Subjects: Anthony Albanese’s flip flop on border protection policy; Kristina Keneally; George Christensen.
RAY HADLEY:
Ok, you sound quite serious. So I want to lighten the mood for you a little bit by telling you that he’s just made this announcement at a media conference, and I quote: “We will turn the boats back and therefore we won’t need regional processing centres.”
PETER DUTTON:
I doubt that he said that Ray.
RAY HADLEY:
Do you think I’m making it up?
PETER DUTTON:
No, no, I haven’t seen that, but I mean that would be a remarkable departure from the Labor Party policy. I mean if that’s what he said, that would be a weakening of the policy that even Julia Gillard had and I’ll tell you, you would see…I mean if Anthony Albanese said that now, you would expect the people smugglers to be jumping for joy in the air off their couches in Indonesia and Sri Lanka and Vietnam, because that’s actually a very dangerous statement he’s made this morning if that’s the case because he already doesn’t support Temporary Protection Visas, which underpins the whole Operation Sovereign Borders and the regional processing is a key element of the policy as well. So he can’t just turn people around and I’m really stunned by that I’ve got to say.
RAY HADLEY:
Well see the point about it is, that’s why it’s laughable. I mean he obviously doesn’t understand – apart from economics – he doesn’t understand what is confronting our personnel north of Australia. If there’s a boat leaking, they can’t turn it back. If there are 50 people on a boat that’s made for eight people, they can’t turn them back. I mean maritime law, let alone human decency, dictates you can’t turn them back unless it’s safe to do so. So to simply say blandly, I will turn them back and we won’t need regional processing, means that this bloke is absolutely…well, it’s hard to imagine what he is, but he’s obviously…
PETER DUTTON:
The wheels are falling off mate, I mean that is a change of policy now. I don’t know, maybe he’s made a mistake in a press conference again, but the wheels are falling off the Anthony Albanese bus at the moment, and I think this is a really significant watershed moment for them. Obviously there’s a lot of division within the Labor Party, but just to your point though Ray; Anthony Albanese has served under five Labor leaders; under Kim Beazley, Simon Crean, Mark Latham, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard. They know him best. They’ve known him for 26 years he’s been in Parliament, not one of those five leaders who knows Anthony Albanese best has ever put him into an economic or national security portfolio. I mean they know what the Australian public is now seeing.
RAY HADLEY:
Look, what I’ll do just to allay your fears. I’ll get the audio turned around before we finish the interview this morning. I’m hopeful I can play exactly what he did say, but I was particularly anxious to write down exactly what he did say, and I had some other people checking it. He said: “We will turn boats back. We won’t need regional processing.” That was the quote I was given.
Now, Kristina Keneally, given that that’s what he intends to do, she will be the minister responsible and she has been vocal for many, many years now about the fact that that would never happen under her watch as the minister responsible. So where does that leave her?
PETER DUTTON:
I think what it does show is her power within the Labor Party Ray. I mean you and I have spoken about this before, it is hard to understand given she is the worst premier that New South Wales has ever had, and it’s been a disaster, obviously part of the ‘mean girls’ gang within the Senate. And I mean, it seems to me that she has got her way and has, you know, I think made Anthony Albanese capitulate.
I mean I just haven’t seen weakness from a Labor leader like this in a long time. They’re weak on the economy, they’re weak on national security and our country would be weak with Anthony Albanese as prime minister, particularly if he’s going to give, you know, if he’s going to be losing arguments to people like Kristina Keneally in Opposition, then you can only imagine what the discussions around the National Security Committee would be like. I mean he just doesn’t have any gravitas, or it seems respect now within the Labor Party.
RAY HADLEY:
I nearly fell off my chair when I read The Australian newspaper with this report about these urgent care clinics. An invention originally of Kevin Rudd in 2007, and one of my listeners has just done the budget for me, saying that with his $135 million via 50 clinics, and then you divide it up over four years, they get about six hundred and seventy five thousand dollars a year, or for the working hours, one hundred and thirty two bucks an hour. And the question being posed, and should be posed, it’s never been costed. So how do you convince a GP clinic or someone else to go around for $132 now with receptionists, with staff, with doctors, and everyone else to service this thing from early in the morning til late at night and with Rudd, it took two years to get one operational and the rest just fell over and folded.
