SUBJECTS: NRL, AFL, sport role models, job of Assistant Treasurer
STUART BOCKING:
Chris Bowen is the Federal Assistant Treasurer, he has written a piece in the Herald today on the very issue, of the good footy players we don't here enough about, and I'm pleased to say that Chris Bowen is on the line. Hi Chris.
CHRIS BOWEN:
G'day Stuart good to talk to you.
BOCKING:
You too, nice to catch up with you. It is intriguing isn't it, Friday night of course Hazem El Masri played his 300th first grade game in the NRL and obviously after the match much of the controversy centred around the video ref, various other problems along way, hardly a mention of Hazem's achievement.
BOWEN:
Well look that is the point that I was trying to make this morning, that young men in particular need role models, it's often pretty hard to be a teenager these days. You need examples and there are some really first rate footballers who are outstanding role models and Hazem El Masri is one that I talked about this morning, and with all the ugliness and doom and gloom and the problems of the last couple of weeks. I just wanted to point out that there are actually some good stories to tell, and we should be telling some of those good stories.
BOCKING:
And I think like with anything, whether it's the public hospital or anything else the good stories will always outweigh the bad stories. It is just the bad stories get all the coverage.
BOWEN:
Well that is the world we live, that it's very hard to get good news on the front page of the paper, everything is doing fine is not a great headline.
BOCKING:
You would know that only too well in your role.
BOWEN:
Yes absolutely, but I just wanted to make…use the opportunity with my column with the Herald to say, look there are some really good guys there. Hazem El Masri is one Corey Payne is the other example I used. A bloke who grew up in my neck of the woods in Fairfield, went to public schools, is now doing his master of commerce at the University of NSW and has played 70 first grade games. A really good role model to young kids to say look, play your sport train hard, but go out and learn as well and they are the sorts of stories that I just wanted to get a bit of air play for in what is, has been a pretty horrible time for sport.
BOCKING:
I notice Craig Wing saying the other day, again one of the nice guys of rugby league, he was saying for the first time almost feels ashamed to say that he is a professional footballer. Sad that it has come to that for players like him.
BOWEN:
Look it is very sad for anybody who devotes their life to Rugby League and the good guys are being tarred with the same brush. It is very easy to come to the conclusion, to read the media that everybody, frankly that everybody who is involved in football is a boofhead, but that is not the case. You know there are a lot of really good role models, Hazem El Masri a migrant a very good example for the Lebanese Muslims community, to show what this country can do if you get down and knuckle down and work hard and they are the sorts of stories that I just don't think we tell enough.
BOCKING:
I noticed also another of the good guys Brett Kimmorley on Friday night, that crowd situation could have got very, very ugly, but he was one of the first Bulldogs players to go over to the Bulldogs army and say listen guys no more with the bottles lets calm this thing down. That just typifies the sort of player he has been over the years as well.
BOWEN:
Yes I saw that, and the crowd control and the police needed that help and the team acted very responsibly. So there are these instances and look there is lots of them. A lot of football clubs are involved in charities, a lot of the players give a lot of their time to the different charities that their clubs are involved in, and I just think as a community it is good to remind ourselves of that sometimes, and as I say coming from Western Sydney in particular a lot of kids just need a bit of a role model and sports players are role models. Whether they like it or not, good or bad and there are a lot of good ones.
BOCKING:
That's right. Another who you write about from AFL is Western Australia's David Wirrpanda another great story.
BOWEN:
Well that's right, an indigenous person who has given a lot back to the indigenous community and set up a foundation to deal with a lot of the health issues and more generally. Look the examples are there and as you say, it is very hard to get coverage for the good I just thought I would use my 800 words in the Herald to give some of them a plug.
BOCKING:
Well I'm glad you did and I am happy to use some of the time on this radio program to do the same thing because it is very easy to fall into the trap. Whether it is relating to some political issues, whether it relates to public hospitals or public transport or a whole range of different areas. It is very easy to fall into the trap of always just focusing on the problems, and of course we can't ignore the problems, but we should also spend some time reflecting on the good news stories and rugby league certainly throws up a lot more good news stories that it does bad news stories.
