Subjects: HMAS Toowoomba; Australia-China relations; the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership and transparency; Labor’s immigration detention chaos; Merri Creek corridor land management; Anthony Albanese and Richard Marles’ international travel.
E&OE
NATALIE BARR:
Well, Anthony Albanese has been accused of being evasive over his handling of China’s attack on Australian naval divers. Australia has officially complained about the incident.
[excerpt]
ANTHONY ALBANESE:
This was dangerous, it was unsafe and unprofessional…We’ve raised it very clearly through all of the normal channels.
[end excerpt]
NATALIE BARR:
But the PM is refusing to explain whether he raised the issue directly with the Chinese President.
Joining me now is Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Good morning to you.
PETER DUTTON:
‘Morning Nat.
NATALIE BARR:
The Government’s accusing you of just trying to get a few headlines in papers at China’s expense. Why should the PM disclose what he said directly to the Chinese President?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, because he owes it to the Australian people. You need a Prime Minister who’s going to tell the truth and he also owes it, frankly, to the men and women of the Australian Defence Force. They want to know that when an action has been taken against them, when one of them gets injured, the Prime Minister is going to speak with a very loud voice.
What the PM just said in that grab, Nat, that you just played, is exactly right. It was a dangerous act, and if only he had raised that or mentioned those words to the Chinese President – in a respectful way, but in a forceful way – the same as President Xi calls out other countries, including Canada’s Justin Trudeau and others. China has been critical of us in the last 24 hours.
The PM gets tricky with his words. I think the test here is whether he can just be upfront and honest and open. Did he say these words to President Xi? Or if not, if he didn’t, then apologise. Just admit you’ve made a mistake, but be honest.
NATALIE BARR:
So, he and the rest of the Government are saying that they raised this through Chinese government channels. Is that the way you do things? Maybe that’s enough, is it?
PETER DUTTON:
My judgement is that where you’ve got Australian Navy personnel suffering injuries because of the act of the Chinese Navy, that that is a time when the Prime Minister needs to pick the phone up or in this case, fortuitously, he met with President Xi in person.
The Prime Minister’s spoken about a lengthy conversation he had with Prime Minister Xi (*President), he’s spoken about other issues that he’s raised, and now he says, ‘oh well, I can’t tell you what was discussed with the Chinese President’, but that goes completely at odds with what he said the day before.
So I just think, again, the Prime Minister needs to be open and honest. He got himself into all sorts of trouble over the Voice because he was speaking out of both sides of his mouth, and I just don’t think on this issue the Prime Minister can get away with cute language. Be upfront and honest and open with the Australian people and call out what is a very dangerous act that could have severely injured one of our Navy personnel. If the Prime Minister’s not prepared to stand up and show that strength of leadership at a time like this, I’m just not sure when he ever will.
NATALIE BARR:
Okay. To other news this morning.
The Federal Government is seeking urgent legal advice on tough new laws as it scrambles to put recently released detainees back behind bars after that High Court decision. The Albanese Government weighing up these laws similar to those used to lock up terrorists. Would you support them?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Nat, first point is we’re not talking about Australian citizens here, so this is not a punitive court like sentence that’s being imposed. It’s about holding people who are not Australian citizens until they can be deported.
There’s a case in June where the Government had the first inkling from the High Court that there was going to be an issue. They should have started drafting this legislation in June. Instead, they did it overnight in the last parliamentary sitting week – last week, and it’s cobbled together. I think it’s dangerous because we’re talking about some very serious criminals here: paedophiles and rapists, murderers and some very significant cases that have been brought against these people. You’ve seen the victims out there, the victims of rape and sexual assault, who are saying, ‘I just can’t believe that this Government’s let these people out’.
So, we said last week the Government should have been designing a preventative detention regime. It seems now that they’re looking at that, but it should have been done back in June.
NATALIE BARR:
Yeah, so will you support the laws?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we committed last week to putting in place whatever can try and help the Australian public stay safe because these are, many of them, criminals with serious offences, multiple offending against different victims and the likelihood of them committing more crimes against more Australian citizens is very high. So yes, we’ll support whatever can legally be done to take these people back into custody.
NATALIE BARR:
Yeah, because some of them, it doesn’t sound like we can send them back because several of them sound like they’re stateless. So, there is a problem there.
Moving on to a topic we’ve been getting lots of questions about in our Sunrise inbox this morning. An extensive stretch of private and public land in the outer north is being handed back to its traditional owners in one of the largest returns of its kind. Plenty of confusion around this. Do you know how this is going to work?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Nat, I don’t have the detail, and I think the locals want the detail as well, because these claims have very significant implications in a local community. They can create uncertainty around investment, they can create disruption to people’s patterns of life otherwise. So I think there needs to be a common sense approach here. If the laws need to be changed, they need to be changed, because we need to make sure that the community interest is being served.
We’re very respectful to our Indigenous heritage, but we need to be realistic about the fact that people need to live their lives, businesses need to be prosperous and able to work so that they can employ locals, and the local authorities and the State and Commonwealth Government need to get the balance right here.
NATALIE BARR:
Just before we let you go, should Richard Marles have been at the cricket in India?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, not if he was going there as a tourist on taxpayers dime, but if he was going there to hand out the trophy…
NATALIE BARR:
…he was handing out trophies.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, if he was there to hand out the trophy with the Indian Prime Minister, then I think that puts it in a different category.
But Richard’s chalking up some miles – he’s nowhere near the PM’s record – and I don’t think he’ll catch it at this rate either. I think the PM’s on a mission to circumnavigate the globe as many times as he can while you’re paying for it.
NATALIE BARR:
Similar to Morrison though, by the sound of it. He’s travelling about the same amount of miles as Scott Morrison did.
PETER DUTTON:
Oh well, that’s the line that Labor trots out, but I just think that the PMs got a lot of hard work to do here at home.
NATALIE BARR:
I think if you look at the figures, you’ll find it…
PETER DUTTON:
I just think he’s got a lot of hard work to do here…
NATALIE BARR:
I think you’ll find it’s about the same amount of flights.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Scott Morrison didn’t go away during the time when he was needed – that was over a period of COVID.
NATALIE BARR:
Oh, I don’t know whether I’d hang up his record….
PETER DUTTON:
I think the Australian public at the moment…
NATALIE BARR:
…With the fires, but look, we haven’t got time to go into that, but thank you very much.
PETER DUTTON:
Come on Nat. I think the point is the Australian public need the PM…
NATALIE BARR:
Yeah, sorry, last word?
PETER DUTTON:
I just think the PM needs to be at home at the moment to deal with these significant issues: the High Court issue, cost of living, families are under all sorts of pressures. You’ve got a Prime Minister who wants to be anywhere but in Australia.
NATALIE BARR:
Yeah, okay.
Peter Dutton, thank you very much for your time.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Nat.
[ends]