25 March, 2013
Sky News AM Agenda
With Kieran Gilbert and Andrew Leigh MP
25 March 2013
8:45am
E & OE
Subjects: Gillard Government reshuffle, Labor leadership
KIERAN GILBERT:
With me from Melbourne now, Liberal frontbencher Senator Mitch Fifield and Labor MP Andrew Leigh here in the Canberra studio. Andrew Leigh, a promotion for you today? Can we expect one?
ANDREW LEIGH:
Kieran, I’ll always be promoting the Labor Party’s great policies and that’s the job of a backbencher.
KIERAN GILBERT:
In terms of the reshuffle, you’re being discussed as a possible appointment?
ANDREW LEIGH:
These are all matters for the Prime Minister and she’ll announce them when she’s ready to do so.
KIERAN GILBERT:
And you’ll be happy to take on a few additional responsibilities if called upon?
ANDREW LEIGH:
My feeling is if you’re elected as a Labor member, the Prime Minister asks you to do something, you do it. But also serving the people of Fraser is pretty much a full time job, I’ve got either the most or second most populous electorate in Australia so it keeps me busy getting around to the community functions.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Ok. Anthony Albanese’s not only going to retain his job but he’s going to be promoted to take the Regional Development portfolio from Simon Crean. Is that an olive branch to those that were Rudd supporters?
ANDREW LEIGH:
I certainly heard those rumours around, I haven’t seen anything confirmed. My general view of Anthony Albanese
KIERAN GILBERT:
It has been confirmed to me this morning. It was revealed by Laurie Oakes a bit earlier. It’s been confirmed to me separately.
ANDREW LEIGH:
Ok. You have your sources; I will wait for the Prime Minister to make these announcements. I’ve known Anthony Albanese for twenty years and he’s a stalwart of the Labor movement, somebody who’s passionate about his portfolio and also about the Labor cause.
KIERAN GILBERT:
But is it important not to have any more retribution? We saw the bloodletting on Friday. That was seen as, I suppose, inevitable with some ministers going, but is it important now to not have any further retribution or fallout?
ANDREW LEIGH:
If it is, assuming its true that Anthony Albanese is staying as I would fully expect, it’s a great thing. If I’ve heard him once I’ve heard him say a thousand times, this government has invested more, twice as much in roads as the previous government, four times as much in rail and as much in urban public transport as every government since federation combined. And that’s testament to his hard work in that portfolio and his passion for policy.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Senator Fifield, well this does give the Prime Minister some clear air finally. The Rudd factor’s been dealt with, he says he won’t return to the leadership under any circumstances. It gives the opportunity to have a tighter, more disciplined unit.
MITCH FIFIELD:
I can’t see how the Prime Minister has any clear air at all. We’ve seen one of the greatest debacles that any government has presided over in the last week. I can’t see, just coming back to Anthony Albanese, how he can possibly retain his job. I’d feel pretty cheesed off I think if I was Simon Crean. His great sin in all this was to be up front, to be open and to share with the Australian people the true state of this government. We’ve had Anthony Albanese who on the floor of the Parliament counts the numbers to try and keep Julia Gillard as Prime Minister, but when he’s outside the chamber he helps to count the numbers to try and knock her off as Prime Minister. How he can be there on the floor of the House of Representatives, as the face of the government, as the face of stability, as the face of unity is a joke. Kieran, we’re fifty days out from the next budget
KIERAN GILBERT:
But Senator Fifield, you’ve got to admit though that on the Coalition side its not all love and goodwill, is it either? And you know that there have been contests had, there are different personalities that don’t get on in the Coalition side. That’s just the reality of politics. John Howard and Peter Costello had a good government for more than a decade and they weren’t the best of friends from memory.
MITCH FIFIELD:
You don’t have to be close. You don’t have to be the best of friends. But what you do have to be is professional and what you have to do each and every day that you’re in government is focus on the people’s business rather than your own business. We never saw a single leadership challenge when John Howard was Prime Minister. We never saw anything even come close to that. Yet we’ve had Kevin Rudd knocked off as Prime Minister. We’ve had a few attempts to knock Julia Gillard off as Prime Minister. We’ve had the only adults in this cabinet in Simon Crean, Chris Bowen and Martin Ferguson pull the pin. We’ve had them deliver a devastating critique of this government. And Kieran, I’ve got to disagree. I don’t think that that leads to clear air.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Alright your thoughts on that Andrew, your response. Because that, Senator Fifield obviously isn’t on his own and it has been such a debacle the last few days. Has it done irreparable damage?
