RAY HADLEY:
The Prime Minister joins me from his office in Canberra right now.
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ray, it’s good to talk to you.
RAY HADLEY:
You made it clear on Monday you’re not going anywhere, but how do you deal with this sort of dissent? You thought you buried it Monday and it rears its ugly head overnight.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ray, I can understand why some of the colleagues are nervous, particularly those from Queensland because obviously we had a bad result in the Queensland election and there are lessons to be learned from that and I’m more than capable of learning those lessons, we’re more than capable of learning those lessons, but I’m getting on with Government. As I said on Monday, we’ve got a very clear agenda this year, it’s jobs, it’s families, it’s a strong economy and a secure nation and what I’m focused on now is attending to our economic security, our national security and just this morning, Ray, I received from the Secretary of my Department the report into the Martin Place siege. We will carefully digest this report and by the end of the month we will release the report together with the New South Wales government, as well as our response to the report.
RAY HADLEY:
Now, there is a coroner’s inquest into what happened at the Lindt café, but your investigation looks at his involvement with Centrelink over a long, long period of time and even – I know it’s not part of what you can control – how he got bail under the New South Wales court system. Are you able to tell me anything about either of those matters?
PRIME MINISTER:
What I don’t want to do is speculate on what might be in the report before I’ve had a chance to actually read it and as I’ve said, I’ve had it about 10 minutes. These are very important issues though. Yes, the coronial inquiry will look at what actually happened inside the Lindt café, but what this report deals with is how we got to that point. What went wrong? What is there in his history that led to this and what are the lessons that we could usefully learn from that? And I’m determined to learn those lessons and assimilate them into policy because the first priority of government, Ray, is to keep our country safe and plainly our country wasn’t safe on that dreadful day in Martin Place just before Christmas.
RAY HADLEY:
Have you read the report this morning about what happened in a local court yesterday in Sydney with the bloke who used his brother’s passport to get to Dubai, despite the fact that he was under an ASIO watch?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven’t read that report, but one of the things we are doing is introducing biometric screening measures at our airports. So it will be impossible for people to use a relative’s passport and get away with it.
RAY HADLEY:
Perhaps you could also install an IQ test for a Magistrate who firstly allows the bloke to sit there. Everyone stands before a Magistrate, it’s just common courtesy, it’s not for the Magistrate or the Judge, it’s for the court, it’s out of respect for the court. This imbecile made a request via his lawyer to remain seated during sentencing, Magistrate Teresa O'Sullivan allowed him to remain seated and then handed him a 12 month good behaviour bond and a $500 fine when we all believe, given ASIO are watching him, he was on his way to Syria. I mean what do you do about this? You see, you talk about being tough and you talk about showing leadership, Prime Minister. We have a crisis in the judiciary. I mean, we’ve got three separate Magistrates allowed Man Monis, despite the fact that he was charged with being an assistant in a murder trial, despite the fact that he was charged with 40 sexual assaults against six different women. Magistrates in the state of New South Wales – your state – allowed the bloke to walk free. And now we’ve got another case, you know, where another person who refuses to stand for a court is allowed to remain seated by a Magistrate and then is given a tickle with a feather.
PRIME MINISTER:
And Ray, I can absolutely understand your frustration. I can understand the public’s frustration. We need and want common sense on the bench and sometimes that seems to have been sadly lacking and we must insist on respect for our institutions, we really must. When people come to Australia, they have elected to join our team and that means playing by our team’s rules, and if that means standing for the Magistrate, you stand for the Magistrate.
RAY HADLEY:
What about this – I’m not trying to tell Teresa O'Sullivan how to do her job, but yes I am. So, look, I tell you what Ahmad Naizmand, I was going to give you a 12 month suspended sentence, but because you sat on your arse while I called you to stand, what I’m going to do with you is I’m going to put you in jail for 12 months now because you wouldn’t stand for the court – how do you like that? That’s what we need.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ray, look, I can absolutely understand your anger at contempt for our system and contempt for our institutions and frankly I get angry as well when I see this kind of defiance of a fair and just system which is bending over backwards to be fair to people and these are people who so often take advantage of it. Now, plainly the Martin Place murderer took advantage of our system, that’s what this report is designed to expose to us and we will take the strongest possible action to ensure that this can’t happen again.
