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PRESENTER:
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke with ABC Southern Queensland’s Belinda Sanders about bridging the gap between perception and reality.
PRIME MINISTER:
It is great to be here in Toowoomba.
BELINDA SANDERS:
Perception is a problem, you might say, in a lot of circles – fake news, advertising, politics – people perhaps in today’s age are becoming more skeptical. Part of the reason is that they feel politicians are out of touch. Whether or not that is right or wrong but if you think about it, Federal MPs are paid a lot more than the average wage – certainly in regional centres they’d be paid significantly more than anyone else in that town, potentially. They are invited to functions for free, they are treated differently, they mix with the elite and perhaps it’s not their own fault but when they meet people more often than not they are meeting party members. It is not giving exposure perhaps to the average person, it’s not necessarily the politicians fault, it’s the nature of the beast but they do live in a bubble. So how do you address that as Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER:
Let me say, if you want to be successful in politics and you want to hold a seat in the House of Representatives, you have to be able to engage with people right across the community and that’s what I have been doing with John McVeigh today here in Toowoomba. We’ve been talking to the team that are building the Second-Range Crossing. We’ve been walking up and down the streets here in Toowoomba with the Mayor. We’ve been out at the Cobb+Co Museum watching the kids and their parents working on the fantastic projects they’ve got there. So I can assure you that we’ve been out and about and that’s what I’ve done all my life as a politician and I know John has done exactly the same. You’ve got to be in the community.
BELINDA SANDERS:
But don’t you think that politicians are treated differently than the average worker? People don’t, I mean, it wouldn’t be your fault, but certainly aren’t going to walk up to you and say what they might say to their neighbour.
PRIME MINISTER:
You know, I’ve always found people to be very frank particularly if the media is not around. If you’ve got a whole bank of television cameras, that’s obviously very intimidating but I get around my electorate, other parts of Australia informally – one of the reasons I catch a lot of public transport is because you meet a lot of people and you meet, I think those serendipitous encounters, those unexpected encounters are the best when you just bump into somebody and you can have a chat and get their point of view. So, you know, I have always found Australians to be very open, very friendly, very respectful, polite I mean but also very frank. And that’s good.
BELINDA SANDERS:
How big of an issue is fake news? How do you contradict those stories that are not based on fact?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think that the nature of the news business has changed. If you go back a generation, all of our media was curated, so if you wanted to get your point of view into a newspaper, you had to persuade the editor to publish it. To get onto the ABC you had to persuade the director to put it on the program and so forth. What the internet has done, and social media has done is enabled everyone to be a publisher. There are virtually no barriers to entry. And so it is possible to, in effect, select the news you want to have and the risk that people can become in effect in a silo receiving information that just agrees with them or reinforces their prejudices. So that is why it is very important and I must say I think the responsibilities on the ABC are greater than they’ve ever been to be absolutely objective and balanced and make sure that the ABC’s audience are getting a broad range of opinions and a balanced perspective.
BELINDA SANDERS:
But you must see quotes with pictures, perhaps your own of statements that were never said, floating around so that people can bombard that Facebook post or whatever it is with a tirade of abuse based on a quote that was never originally said?
PRIME MINISTER:
I think that is always a risk but you know, I, obviously as the Prime Minister, I’ve got a pretty fair megaphone myself. So I am in a position to get my message across and I use mainstream media such as the ABC which we are talking on now, or of course I use all of the new social media channels as well. I think if you’re in the business of communication, which clearly as a very important part of our jobs as politicians and as leaders, you’ve got to use all of the channels of communication that are available.
BELINDA SANDERS:
What do you think of the popularity of One Nation? Is it concerning to you or an overstatement?
PRIME MINISTER:
One Nation is a fact. It is a political party. It has representation in the Australian Senate. It will field candidates in the State Election coming up in Queensland and we have a democratic, competitive political environment and we have to – we compete with each other, naturally. But we also have to cooperate so I respect all of the Members of the Australian Senate, including the One Nation team. We work with them to secure their support for our measures and we’ve been able to secure the support of the One Nation Senators for a number of our very important election commitments including those industrial relations legislation relating to the Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Commission. Which essentially are restoring and establishing the rule of law in the construction sector. We sought and obtained the support of the crossbench, of most of the crossbench including One Nation for that and that’s what we have to do. We respect everyone in the Australian Parliament, whichever party they are from or from no party. They are all entitled to respect and they all have a voice and they all have a vote.
BELINDA SANDERS:
Just finally, back to that perception issue. I suppose one of the things that’s highlighted this week is you are reforming the pension - it’s been talked about for a long time the problem with not being able to afford the welfare system that we have in Australia. But then of course, Sussan Ley and the other expenses stories that have come out since. She was within the boundaries of the law I understand, of the guidelines that had been set by parliamentarians. But is that about this perception issue? You know, the pensioners are saying: ‘Well you don’t have any other understanding of how we live’.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think it is, as I said last week, it is absolutely critical that we demonstrate to the Australian people that we respect them and their money that we are spending. The Australian people pay our bills and they are entitled to see that we treat their money in every respect - but especially when it is spent on business expenses, travel, accommodation and so forth - it is spent prudently, it is spent cost-effectively, it is spent even more prudently than we would if it were our own money.
When you are dealing with other people’s money you are acting a fiduciary, as a trustee for that and so that’s why I have announced the most far reaching reforms in a generation if not longer. So that we will have the reform recommendations from John Conde and David Tune that were presented to us last year. We’ll be implementing those and we are also going to establish for the first time an independent parliamentary expenses authority and it will be an independent body and it will be the watchdog, the guardian, the source of advice and rulings on these expense issues. I am determined to absolutely restore the Australian people’s trust and confidence that every single cent that is spent by politicians on their expenses is spent wisely and appropriately.
BELINDA SANDERS:
What is your perception of Toowoomba?
PRIME MINISTER:
It is a magnificent city and I am delighted to be back. I am thrilled to see that the economy is firing. I am so proud of the great representation it’s had from John McVeigh now and of course from Ian Macfarlane before John. The Second-Range Crossing which we inspected the work on that this morning. It is creating 1,800 direct and indirect jobs. We’ve talked to some of the team there. They are so proud to be doing that work. It was great to be at the Cobb+Co Museum, we’re off to the Vanguard Laundry, which is a wonderful example of Government support. We have contributed $1 million from the Federal Government but also local and community support. As you know, it shows the great strength of the city. People in Toowoomba are proud of their city, they are passionate about it and they should be.
Look at the extraordinary commitment of the Wagner family to the airport, just think about that. There you have a new airport - it’s connecting Toowoomba to the world. It’s connecting the produce and the producers of the Darling Downs to the big markets in Asia. The jobs and the opportunities that we opened up with our big free trade deals particularly the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. You have got Darling Downs beef on menus in Hong Kong and Guangzhou and Shanghai and it is entering into that Chinese supply chain from that new airport, which we landed on today.
You can feel the energy and you can feel the confidence in Toowoomba and it’s wonderful to be here.
BELINDA SANDERS:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks so much.
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