ANDREW LEIGH:
Kieran, I think Mitch is absolutely right. The job of politics is focussing on the people that put you in Parliament. And what you’ve seen from this government and what you’re going to see is our focus on talking about reforms. We put a price on carbon pollution not because it was politically easy to do so but because we realised it was the best way of dealing with climate change. We’re building the National Broadband Network because you need to put in place twenty-first century infrastructure.
KIERAN GILBERT:
But beyond those policies that you talk about there’s a philosophical battle within the Labor Party right now as to where it’s going. We saw Martin Ferguson and Simon Crean expressing the views of what is understood to be the feeling among many in the Labor Party that the class warfare, the division, that sort of rhetoric is just antiquated. That you need to return to the Hawke-Keating era of reforms and focus on targeting the middle ground. Do you sympathise with that view?
ANDREW LEIGH:
Kieran, the Labor Party is the party of ideas. And so it’s not for us to be bomb throwing and engaging in negativity. You will see discussions about the nation’s future being carried out much more seriously in the Labor Party and I’ve made a small contribution to that in arguing that the small-L liberalism legacy is naturally one that lies to Labor and now that the Opposition has become a party that’s essentially just conservatives that want to say no to absolutely everything. But the big difference in Australian politics is between the parties. It’s between the knockers and wreckers in the Opposition and the builders on my side of parliament. And so when we’re talking about the National Disability Insurance Scheme, it’s a measure which I’m pleased to see the Opposition has supported, I suspect Senator Fifield had a key role in that but this never would have come about under a Coalition government. This is a core Labor reform. DisabilityCare Australia will leave Australia far better off.
KIERAN GILBERT:
I’ve been advised that Jason Clare is also going to be promoted to cabinet today, the first time that the Minister for Justice portfolio has had full cabinet status. Do you welcome that?
ANDREW LEIGH:
Jason’s a great parliamentary performer, somebody who cares deeply about his portfolio. He’s also I think, one of the best storytellers in the federal parliament and I think he’s the only person that I’ve heard answer a question in question time and just told a story. It was a lovely tale about a helicopter coming down to rescue an elderly woman during the floods. So Jason’s ability to connect with people and that’s one of the things that comes back to me so often when I’m in my electorate talking to locals.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Ok. Senator Fifield, so this is the Prime Minister’s chance today to put forward her election team. Is it now the challenge for the Coalition to maintain the discipline? Is that your key focus? What are the risks involved here for the Coalition given how far ahead you are in the polls and the shambles that we’ve seen from the Labor Party over recent days.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Kieran, we’ll continue to maintain discipline. We’ll continue to be focussed on the people’s business. And we’ll continue to articulate our positive plan for the nation which starts with abolishing the carbon tax, abolishing the mining tax, putting local control in hospital boards, making sure that we have schools that are locally controlled. We’ve got a big agenda. We want to retire the debt. We want to help government get back to living within its means. We want to reduce a billion dollar burden in terms of red tape from small business. So we’ve got a strong plan, we’re going to keep talking about that plan. We know what the government is going to do in contrast. They’re going to keep talking about themselves. It doesn’t matter if the Prime Minister brings in the people like Andrew Leigh who is someone of ability. We’re still going to have the problem of a Prime Minister who can’t be trusted. Who tells lies to the Australian people. We’re still going to have a Treasurer who can’t balance a budget. And we’re still going to have in Stephen Conroy, a Communications Minister who cannot rollout a fast broadband network for the nation. So as long as you’ve got Conroy, Swan and Julia Gillard at the helm of this Government, they’re going to have big problems and the Australian people aren’t going to get the quality of government that they deserve.
KIERAN GILBERT:
Senator Mitch Fifield and Labor MP Andrew Leigh, possibly Labor frontbencher, we’ll see you a bit later this morning. Thank you very much for that.