Jamie Briggs MP

Time to talk to two pollies who get up when you do. Jamie Briggs, good morning. Liberal Member for Mayo.

BRIGGS:

Good morning, that was a very cool way to start unlike most weeks. Who got to do the CD selection today?

BEVAN:

What are you saying?

ABRHAHAM:

Well not us.

BEVAN:

What are you saying?

ABRAHAM:

We have a Gen Y producer today.

BEVAN:

Briggs. Briggs. Briggs, what are you saying?

BRIGGS:

I will leave it to the audience to decide.

ABRAHAM:

Amanda Rishworth, Labor MP for Kingston. And Amanda Rishworth, have I ever told you what a great job you are doing in Kingston.

RISHWORTH:

Good morning, yes.

ABRAHAM:

Amanda, do you find a lot of people are moving from Mayo into Kingston? Just to have you as their MP. Have you ever noticed that?

RISHWORTH:

Yeah, yeah. We have got the beach you see.

ABRAHAM:

But also, you have a fine MP there. Now down to business, now Amanda Rishworth, front page of the Tiser today. You have got a conflicting image; you have got Julia Gillard surrounded by steel workers, full points to her for going and talking to them. But you have got a Galaxy poll taken 24 hours after the carbon tax shows 2 in 3 Australians don’t like it and they want an election to sort it out and have a vote on it. How do you handle that in your electorate?

RISHWORTH:

Well look I think that in my electorate what really has happened since the release of these details, is that people want to get there head around the detail. There is a lot of information, a lot of information, about what it means for householders in terms of the assistance they get and what it means in terms of assistance for jobs in different industries. So I think what people are doing is they are wanting information about it, they are wanting to find out what it means to them. And I think that over that time I will certainly be out explaining what this means for people, as I was yesterday, at one of the retirement villages in the electorate, explaining what this means and the details about this package.

BEVAN:

Are you getting many calls about this to your office?

RISHWORTH:

Look we are getting a few calls; some are supportive of our plan, some not supportive and indeed some just wanting more information. So it has been a range of different phone calls that we have been getting and really what we have been doing is making sure that people have the facts and I think that is really critical, especially when there is so much media and so much, so many different messages out there. Really our job is to get out the facts of the detail, including one of the big things is that the polluters pay, not actually householders.

BEVAN:

Except the people who work for what you call the polluters. They are the same people who you call householders, they are people.

RISHWORTH:

Absolutely, in terms of assistance for those industries to transfer into the carbon price, there is significant assistance in fact. There are numerous programs, whether they be steel workers, whether they be manufacturers, to actually help them adjust to a low carbon more efficient future. So going through that package as well for that assistance is really important.

ABRAHAM:

Jamie Briggs, do you concede, okay this is one poll, but really 24 hours after, I mean many people would not have had a change to digest what it means to them, it is a bit soon to tell.

BRIGGS:

Well look I go by the field evidence, rather than the polls and the field evidence say that people are confused because they see that the Greens are running the agenda. They see that last Friday the Greens announced half the carbon package, behalf Amanda even knew, before a Labor MP even knew. The Labor backbench hadn’t even been briefed, yet you had the Greens out there, announcing half of the detail of the carbon package. You also have of course, Amanda talks about transition to a so called low carbon future. Well Sarah Hanson Young put the, underlined that yesterday, the next leader of the Greens in the Senate, the coalition partner of the Labor Party, when she said that small towns will just have to close. Now that is what the Labor Party’s coalition partner is saying. This is the future under the Labor Party and the Greens coalition is that they think some jobs are just not worth it.

BEVAN:

But didn’t we see yesterday how quickly Tony Abbott’s position can be undermined when we saw a multi–billion dollar bid for a coal company here in this country. How does Tony Abbott convince us that this tax will close down coal, when you have got large private companies making billion dollar bids for coal companies?

BRIGGS:

Because that is what the Greens say the intention is, I mean that is what Bob Brown has said. Bob Brown has said that he wants to shut down the coal industry. Now at the end of the day, that is the intention of their policy, is they want to…

BEVAN:

So Jamie Briggs, the private companies who are making multi-billion dollar bids for the coal interests, what they are just stupid are they?

BRIGGS:

Well that is the matter for the American coal company who made the bid for an Australian made company. That is the bid yesterday, so you would have to ask them what they basis of future projections. But I can only tell you what the Labor Green Coalition is saying, when they say low carbon future, they are talking about shutting down the coal industry.