PETER DUTTON:
They ended up delivering this as the GP Super Clinic model. I think about one in two and you’re right, I mean some have collapsed because they don’t understand economics, they don’t understand business because none of them have ever worked in a business. They don’t understand profit and loss. All they understand is, you know, getting a union paycheque every fortnight and never missing out in good season or bad. That’s the life that all the Labor frontbench has led and it shows up when these policies are put together.
I mean it takes a fair effort Ray I’ve got to say, to take a Kevin Rudd policy and to make it worse and that’s what has happened here. It’s a watered down, weaker version of the Kevin Rudd Super Clinic version. I mean I presume, you know, there’s a month or so to go in this campaign, I mean we may see a school halls policy come out shortly. We may see a pink batts policy as a revelation. I mean I really don’t know what on earth they’ve been doing in Opposition, but they haven’t been thinking about good policy or ways in which they could implement it Ray. So as I say, I think the wheels are falling off this Labor bus very quickly.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay, you and I can listen together to this audio, we’ve now got it.
QUESTION:
If people smugglers seek to take advantage of an incoming Labor government and do send more boats, will you be tough on boat turn backs and will you consider an offshore resettlement deal?
ANTHONY ALBANESE:
We’ll turn boats back. Turning boats back means that you don’t need offshore detention.
RAY HADLEY
Well, I didn’t misquote him. That’s what he said.
PETER DUTTON:
No you didn’t, you didn’t, you were spot on. Well as I say mate, I mean that that is a new policy announced by Anthony Albanese. I don’t know whether it’s policy on the run or, as I say, that Kristina Keneally finally got her own way. But it’s a dangerous position that they’ve taken, and I know that people smugglers listen very intently through social media to everything that is said in this country and they market it. They send out all of these voice clips and they send it out to the people who will pay the money to get on the boats.
And I just sent them a very clear message today that, as you know, under the Morrison Government, you haven’t been able to get through and you won’t be. There will be no position change, no deviation from a policy that’s worked. We don’t have women and children drowning at sea. We don’t have kids in detention. And that’s essentially what Anthony Albanese has condemned our country to today if he’s elected as prime minister.
RAY HADLEY:
One final thing, in previous discussions with me, you’ve defended your former colleague George Christensen, who was previously dubbed the minister for Manilla by colleagues after taking 28 trips, spending almost 300 days in the Philippines between 2014 and 2018. Now, I don’t know whether you can answer the questions I’m about to ask. Sources close to the probe have said the 41 year old first elected to the Queensland seat of Dawson in 2010, toured a city 80km north of Manilla, which is known for its red light district. The manager of one of the bars claimed the federal politician was a very regular visitor at the venue.
Now, when asked about this again yesterday, when he threw his hat into the ring for the unelectable position of third on the Senate ticket in Queensland for One Nation, he said there had been an extensive probe by the AFP and that he’d been completely cleared. Now, can you shed any light on concerns the AFP had that he could have been compromised or blackmailed because of his visits to that place 80km north of Manilla?
PETER DUTTON:
Ray, it’s not something that I can really publicly comment on. I mean obviously when I was Home Affairs Minister, I had responsibility for the Australian Federal Police, I had briefings from time-to-time on sensitive matters and I do know, and this has been publicly reported on, George was investigated and obviously I was aware of that at the time and that he had been cleared by the AFP of those allegations.
RAY HADLEY:
But Peter, cleared of what?
PETER DUTTON:
There were allegations that were made against him, which I’m not going into publicly, but they were serious allegations and the AFP provided George a letter of clearance at the time, as I recall. I mean there’s nothing else I can say. The briefings I received at the time were confidential.
RAY HADLEY:
Did they cause you any concern as Minister at the time? Given they were confidential and you can’t tell me what they were. Were you concerned about them?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, they were serious allegations, but they were cleared. All I’d say is, George has made a decision to run for One Nation now. He’s in what I think is an unwinnable position…
RAY HADLEY:
…He’s still going to get $105,000 and he can’t win…
PETER DUTTON:
Yep…
RAY HADLEY:
What he should do today is say, look, it’s not about the money. I want to help Pauline. I won’t be taking the one hundred and five thousand dollars from taxpayers. That’s what he should say. Thanks for your time, as always.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks mate. Take care.
[ends]