RAY HADLEY:
Ok, let’s go back to what you started with – what are the lessons that have been learned from the debacle in Queensland last Saturday?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously Ray, governments that are taking tough decisions need to explain them, justify them and take the people with them. Now, I know there are some decisions that we made that we could have done more to explain and justify. I know at some stages last year, as a Government, we bit off more than we could chew. Now, I’ve learnt the lesson – I really have learnt the lesson and the point I made in the speech on Monday is that, yes we are absolutely committed to ending the intergenerational theft which is going on with the Commonwealth government which is spending our children and our grandchildren’s money right now. But we aren’t going to try to fix the Commonwealth budget this year at the expense of people’s household budgets.
RAY HADLEY:
You’ll be unhappy to know that I’ve just been passed a media release from Jeff Kennett. He’s been on ABC radio this morning somewhere. He said your leadership is now terminal. He says the Abbott Government should bring on a spill of leadership positions at the risk of derailing next month’s state election, in a similar way to Queensland. I think sadly the realisation has dawned on most politicians, the leadership of the party is now terminal, he told ABC radio. Will you in anyway bring on a spill to settle this issue?
PRIME MINISTER:
Ray, obviously Jeff Kennett’s entitled to his view, but what we are determined to avoid is the chaos of the Labor years – we really are. We were elected to end the chaos of the Labor years. I am determined to deliver steady, stable, solid, dependable Government and that’s what I’m going to do, every day. That’s what I’m going to do.
RAY HADLEY:
Ok, what I don’t quite understand and we’ll bring Warren Entsch into this. When this fiasco was happening with Rudd/Gillard/Rudd he was saying things like, well this is just a rabble, this is just disgraceful. But he is among two MPs – Dr Jensen and himself – wanting to do exactly the same thing in your first term of Government, which I’m a bit confused by – are you confused by?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, we have a robust party room. We’ve always had a robust party room, Ray, and I hope that will always continue and I’ve had members of parliament stand up and tell me to my face in the party room over the years that I’ve got this wrong, I’ve got that wrong, I’m this, I’m that, I’m a so and so. And look, that’s their democratic right. What I think everyone in the Party Room understands is that the last thing we should do is go anywhere near reproducing the rabble of the Labor years. I think there is a determination by our Party Room to knuckle down to good government. That’s what I was doing yesterday, that’s what I’m doing today, that’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow and the day after and every day and that’s what I think everyone else in the Party Room needs to do.
RAY HADLEY:
What do you think the difference between Tony Abbott in Opposition and Tony Abbott as Prime Minister is? Is there a discernable difference? I mean, I know it’s a different job and there’s not as much pressure in opposition as there is in government, but do you think you’re reacting differently to things than you did when you were in Opposition?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m trying not to, Ray, because I’m the same man now as I always have been with, I guess, some strengths and some faults, which people in the media love to point out, which is their right…
RAY HADLEY:
Like the captain’s call.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I accept that there were a couple of captain’s call which, with the wisdom of hindsight, should not have been made and I’ve reversed them. I’ve reversed them.
RAY HADLEY:
Ok. Well you haven’t reversed one of them because you can’t. But one of the things which I’ve noticed among my mates, when the boss makes a blue they shake their head and they say…
PRIME MINISTER:
“He’s doing an Abbott!”
RAY HADLEY:
No, no, no. No, not as personal as that. They say, “That’s a captain’s call!” I, in fact, made that comment to a couple of colleagues here recently – “That’s a captain’s call, it’s not a very good call!” Anyway, you say no more captain’s calls?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I’m not saying that there will never be another captain’s call. What I’m saying is that as far as is humanly possible, I will be as collegiate and as consultative as I humanly can be. I mean, there is nothing to stop Cabinet ministers raising things in general business. There is nothing to stop members of Parliament ringing me up, knocking on my door. I’ve always tried to be very open to people. I know there’s a sense in which people don’t want to burden the Prime Minister, maybe some people feel a little intimidated approaching a Prime Minister, but as far as is humanly possible, I want to be in touch with my colleagues, I want to be in touch with the electorate and I think that, as far as you can in these positions, I am. Certainly, when I was on the beach, in cafés, even in the pub the other day at Colac, I think I have been pretty exposed to the Australian people.
