Jamie Briggs MP

Jamie Briggs, Liberal Member for Mayo. Are you there Jamie? 

 

I am here. Can you hear me?

 

We just wanted to make sure our mute button was working. 

 

I think this mute button idea has taken off already. 

 

Now, to both of you, there was great excitement on the twitter-sphere yesterday afternoon with the news that PJK, Paul Keating was appearing on 730 with Leigh Sales, and it was, well I thoroughly enjoyed it and we will bring you some snap shots of it because no one sneaks the slipper in quite like PJK. Particularly I did love his road-runner analogy that he was the road-runner burning up the road behind him and when you burn up the road behind you, no one else can follow you. Amanda Rishworth, did you love everything Paul Keating said last night? 

 

Well look, Paul is a very colourful character, and, you know, I think he was a great Prime Minister and a great Treasurer, and, you know, he put his views forward about where he felt the NSW Government had gone wrong, and put where the party had gone wrong. 

 

 ABRAHAM: 

So far so good Amanda Rishworth. But he said that John Robertson, the likely new NSW opposition leader has no moral authority and would put lead weight in Julia Gillard’s political saddle bags. 

 

Well look, obviously who the leader is of the NSW parliamentary party is up to the NSW Caucus, so obviously that’s an issue. In terms of putting lead in Julia Gillard’s saddle bag, you know, from what I took from the interview was that he said it will be, you know, make it a little bit difficult with MPs, you know, Coalition MPs being elected, running around in seats that we hold. However, I think he also made it very clear that he doesn’t think that this result in NSW was actually reflective of a result that Julia Gillard would get, and I think he made that distinction quite clear, where the federal parliament has an agenda, and I think he made that quite clear, whereas, perhaps NSW had lost its agenda. So I think he made the distinction. 

 

Jamie Briggs. 

 

I give her 5 out of 10 for spin and that was pretty good. With friends like Paul Keating, who needs enemies? John Robertson, there was a stunning description of the abilities of John Robertson, which came after the famous letter he wrote in 2008 about the same person. So I think it just highlights that the Labor Party is in a complete mess because of the control of an element within the party and I thought it was interesting that Amanda mentioned that it was up to the NSW division to decide the leader, and that’s interesting that there’s one division that Don Farrell doesn’t have a say in. 

 

Jamie, that’s quite ridiculous. But I think it is true that the issues in NSW have been something that has been reflected on, and I’m sure that people will take lessons from that. If they don’t take lessons than the NSW party will end up in opposition for a very long time. 

 

So you’re saying that if they don’t take those lessons that NSW opposition, the Labor Party will end up in opposition for a very long time. 

 

That’s correct. 

 

And what about lessons for the South Australian Labor Party, in terms of cronyism, jobs for the boys, people who seem to get exclusive access to the corridors of power when maybe the little people are frozen out. 

 

Well look I think one of the key issues in the NSW election was that, and this is something that Paul Keating made quite clear, they lost their policy nous, they lost their agenda, they didn’t have an agenda anymore, and I think one thing you can say whether or not you agree with things like the hospital here in South Australia, whether or not you agree with, you know the change to the Riverbank prescient, or most people agree with the two-way Southern Expressway. These are all things that the South Australian Labor Party took to an election, they won that election and now delivering on. So in terms of an agenda, in terms of, you know, going forward, I think Paul Keating made quite clear as other commentators have, that perhaps the NSW party had become pretty stagnant and had not started really pursuing some of the big reform agendas. It had lost its policy and ideology. 

 

Jamie Briggs, is there a lesson here also though for Isobel Redmond, and that is that Barry O’Farrell first of all had a very disciplined and cohesive team, and developed policy. So he went before the election, had well articulated policies. There was no disunity. They held the line and rolled into victory. 

 

I think it’s very similar to what Isobel Redmond is doing. We saw Isobel a couple of nights ago at Strathalbyn highlighting a key failure of another Labor policy…

 

When was the last time Isobel Redmond released a policy? 

 

Well look I don’t sit there each morning and click on the state Liberal Party website, but I’m sure they’d be happy to talk to you about exactly what they are talking about. Isobel made a policy commitment on Monday night, which was a Liberal Government in South Australia wouldn’t pretend to own the rain, which of course is what Mike Rann thinks he is going to do here. I think it was interesting, I thought one thing was interesting at NSW, and that was that clearly it was an election where a federal issue wondered into the field. That is unusual. Certainly the decision of Julia Gillard to announce a carbon tax in the middle of the election impacted on the outcome of that election, and I think there is no doubt that in the Labor Party, that is going to cause huge internal division within in the Labor Party because of that decision to announce it during the middle of the election. 

 

Just going back to Amanda Rishworth, Labor MP for Kingston, have you been given some scripted lines to tell journalists and constituents if they ask you about the carbon tax? 

 

Look we’ve been given some fact sheets that I provide to constituents as information. But one thing I’d say in response to Jamie is if he’s suggesting that people in NSW were going to vote Labor and changed their mind when we decided to bring in the carbon tax, and I think perhaps he hasn’t been paying that much attention to NSW politics, a lot of messages coming out of NSW is that people had made up their minds some time ago. To suggest that, you know, in terms of, you know, there’s something new about the carbon tax and that’s why we lost NSW. 

 

If we could just come back to that point though Amanda Rishworth, have you been given scripted talking points? For instance the Weekend Australian says you have, not you personally, but all Labor MPs. For instance if the carbon tax is raised with a voter, you should point out to them that without action on climate change, the average snow season in Australia is expected to contract by between and 85 and 96% by 2050 and disappear by the end of the century. There are a whole lot of other scripted lines that you should parrot to your constituents. 

 

Well I haven’t seen that line, I have to say. I’m not sure if that line is something that’s available in the material that we have been given. 

 

But were you given lines and told look when you’re asked about this, or when you get an opportunity like, you know, maybe on a program like this, this is what you’ve got to come out with, you’ve got to warn people about the dangers of climate change, you’ve got to warn people about bushfires, you’ve got warn people about floods, tsunamis. 

 

Well I haven’t seen those particular lines. 

 

No, but were you given other lines. Were you given any lines? 

 

Well we’re given information and fact sheets and information about what we’re planning, and I give out regularly a question and answer about what will happen if we don’t deal with climate change. That’s something I give out to my constituents. 

 

Well Jamie Briggs, you’re sitting there chuckling, do you get the same thing from Tony Abbott? I imagine you do. You’d get some scripted lines from your party head office? 

 

I’ve never been any good at following scripted lines David. 

 

That wasn’t the question Jamie Briggs. The question was do you get them. 

 

Look I think all political parties have different positions on different issues, but I think the problem with the Labor Party is that any thoughts outside the bubble has been completely squashed in recent years, and it’s now so poll-driven. It’s not driven by ideas, it’s driven by research. 

 

Jamie to be honest, I learnt about climate change at high school about the impacts it might have. I remember doing a project in year 10, I went to a very good school. So, you know, in terms of…

 

Have you still got it? 

 

I don’t. I have to ask my Mum and Dad, they were pretty good at keeping my projects, but I’m not sure. 

 

Did you propose a carbon tax Amanda? Was the carbon tax proposed in it? 

 

The carbon tax wasn’t a part of that, it wasn’t that advanced. 

 

We need to move on, we won’t hit the mute button, but we’ll catch you next week. Amanda Rishworth, we’ll look forward to getting that sent to us from you parents. Thank you, Labor Member for Kingston. 

 

Thank you. 

 

And Jamie Briggs, Liberal Member for Mayo. 

 

Hoping for a better footy tips week this week. 

 

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