TONY PILKINGTON:
Prime Minister, good morning and welcome to FIVEaa.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much it’s great to be with you.
TONY PILKINGTON:
You’re probably thinking ‘Oh I was going to be talking to Leon, who the hell is this?’ Prime Minister I can remember you as a youngster, the young bloke who defended - gee whiz - Peter Wright all those years ago, the Spycatcher case.
PRIME MINISTER:
Peter Wright, the old British spy, yes that’s right. Time marches on and here we are Pilko. It’s good to be with you.
TONY PILKINGTON:
Did Peter Wright end up living in Tasmania Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Peter, yes. Well what happened was he moved to Tasmania and he was in Tasmania when he wrote his book and the British Government, as you know, sought an injunction to prevent it being published in Australia and they got a temporary injunction. The court case was about that injunction and we won, and that’s why his book was able to be published. He was an eccentric old gentleman. He really lived in absolute poverty in Tasmania.
TONY PILKINGTON:
Really?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah, he was doing it very tough, because he felt he’d been dudded on his pension; that was one of his grievances.
TONY PILKINGTON:
I thought he would’ve made a fortune out of the book because at the time…
PRIME MINISTER:
He did well out of the book, but before the book was published he was living in basically – well it was a tumbledown cottage, would be the best way to describe it. He was making not a particularly good fist of breeding horses but he was a very eccentric old British gentleman with very strong views about espionage.
TONY PILKINGTON:
Yeah, but you obviously enjoyed him apart from the fact that you represented him legally but you obviously thought - ‘Yeah I like this old geezer, he’s alright’.
PRIME MINISTER:
He was very authentic, very authentic indeed.
TONY PILKINGTON:
He was genuine. Of course the other issue I remember is that iconic photo. I don’t know whether you can remember it PM, but Kerry Packer and a young Jamie – Jamie was how he was referred to in those days – walking along the banks of the Torrens, at the time that Kerry Packer was being referred to as the ‘Goanna’ and was responsible for the invitation and the distribution of drugs? And you got involved in that too actually, defending Kerry Packer. He was proven to be absolutely innocent, wasn’t he?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, well he was. It was a very interesting situation because he was subject to an extraordinary defamation and it arose out of that Costigan Royal Commission. The amazing thing was frankly Pilko, was that he put his faith in such a young lawyer. At the time I was 29 or 30 or something like that, I was very young.
TONY PILKINGTON:
Prime Minister there were legal people in Sydney who thought: ‘What the hell is this young upstart from over on the North Shore, how the hell did he get the gig to look after Kerry Packer, then richest man in Australia?’
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Packer hired me when I was about 28 to take over all of his legal work, which seemed again at the time I thought was perfectly sensible because like most 28 year olds I had a very high regard for my ability, but looking back it was a pretty bold decision.
TONY PILKINGTON:
[Laughter]
Hey nothing’s changed.
PRIME MINISTER:
[Laughter]
Well anyway, he did that and we took a very unconventional approach to his defence in the sense that I persuaded him that he was facing as much a political challenge as a legal one…
TONY PILKINGTON:
He was entirely innocent. He was absolutely innocent of the charges.
PRIME MINISTER:
The story is one of unbelievable errors, slipshod inquires and what we did was, I wrote for him a 8,000 word statement – I’ve never been as concise as I should be – which went through all of the charges, set out all the reputation. Every newspaper in the country published it in full and that began to turn the tide. Then there was an inquest in Queensland into the allegation of murder and Kerry was – we were able to demonstrate that the allegation was just absurd and was revealed as such. That started to roll it back.
You know, he was in a lot of strife but still, we took it on and he was prepared to take – I wouldn’t say - well yes, it was unconventional legal advice. But I guess what we recognised was that if you just sought to clear his name through the courts, so much damage would’ve been done before he was finally vindicated. He had to get out there and aggressively make his case, which is what we did.
