30 April, 2012
Sky News AM Agenda
With Kieran Gilbert and Nick Champion MP
30 April 2012
8:45am
E & OE
Subjects: Craig Thomson, Peter Slipper, NDIS
KIERAN GILBERT:
Joining me now from Melbourne, Liberal frontbencher Senator Mitch Fifield and from Adelaide, Labor MP Nick Champion, gentleman good morning. Good to see you Nick I want to ask you if you’re comfortable with the Prime Minister’s judgement in the way she’s managed Slipper and Thomson issues over the weekend?
NICK CHAMPION:
Well of course. I mean the Prime Minister’s returned from Turkey, returned from Anzac Day to Australia, made a decision, and you know, that decision is pretty strong, it’s pretty clear. I think it does the right thing by the Parliament and the right thing by the Australian Labor Party, so I have absolutely no questions about the Prime Minister’s judgement. I think she’s acted as she always acts, in the national interest and decisively.
KIERAN GILBERT:
You don’t think she should have done it sooner?
NICK CHAMPION:
Well look, I think Thommo in his press conference himself said well with the benefit of hindsight, he might have done it sooner, or someone might have initiated it sooner. I don’t think anybody has 20/20 vision, I don’t think anybody can see into the future, and so I think hindsight is always one of those things you know. You’ll always have second guesses out there, and professional armchair critics, but that’s what journalism is always about. What we have is a Prime Minister who’s acted decisively to protect the reputation of the parliament and the reputation of the Australian Labor Party. I think she should be applauded for it.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Well action has now been taken Senator Fifield, and Craig Emerson you heard him arguing passionately that there are precedents within Coalition ranks where people have faced criminal investigations and yet stayed in the parliament and voted with the Coalition. So isn’t it now a bit rich for the Coalition to be saying Craig Thomson shouldn’t even be allowed to vote in the parliament?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Look these are hardly comparable circumstances. This government for the best part of four years has taken no action to address the allegations against Craig Thomson. This Prime Minister, despite Fair Work Australia working at a glacial pace, has not at any stage sought to progress the inquiries into Craig Thomson. She contended, time and again, that no action was necessary, that she had full confidence in Craig Thomson. Then all of a sudden, we have the Prime Minister saying that a line has been crossed. She can’t tell us what that line is, where it is, or how it’s been crossed. She is trying to give the illusion that she has taken action. I know Nick said that she has taken decisive action but she’s actually done nothing. She says that he will not be part of the Labor Party, that his membership has been suspended. He hasn’t been expelled from the Labor Party, he hasn’t resigned from the Labor Party. He’s been suspended. I don’t know what that means. But we do know that he sees himself as a Labor man, and that he will continue to caucus with the Labor Party by voting with the Labor Party. The only thing that’s happening here is that he won’t physically attend caucus meetings. This is a con and a sham. It reminds me of the old World Championship Wrestling. Julia Gillard has said to Craig Thomson, look, I’m going to throw a punch. You take a dive. Tap the mat, and hopefully everyone will think that we’ve done something real. This is a con and a sham. She has done nothing.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Nick Champion, the Prime Minister has said that the Slipper and Thomson scandals combined had created a lack of respect for the parliament, that a line had been crossed. It didn’t sound too convincing to be honest yesterday when she made that argument or that statement because really nothing had changed in either case. It seems all about political expediency.
NICK CHAMPION:
Look, I don’t think that’s the case, I think that Prime Ministers have an intuition about what the Australian people think. They need to have that intuition to become Prime Minister, and I think Julia Gillard made a decision on a return from Turkey, from the Anzac Day commemorations over there that really, a line had to be drawn under both these sagas. She’s done that. She’s protected the parliament; she’s protected the Australian Labor Party.
MITCH FIFIELD:
You’ve hit the nail on the head there. It’s about protecting the Australian Labor Party. That’s what this is all about providing the perception that something’s being done.
NICK CHAMPION:
Well Mitch, I didn’t interrupt your constant assertions that the Prime Minister should have interfered in Fair Work Australia and interfered in other independent investigations.
MITCH FIFIELD:
It’s not interfering to ask them to do their job. That’s not interfering.
NICK CHAMPION:
Actually it is, that’s the very definition of interference.
MITCH FIFIELD:
To ask them to do their job is not interfering.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Can we please leave Nick to answer and then I’ll come back to Mitch. Our viewers are getting increasingly as frustrated as I am. Let’s just stick to it Nick, your answer.
NICK CHAMPION:
Well Mitch’s intervention what was the question again, I’ve forgotten it.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Well the point is, let’s go back to the bottom line in this. Michelle Grattan writes about this in The Age today, that the Prime Minister, she believes, has to fall on her sword. That it’s got to the point that no one is listening to her, and she doesn’t have any credibility in the electorate, and you have to make a change. I know you backed Kevin Rudd last time; surely there must be some sense now that you’ve got to take another look at the leadership question?
