Topics: Greek debt crisis, Prime Minister’s visit to Singapore, ABC’s Q&A program, Labor’s boat turnbacks policy.

E&OE…

KIERAN GILBERT
With me on the program to discuss this and other issues is Liberal frontbencher Senator Scott Ryan, and Labor frontbencher Amanda Rishworth. Good morning to you both.

Senator Ryan, to you on the Greek crisis, we have seen the impact on the markets, if you listen to Richard Quest it is only the start. If Greece is to leave the Eurozone as many expect they will given the looming referendum at the weekend, we saw billions wiped off our markets yesterday.

SENATOR RYAN

Firstly it is important to note that Australia has very little direct exposure to the Greek crisis, there is that secondary impact what the correspondent mentioned there and what you mentioned about the impacts on the markets, so, we are monitoring developments. I think the important thing to note is that this is the tragedy of what happens when year after year governments live beyond their means. So what is happening to people in Greece, particularly young people where there is 50 per cent youth unemployment, is a real travesty, because for years and years before that, governments have refused to face up to the real economic challenges of balancing budgets. And sadly what we are seeing happen over there at the moment is the consequence of that.

GILBERT

So, in terms of exposure to a precarious economic situation right now, you have suggested that the movements in China and their volatile stock market is probably more important in terms of our economic prospects.

RYAN

Without meaning to dismiss the seriousness of what is happening in Europe, Greece is a much smaller economy than Australia. As we showed in the Global Financial Crisis, Australia has one of the most resilient, secure financial systems. So we have exposure through the secondary impacts of markets, share markets and stock prices, but Australia’s economy is much more plugged in to that of our region and North America.

GILBERT

Ok, Amanda Rishworth your take on all of this right now and where to, I guess no one really knows, but for Australia there will be flow on effects, there is risk of a contagion across those peripheral countries of Europe as they are called to…(inaudible)…particular crisis. But what is your take on it all, the implications for us?

AMANDA RISHWORTH

As you both mentioned there isn’t a huge direct impact on Australia but of course there is regional instability, and global instability which is, of course, a concern for Australia. Australia is plugged into the global economy and we have to continue to watch this very closely. This is why we need to ensure that our economy is resilient, our economy is strong and unfortunately under the Liberal Party’s watch we have seen the deficit double, unemployment grow and confidence smashed. And despite the Liberal Party trying to paper up the Budget in this most recent budget, there is still big cuts to essential services and no real improvement on jobs and employment. Really what would be good, would be if the Liberal Party and the Government put some confidence back in the economy and some resilience because that is what will get us through some difficult global shocks.

GILBERT

But in terms of comparisons to Greece though, they are always overdone aren’t they, whether it was you in opposition or others now as you quite rightly point out, this economy, this country is very different. The size of the Greek economy is a fraction of the size of the New South Wales economy.

RYAN

It is, I don’t think we ever made comparisons Kieran, I think the point is that there are lessons from Greece. The lesson is that you need to balance budgets; particularly you need to balance budgets over the cycle. Governments cannot provide jobs for everyone. I notice Amanda there was complaining about the Budget deficit, we tried to do a lot more on that and Labor stopped us at every step along the way until recently where they had a slight change of heart. In fact, Labor stopped us from implementing their promises to balance the Budget.

GILBERT

Labor is being more constructive in recent weeks, is this a recognition Amanda Rishworth that Labor is – if you do win the election that you will have to get things on track fiscally as well?

RISHWORTH

Well, we have always said that we will actually work responsibly with the Government on fiscal issues and if there are savings measures that we think that we can support we will, but what we won’t do is rip money out of families, rip money from pensioners because that goes to the point of confidence in our economy. If we are telling consumers, families and pensioners: don’t have confidence, we are going to really attack your pay packet and the money you have to spend, well then that will affect confidence. If people don’t have the confidence that they can get a good health and education when they need it that will affect confidence. The Government has really hit confidence in the economy and that is a really important element to ensure we have a resilient economy that can make it through big global shocks. Now Scott has changed his tune a lot since he was in opposition and no doubt the Government, but we will be responsible but what we won’t do is attack families, pensioners and confidence in the Australian economy.

GILBERT

Let’s look at the Prime Minister, he wrapped up his trip to Singapore and held a news conference with his Singaporean counterpart and had this to say at the news conference.

(Clip of the Prime Minister of Australia at the Singaporean press conference)

GILBERT

Senator Ryan that was an interesting comment, obviously he is very aware of the domestic audience – and the Singaporean Leader smiling along, perhaps he is aware of the political pressures domestically for every leader, it was a bit awkward.

