Subjects: China trade sanctions; Kevin Rudd; Queensland youth crime.
E&OE.
PETER FEGAN:
Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton joins me on the line. Good morning.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning, Peter. Merry Christmas, mate.
PETER FEGAN:
Merry Christmas to you. I’m going to get to what you did for Christmas in just a moment. But before we do, I just want to cover off this yarn that’s the splash in The Australian this morning, Opposition Leader, and it’s from Ben Packham, and it says the Trade Minister Don Farrell has signaled – ahead of his trip to Beijing – that the Albanese government is prepared to withdraw two World Trade Organisation cases against China if it shows goodwill in dropping its trade bans against Australia. The Coalition prided itself on sticking up to China when you were in office. You were leading your charge, Scott Morrison was leading the charge. We always knew that this Albanese government would go weak at the knees for China, and that’s exactly what they’re doing here.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Peter, a couple of points: we want a normalised trading relationship with China. They’re an important partner, there is no question about that; but we shouldn’t compromise on what our core beliefs are and what we stand up for, particularly if it’s going to adversely impact our other trading partners.
So, in relation to the particular trading pact that the Trade Minister is talking about – the Trans Pacific one – you don’t want to walk away from Japan, for argument’s sake, and others, because they believe in a fair system. They believe in abiding by the rules, as we do. The reason that China hasn’t been allowed into that pact is because they haven’t played by the rules and that’s evidenced by the number of difficulties that have been presented to the WTO and many countries, the Philippines, many countries right across the world have experienced in that trading relationship.
So, it’s a good thing that they can resolve matters and if we can get wine exports going again and get other exports, barley etcetera, back into China – that’s good for the producers and manufacturers here in Australia, but we shouldn’t be doing it in a way that just throws everything across to the other side of the table. We shouldn’t surrender our national interests and the Prime Minister should really bear that in mind. He’s obviously after a headline. He wants to play up the building of the relationship and all the rest of it, but a lot of that’s a complete rewrite of history. You expect that from a new government, but we’ve been supporting the government on a bipartisan basis in relation to many of these international matters but this is a very important discussion that we should have and just surrendering on our values and ideals – which is what Labor’s proposing at the moment – is just not a way that they should conduct themselves.
PETER FEGAN:
Kevin Rudd, good old Kevin Rudd has been making headlines again. They were talking about him double-dipping on his parliamentary pension yesterday, but I just want to play you some audio now, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. I want to play you this. This is from Simon Love from Sky News talking to Kevin Rudd during the election campaign, just take a listen to this.
[Excerpt]
SIMON LOVE:
Mr Rudd, though, while I have you live on Sky News. Are you hopeful of a new, of a role with an Albanese Labor government if he’s elected, are you hopeful of maybe an ambassadorship?
KEVIN RUDD:
Again, I can always rely upon you people to pose questions I’ve already answered. And the answer to that is no.
PETER FEGAN:
He’s then accusing, of course, the Murdoch media of lying. We’re liars – well I don’t work for Murdoch media – but apparently, we’re liars. Simon Love’s asked a pretty fair question. Did I just hear Kevin Rudd lie to Murdoch media?
PETER DUTTON:
It’s just a bit of a back to the future moment. I think a lot of people have forgotten about K-Rudd and the good old days. But Peter, a couple of things: it’s an important role, and we very much support – particularly in the relationship with the US – whatever can be done to advance that relationship. It’s going to be more important than ever in years to come and I think people recognise that the Indo-Pacific is a very dangerous region and we need to make sure that we work very closely with our allies, and none more important than the US. So, we support the Ambassador, whoever it is, in that role at the time. It’s obvious that, you know, I think a lot of people have missed this but there’s a very close relationship between Anthony Albanese and Kevin Rudd and you’re seeing that in some of the governing style of Anthony Albanese at the moment..
PETER FEGAN:
Very similar.
PETER DUTTON:
…it’s a very tricky approach, and it works for a while but then people see when the gloss wears off that it’s not as genuine and sincere as people might have thought.
So, I hope he does well in the role because it’s important for our country that he does. But I feel for the staff and I feel for a lot of other people that might be involved in the process over the next couple of years because he’s got a particular style and he needs to wind that back.
His criticism of AUKUS, for example, was completely over the top and his criticism of Murdoch media and others is just all self-serving. So, he’s got to put all of that aside and really concentrate on that part of his personality, I suppose, that he is productive, hard-working, and he’s got a lot of connections right across the world and I hope he puts all that to good use in our country’s best interests.
PETER FEGAN:
Anastasia Palaszczuk will address the media. She’s meant to be addressing it in about five minutes time. We don’t have many details on it, it’s typical of Anastasia Palaszczuk’s office to try and give us the runaround here in the media. But we’re assuming – one will assume – that it’s on youth crime. As a former police officer, let’s take the political hat off for a moment. What you’ve witnessed over the last few days with the Lovell family – one, how has it affected you and two, the youth crime problem here in Queensland is a real problem but Labor seems to have their head in the sand saying nothing to see here?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Peter, I’m just so sorry for the family involved. Obviously, just a beautiful mother, beautiful person, you know, just a normal Queenslander from the suburbs trying to enjoy the Christmas period and that people have to defend their own homes in a suburb like North Lakes or anywhere in our country is just completely inconceivable.
It’s all predictable, though, and it’s all inevitable in a sense, because as the family has pointed out, the bail laws are woefully inadequate. We saw it in other parts of the world. We’re seeing it in Alice Springs now, where the police and the social workers essentially throw their hands in the air and say, ‘well, we just haven’t got the laws that allow us to deal with this properly.’
Like in your own family, if your kids or grandkids don’t have boundaries and don’t understand the difference between right and wrong and don’t have the support around them, then you end up with shocking outcomes. I don’t want to comment on the particulars of the individuals involved here who have been charged, because that matter is now before the courts, but if we leave that tragedy to one side, just talking generally about the youth crime problem, this has been rampant in Townsville literally for years. I mean, you speak to a lot of friends and family up in Townsville who are trying to hide the car keys each night, they’re scared. You’ve got older Australians in Alice Springs who won’t go shopping by themselves – even in daylight hours, it’s just terrible…
PETER FEGAN:
You’ve got people here in Queensland taking baseball bats to bed you know.
PETER DUTTON:
…and so, if it had’ve been in a circumstance like the one we’ve just seen, that one of these youths themselves was stabbed by somebody defending their house then…
PETER FEGAN:
Yeah, what’s the flip side of the coin?
PETER DUTTON:
…what happens there? So, of course there needs to be a change to bail laws. Of course there needs to be a toughening up of the law. It’s a complete no-brainer. It should have happened by now. The Premier had the ability to prevent tragedy, she hasn’t done it despite numerous calls for the bail laws to be tightened. The police will be polite publicly, but I can tell you it’s tearing their hair out dealing with these matters on an ongoing basis. It’s a diversion of resources and there is going to be more tragedy in Queensland unless the Premier actually acts instead of listening to the civil liberties lawyers who will tell her not to do anything. There will be families in Queensland who will continue to suffer because of her inaction and that is a tragedy not just for this family and for these kids, but for many other families who have suffered the home invasions and just living with that uncertainty about what’s going to happen tomorrow night.
PETER FEGAN:
Yeah, that’s a really good point. We will find out a little bit more in this press conference which is due to start in about 40 seconds, but I don’t think it will be on time.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton who has joined me this morning. Appreciate your time. I hope you have a very happy new year and hopefully we can catch up with you next week.
PETER DUTTON:
Pleasure, Peter. Take care, mate. Thank you.
[ends]