TONY PILKINGTON:
It’s 11:52. My producer is looking through the window, daggers, as you say –
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah I know, we should –
TONY PILKINGTON:
You stupid old wanker you’re supposed to be talking to the Prime Minister about the submarines and the contract with the French, here you are talking about people –
PRIME MINISTER:
Old times.
TONY PILKINGTON:
She’s a youngster, yeah yeah. But I enjoyed that, I mean it goes back a long time obviously.
PRIME MINISTER:
It does, we should have a chat another time. But look, this is a very big deal. What we’ve got, what we’ve agreed to today and I’ve signed with the French Defence Minister, the agreement between France and Australia.
TONY PILKINGTON:
Geez it’s great for South Australia, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Look it really is. I mean the point that I’ve made about this big investment in naval shipbuilding here –and of course it benefits all of Australia Pilko, it’s not just Adelaide – but it’s centered here
TONY PILKINGTON:
We really don’t care about the rest of them Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I do. I absolutely do so we’ll have to disagree on that.
TONY PILKINGTON:
Yeah righto, okay.
PRIME MINISTER:
But look I just want to say to you that what this underlines is our commitment to having an innovative, 21st century economy, advanced manufacturing - the jobs of the future are not somewhere else, they’re here in Adelaide. They’re here in Australia. What we’re building here, in partnership with the French, is the latest submarines anywhere in the world. This is the best technology.
TONY PILKINGTON:
You’ve got no concerns about the time that they’re commissioned? Let’s hope it’s the early 30s they’ll be outdated, or the leak of information will make them effectively inoperative or incapable?
PRIME MINISTER:
No. No, when they are commissioned, when they go into service, they will be the latest submarines, most advanced submarines in the world. The reason for that is that the development – this is a new submarine and the development obviously has a big lead time so this project will run for 50 years. So this is securing Australia’s naval security for generations. It will also…
TONY PILKINGTON:
Will it also, will the submarines be serviced and looked after here in Adelaide too?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes absolutely.
TONY PILKINGTON:
Alright.
PRIME MINISTER:
This is a completely sovereign capability. My commitment is to ensure that so far as possible, every dollar that we spend on our big defence budget is spent in Australia. But above all, that we bring the technology that we need here to Australia, and we develop our own technology, and so that we build up our own capability as a sovereign capability as a defence industry center.
TONY PILKINGTON:
Prime Minister before we let you go, I know you’re busy, have you had any reports, have there been any Australians injured or worse still killed or maimed in that bombing in Berlin?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let me give you the latest – the latest news is that the death toll has been raised from nine to twelve. We know of one young Australian woman who was at the scene but was uninjured, but obviously very shaken. Our embassy is in touch with her. But I want to – this is a very important message – Australians who are concerned for family and friends who may have been affected, can call the Australian embassy in Berlin, on 49 for Germany, 30 8800 880.
TONY PILKINGTON:
That number again please, PM?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it would be “+” on your phone, or 0011 is the international code, 49 is the German country code, 30 8800 880. Or they can call the Department of Foreign Affairs in Australia on 1300 555 135.
Now I’ve been in constant contact with the ambassador in Berlin. Our team there are checking on the whereabouts of Australians where relatives in Australia have raised questions about them. They’re checking with the hospitals to see if there are any Australians among the victims or the injured. You know, there are many Australians in Berlin. It was in a very crowded shopping area in the Kurfuerstendamm. So it’s important to check if you’ve got friends or relatives that are in Berlin, if you know they’re in Berlin, seek to make touch with them. If you can’t reach them, the numbers that we’ve given are to enable you to alert the Department of Foreign Affairs and then our consular team in Berlin will make sure that they do everything they can to see where they are and establish their safety.
TONY PILKINGTON:
PM, enjoy your Christmas with Lucy and the family up there in Sydney, thanks for your time in Adelaide and good luck for next year. It’s going to be a pretty exciting sort of a year as you would say.
PRIME MINISTER:
It will. Thank you very much Pilko and a very, very happy Christmas and a prosperous and safe and peaceful New Year to you and all of your listeners.
[ENDS]