Subjects: Royal Commission into NT youth justice centre; penalty rates and Fair Work Commission; marriage plebiscite.
EO&E…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
KIERAN GILBERT:
With me now, Liberal frontbencher Scott Ryan, and Labor’s Matt Thistlethwaite.
First, this shocking story out of the Northern Territory, and as our viewers would have heard at the start of the program, Priscilla Collins, the CEO of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, said that the Northern Territory Government – Senator Ryan – is now coming out saying they’re shocked, but she believes they were aware of the abuse and the specific claims she said she herself had seen – some of this footage that was aired last night, a couple of years ago.
SCOTT RYAN:
Well look Kieran, I haven’t had a chance to watch Four Corners yet, I was travelling last night. I’ve read the news reports and I’ve seen some of the images this morning and I think I can speak on behalf of everyone who’s seen them, that I can share their experience that we were shocked and appalled by what we’ve seen. But what we’ve seen earlier this morning is the Prime Minister come out with a rapid and a strong reaction and announces a Royal Commission into what happened – why – to look at the failure of transparency and the failure of accountability, and to ensure that these appalling actions never happen again in our country.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Matt Thistlethwaite, your comments on this? And those comments by Priscilla Collins from NAAJA at the start of the program, in which she’s basically saying that it’s untenable for the Northern Territory, the Government to be saying that they were unaware of it and now they’re shocked.
MATT THISTLETHWAITE:
Kieran, the revelations on Four Corners are deeply disturbing. No child anywhere in the world deserves to be treated in this way and the image of that young boy strapped to that chair with a hood on for hours is completely unacceptable, and the revelations by Priscilla Collins are quite shocking – that the Northern Territory Government was aware of this footage for a couple of years and has done nothing about it – is simply unacceptable, and we welcome the call by the Prime Minister for the establishment of a Royal Commission. The Labor Party will do all it can to swiftly establish this enquiry, but if this revelation that Priscilla Collins has detailed this morning is true, this also needs to be investigated by a Royal Commission. Why a government would turn a blind eye to this sort of behaviour in one of their funded detention facilities is simply unacceptable.
KIERAN GILEBRT:
This does have to be part of the focus.
Senator Ryan, surely the suggestion that the Northern Territory CLP Government was aware of the detail of the claims, but did nothing about it, or no substantive action anyway?
SCOTT RYAN:
Well look, without drafting terms for a Royal Commission on air, I think to be quite frank, in my experience, royal commissioners take their job quite seriously, and they chase down every borough when they look at particularly issues that affect children. The Prime Minister’s bone fides on this, and his commitment to resolving this, I think are demonstrated by the fact that he got on the phone last night, and this morning, he spoke to the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, the Attorney-General, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, and announced there would be a Royal Commission into this. Now that’s less than 24 hours after the broadcast of the program, and I’m certain all those issues will be conscientiously and intensely investigated by whoever’s appointed to undertake this important task over the coming months.
KIERAN GILBERT:
It does seem to look more – the images, and Matt Thistlethwaite, last night on the ABC, more like a Guantanamo Bay image than you’d think in a part of our country,
MATT THISTLETHWAITE:
Yeah as I said, no child deserves to be treated like that, Kieran. And that image of a child strapped to a chair with a hood on is akin to torture, and that’s – there’s no place for that any place in the world, let alone Australia, and if the Northern Territory Government was aware of this footage, if I was the Prime Minister I would have been asking the Chief Minister Adam Giles on that phone call, were you aware of this? And if you were, why haven’t you done anything about it? And this needs to be fully investigated in any Royal Commission that’s established.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Yeah, indeed.
Let’s look at some other issues now – and Matt Thistlethwaite to you first of all – in terms of the domestic debate right now, we’re seeing a lot of discussion on industrial relations. The Prime Minister responding to the Opposition Leader when it comes and standing firm, saying that they’ve got the right prescription for this and that the Labor Party needs to get on board, including the Fair Work Commission remaining independent as opposed to any intervention, as suggested by Mr Shorten.
