E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………

 

 

I talked to the Prime Minister on Monday. It's only fair that I talk to the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, today. Tony, good morning.

TONY ABBOTT:

 

John, good morning.

 

 

Good morning. What’s your solution to the asylum seeker offshore processing issue in simple terms?

TONY ABBOTT:

 

John, we would reintroduce the policies that worked under the Howard Government. In essence, that is offshore processing at Nauru, temporary protection visas to deny the people smugglers a product to sell and the option of turning boats around where it’s safe to do so.

 

Ok, well it all seems pretty simple. If it’s that simple and the Government is on the nose because of their attitude to it, why don’t they do what you say you’d do?

TONY ABBOTT:

 

Well, that’s a good question. The Prime Minister is holding out for her Malaysia people-swap even though it’s obvious that the Parliament is never going to support the Malaysia people-swap.

 

 

Well that’s pretty dumb of her, isn’t it?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, it is, and it’s interesting, she said that she had to break her promise never to have a carbon tax because she had to deal with the Parliament as she found it. She said that she couldn’t keep her promise to Andrew Wilkie on mandatory pre-commitment because she had to deal with the Parliament that she found. She said that she couldn’t continue with her promise to have a company tax cut because the Parliament just wasn’t going to pass it. Now, having on three important issues said, ‘Well, you’ve got to work with the Parliament you’ve got,’ surely on this one she should just get from this Parliament the offshore processing that she can, which is offshore processing in countries which have signed up to the UN convention and there are 148 of them around the world including…

 

Yeah, plenty of them…

TONY ABBOTT:

 

...including Nauru, PNG, the Philippines, East Timor. So, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t just swallow her pride and take this from the Parliament. I don’t actually think it’s necessary to get new legislation through the Parliament to process people in Nauru and PNG, but in order to remove any legal doubt, sure, let’s pass the legislation, and she could have done that last week and I say even now she should do something rather than nothing in the next six weeks; get the processing centre started in Nauru and PNG and if we need legislation we’ll pass the legislation as soon as the Parliament comes back in August.

 

Ok. If she didn’t owe the Greens, would her attitude be different?

TONY ABBOTT:

 

It’s a good question, John. At the moment, she can either have the Greens’ solution or the Coalition’s solution. Now, the Greens’ solution is no solution at all. It’s basically anyone who gets here can stay here, and that’s effectively what she’s done by refusing to accept the Coalition’s solution; she’s effectively opted for the Greens’ position which is onshore processing in Australia, released into the community on visas which give you automatic permanent residency and is it any wonder that the boats keep coming when the prize of permanent residency in Australia is freely available to the people smugglers and their clients?

 

Tell me, are the Greens just a nuisance or are they a danger?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, my argument is with the Labor Party rather than with the Greens and to be honest, the Labor Party and the Greens, whatever they say, they’re effectively on a unity ticket. The carbon tax is Greens policy. Julia Gillard has put it in place. Effectively,  she’s embraced the Greens on border protection. This is a Labor/Greens alliance government and I think, frankly, at the moment they’re just as bad as each other.

 

 

Yeah, but I mean, what do you expect? If it wasn’t for the Greens, she wouldn’t be there.

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, that’s right and this is why people are so unhappy about the carbon tax. She said there would be no carbon tax in order to win votes before the election then after the election in order to get a deal out of the Greens to stay in The Lodge, she said there would be a carbon tax and the whole point seems to be to save Julia Gillard’s political skin and is it any wonder that people are very unhappy about this kind of a Prime Ministership?

 

I’ve said it before, if you and I went into business - Abbott and Laws - we’ll put it alphabetically…

 

 

Hopefully it would be a very successful business, John.

 

 

Absolutely no doubt of that, but if we went into business and…

 

 

It would be a good advocacy business at least!

 

Yes. And if we wanted to issue a prospectus, if we lied in the prospectus, we’d be in jail.

 

 

Exactly right. Companies that tell fibs to the public in their documents, directors who make assertions to the stock market that they know to be false or that they subsequently render false, they’re in terrible trouble and deservedly so and this is why I think there will be as soon as an election takes place, there will be I think a perfectly correct electoral justice meted out to this Government.

 

 

You were in Darwin yesterday meeting with the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

 

 

Yes.

 

 

What did you discuss with him?

 

 

John, look, I’m going to try and make a habit of not talking about conversations with foreign leaders because I think one of the real problems that we’ve had with Indonesia over the last four and a half years is this megaphone diplomacy where first Kevin Rudd and more recently Julia Gillard, they shout at the Indonesians in public rather than having the discussions in private. Now, John Howard had a terrific relationship with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. 

 

It was a masterstroke of John Howard to go to President Yudhoyono’s initial inauguration and they met many times and John Howard never talked publicly about what he discussed and the relationship was a very constructive one and I hope that should I become Prime Minister, that’s the kind of relationship that I could have with the Indonesian President and I’m hoping to kick it off the right way by adhering to those ordinary conventions, even as Opposition Leader.

