| Subjects: Families in politics, Border Protection; Nuclear Power; Clive Palmer; Egging;
EO&E…………………………………………………………
AMANDA RISHWORTH:
Hardship story, what he was characterizing was the fact that, a lot of people don’t get to follow their dreams. They don’t get to realize their full potential in what they want to become. As he summed up is that his mother had to compromise, and I think what he was saying is that I don’t want to see young people today compromise in reaching their full potential and pursuing their passion and what they want to want to be, and what they want to choose to be their endeavor. So I think his story is quite common that there are a lot of women of that generation that didn’t get to have their first choice of career. Obviously she retrained as a lawyer at 50, which is great she was able to go back as a mature age student, but certainly I think a lot of people would relate to that story. But to somehow make this as an attack on Bill Shorten is quite ridiculous. And we’ve seen some newspaper outlets do that. I mean it really is grasping at straws and I think what he was talking about was a really important principle of young people getting to pursue their dreams, and I don’t think that’s a bad aspiration to have.
QUESTION:
Life is compromised most of the people listening to this, this conversation right now, think well we’ve all had to make sacrifices. There will be many people listening right now who had to leave high school maybe at year 9 or 10 and went off and did things and they’re not sitting around complaining about it that’s just life.
RISHWORTH:
This isn’t about complaining, this is about saying why should young people be forced to leave school and not finish, finish high school because of life’s circumstances. I don’t think it’s a bad aspiration, what Bill Shorten was talking about is the vision we want for the future, what type of future country and…
QUESTION:
Everybody’s, everybody’s dream comes true?
RISHWORTH: Well people get to fulfil their potential. Why not? Why not have people be able to fulfil their potential rather, and why not we do everything we can to ensure that people get to fulfil their potential. Because that’s not just about the individual that would make us a much more productive economy and actually really globally competitive. So we forget that human resources are our most important resource in this country, our people are the most important resource. And if they’re fulfilling their full potential then we get into the future a much better, a much better country.
QUESTION:
Cory Bernardi.
CORY BERNARDI:
I’m just choking on the fairy dust that Amanda is sprinkling around and oh look there’s a unicorn and a rainbow in the ABC studio. This is nonsensical. I mean look life is full of adversity and people overcome challenges. That’s a political story worth talking about and rising from particular circumstances to achieve some goals is great. But I could tell you dozens of kids who graduated from school with my sons a couple of years ago, who wanted to be doctors they couldn’t be doctors because they couldn’t make the grade. They’re pursuing other careers in fields that are still lucrative and that are still interesting to them. You don’t get everything you want it’s how you respond to it. And Bill Shorten’s mother clearly responded in a positive manner had a good career achieved her ultimate goal, but my goodness I should say that every kid has to get the choices that they want is not…
RISHWORTH:
I said reach their potential Cory, reach their potential.
QUESTION:
On a political level Senator Simon Birmingham does bringing up your family in a public environment like this during an election campaign, open you up to journalistic probing?
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Well Spence, I guess it does to an extent. Now I think journalism should be responsible in the way that it does that. I’ve got no doubt that Bill Shorten is a proud of and grateful for his mother and of course many of us are when it comes to the effort that our parents made, sacrifices that they made in supporting upbringing and so forth. But yes the more you open up your private life as a public figure, then the less you can claim it as a private life. And that is part of I guess the way in which all of us have to think about how much we talk about our history, our family history, our children, our families in general. As to the more you do that the more you are then of course exposing that to scrutiny by the media or elsewhere.
QUESTION:
I’m sure Bill Shorten’s mum has had a wonderful life and she’s a top lady. But Bill Shorten says I can’t make it right for my mum. I’m wondering what was wrong? To me this is a, this is a positive story about somebody who was given opportunity, she was given a teaching scholarship. She went on to apparently earn a reasonable living she worked there, she wasn’t digging ditches. Wasn’t like she had to give up her dreams of a higher education. Didn’t work in a factory floor when she could have been a leading orthopedic surgeon. Do you see the point? Because he goes on to say Amanda Rishworth I can’t make it right for my mum, but I can make it right for everyone else. I just wondered with the hyperbole of this campaign is getting away from us? In the last few days you’re going to make it right for everyone?
RISHWORTH:
Look having an aspiration for the future and backing that up with a plan is something that the Labor Party’s got on offer at this election. Quite the contrast to the Liberal Party who are running just fear campaign after fear campaign. All they want to do is talk about the Labor Party. I have no hesitation about talking about our future plans whether it comes to pre-school access to early education whether it’s about giving every child the opportunity to succeed at school, get the opportunity to take a higher education degree and not have their personal circumstances there, their income, those things determined their potential. So I’m not afraid of having a positive view for the future. Everyone else might want to say well bad luck at the lot you get is the lot you should have. I’m not willing, I’m not willing, I’ve got some aspiration for our young people.