BOWEN:
Well look I think you are right, I think the general point you make is right. Yes of course things could always go better no matter what you are looking at, health transport etcetera, but it pays sometimes to remind ourselves that we do a lot of things pretty much the best in the world, and we should remind ourselves of that and yes, things go wrong sometimes, but we have a first class political and government system in Australia and that has been built up over a long time by both sides and in sport we have got some wonderful examples of role models and lets tell that story as well.
BOCKING:
Yes, that's right you are right one of the many sad things about the Matthew Johns incident and some of the other's is that it does give footballers, all footballers a bad name, when they certainly don't deserve it, not all footballers.
BOWEN:
Absolutely and that is why I wrote it, because I felt quite strongly that those footballers who quietly get on with the job of putting back into their community. Working with charities, providing that role model going around talking to schools and quietly being really good decent men deserve better than that.
BOCKING:
Now I was born in Fairfield, grew up in Macquarie Fields, so I am a South Westie, you're a Westie. I'm intrigued Chris when you write, I have to confess I'm not much of a Rugby League fan I'm more your AFL sort of guy. How did this happen Chris, what went wrong?
BOWEN:
My press secretary will be very nervous about me right now. It just so happened Stuart that I went to an AFL game one time when I was younger and I really enjoyed it and nothing against Rugby League at all. Good luck to them, but I am who I am and I really enjoy sitting down and watching an AFL game and the Sydney Swans, I'm a big fan, but I have got to confess if we get that Western Sydney team I'll be switching my allegiance.
BOCKING:
Good on you, very good. Now one thing is for sure, I don't follow a side in either the AFL or the Rugby League but certainly I'm a rugby league man first and fore most. You won't shake that out of me, love watching a good game.
BOWEN:
Good luck to you.
BOCKING:
Just in closing. Obviously been a busy time in the last couple of weeks in the wake of the budget. Today this story about travel allowance is back on the go again, for the sake of completeness I better ask you what your arrangements are in Canberra, how that money gets spent?
BOWEN:
Well in my case Stuart, I have enough trouble paying off a Sydney mortgage, the last thing I need is a Canberra mortgage as well. So I don't have a place in Canberra but look just in fairness, we do get an overnight allowance when we are in Canberra. We have got a very different system, you might have seen to publicity that has been going on in England.
BOCKING:
In the UK yeah…
BOWEN:
…where they are allowed to have two houses and pay the expenses on one. We have a very different system. It is recognised that we do have to spend half the year in Canberra, that is a requirement of the job and therefore we get an overnight allowance when we are there. Now some people - I myself I share with another MP in a flat - it is almost like a hotel room that we rent, and that is where the allowance goes. Other people say well I am going to be here a long time, I might as well buy a house and use the allowance to pay off the house or the flat. So everybody has their own arrangements and look I have got to say I don't think anything, I am not aware of anybody from either side who makes a huge amount of money out of the time we spend in Canberra, it is not meant to, it's just meant to pay for the time that you spend away from your main home and your family.
BOCKING:
Since you came to Government obviously you have a very important role assisting Wayne Swan in your role as Assistant Treasurer. Has it been busier than you thought the job could ever be?
BOWEN:
Look I wouldn't say it has been busier, the challenges have been enormous for the Government, when we came to office we were sworn in on that very nice day back in 2007. I don't think there was anybody around the world who could have foreseen what would happen over the next eighteen months and the challenges we have had to deal with, and we came into office with an agenda. There were some things we wanted to do and we have been doing our best to do those, but we have had to do it against a back drop with this big economic crisis which really, nobody saw coming. So it has been a challenge, but it is an enormous privilege and opportunity. Wayne Swan is a delight to work for, he is a top bloke, s very warm human being and I really enjoy the job.
BOCKING:
Well at the moment I'm not sure there are to many people with tougher jobs than David Gallop the NRL boss.
BOWEN:
Well that is true, I wouldn't swap.
BOCKING:
Terrific Chris, it is always nice to catch up with you.
BOWEN:
Same with you it's always a pleasure to talk to you Stuart