Jamie Briggs MP

Thank you both for making your way to the ABC Studio in Canberra. Now Jamie Briggs, did you feel at all uncomfortable with the rallies around Parliament House yesterday, the anti-carbon tax rallies? It got a bit willing. 

 

Well I didn’t go out the front to the rally but I saw some footage on television last night and look rallies often do get willing. I remember in 1996 a famous rally where the ACTU-led rally stormed Parliament House. The union movement was complaining about the Howard Government at that point and they broke down the doors at the front of Parliament House and so forth and many were injured. So there has been a tradition of rallies at Parliament House. I thought yesterday was probably better in tone in what I saw than the one earlier in the year. But obviously people are passionate about this issue and about the 12 month anniversary from the great fib that Julia Gillard told. 

 

Amanda Rishworth, do you find it disturbing, or like Jamie Briggs do you think in the scheme of things this one was a dottle? 

 

Well look I think people are entitled to peacefully protest and are able to say their views and I think that’s what’s great about this democracy, is that we do have people that are from all sides of issues able to protest. I guess one thing that came out, and I wasn’t there either, but one thing that came out was some other concerns including one of the speakers was talking about log books for drivers and obviously raising that as an issue. But look I think one thing is clear is that while there will be a lot of discussion about this, we believe that this is the right direction for the country’s future and so we will continue to prosecute that argument about why this is important, why this is the best thing for our future and we will continue to have that conversation. 

 

So has the ALP got over the squeamishness about Julia Gillard being referred to as a witch, and “ditch the witch” which seemed like a common theme? You are both quite relaxed, neither of you were there but Tony Abbott sure was, and he sort of half heartedly said he didn’t agree with some of the signs all the time but I think it was a bit of a nudge-nudge, wink-wink bring it on. 

 

Well I think everyone has the right to protest, it should be done peacefully. But I think as politicians, if we got caught up in everything that people said about us then we’d probably be upset a lot of the time.  I think when you go into politics you do have to be able to take criticism. Obviously I believe it should be done in a respectful way. I think signs like “ditch the witch”, signs like that are not as respectful as they could be, but I think when we are dealing with big issues then we need to be focused on talking about policy, talking about the argument. I’d love to hear Tony Abbott talk a bit more about his policy because we now hear it is going to cost families $1,300 extra on their tax bill, per year for his direct action plan. We didn’t hear him talk about that and I’d like to hear Tony Abbott talk a lot more about his policy. Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to have much. 

 

Also going on yesterday in Canberra was a meeting in the Great Hall. According to Mark Kenny, about a thousand people turned up to hear US morals campaigner Rebecca Hagelin. Also there was Neil Andrews and Barnaby Joyce, two prominent Catholic Coalition frontbenchers, that’s how Mark Kenny described them. 

 

Kevin Andrews I think. Neil Andrews was, remember he was the Speaker; he used to be the Member for Wakefield. He has left Parliament now. 

 

Right, its Kevin Andrews and Barnaby Joyce. Were you there? 

 

No, I wasn’t there. I’m not sure if Amanda was. 

 

According the Mark Kenny’s piece, she was saying that marriage, she is a US morals campaigner; marriage is under threat from gay marriage. Marriage the oldest institution of any kind, created and defined by God himself is under attack. This war we find ourselves in is a war for the very future of the human race. Again, Amanda Rishworth, Jamie Briggs, are you concerned about this or is this part of the normal debate? 

 

People are entitled to their view. I don’t necessarily agree with those views, I don’t agree with those views. I agree…

 

Which bit don’t you agree? You don’t agree that God made marriage, or you don’t agree…

 

No, I think marriage is an institution that is defined in law and we don’t support changing that definition. Now I understand there are people in my electorate and I am sure in Amanda’s and more broadly who passionately want a change to the definition. There are people who passionately do not want a change and we are getting regular contact from those people at the moment. But realistically this is not the front of mind issue that some think it is. It is not brought up with me regularly when I am out in the electorate talking to people. I tell you what is brought up with me when I am out in the electorate and that is that the economy is struggling. That people are finding it tough under cost of living increases. Small business hasn’t had these conditions I’m told by people since 1991, if ever before. The combination of the dollar plus the developments and the access now to online shopping has made it very hard for people, and that is the issue that people are bringing up with me, particularly trying to run small businesses. 

 

Amanda Rishworth, we are seeing for instance there is now 400 OneSteel jobs on the chopping block. You represent the southern suburbs, still despite the redrawing of the boundaries, in the seat of Kingston. Have the southern suburbs become the forgotten suburbs in terms of job creation? What major industry has, well Mike Rann talks about the Roxby project, and while he talks about his two big arts announcement that he is in a big hurry to get announced before he shuffles off the leadership in October, what is there? What has filled the gab in your seat? 