 

 

Well, let me put this to you. He wants minor boat crew members released from Australian jails. What has he offered in return?

 

 

Well, that’s a question that you’d need to put to the Prime Minister because that’s the person who…

 

 

But you’d be aware of it?

 

Well, look, I’m just not going to go into what we discussed but certainly if people break Australian law they should suffer Australian penalties, just as we understand that if people break Indonesian laws, they should suffer Indonesian penalties. If you’re in Indonesia and you break an Indonesian law, whether you’re Australian or New Zealand or British or Vietnamese or Indonesian, you should suffer accordingly and yes, we’re perfectly entitled as Australians to seek clemency, but the first principle of Australian justice is that whatever country you come from, if you break an Australian law in Australia, well, you suffer the Australian consequence.

 

 

Well, you answered the question pretty thoroughly. Do you think Indonesia should take more responsibility for people smugglers and asylum seeker processes?

 

 

Well, plainly that’s something that we would like to see and to their credit they have toughened up their own domestic laws against this and they have been increasingly effective in cracking down on it. There was a notorious people smuggler arrested in Indonesia just the other day and that’s a very good thing. Now, what we need to do is to get increasingly close cooperation between Australia and Indonesia on this issue and I think we can get it if we play our cards right and one way not to play your cards right is to engage in public criticism of them because it is a difficult job, law enforcement, and it’s a particularly difficult job in a vast archipelago - particularly when the people smugglers have a lot of money which they can splash around to try to get their way.

 

 

Ok, a couple of questions that have been put to me by listeners that I’ve been unable to answer so I’ll ask you to answer them, one being, will you put up the GST when you are voted into government?

 

 

A categorical no.

 

You’ve given it to me before and I keep telling listeners but they don’t want to accept it. So, you will not put up the GST?

 

 

We will not change the GST.

 

 

Ok. When you repeal the carbon tax, will you guarantee that the companies who put up their prices because of the tax then lower them?

 

 

Well, I can guarantee that the ACCC will vigilantly police prices and if the carbon tax has caused a price to go up and the carbon tax comes off, well, then obviously all things being equal the price should go down and the ACCC will be there to penalise businesses which don’t play fair by customers.

 

 

Ok. Just finally, we’ve tragically lost another soldier in Afghanistan. Does it get harder every time to advocate for Australia’s involvement in this war?

 

John, I really understand and I feel as everyone does for the comrades and the family and the friends of the soldier who’s just died and he was obviously a warrior of extraordinary prowess; obviously a remarkable fighting man and a great credit to the Australian military and to the SAS in particular. Now, look, whenever another soldier is lost, people understandably say, "is the price too high?" I think that sometimes we do have to pay a high price to protect our freedom and to advance our interests and we’ve got to remember what our guys are doing over there. They are trying to ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a haven for international terrorism. They are working in the closest possible collaboration with our major military allies and it’s important that we do support our major military allies and they are trying to build a country which at least adheres to basic standards of decency and one of the great things that has been achieved in Afghanistan over the last few years, in part because of Australia, is that women can go to school, women can get jobs, women can drive cars and to say well, it’s all too tough because we’ve taken some casualties - tragic though that is - and to let this place slip back into feudalism, I’m very reluctant to say look, Australia should just say we’ve done enough and go. I mean, obviously, eventually we will be gone and Afghans will have to stand on their own two feet but I think Australia should stay while there is a job to be done.

 

 

There are many critics of our soldiers being in Afghanistan who have said to me - a number of them have said very openly to me - that as soon as we withdraw troops from our Afghanistan, they will revert to form.

 

 

Well, I’ve been twice in Afghanistan now and while our troops are under no illusions about the nature of Afghan society which is quite different from ours, I also very much got the view from them that they thought what they were doing was worthwhile and they did think there would be lasting changes to Afghan society as a result of our presence. I mean, the western forces in Afghanistan, sure, they make mistakes. No one is perfect, not even Australian Special Forces, so mistakes do get made. But the values that we represent, I think, are universal values and all people would prefer to vote on their future than have it dictated to them…

 

 

Sure.

 

 

...I think all women would like to have more control rather than less control over their lives. I think all people, if given the option of scientific-based progress rather than staying in obscurantism would take that if they could. I mean, I think these are universal human values and I think the example of our troops in Afghanistan and the other western powers has got to be a very fragrant one for all of these people.

 

Ok. You’ve been very generous with your time again Tony and it’s always appreciated - not only by me but I’m sure by the listeners - and thank you very much for it.

 

 

John, it’s a pleasure as always to talk to you.

 

 

Thank you, Tony.

 

 

Thank you.

 

[ends]