SUBJECTS: Fake email scandal.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN:
Good morning Chris Bowen.
CHRIS BOWEN:
Good morning Rafael how are you?
EPSTEIN:
I'm good thank you. Why is the Government pressuring the opposition about where they get their information from? You don't pester journalists about where they get their information from and politicians mix with a whole range of people. Why does it matter?
BOWEN:
This is a very serious issue Rafael, Malcolm Turnbull used to be a journalist but he's not anymore; he can no longer claim that special status, he is the alternative Prime Minister of Australia. He called the for the resignation of Australia's Prime Minister based on a forgery a fake and a fraud he has to explain his position across the entire gamut of this scandal. He has to be upfront with the Australian people and with the Australian federal police about the involvement of the opposition in this scandal.
This is a first class scandal Rafael and it is not often that a Prime Minister is called on to resign; it happened very rarely if at all that the Labor Party called for John Howard's resignation.
EPSTEIN:
I tell you what, one of the times when they got very close to calling for a resignation was when Kevin Rudd was spending a lot of time in ABC studios and other media studios when the AWB scandal hit. He certainly, as Tony Abbot pointed out would have been speaking to public servants. I understand you would be very upset about this email and the claims Malcolm Turnbull made and you can make hay with that because you're a politician. Why on earth does it matter if politicians speak to public servants because both sides do that all the time?
BOWEN:
This AWB thing is a nice try at a distraction by Tony Abbot. This AWB thing is a complete distraction. That [AWB] was based on a United Nations report, not leaks from public servants, a United Nations report.
EPSTEIN:
Kevin Rudd never spoke to a public servant about the report?
BOWEN:
I don't know, but the evidence came from a United Nations report, a very credible report that the opposition based its criticisms on and what Kevin Rudd did not do is rush out and call for the resignation of the leader of the country.
It shows very bad judgment to accuse the Prime Minister of Australia of corruption based upon a forgery a fake and a fraud which is what Malcolm Turnbull has done.
The Liberal party is in a major crisis here; we see allegations being thrown, we see the reputations of good people being traduced not only Ministers but the reputations of people who dare to back the Government. The head of the Motor Traders Association said hang on what's all this about, the Government has dealt no differently with this car dealer then they have with all the others that we have referred their way and the opposition is out yesterday besmirching his reputation. And here we see the opposition split on very important policy issues, climate change, alcopops, immigration detention, they are a rabble and look Rafael, in all seriousness can I say the position of Leader of the Opposition is a very important one in the Australian political infrastructure the role of the Leader of the Opposition is to be the alternative Prime Minister.
Now Mr. Turnbull has lost all credibility, his status in that position is no longer sustainable.
EPSTEIN:
Can I – look I asked Lindsay Tanner a number of times yesterday whether or not any other dealer had been treated in the same way as John Grant has and I don't believe I got a straight answer – let me put this to you – again this is what the opposition is saying, including Tony Abbott this morning, that in those emails that the Treasurer released, Kevin Rudd asked for information about these car dealers on the 17th of April. He received information about them on the 21st of April yet you said in Parliament that he had no idea what had happened with these car dealers and Tony Abbott says the Prime Minister is being loose with the truth. The real email out there showed this one car dealer received treatment no other car dealer received. Do you accept that?
BOWEN:
No I don't Raphael, not at all. These emails show that the Treasurer's office was working actively on behalf of many car dealers. Now the Opposition says, why did the Treasury raise Mr Grant's case with Ford Credit? The emails show the Treasury was raising the finance needs of car dealers, lots of them with lots of different financiers and putting them in touch. Now I'll give you one example, there's one here on behalf of a female car dealer and it says, "I and Credit Suisse spoke today with the Australian head of a finance company earlier this afternoon to determine what scope there was to keep financing this woman".
So there's an example of the Treasury, at the request of the Treasurer's office going and talking to the Chief Executive of a Finance company to see if we could keep that car dealer in business so that people wouldn't be put out of work.
EPSTEIN:
What about Kevin Rudd asking for and receiving information about these car dealers and then saying he didn't know anything about it?
BOWEN:
Well look I haven't seen those allegations from the Opposition. I'd have to have a good look at them and the Prime Minister's response to be honest. But look, the Opposition is desperately trying to make a case out of nothing here – they have a straw man of an argument. The Treasurer of Australia – Wayne Swan – I work as closely with Wayne as any other Minister. He is a very good man, and he tries to help, and if people contact his office and say, "Look I'm having trouble here getting finance to keep my care dealership open, I'm going to have to put my workers off", he'll go into bat.
EPSTEIN:
They do want to… I want to squeeze in some talkback callers - what's the difference between a fake, a forgery and a fraud? Why do you guys keep repeating that? I don't know what the difference is, do you?
BOWEN:
This email was all three, all three.
EPSTEIN:
You can't tell me specifically, that's okay I'll go and consult the dictionary. That's OK. Chris Bowen is an Assistant Treasurer in the government and works closely with the Treasurer. Thanks for talking to us this morning.