to about the nation. A nation that’s unified…
Ryan:
…what are his policies? What’s his policy of border protection?
Rishworth:
…Well, he’s put it very clear. He went over to Indonesia and actually had the guts to talk about it…
Ryan:
…a photo opportunity is not a policy…
Rishworth:
…believe it or not Scott but you actually have to engage other people. You can’t go over there as Kevin Rudd did and not mention border protection. That’s ridiculous and Kevin Rudd has been out there.
Jayes:
I want to move on Amanda. Tony Abbot held a press conference and he was haunted by events of the past in 2009. This was his response when repeatedly questioned by a journalist.
(Video: Tony Abbott)
Jayes:
Mistaken misuse of Commonwealth funds while promoting his book Battlelines in 2009. Scott Ryan if Tony Abbott was using a Commonwealth car and staff was booking his flights and travel, shouldn’t he have known this was a misuse?
Ryan:
Well no let’s get the language clear here Laura. The Labor Minister looked into this and said they was nothing to attend to. It was an error and it was attended to, as simple as that.
Jayes:
Now in that media conference he said this was being pushed by Kevin Rudd. Kevin Rudd hasn’t mentioned this once and I can’t see any members of the Labor Party that have pushed this in the last few weeks, where’s that evidence coming from?
Ryan:
I assume Laura like most of the talk of the last three years the Labor Party does it behind closed doors. Labor’s got form on dirt-units, they set one up and I assume that’s what Tony Abbott was referring to but I didn’t see the press conference.
Jayes:
Amanda Rishworth, Chris Bowen is launching his book at the National Press Club later this week. Should he be careful about using com-cars? There’s a bit of a grey area here.
Rishworth:
Well look every Member of Parliament needs to know what the rules are and do their best to actually adhere to those rules. To be honest Tony Abbott blaming Kevin Rudd sounded like desperation to me. There are issues that have been dealt with two years ago, that’s up to him to explain and for him to deal with. Every Member of Parliament really needs to make sure they know the rules and do their best to adhere to them. That would be, I think, what the Department would say to all members.
Jayes:
Amanda, we’ve just got 30 seconds left on the program but Kevin Rudd has made some comments in Darwin that he may reconsider Nova Peris’ pre-selection in Darwin. What’s your response to that?
Rishworth:
Well look, obviously that will be a matter for the party as it actually was previously. The National Executive endorsed Nova Peris unanimously to be the candidate. It will be up to the party to deal with that as things evolve and it will be up to the party to make that selection.
Jayes:
And Scott Ryan just quickly, is that Kevin Rudd’s prerogative?
Ryan:
Well isn’t he just pulling the knife out of Trish Crossin’s back after he just used it on Julia Gillard a couple-of-weeks ago. This just goes to show the culture of the modern Labor Party, you get your friend elected leader and there’s pay-back from your friends and enemies.
Jayes:
Scott Ryan and Amanda Rishworth a pleasure as always and that’s it for Lunchtime Agenda.
(Ends)