Sky News AM Agenda
Kieran Gilbert and Mark Butler MP
16 August 2010
8:45am
E & OE
Subjects: Newspoll, Labor’s campaign launch, asylum seekers, town hall forum
KIERAN GILBERT:
Welcome back to AM Agenda. With me the Parliamentary Secretary for Heath Mark Butler. Hi Mark.
MARK BUTLER:
Hi Kieran.
GILBERT:
And joining me from Melbourne I’ve got the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities Senator Mitch Fifield. Senator Fifield, thank you for your time. I’ll come to you first of all. You’ve heard what Martin O’Shannessy had to say and Stephen Smith when it comes to these polls. But what’s your take on things at the moment? It seems both sides of politics agree this is very very close. But are you worried that Tony Abbott might have lost a bit of the momentum in this campaign?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Some of the polls are a little bit this way. Some are a little bit that way. But it’s extremely close. There’s no doubt that we are the underdogs. But the good news Kieran is, it’s only five more sleeps until the real poll. And the important thing for voters to consider as they walk into that polling booth is that if Labor’s re-elected they will get more waste, they’ll get more debt, they’ll get new taxes and the boats will continue to come. We hope we’ll hear today from Julia Gillard her agenda, her plan. But we’ll have to wait and see.
GILBERT:
Senator Fifield though, when it comes to economic management on that poll, it shows Labor has narrowed the margin from twelve points to just one point. So it seems their argument of raising doubts about Tony Abbott is proving more convincing than yours on waste and mismanagement.
FIFIELD:
We always said that Labor would run a vicious smear campaign against Tony Abbott and misrepresent his record, which is exactly what they’ve done. But the facts are clear. This government has driven the budget into deficit and debt. This government doesn’t have a plan to repay that debt. Labor always promise that they’ll be different when they win office. They always promise they’ll be economic conservatives. But once they’re in office, once they’re in that chair, it’s the same old story debt and deficit. Labor are again before an election saying that they’re economic conservatives and that they’ve got a plan to get the budget back into surplus. They’re already talking as though the budget is already back in surplus. Well it isn’t. It’s three years away on the best estimates if everything goes according to plan. And we know with Labor things never go according to plan.
GILBERT:
Mark Butler, the launch today is important for a number of reasons. But you can’t afford to give Mitch and the Coalition any room to move when it comes to this waste issue. It can’t be a big spending launch can it?
BUTLER:
It’s good to see that Mitch is willing to debate the economy. We wish that his leader was willing to debate Julia Gillard on the economy. We’ve been calling for this for a considerable period of time and Mitch recognises if Tony Abbott doesn’t, that the economy, the economic security of the nation and building jobs and prosperity for the future is the central issue of this campaign. To do that on the basis of a world-class education system. With world-class broadband. These are the issues that voters, you can see through the polls today, are increasingly focused on which is why we just don’t understand why Tony Abbott will not debate Julia Gillard on the economy.
GILBERT:
You can’t afford to spend too much though obviously. Needs to be a frugal launch today doesn’t it? Otherwise you blow all that out of the water.
BUTLER:
Look we’re still, Mitch might have forgotten about this. Tony Abbott clearly has. We’re still in the wake of the worst global financial crisis in 75 years. Many other nations, most other developed nations around the world are still feeling the very serious brunt of this. So yes, today needs to be a frugal campaign launch as the rest of our campaign has been frugal and sensible. It will be positive. It will be Julia Gillard setting out her economic plan for the future. It won’t be the negative sort of campaign launch you saw from the Liberals last week. Frankly, with a pretty serious streak of hubris, this will be a positive, sensible campaign launch.
GILBERT:
Is this her most important day of Julia Gillard’s career today?
BUTLER:
Well so far. We hope that Julia Gillard’s going to have a very long political career in front of us and many many important days . . .
GILBERT:
. . . But it’s a vital day that she gets this right.
FIFIELD:
That’s up to Mark and Bill . . .
BUTLER:
. . . This is a very important day for her. . .
FIFIELD:
. . . That’s up to Mark and Bill.
BUTLER:
This is a very important day for her. This is a very important day for the party. The campaign launch is where parties, the major parties are able to bring all of their messages together and make a pitch to the voters for their trust on election day. And that is Julia Gillard’s day today.
GILBERT:
Let’s go to Mitch Fifield on the issue of asylum seekers. Tony Abbott’s campaigning today Mitch, as we’ve been reporting this morning in Sydney’s west in a number of those marginal seats and the issue that he’s chosen to hit today is asylum seekers once again and suggesting that he would take the call from naval commanders and make the decision himself. Now is that going a bit too far? Logistically, can you really see that working?
