KIERAN GILBERT
Thank you very much for your company this morning, this is AM Agenda, with me now is the Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury and the Shadow Assistant Treasurer Senator Mathias Cormann, gentlemen good to see you both. We've seen the British Conservative Party put out a statement ahead of Senator Bernardi's address to the Young Conservative congress at the weekend, basically saying they strongly condemn his comments and that they weren't involved in organising the congress, didn't invite him. Is this even stronger than the language we heard from Tony Abbott, from the Conservatives in the UK?
MATHIAS CORMANN
Well let me just say, Cory Bernardi is a close personal friend of mine, he's made a mistake and he's paid the ultimate political price for it, that's really where the matter should end. I can understand why people in the corridors of Parliament House here in Canberra want to keep this issue going but really, this is not what people across Australia are interested in. People across Australia want to know what we're going to do about the economy, about the cost of living, they want to know how the Government is going to pay for its $120 billion budget black hole, how they're going to fund their unfunded spending promises, they don't want us to keep going with the debate quite frankly that is not relevant to their day to day views and aspirations.
GILBERT
But there is certainly a sense that, well you look at Malcolm Turnbull's comment and compare that to Tony Abbott's, Tony Abbott said he was ill-disciplined, he didn't say it was offensive, hysterical, alarmist, that was the language Malcolm Turnbull used. Did Tony Abbott use strong enough condemnation of the argument made by Senator Bernardi.
CORMANN
Tony Abbott provided strong and appropriate leadership in the circumstances. Let's just be clear, Cory Bernardi has lost his job as a Shadow Parliamentary Secretary, so what else do people want?
GILBERT
Well that's a fair point isn't it, David Bradbury? He's been sacked, well he's resigned under pressure.
DAVID BRADBURY
Well he's gone off to do penance, that's what Tony Abbott said. Frankly, Tony Abbott was dragged kicking and screaming to this position, it took him a hell of a long time to come out and to make a statement about this. He was out in the morning at the crack of dawn, 6am I think it was, trying to avoid any scrutiny on this, and then it took him a very long time. Let's be clear about this, Tony Abbott was forced into this because of the need for him to try and plug the leadership question. You had Malcolm Turnbull out there very deliberately, seeking to make a point of difference on this. This is symptomatic because of some of the deep divisions that exist within the Liberal Party, Turnbull went out, took a very strong and principled stance, he put some serious pressure on Abbott and in the end, Abbott comes forward, gets rid of Bernardi and says that he's sending a lesson to people that you shouldn't be out there freelancing, but what does he do? He goes and puts in Bernardi's place Jamie Briggs, who was freelancer in-chief. No one has been doing more freelancing than Jamie Briggs. Why did he put Briggs in there? To shut him up. This is all about leadership, it is about trying to stifle the ambitions of Malcolm Turnbull and to isolate and alienate him from other supporters like Briggs and Sinodinos.
CORMANN
That is a completely ridiculous proposition, Jamie Briggs and Arthur Sinodinos are some of our outstanding talents that were on the backbench, they will make outstanding contributions as part of the Coalition front bench, as we get ourselves ready to move into the next election, we of course are doing some significant work, putting our alternative policy agenda for government together right now,
BRADBURY
Release them then, release them.
CORMANN
Jamie Briggs and Arthur Sinodinos are playing a very important role in relation to this and it was quite appropriate for Tony Abbott in a very considered and methodical way to work through the processes yesterday morning.
GILBERT
Let me ask you Senator Cormann, I'll come back to David in a second, just on the statement from Senator Bernardi, he said he was going to resign in the best interests of the party. There was no apology given and he doesn't seem to be backing away from it. Tony Abbott said he doesn't agree with the comments made but didn't go any further than that. Should there be a more clear cut repudiation of potential link between, as Senator Bernardi argued, between gay marriage and relationships between human beings and animals?
CORMANN
I think that Tony Abbott was very clear. Tony Abbott had a conversation with Cory Bernardi, as a result of that conversation Cory Bernardi resigned. Tony Abbott said very clearly that he disagreed with the comments that were made that he did not accept that people that are part of the Coalition front bench team would make remarks that are offensive to gay and lesbian people and these comments were of course, offensive. So from that point of view we can continue circle around it, these are not the issues that people across Australia want us talking about today.
GILBERT
And I do want to move on but just finally, you're making this link David Bradbury to Malcolm Turnbull leadership aspirations, this is something he's had strong views on for a long time, his seat has a large population of gay and lesbians in his seat of Wentworth, this is just natural for him to speak out isn't it? You try to milk it for all its worth saying it's about leadership.