RAY HADLEY:
See the important part about this issue, you say you wish to consult, but you are the Prime Minister, you’ve got to lead as well. One of the things you and I have argued about for quite a number of years now is – and, you know, you’ve got a hostile Senate and people thought maybe a double dissolution election, probably not a good time to do it just at the moment given the polls – but there needs to be some leadership and some strength and sometimes, not arrogance or a defiance or an arrogant defiance of the way other people feel, but someone’s got to be the boss, Prime Minister. At the end of the day, the buck stops with you.
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s exactly right, and the point I’ve been making for quite some time now is we do have a fiscal problem, we can’t go on spending way beyond our means, and we can’t go on running up debt and deficit forever for our children and our grandchildren to repay. If you don’t like what the Government’s doing, tell us what you would do and let’s sit down and have a constructive discussion about it. If you think what the Government is proposing is a bit over the top here, or a bit misguided there, tell us and we’ll address it because that’s the way good government works, that’s the way an intelligent national conversation works and that’s certainly what I am going to do my best to have in 2015.
RAY HADLEY:
Brian sent me an email, and I haven’t had time to check it, I haven’t got a calculator in here. He said, “Morning, Ray. The Prime Minister’s mentioned we’re paying $1 billion a month interest on the debacle that was left by the last two Labor governments. One million seconds,” – this is according to Brian, I hope he’s right – “is 11 days. One billion seconds is 31 years.” Now, if those facts are right and figures are right. People have got to understand that we have a massive problem paying and you’re predicting unless things get better it could be $3 billion a month, not $1 billion a month, and that’s not paying off anything other than the interest.
PRIME MINISTER:
That’s correct, and once you’ve stopped increasing the debt, then you’ve got to start repaying it before you don’t have to pay the interest bill. And even now, as I said at the Press Club the other day, it’s $1 billion a month, so every month we could build a brand new tertiary hospital and then some if we didn’t have to pay off this interest. So, it’s just dead money.
Now, if all of this borrowing had gone into productive infrastructure like WestConnex, like the Western Sydney Airport, like the Pacific Highway, if it had all gone into that, you could kind of say fair enough, these are assets that are going to stand us in good stead for decades, centuries. Unfortunately, we’re borrowing for a current expenditure. We’re borrowing just to pay today’s and tomorrow’s bills and that’s the problem and that’s why it is absolutely at the heart of responsible government that we tackle this. And as I say to the crossbench and the Senate, as I say to my Labor colleagues on the other side of the Parliament: if you want to be part of the solution and not just the causes of the problem, have a constructive discussion with us. If you don’t like what we’re proposing, or if you think what we’re proposing could be adjusted, tell us what those adjustments should be and we’re more than capable of being constructive about this.
RAY HADLEY:
By the way, on the back of the interest rate cut from the reserve bank, the Commonwealth Bank is the first of the big four just to announce it now in the last 20 minutes, .025 of one per cent, a full pass on of the variable home loan rate. The Bank of Queensland did it yesterday; the other three of the big four haven’t done it. Now, one of the things I get from my listeners – self-funded retirees – everyone is cheering about the fact that it’s good news for families and businesses and petrol prices are down which we have no control over, but what about those self-funded retirees who battle as the interest rates plummet?
PRIME MINISTER:
I take that point, Ray, and look, what’s good news for one is not so good news for the other, but in the end, lower interest rates do strengthen the economy and all of us are better off with a stronger economy. Having spoken at great length over the years to self-funded retirees, to older people – both family members, people close to me, people in the street – the great thing about older Australians is they have our nation’s interests at heart. They were a great generation who helped to build our country. They want to keep seeing our country strong and that’s why I think whatever the impact might be on their personal finances, they want to see our country well-managed. They want to see the economy strong and with lower interest rates, with lower petrol prices, with the carbon tax gone and power prices down, I think there are grounds for growing confidence in the weeks and months ahead.
RAY HADLEY:
Well I know one thing about you: you’re not a quitter. I know that when your back’s to the wall you’ll dig in and I think you’re digging in now, and perhaps your next phone call will be to Mr Entsch and Mr Jensen to see if they’ll dig in with you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, Ray, it’s not about me – it’s about our country, it’s about our people, it’s about what’s best for them. That’s why I’m in Parliament. I believe that’s why all of us are in Parliament. So, let’s stop the navel gazing, let’s forget the internals and let’s get on with governing the country.
RAY HADLEY:
Thanks for your time, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Ray.
[ends]