BERNARDI:
Anthony Albanese has the potential to be Prime Minister should he achieve his aspiration there Amanda?
RISHWORTH:
Oh goodness me…..
QUESTION:
Simon Birmingham, Amanda Rishworth faces a really good point doesn’t she? And that is it your campaign, you’ve been the Liberal Party campaign spokesman for four weeks now your campaign has been about Labor it’s been essentially a negative campaign the most positive thing you can say is let us keep doing what we’ve been doing. Where is the vision? Where’s the promise?
BIRMINGHAM:
Well sure David Let me deal with that in two parts firstly and we do have a strong plan for the future a plan that will see 1.25 million jobs created as a result of strong economic management that will see us…
QUESTION:
How many of those would just be created by natural growth? I mean the jobs markets are always growing. How many of those are additional people?
BIRMINGHAM:
Well no we’ve seen far stronger jobs growth the 1.3 million plus jobs created under our term in office that we saw previously in the six years of Labor. And that comes about from having good economic settings that enable and encourage businesses to invest and to grow. We’ll keep, we’ll keep bringing the Budget we have back to the point of coming into surplus and pay down Labor’s debt. We’ll continue to fund schools, hospitals, roads at record levels and we’re going to deliver further tax relief particularly for families and working Australians by eliminating bracket creep for many Australians. That’s our, that’s our positive plan. But there’s no doubt that what you’ve heard from Amanda this morning and by Bill Shorten’s language about sort of fixing this for everyone else, is that the Labor Party are offering a very radical alternative at this election. And that radical alternative is that every single day there are more multi-billion dollar spending promises that apparently are going to cure all ills, but of course they come with a multi-billion dollar tax bill that Australians are going to have to pay as well. And so there’s no doubt that the choice at this election is probably the starkest we’ve had in a generation. And the Labor Party do have a more radical suite of policies on the table, and that those radical policies include extra taxes that will be faced by retirees, by home owners, by investors, by wage earners. And I think it is right that we highlight the choice that is there. We have a positive plan. It is a plan to keep growing the economy, to keep creating more jobs, to keep lowering taxes, to keep repairing the Budget, and to keep investing in schools, hospitals, and roads. But it is a contrast to a plan which involves huge radical policy experiments, like the government paying private sector wages for the first time ever and additional taxes to the tune of $387 billion.
QUESTION:
What happened to the asylum seekers? I thought we were going to have a tsunami of asylum seekers arriving in this country as a result of the medical evacuation bill. That’s why we had to open up Christmas Island and I think it’s been closed down since and how much did that cost? Was that just a gigantic scare campaign which, which came to nothing?
RISHWORTH:
I think it was probably a gigantic scare campaign and so the Liberal Party realized that, that scam scare campaign wasn’t working, so they’ve moved on to a whole lot of other misinformation and scare campaigns about Labor. So it’s not surprising that they’ve tried a few scare campaigns that have fallen flat, and so they’ve tried to move on to other scare campaigns. But as Simon would have it there’s a, there’s a monster out there, where quite frankly people aren’t buying your scare campaign.
BIRMINGHAM:
Amanda is it, is it still Labor policy to abolish Temporary Protection Visas?
RISHWORTH:
Look Simon, Simon, the scare campaign doesn’t work anymore. We’ve been really, we’ve been really clear that.
BIRMINGHAM:
All I did was ask a simple question.
RISHWORTH:
We have been very, very clear.
BIRMINGHAM:
C’mon Amanda surely you would know?
RISHWORTH:
Well yes we are going to abolish temporary protection visas…
BIRMINGHAM:
Ah you are…
RISHWORTH:
Hang on, let me finish, let me finish. But we’ve been very clear that in terms of the Liberal Party’s policy of boat turn backs and offshore asylum offshore processing. We’ll do that but we’ll do it in a much more humane way and won’t leave people languishing on Nauru. We will pursue third party, third party, third country options and do it in a way that’s responsible. But of course this campaign’s falling flat for you Simon. The scare campaign just as the other scare campaigns and made up misinformation is falling flat on Labor as well.
BIRMINGHAM:
The simple reason that there are now no children in offshore detention is because we’ve successfully resettled them. But more importantly because we stopped the arrivals. And now stopping the arrivals with a combination of policies and listeners have just heard Labor proposes to abolish one of those policies. But I think the policy….
QUESTION:
Hang on, your party told us as a result of the Medical Evacuation Bill being passed that we were going to have all these people turning up on our shores. And that’s why we had to open up Christmas Island again, has anybody since been put in to Christmas Island?