 

Well in my seat there is a lot of small business and in fact home-based businesses, so that has been employing a lot of people. 

 

They are very vulnerable aren’t they, to downturns in the economy. 

 

They are very vulnerable to downturns, absolutely. 

 

So where are the big businesses that have come in and anchored so you have got say a Mitsubishi. You don’t have a Mitsubishi. I’m saying a lot of the emphasis seems to be on the defence industries in the north of the city. So we have great things being announced there. When was the last time we had a significant jobs announcement in the south? 

 

Well in fact Kim Carr was down in my electorate a few weeks ago actually announcing a big SMR announcement where there was job creation in manufacturing. But in terms of…

 

What was SMR sorry? 

 

SMR does manufacturing of car components, and so there was an announcement about them increasing their workforce through a really innovative new product which has received some both state and federal government assistance to develop that product. 

 

How many jobs are involved in that? 

 

Look they employ over 400 people. I mean that wasn’t that specific announcement, but they employ over 400 people. But in terms of the Mitsubishi site, that is a really important issue and I think we have got a real opportunity here. The State Government bought the Mitsubishi site with the option to look at creating jobs on that site. I’ve certainly been working with the State Government to look at how we master plan that site to ensure that it does attract jobs to the south. 

 

It is going to be a TAFE campus isn’t it? 

 

Only one part of it is going to be TAFE and I have been working very closely to make sure it is about job creation. Clean tech industry has a real opportunity there. 

 

Amanda Rishworth, I ride past that site fairly regularly and all I see is a medical clinic and a lot of abandoned buildings. 

 

Well look we need to get this right and we need to ensure it doesn’t just become storage, logistics. It needs to be absolutely high quality jobs and so there is work being done with the State Government. They obviously own that site. What they did is to stop property developers just putting more houses on it, to actually look at how we can make that a thriving industrial site. The same opportunity will come up as Port Stanvac is dismantled. At the moment we don’t have huge parcels of industrial land so when these opportunities come up we need to make sure we make the most of it. So that’s in terms of big jobs. But there is a lot of small business out there. I just wanted to make the point that they have said in the southern suburbs that the biggest threat to them expanding is actually access to broadband. 

 

Jamie Briggs, when was the last time we heard the State Opposition come out with a policy on, come out with a policy for the southern suburbs, in terms of jobs. 

 

That of course Matthew is something you would need to raise with the State Opposition. 

 

Well we will when the Leader gets back from her holiday. 

 

Well I would make this point which is that this is where we disagree with the Labor Party – Governments do not create jobs. The economy creates jobs, people with capital create jobs, small businesses who want to expand create jobs. I would argue that we constantly hear at the moment, the Treasurer and the Prime Minister try and tell us that the fundamentals of our economy are strong, I don’t think they are. I think there are problems in our economy which are being hidden over. The non-resource sector…

 

The world recognised economists are actually saying that as well. 

 

No they are not. Warwick Mckibbin who is one of Australia’s leading economists at ANU, a former member of the Reserve Bank board said last week in effect, and Michael Cheney, the Chairman of Woodside and NAB, in the paper today, in Paul Kelly’s piece today, says the non resource sector in Australia is in recession. Now the problem for that in a state like South Australia and a city like Adelaide and a electorate like mine and Amanda’s is that we are a small business driven state and if we are not creating policies which ensure that small businesses can create jobs and can grow and expand and be prosperous, then that will have a genuine effect on the living standards of the people that we represent. I think we are in a bad situation, in a difficult situation at the moment, and I think it is being made worse by bad government policies in several areas, including putting a carbon tax on at the wrong time, including the re-regulation of the labour market and these are issues that the government really should be addressing if they want to ensure that small business creates jobs. 

 

Ok look Jamie Briggs, thank you. Liberal MP for Mayo, thank you for coming into our Canberra Radio National studios. Very classy. Someone did say you sound like Mark Holden, they want to know why Mark Holden is talking about politics. 

 

Mark Holden. That’s a bit of a sledge. 

 

You will have to get him to sing next time. 

 

Actually before we should go, just one question you should ask Amanda. Amanda was of course on Monday was on the doors of Parliament attacking one of my great colleagues, the Member for Bennelong, one of Australia’s finest tennis products, John Alexander, and described him as Peter Alexander. She was thinking about her pyjamas rather than about the person she was…

 

Now you are starting to sound like Mark Holden. Jamie Briggs thank you. And Amanda Rishworth, thank you.