FIFIELD:
Tony’s indicating that he’s prepared to take responsibility. He’s prepared to accept the advice of the defence personnel on the scene. But that ultimately the buck will stop with him. He’s the person we hope will be elected Prime Minister. If it shouldn’t be the elected Prime Minister of the day, the person who’s accountable to the public, the person who’s accountable to the Parliament who should take these sorts of decisions, then who should? Now in some circumstances it will be appropriate . . .
GILBERT:
. . . But I suppose the argument Senator Fifield is if they’re at sea and they’re under pressure and the naval crew’s under pressure, how could in practical terms, how could they afford the time to make the call to Canberra or Sydney?
FIFIELD:
Well in defence operations there are often circumstances where ADF personnel want to seek the view of the government of the day as to what the appropriate course of action is. And what Tony Abbott is saying is that he’s prepared to be available to take the final call. That’s accepting responsibility. That’s not the only element of our border protection plan obviously. We are going to put a phone call in to the President of Nauru on the first day of government to set up an offshore processing system. We have a bizarre situation where the Labor Party are pursuing an option in East Timor which we know will never occur. We’ve got concrete plans including offshore processing, temporary protection visas and Tony Abbott, as Prime Minster, who’s prepared to take responsibility and take the call when that’s needed.
GILBERT:
Ok, Mark Butler this is front page of today’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. Tony Abbott has made a lot of headway on this issue. Are you concerned that what Mitch is saying is an argument that will continue to resonate on this issue which has been a sleeper issue right throughout the whole campaign?
BUTLER:
What I’m concerned about is that Tony Abbott appears to now have delusions of Churchill style grandeur. This would be a gimmick bordering on farce if it wasn’t so serious and potentially dangerous. We train our professionals, the commanders of our border patrol authorities to take these decisions. And regardless of whether or not we agree with Tony Abbott’s policy of turning the boats back, even if we agreed with it, and we line up with Phillip Ruddock on this, we don’t think it’s a practical policy. It places our on service personnel at risk. But even if we did agree with it . . .
FIFIELD:
. . . Well you used to.
BUTLER:
Absolutely, the commander of our border patrol authorities has to take this decision. The idea that a politician sitting back in Canberra in the Prime Ministerial office or any other office can take this decision hundreds and hundreds of kilometres away is as I said, if it wasn’t so serious it would be bordering on farcical.
GILBERT:
But Mitch Fifield did say that the ADF does seek government and ministerial input at various times for operational matters.
BUTLER:
Well from time to time, operational decisions are asked for approval. But what Tony Abbott appears to be saying is he’s going to make the call. He’s going to take the decision whether or not a boat should be turned back given a range of operational circumstances that only the commander on the scene can really know about. So look this is a gimmick, but it’s bordering on dangerous. And really Tony Abbott’s got four or five days to step back from it because it would place our personnel in a very dangerous position and completely skews the idea of the decision making power we give to our commanders who are trained to make those.
GILBERT:
Senator Fifield, I’ll let you have a response to that.
FIFIELD:
Both Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd before the last election said that in circumstances where it was appropriate, they would turn back the boats, which is what we’re saying now. But of course Labor always have a different policy before an election to after an election. What we’re talking about is a Prime Minister in Tony Abbott who’s prepared to take responsibility. It’s something that this government runs from at every opportunity.
GILBERT:
Ok, one last quick one. We’ve got about a minute to go. This idea of a people’s forum. Julia Gillard will have to end up showing up to this won’t she, the town hall? Because how can you allow your opponent to have a town hall debate. Marginal seat voters and so on here in Brisbane and she wont show up.
BUTLER:
Well I’m sure Mitch Fifield’s putting in a plug for Melbourne voters as well to counter Tony Abbott’s view that only Brisbane voters count. But look, we’ve come half way here. We’ve been calling for an economic debate for weeks now. We’ve said look we’ll have the peoples forum provided there’s also an economic debate before it. Tony Abbott, it appears it’s all or nothing for Tony Abbott. The sort of hubris and arrogance that’s starting to creep into the campaign as they feel that they’re in front really beggars belief.
GILBERT:
Ok, why not have a compromise Senator Fifield? Mix it up. Half economic debate and then half forum. As they’ve said, it’s a compromise.
FIFIELD:
We want to see real people asking real questions and hopefully getting real answers from those who are putting themselves forward to be Prime Minster of Australia. This concept of the town hall style meeting I think is a good innovation. I think it’s an improvement on the traditional format of debates which we’ve seen before, which simply provide Julia Gillard the opportunity to deliver an opening statement which is her focused group tested lines. To then see her take questions from journalists and deliver more focused group tested lines. We think you can do better than that. There’s plenty of opportunity for journalists to ask questions. Let the people have their say.
GILBERT:
Senator Mitch Fifield and Mark Butler, appreciate your time gentlemen. That’s all for this edition of AM Agenda.
ENDS