BIRMINGHAM:
Part of opening up….
QUESTION:
Let’s answer simple questions, with simple answers.
BIRMINGHAM:
there may have been one person….
QUESTION:
one person?
BIRMINGHAM:
Part of the reason for opening up Christmas Island was to ensure that there was a deterrent from using those provisions.
RISHWORTH:
That’s not correct Simon, your agency they said that it would encourage re-opening Christmas Island. Your expert agency said that that would encourage people.
BERNARDI:
In the interests of being the peacemaker, could we all just agree that the single greatest success policy success of this Coalition Government, has been keeping our borders safe. Now they’ve done this by a mix of deterrence. They’ve done it by a mix of responding to the political challenges that are there, but we haven’t had the 50,000 unauthorized arrivals, we haven’t had the people drowning at sea. And I’m going to credit them for it whether you agree with their policy or not they’ve done a good job in that area.
QUESTION:
And when we look at the balance of power we had the leader of United Australia Party in Adelaide last week, Clive Palmer taking out page two and three of the Australian today, who knows what that cost? And he came here with a very clear message that that his intention is to use the balance of power. We don’t know if he’s going to be achieved or not, to support nuclear power in South Australia. Amanda Rishworth and Simon Birmingham do either of the mainstream or the big two have any intentions of pursuing nuclear power in South Australia?
RISHWORTH:
No I don’t, I mean nuclear power not only is it incredibly expensive it would push power prices up. The infrastructure and the cost around nuclear energy would be significant not to mention all the other environmental issues that come with it. Of course we’ve got an abundance of wind and solar that we have not exploited, because there’s been no investment because of lack of action by the Liberal Party when it comes to supply in this country. We’ve got storage options that have not been invested. Simon used to support the National Energy guarantee that would drive down prices and encourage renewable energy. Unfortunately that was abandoned as Malcolm Turnbull was knifed, but Labor’s got a policy that would see power prices come down. And invest in renewable energy. Nuclear energy would push power prices up.
QUESTION:
Simon Birmingham?
BIRMINGHAM:
Well to your question Spence, no we’ve had a policy position for a long time that we have to demonstrate it would be economically viable, and they’d have to be bipartisan support but I don’t see either of those things occurring. And to the mistruths that Amanda has just told, there was no storage policy before our Coalition Government introduced one. We’re now delivering Snowy 2.0, we’re delivering storage in around half a dozen locations for pumped hydro across South Australia. And support of the development of proposals there, we’re actually have record levels of investment continuing in terms of new energy generation, but we put the focus in terms of the storage and the solutions that can ensure reliability as well which certainly was never there under the Labor Party.
QUESTION:
Cory Bernardi, Clive Palmer’s having us on?
BERNARDI:
The Australian conservatives introduced a bill to remove the moratorium on nuclear power and what we’ve heard from both Simon and Amanda is complete baloney. They’re both concerned about the economics of it. And why would government be getting into the economics of it? We’re not asking government to build it. And if you want to look at the economics of power generation you wouldn’t be building windmills and you wouldn’t be building solar plants because you’ve got to be subsidised to the tune of billions of dollars a year. If someone wants to build a nuclear power plant in this country, when we’ve got 40 percent of the world’s uranium resources they can satisfy the environmental, and the community safeguards that are in place and they want to risk their money at it. Good on it. Let it happen.
QUESTION:
Just quickly the Prime Minister somebody tried to egg him, the egg bounced off but we’ll call it an egging for shorthand purposes. Is everybody on the same page with this one? It’s outrageous. It shouldn’t happen and we’re just ratcheting up the security that we need surrounding our politicians which is really very sad.
BIRMINGHAM:
Correct analysis David.
RISHWORTH:
And look I think it is absolutely unacceptable. Although I wouldn’t want to see an increase in security. One of the great things about Australian democracy is you have access to your prime ministers, your and your MP’s without being a wall of security. And I would hate to see and I don’t think this situation lends itself to actually ratcheting up our security in any significant way.
BERNARDI:
David you’re right. But how is it that people like Sarah Hanson-Young, a Senator for the Greens can claim egg boy is a national hero, and not wear responsibility the opprobrium for encouraging others to do the same.
QUESTION:
Well we have Sarah Hanson-Young to answer that question but I think we she will be joining us next week. Cory Bernardi, thank you for your time.
BERNARDI:
You’re welcome.
QUESTION:
Amanda Rishworth, thank you for yours.
RISHWORTH:
Thank you.
QUESTION:
And Simon Birmingham. Thank you for yours.
SIMON BIRMINGHAM:
Thank you.
|