RYAN

I actually think it is a real positive, I think one of the changed community expectations in the last decade of politics is that things like international relations and trade politics is that they expect a lot more involvement than they did twenty or thirty years ago. I think the Prime Minister there was making the point that I think Australians are grateful that the Prime Minister has at the forefront of his mind, that when we go overseas we are doing it to improve job opportunities, business opportunities for Australians and their families.

GILBERT

Amanda Rishworth, your take on that?

RISHWORTH

Well I think he must have had a flashback to when he was in opposition constantly criticising the good work that was done by the Labor government in terms of international connections, international trades, and working with our international community. He must have had a flashback moment, it doesn’t happen all that often, where he actually felt a little embarrassed about all those criticisms he made. I think it also shows that perhaps Tony Abbot hasn’t quite grasped the aspect of diplomacy, probably needs to keep working on it and try and grapple with the fact that he is not opposition leader anymore that he is the Prime Minister and he needs to actually act like it.

GILBERT

Before we go to a break, Senator Ryan, in that circumstance when you have a world leader next to you is that the time to be sending domestic messages, so explicitly as the Prime Minister did?

RYAN

We have a particularly close relationship with Singapore, so in many ways it is not just a normal international press conference. But I actually think this change in community expectations is something that the Prime Minister is responding to with that comment, and I think that is the sort of thing that generates confidence in things like the China Australia Free Trade Agreement and the Trans Pacific Partnership coming up. I think people expect it…

(Interrupted)

GILBERT

To show people that they have a stake in it, that it is not just hob-nobbing or a talk fest.

RYAN

Yes, and to explain to people that these very complex arrangements are actually really about them and their families, and their small businesses and the opportunities they have. I think the Prime Minister is addressing those expectations appropriately.

GILBERT

We have got to go to a break, back in just a moment with Amanda Rishworth and Senator Scott Ryan.

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GILBERT

This is AM Agenda, with me this morning the Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Senator Scott Ryan, and the Shadow Assistant Education Minister, Amanda Rishworth. Let’s look at this ongoing drama, it is over a week now from the offending program, the Q&A program. Last night Tony Jones started the program by saying that not every bit of information that became available after the program were they aware of when deciding the attendance of Zaky Mallah that evening, we have seen the apology from Mark Scott. Senator Ryan, what more do you want to see from the ABC? They do seem apologetic about how that all transpired.

RYAN

I notably made the comment here about a month ago, Kieran, that I found my weeks started better when I don’t watch Q&A. But I did catch up on last week’s program and I did tune in for a few minutes last night, given the public debate. The question that I haven’t had answered is: we have national campaigns against bullying in schools, against bullying and violence in the workplace, and against the national tragedy of domestic violence against women and children. What I haven’t had answered is why on earth did the ABC think it appropriate to have someone who had pled guilty to effectively threatening violence in the workplace, in this case against officers serving our nation and trying to protect our own security which makes it, in my opinion, a much more grave offence. Why at any point did the ABC think it appropriate, given they did know that, to actually have that person on?

GILBERT

But they’ve apologised, three different reviews being undertaken into the program.

RYAN

But I think last night, I missed the first few minutes, but the reports I read said that Tony Jones apologised on the basis that they didn’t know about the person’s tweet about two female journalists that came to prominence last week; that doesn’t address the question. In this case they never said weren’t aware of his convictions, they said they helped sourced the guy. We have national campaigns against violence in the workplace, violence against women and children. Why on earth did anyone think it was appropriate to have a person with this criminal record to give them a national platform on those issues?

GILBERT

Amanda Rishworth, your take on all that? Do you think the ABC has, you know, done enough in terms of response or should heads roll as the Prime Minister has said?

RISHWORTH

Look, I think we’ve got to see the outcomes of the reviews; we certainly have seen three reviews being launched into how this happened. I think it was a mistake by the ABC, but we are now having an investigation and looking at the evidence about how it came about, what were the decision making processes. And obviously from that, from those reviews, there will be recommendations. I think we’ve got to wait and see all the details of that and actually respond to those recommendations and those reviews when all the evidence is on the table. Like I said, I think a mistake was made but I think we’ve got to wait and see the outcome. I certainly don’t think we should see this as an excuse, generally, to make cuts to the ABC; I think the ABC does a very good job. They made a mistake this time, but let’s not use this as a justification to make cuts to the ABC our attack our ABC. It’s an important public institution and let’s see what the reviews have to say, let’s see what the recommendations are.