BRADBURY
He's buoyed by the opinion polls we saw released earlier this week, let's not forget that no one, well Mathias might take objection to this because he played a pretty significant role, but no one played a more significant role in taking a knife to Malcolm Turnbull than Cory Bernardi. Let's not forget that. This was not only an opportunity for Turnbull to jump onto an issue that is one that he's campaigned on for some time to take a principled stand, this needs to be seen in the context of the leadership. Turnbull was out there displaying his wares to all and sundry that he would take a principled stand on this as opposed to Mr Abbott who couldn't even come out and say it was offensive.
GILBERT
- Alright I want to move on and talk about some of the things you referred to before, Denis Richardson the outgoing head of DFAT says there needs to be more face to face time between our leadership and the Chinese leadership, I'll play you a little bit of what he had to say in his speech last night let's have a listen, this is more generally though about the US alliance as well.
*AUDIO PLAYS*
So a firm commitment to ongoing US alliance but did say, David Bradbury, there needs to be more face to face time with the Chinese leadership, if you look at the machinery we have at the top compared with what some other countries have with China, we do lag behind in an established leaders forum. That's something obviously he believes at the very top level that Australia hasn't dealt with appropriately. That's not acceptable is it? Given it's so important to our future.
BRADBURY
First point that he makes is that we have a strong, historical and ongoing relationship with the United States and that that should continue and I don't think there is a lot of contention about that. The point that's being made here about these high level people to people contacts, obviously we have been developing those over time with China, and will continue to do so. But can I make this point, if we want to view the Australian and Chinese relationship and the pull and push factors, the points of tension that exist, I think that in the recent political debate the worst example of the damage that can be done to our relationship with China has come from the freelancing we've seen from Barnaby Joyce and others who have been out there wrecking our credibility when it comes to attracting foreign investment into this country.
GILBERT
But Denis Richardson says he doesn't think that those comments are going to be that damaging in the long term. He says that it reflects the debate that was had in the 70s with US investment, the 80s with Japanese investment and he said the Chinese accept it as part of a robust political debate; it's not going to hurt us.
BRADBURY
If it's simply occurring at the margins, then that may well be the case. But if we are talking about the National Party dog, the National Party tail I should say wagging the Liberal Party dog on economic policy and that's what we've seen in some of these instances, not only foreign investment, they're out there trying to break up Coles and Woolies with these radical divestiture powers, if we are seeing this sort of radical and extreme economic populism that is associated with the National Party, that will no doubt damage our relationship with China.
GILBERT
I don't think that is going to be accepted by Senator Cormann and his colleagues, they're allowed to have a debate but obviously you've got to try and reign that in don't you...
CORMANN
Let's just make a point upfront the relationship with both the US and China are both very important relationships. We've had a long standing alliance with the United States which was formalised more than 60 years ago in the ANZUS Treaty and that will continue for a long time to come. What we have demonstrated when we were last in government is that you can have strong relationships both with the US and with China. John Howard as the Prime Minister hosted both the United States President and the President of China here at Parliament House in Canberra in the same week. Of course in recent times there has been more tension in what is a very important relationship between Australia and China and there is an opportunity for us to do better moving forward.
GILBERT
And in relation to the Nationals with their comments because Denis Richardson made reference to them, doesn't think it's going to be damaging as long as the mainstream keeps the focus on investment and so on.
CORMANN
Our relationship as a nation with China has matured in the last decade or so. They understand about our internal political processes but let me just be very clear about the Coalition's position on foreign investment, we welcome and support for foreign investment, we do think there is a case to improve some of the transparency around some of the processes but these are debates that are well understood and in terms of providing better certainty around how some of those decisions are made, that will actually help not hinder our relationship with China.
GILBERT
Do you think Mr Abbott's message on freelancing will be heated by the likes of the Nationals?
CORMANN
Well clearly we are a united and disciplined force focused on delivering better government for Australia. We've got an incompetent, divided and dysfunctional government where every decision the Prime Minister is making, spending spree after spending spree, $120 billion worth of unfunded promises just to keep Kevin Rudd at bay. Julia Gillard is so worried about Kevin Rudd coming back that every single decision she's made in recent weeks is all about keeping Kevin Rudd at bay.
GILBERT
20 seconds, quick response, 20 seconds.
BRADBURY
They're so united, Barnaby Joyce out there every second day coming up with some whacky policy proposal, Tony Abbott hasn't shown the leadership to slap him down, I tell you what, talk about sending a message on freelancing, promote Briggs, freelancer in-chief, and you've got Barnaby Joyce getting away with running his own lines on all these issues.
GILBERT
We're out of time, David Bradbury, Senator Cormann, thank you for your time.