JON FAINE:
Tony from Kirribilli, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Jon from Melbourne, it’s lovely to be talking to you.
JON FAINE:
Prime Minister Tony Abbott, at a press conference earlier this morning with Denis Napthine announcing a task force into trade union crimes. It’s hard to resist, and our callers this morning, some have been making the connection to the state election for this sudden announcement, Prime Minister. It’s an irresistible conclusion to make, is it not?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s not the correct conclusion because we had a letter which has been made public for some weeks from Commissioner Dyson Heydon about the criminal conduct, including widespread instances of physical and verbal violence, cartel conduct, secondary boycotts, contempt of court et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The Royal Commissioner indicated that in his view there needed to be some kind of a police taskforce to deal with this and of course we have the Victorian Assistant Commissioner, Stephen Fontana, tell the Royal Commission, “Victoria Police intelligence indicates criminal activity is undertaken by trade union officials directly and by organised crime figures on behalf of trade union officials.” We’ve even had Bill Shorten himself earlier in the year say, and I quote, “The Abbott Government must form a high-powered joint police taskforce to investigate allegations of corruption in the building industry”.
So, what we’re doing is a perfectly reasonable response…
JON FAINE:
And the timing of it, Prime Minister? It’s irresistible to avoid noticing that the state government that has to authorise this and request it of the Police Commissioner is about to go into caretaker mode. So, Mr Fontana’s evidence was given months ago, nothing happens until literally the last moment before caretaker mode kicks in.
PRIME MINISTER:
You could say, John, that we should have done this weeks ago, but it’s the right thing to do. Surely, it is the right thing to do given the accumulation of evidence from a whole range of sources and the fact that even the Leader of the Opposition in Canberra has been calling for a police taskforce.
JON FAINE:
And so what exactly will it do that the police couldn’t already have been doing? What will it do that could not have been done when Mr Fontana’s evidence was first given?
PRIME MINISTER:
We got the letter from the Royal Commissioner at the beginning of October, so in terms of, if you like, the final imprimatur for this, that only came exactly four weeks ago, so there’s been no undue delay. What this police task force will be able to do, John, is focus in a way that the police ordinarily would not on criminal conduct inside the union movement, particularly the CFMEU, because we all know that the police are stretched, we all know that there’s any number of things that they could be doing. They’ve got to be a little bit selective as to exactly what they do and given the evidence that we’ve had, given the letter of the Royal Commissioner to the Government, given, in fact, Bill Shorten’s call for a police taskforce, we thought this was a way of ensuring that the police do have the funding and the resources to actively tackle this particular kind of criminality.
JON FAINE:
Liberal Party members in Victoria, and in particular politicians, are wondering if you really don’t care if the Napthine Government loses the forthcoming state election with the fuel excise price rise due to kick in just before we go to the polls, but if you want to help Denis Napthine, why not commit some money to public transport infrastructure in the city of Melbourne?
PRIME MINISTER:
We’ve committed $3 billion, which is a very significant amount of money, to East West Link…
JON FAINE:
To a road, but public transport, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Exactly, because this is what Sir Rod Eddington, the Labor government appointed infrastructure Tsar, said was by far the most important infrastructure project in Victoria.
JON FAINE:
No, he said it was the highest road priority. Metro Rail was a higher priority but why won’t you commit to any public transport?
PRIME MINISTER:
We will put money into public transport under the Asset Recycling Fund, so if a state government wants to sell an existing asset and reinvest the proceeds in economic infrastructure, we’re more than happy to make a contribution to that.
JON FAINE:
That’s a government spending money that was its own. Why not invest taxpayers’ money – federal funds – in public transport the way you’re prepared to do on a road?
PRIME MINISTER:
Horses for courses, John. The urban rail systems are owned and operated by the state governments whereas the national freight systems are a different matter; they’re part of our national transport system…
JON FAINE:
So you don’t see that as nation building? You want to be the infrastructure Prime Minister but not when it comes to urban public transport?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s city building, if you like. It might even be state building, but it’s not quite nation building because we’re talking about a system which is for the Melbourne metropolitan area and it’s owned and operated by the state government. But as I said earlier, if a state government wants to sell an existing asset and reinvest the proceeds in public transport infrastructure, we’re happy to support it under the asset recycling initiative, it’s just that in terms of these sorts of government-to-government grants, or government-to-government project funding, our absolute focus is on freight rail and on national roads.
JON FAINE:
Very briefly – less than a minute to the news – would you accept some share of responsibility if the Napthine Government loses at the election?
PRIME MINISTER:
I would be incredibly disappointed if the Napthine Government loses. It doesn’t deserve to lose. The Opposition doesn’t deserve to win. It’s been a good government. If you want the East West Link built, vote for the guy who will honour the contract and who signed the contract, not for the guy who says he’s going to tear it up because he’s worried about The Greens in his marginal seats.
JON FAINE:
I look forward to speaking to you again sometime soon. The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott in Melbourne this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you so much, Jon.
[ends]