GILBERT

One of your colleagues Senator Ryan, Ewen Jones from the seat around Townsville, Herbert is it?

RYAN

Yes.

GILBERT

He was critical of Alan Tudge’s decision to boycott the program last night. He says that you can be critical of the show but still engage with the audience.

RYAN

To be fair to what Ewen said, I saw the tweet and some of the coverage of it, I don’t think he was being critical of a colleague. I think he was making the general point that there were some not in our Party, which I don’t believe, but there were some who were trying to describe something as a boycott; as has been made clear that is not the case. I don’t think there was an inconsistency between the point Ewen was making, which is it’s better to put the argument…

GILBERT

But you also believe that government members should continue to take part in the program even though the Prime Minister describes it as a lefty-lynch mob?

RYAN

Well look, one of the most amusing things about Q&A is when they read out the percentage of the audience that votes Liberal. And I think we can use the simple applause-ometer and political judgement to know that Labor, Greens and Liberals who all appear know that those numbers don’t reflect any group of Liberal voters I’ve ever seen. So the point is, is Q&A a show that veers to the left? Yes it does. Last night I think Tim Wilson got eleven words out before Tony Jones started interrupting him, trying to correct him. But that’s ok, Liberals are confident in mounting our arguments. It’s a judgement for each individual and I’m not going to advise my colleagues publicly, and I don’t think they would advise…

(Interrupted)

GILBERT

Let’s finish off on asylum seeker policy, and this very difficult policy for Labor; it has been for years. It continues to be so, Amanda Rishworth, on boat turnbacks do you think Labor should support the retention of boat turnbacks as part of the asylum seeker policy?

RISHWORTH

Well look, obviously we’ve got real concerns and we don’t know the details of what the government’s doing when it comes to boat turnbacks. We’ve constantly said that we’ve got concerns about safety at sea as well as the impact that it has on our relationship with Indonesia. But we are working through what I think are, what it’s fair to say, very, very complex policy. We have been very clear that we don’t want to see the route from Java to Australia open for people smugglers and that is why we moved to our regional processing solution that’s actually had a big impact on that awful trade of people smuggling.

GILBERT

Do you agree with Joel Fitzgibbon that he believes that boat turnbacks, there’s an argument to be made for keeping them, in a humanitarian sense, because they play a part in preventing deaths at sea?

RISHWORTH

Well, there is no doubt that whatever we can do to stop deaths at sea we need to pursue, but when it comes to boat turnbacks Joel has expressed his view. We are working through that as a party, but as I said the government has been incredibly secretive about it. There has been, of course, issues come to light that we are not clear about..

GILBERT

But it has worked.

RISHWORTH

Well we’re not clear about who was paid, whether people smugglers were paid or not. The government will not tell us anything, the Australian people more importantly anything about their policy, how much money was paid for boat turnbacks, how it is working, are there any risks to navy personnel and other Australian personnel. So, I think there’s a lot of questions to be answered of us but we will work through it because I am absolutely united with Joel and the Labor Party in saying we do not want to see deaths at sea and people smugglers profit as a result of vulnerable people

GILBERT

Senator Ryan?

RYAN

Well, all the words Amanda used there illustrate Labor’s obfuscation; they say one thing, but the simple point is they won’t do what is necessary to stop the people smuggling trade. This is a great example of politics in the modern era where we’re not arguing in theory, Kieran, we’re arguing about what happened historically. We had the Liberal Party under the previous coalition government stop the boats. Labor said exactly the sort of thing in 2007 that Amanda said then, and then the floods started because Labor wouldn’t take the necessary steps. Once again the Coalition government stopped the boats; the people of Australia want that, they’ve said it at election after election and they know that Labor’s heart’s not in it.

GILBERT

In terms of Scott Ryan’s comments and your statements before, Amanda Rishworth, I’ll finish with you. Do we basically have to wait until Labor’s next in office until you make it clear as to what your position is on boat turnbacks or will this be made clear, do you think, by conference?

RISHWORTH

Well of course it will be debated at our national conference, but the Labor Party and the Labor caucus, and indeed the shadow minister, will put a policy in front of the people before the next election. We are very clear about that, we’ve been very clear from the get-go that we are working through this and our policy will be there for all to see. We won’t be Tony Abbott who makes grand statements before an election, no cuts to pensions, not cuts to health, education and then do the exact opposite when in government. We’ll be clear, we’ll have our policies on the table and people will be off to make a judgement at the next election.

GILBERT

Alright we’re out of time, Amanda Rishworth, Senator Scott Ryan, thanks so much to both of you. Have a good day.

(ENDS)