MATT THISTLETHWAITE:
Well Bill Shorten’s put forward a reasonable and sensible proposal and it’s not unusual for government to make submissions to enquiries that are conducted by the Fair Work Commission. In fact the government has standing under the legislation to do so, and if the Prime Minister is all about protecting penalty rates as the Labor Party is, then you’ll join with us in a joint submission that emphasises the importance of penalty rates for liveable incomes, particularly for low-paid workers in Australia, and urge the independent commission to protect those penalty rates in any review that they’re conducting. This is a reasonable and sensible approach for Bill Shorten to be taking, and it reflect Labor’s commitment to protecting penalty rates in Australia.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Okay, Senator Ryan your reaction to that? Because it was certainly a consistent theme throughout the campaign from them.
SCOTT RYAN:
Let us get the facts correct on this. This inquiry by the Fair Work Commission is the result of changes to the legislation made by Bill Shorten. This particular inquiry is the result of work by Bill Shorten when he was the minister, to give the Fair Work Commission the power over these issues. Now, the Government supports the fact that there is an independent umpire that makes these decisions, and we’re not going to partake in a stunt by Bill Shorten to try and walk away from the fact that this particular initiative by the Fair Work Commission is the result of his work when he was workplace relations minister. There’s an independent umpire. It’s quite capable of making a decision independently and it should be allowed to do so.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Let’s – I want to wrap up with something that is in your area of responsibility specifically as Special Minister of State, Senator Ryan. In relation to the timetable for a plebiscite on same-sex marriage, given the various requirements under a plebiscite, if it is to be run in the way that a referendum is, you would have to move very quickly when Parliament returns at the end of August if you want that vote to be done by the end of the year. Is it possible?
SCOTT RYAN:
Kieran, the Electoral Commission would be the authority that would organise a plebiscite on behalf of the Commonwealth and I’ll be honest, they’re in the second busiest and one of the most important times of their three-yearly cycle and that is counting all the votes. So I’ll be meeting with the Electoral Commissioner next week about this and a range of other matters flowing from the election, but I think we should allow the Electoral Commission to do its prime function after allowing people to vote, and that’s counting the votes. And then Senator Brandis will be preparing the legal aspects of a plebiscite and I’ll be bringing forward a joint submission with him for Cabinet consideration on the mechanics. But I just think we should let the Electoral Commission undertake its prime task of counting the votes at the moment, and I’ll have more to say after I meet with the Commissioner and take a submission to Cabinet in the coming weeks. But I do (inaudible, interrupted) …
KIERAN GILBERT:
(interrupts) So it sounds like it’s unlikely then, that the plebiscite is possible this side of, within, before Christmas.
SCOTT RYAN:
No, look my – having looked at the calendar myself, I think it’s entirely possible, I think it’s entirely achievable, and I think Kieran, the key question here is will Bill Shorten and the Labor Party respect the mandate gained by the Coalition Government to take this issue to the people via a plebiscite? If the Labor Party respect the mandate of the people at the election, then it’s entirely achievable.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Matt Thistlethwaite, almost out of time but there’s got to come a point where Labor does do that surely, if you want the outcome to be legalising of same-sex marriage, marriage equality, then you would think that you’ve got to get on board with the plebiscite and argue the case for it.
MATT THISTLETHWAITE:
Well Kieran, the Government can’t even work out if they’re going to have a plebiscite and when they’re going to have it. Confusion and uncertainty reign again in this Government. Look we don’t need a costly plebiscite on this issue. The Australian people’s views have been quite clear in published polls for over the last five years. They want marriage equality. Labor believes we should just get on with it, we should have a free vote in the Parliament. MPs across the board should do the jobs that they’ve been elected to do, represent their constituencies, put their views in a conscience vote. Let’s just get on with it and enact marriage equality in Australia.
KEIRAN GILBERT:
We’re out of time, Matt Thistlethwaite and Special Minister of State Scott Ryan, thank you, we’ll talk to both of you soon.
(ENDS)