ABRAHAM:

Amanda Rishworth.

RISHWORTH:

Jamie, that is absolutely ridiculous.

BRIGGS:

So Bob Brown didn’t say it Amanda? So Bob Brown didn’t say it Amanda…

RISHWORTH:

Bob Brown can say what he wants, it is a government policy. It is a government policy that clearly stipulates the whole number of industry assistance, industry money that will go to helping these companies transform into low more efficient more efficient energy users. If you are suggesting that we…

BRIGGS:

He said he would shut down the coal industry.

RISHWORTH:

We shouldn’t reduce our carbon emissions, which isn’t your policy. This is what you have. But we have no intention what so ever of shutting down the coal industry, in fact it has been made quite clear that our Government sees that there is a bright future in coal. And in fact, the evidence is exactly what has pointed to before which is companies taking over, putting there money where their mouth is really and actually investing significantly in the future of coal.

ABRAHAM:

Amanda Rishworth, doesn’t this show the perversity of this carbon tax approach however, because if coal has a bright future and if companies are going to invest in coal then what is the carbon tax about. I mean why wouldn’t you be putting coal companies out of business?

BEVAN:

Isn’t that the point?

ABRAHAM:

Isn’t that the whole point? That coal is a dirty is a dirty technology, its yesterdays technology. Bob Brown says you know, you love him or hate him, he says it is dirty, we don’t support it. We want renewable energy, so why are you bragging about the fact that a carbon tax that is meant to clean up the atmosphere, is guaranteeing a shining future for dirty coal?

RISHWORTH:

What I am saying is that this hysterical campaign by the Liberal Party saying that the coal industry will be shut down is not true. But what we do need to do is transfer our economy to cleaner future, that is using more efficient ways to use energy and to increasing the diversity and mix of our energy, which includes gas fire and power stations, which includes renewable energy. It includes a whole range of less carbon emitting pollutants, energy sources and this is really important that we do transfer our economy, that doesn’t say that there won’t be a role for some coal powered energy generators, but we need to change our mix so that we are emitting less pollution and we need to become more efficient as an economy to actually become more energy efficient as well, all of these things are important.

BEVAN:

Amanda Rishworth, do you particularly as a Labor backbencher face a problem caused by the tension caused with your partners in this, the Greens? The Greens come at this with their roots and their intellectual property is based in a much more pure ideology regarding the environment. Where as the Labor Party, your intellectual and your political roots are in the workers and so you partners in this are going to be less interested and less caring despite their best efforts about individual workers and Labor has to go out and we saw this with Greg Combet yesterday, has to go out and we saw this yesterday and say, no no no, we really care about the workers. So there is a tension there, which really makes your job as a backbencher very difficult.

RISHWORTH:

Well there is no doubt there is a tension there and that is why I am not a member of the Greens Party. That is why I am a member of the Labor Party and…

BRIGGS:

You are coalition with them.
RISHWORTH:

Labor has been very clear and I call on Jamie to support our fuel reduction package, because that is something that the Greens don’t support and we are not sure if the Coalition will support it. So there are differences, the Greens wanted to put a price on petrol, for the average householder.

BRIGGS:

Okay Amanda, here is a deal. I’ve got a deal for you. Here is a deal.

AMANDA:

We are not doing that.

ABRAHAM:

Hang on.

BRIGGS:

If you take it to an election and you get the peoples support for your package and we will get it through. There you go, take it to an election.

RISHWORTH;

We have got a fuel package there, a three hundred million dollar package to support…

BRIGGS:

Take it to an election.

RISHWORTH:

…people in the steel industry. Come on, will the Liberal Party support that in the Parliament?

BRIGGS:

Take it to an election Amanda.

ABRAHAM:

As usual we have got to the point where you can slug it out on twitter. We do thank you Jamie Briggs, Liberal Member for Mayo.

BRIGGS:

Keep up that good music, David.

BEVAN:

Thank you, Jamie.

ABRAHAM:

And Amanda Rishworth, the excellent…

RISHWORTH:

I will just make one comment; I’ll take an Adelaide winter over a Canberra winter any day.

BRIGGS:

Here, here.

ABRAHAM:

I think you both agree on that one. Amanda Rishworth, Labor MP for Kingston. Two pollies who get up when you do on Wednesdays, we love talking to them.