WENDY KINGSTON:
We're joined live now by Parliamentary Secretary David Bradbury. Mr Bradbury, thank you for your time. First of all, is Kevin Rudd spending more than necessary?
DAVID BRADBURY:
Good morning Wendy, good to be with you. I think, Wendy, that most Australians would understand the Foreign Minister has a role that requires him to travel around the world – that's an important part of the duties that he has to carry out. But I think equally that most Australians would take the view that when it comes to travel expenses, we should be doing what we can to minimise those expenses, to make sure they're always reasonable and I think that they're the positions that really are at stake in terms of issues that have been raised around this question today.
KINGSTON:
So how routine are these kinds of requests from the PM's office and have you ever had one?
BRADBURY:
Well I haven't done a lot of overseas travel in my portfolio responsibilities, but it is very much in the ordinary course of things for correspondence of this sort to occur just to remind Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries that if they're undertaking this kind of travel that they should be conscious. I think that the public would expect that we be conscious of the costs associated with that travel. That doesn't necessarily mean not undertaking trips that are important but it certainly means being mindful of that expense and I think that is entirely appropriate and to be honest, unexceptional.
KINGSTON:
On the topic of Kevin Rudd, has he called you at all to talk about the Labor Party leadership?
BRADBURY:
No.
KINGSTON:
No not yet? Because your colleague Shayne Neumann did. No?
BRADBURY:
I haven't received a call to that effect and I've got to tell you Wendy that I haven't heard of any of my colleagues receiving a call to that effect. I know that people have mentioned Shayne Neumann's answers earlier today. I've spoken to Shayne and Shayne simply said that he was simply going to answer the question the way he wanted it, not the way other people wanted it. He confirmed to me that he's not received any such call either. Look, I've seen some of these reports in the newspaper and frankly I find it curious that we're now talking about a story that emerged because of anonymous allegations from Liberal Party sources. You would expect the Liberal Party to try and drum up mischief in this area, but I think that it's peculiar that we're not just talking about Liberal Party but anonymous Liberal Party sources. I've not heard any of this talk and I think it's a beat up.
KINGSTON:
Okay and just on the topic quickly, the Opposition has introduced its amendments now to the Migration Act for offshore processing, is there any chance at all that the Government will consider them?
BRADBURY:
Well we believe it is important for the Government to have the powers that it needs to put in place an effective border protection set of policies. Frankly, I think it is extraordinary that the Opposition is seeking to put a handcuff, not on just this Government, but future Governments, to say that the only deals and arrangements you can come to when you're trying to tackle border protection challenges is with countries that are signatories to the Convention. I saw your story a little bit earlier on about some of the nasty activities that are happening in a place like Iran. I just want to make the point that Iran happens to be a signatory to the Convention. So simply putting this requirement on that you can only have offshore processing in a country that has signed up to the Convention, that doesn't provide any additional guarantees to human rights. What we've sought to do through the Malaysian arrangement, through an arrangement between the Australian and Malaysian Governments, put in place some very strong safeguards to ensure that we have the capacity to process people offshore but also do it in a way that respects the human rights of the individuals.
KINGSTON:
Okay David thanks very much for joining us this morning, we appreciate your time.
BRADBURY:
Thanks Wendy.