NICK CHAMPION:
Look, the caucus made the decision and I abide by it one hundred per cent. I don’t think there is any appetite to revisit that decision. We’ve made it, and basically we’ve got to get on with the process of government. And look, if you look at the fundamentals, we’re about to deliver a budget surplus, inflation is low, employment is low, there’s plenty of room now to cut interest rates, and interest rates are lower than they were under the Coalition. So the economic fundamentals in this country are extradordinary, particularly given the state of the rest of the world. And I think that it might just be better for everybody to maybe focus on those things, and focus on those challenges, how we’re going to deal with the problems of Europe and America and increasingly I think some of the issues around a carbon-constrained world. We’d be much better off, all of us, looking at the policy issues that face us, rather than these constant sagas. And I think what the Prime Minister’s action yesterday does, is to draw a line under both those things. To exclude Craig from the caucus, which is pretty much the worst thing that can happen to a Labor man, I think is the most extreme thing that can happen to a Labor person, to be excluded from the forums of the Party. I think it draws a line under both those things. It allows the independent investigations to go on, and we should really just get back to dealing with the issues that ordinary people want, because I can tell you, I went to the footy on Saturday and not one person raised Craig Thomson or Peter Slipper with me.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Senator Fifield, these issues or scandals, however you want to describe them, they don’t reflect well on any party, particularly when you think that Peter Slipper was for decades a member of your party. It just reflects badly, you must agree with the Prime Minister on that, on the parliament more generally, and you’ve got to, the Coalition, take some ownership of Peter Slipper.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well if there are things that happened which warrant investigation from earlier in Peter Slipper’s career then of course that should happen. But there are a couple of pretty self-evident points here. One is that Peter Slipper is not a member of the Liberal Party of Australia. The other, is that the Australian Labor Party nominated and supported Peter Slipper to be Speaker. That’s not something that we ever did. We never put Peter Slipper in the most senior position in the Australian Parliament. The Labor Party did and they must have had confidence in him. This is the Speakership that the Australian Labor Party own. We had Craig Emerson a few days ago, and Anthony Albanese, saying that the release of cabcharge dockets by Peter Slipper effectively cleared him and that he should resume the chair. Then all of a sudden, we have the Prime Minister, again saying when she had previously contended that Peter Slipper had her confidence, that he had to stand aside and stay stood aside. We think that that was the right call, but why didn’t she make it weeks ago? I think the reason is one that Nick actually alluded to before when he said that the Prime Minister has acted to protect the Australian Labor Party. That’s what this is about. It’s not motivated by concerns of the reputation of the parliament or the integrity of the parliament. It’s in order to protect the Australian Labor Party and Greg Combet also this morning said that the purpose of the Prime Minister’s decision in both cases was to give the Government clear air. Not the integrity of considerations, which the Prime Minister was putting forward. And again, we don’t know what has changed; we don’t know what line has been crossed. Craig Emerson tried to explain it this morning; he said that it was a convergence of perceptions. I don’t know what that means. The Prime Minister needs to explain.
KIERAN GILBERT:
I want to ask you about one last issue before we go as we’re going to run out of time, and this is a very important issue to many Australians. The Every Australian Counts Rally today at midday around the country in all the capital cities, this is supporting the National Disability Insurance Scheme. As I say, rallies in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart. Senator Fifield, you will be attending the Melbourne rally at midday in Federation Square.
MITCH FIFIELD:
I will. It’s great that the Every Australian Counts campaign is having rallies around Australia. I’ll be there speaking, making clear that the Coalition supports a National Disability Insurance Scheme. It’s an idea whose time has come. People with disability need it. I expect that there will be money in this budget for an NDIS. I hope there is, and if there is, we will support it. The time is now, the time has come to make an NDIS a reality and I would encourage everyone who has the time at noon. Jump on the NDIS website ‘Every Australian Counts’, see where your local rally is, get along, and show your support.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Ok Nick Champion, there is bipartisanship on that front at least.
NICK CHAMPION:
Oh well look, this is something that the Prime Minister has championed and she has advanced. It is an issue that’s dear to Labor’s heart, and it’s exactly the sort of issue we would prefer the parliament to be discussing, rather than the constant shallowness of the opposition’s agenda. So it’s exactly the sort of thing that we should have spent this morning talking about, these sorts of policies disability, aged care reform, and other things that are important to Australian families.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Nick and Senator Fifield thanks for your time. If you do want details on that then you can find it on EveryAustralianCounts.com.au is the website, EveryAustralianCounts.com.au. And for details on the rallies you can find it on that website. Also if you can’t make it to one of those rallies, you can express support for the NDIS via that website. There is a way to do that, to join the campaign, and to at least put your name to it and back it on that website. That’s all we’ve got time for this morning. It’s good to end on at least some bipartisanship after a fiery discussion this morning here on AM Agenda. We’ll see you next time.