Transcript – Money News – 14 March 2013

Money News – 2GB

With Ross Greenwood

14 March 2013

7:15pm

E & OE

ROSS GREENWOOD:

Welcome back to Money News. I’ll tell you what I want to do very quickly before we take your calls on those penalty rates, I know there are a lot of calls on the board, I appreciate those, stick around, we’ll get to you very shortly. I want to go to Senator Mitch Fifield, because, quite clearly these media laws, which I was talking to Harold Mitchell about, have been absolutely important, because, what you had was Senator Stephen Conroy, the communications minister, saying that these laws that he had drafted were going to go through the House of Representatives and the Senate without any amendment, without any genuine review, in the space of a week, and if they didn’t go through in that week unchanged, then they wouldn’t go through at all. There have been some rumblings from the cross-benches in the House of Representatives. In particular Rob Oakeshott, has certainly been saying plenty about it. On top of that Craig Thomson said he would not support them, but then the Coalition said they would not take his vote. So in the Senate, it is going to be very interesting to see what happens there. Senator Mitch Fifield, the Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate is with us now. Thanks for your time Mitch.

MITCH FIFIELD:

Good evening Ross.

ROSS GREENWOOD:

What happened in the Senate today?

MITCH FIFIELD:

The Labor Party did what we expected. We know that they are trying to gag the media through the legislation they’ve introduced. They are now trying to gag debate in the parliament. This legislation the government wanted to have dealt with by a Senate committee, by Wednesday of next week. We moved an amendment in the Senate to push that date out to the 17^th of June so that we can have a fair dinkum inquiry. So that all stakeholders can have their say, so this Orwellian legislation can have the exposure and the scrutiny that it deserves.

ROSS GREENWOOD:

Are you likely to get that up or not? Because the Greens are more likely going to support you on that aren’t they?

MITCH FIFIELD:

The Greens have supported us in kicking that date out to the 17^th of June, but in a sneaky manoeuvre today, the committee that the legislation has been referred to, which is government dominated, decided to set their own reporting date of Tuesday next week. So this time, next week, if Stephen Conroy has his way, this legislation will become law.

ROSS GREENWOOD:

The other point also was Craig Thomson in the House of Representatives. Now the Coalition today said they would not accept Craig Thomson’s vote. That could have some implications on whether the legislation is able to proceed through the House of Representatives.

MITCH FIFIELD:

Over in the House, they are masters of their own destiny. I hope that the legislation doesn’t get through there. But if it does, we are going to find ourselves in a situation where we’ve only had three and a half days of scrutiny for this legislation.  Compare that to the National Disability Insurance Scheme which is something that we all agree on. It’s complex legislation. That had three and a half months of scrutiny. But Stephen Conroy doesn’t want the Australian Parliament to have that opportunity.

ROSS GREENWOOD:

It is interesting, because there are three big issues today. One of them is the National Disability Insurance Scheme which has got bi-partisan support to get through. Number two is this media law, which clearly as you say is being rammed through. Number three, the other one that came up today, the Prime Minister suggested that penalty rates would be enshrined in law which clearly the Coalition does not support.

MITCH FIFIELD:

This is just a stunt. The Coalition has no intention of undermining penalty rates. This is just a distraction. The Prime Minister is looking for those everywhere she can. But the really concerning thing Ross, with the Government’s legislative agenda is, my fear is that next week the Government will give priority to these media laws over the National Disability Insurance Scheme legislation, which is yet to pass the Senate. And we need to have that legislation through the Parliament so that the NDIS can kick off on the 1^st of July. It would be appalling if the Government prioritised these Orwellian media laws over the NDIS.

ROSS GREENWOOD:

Senator Mitch Fifield, the Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate on what was taking place there today. We appreciate your time.

MITCH FIFIELD:

Thanks Ross.