Jamie Briggs MP

Good morning Amanda Rishworth, Labor Member for Kingston.    

 

AMANDA RISHWORTH:

 

Good morning. I have to say in your tips for milking cows, I can’t give you any tips but what I can say it’s not as easy as it looks. 

 

Amanda Rishworth, that’s why we are starting to get worried. 

 

 

Yeah, I would be very worried. The only time I tried I wasn’t, I made the cow very uncomfortable. 

 

Did you have cold hands or something? 

 

I’m not sure what it was. I think it was my technique, but no matter what I did I couldn’t get it right. 

 

Now Jamie Briggs, Liberal MP for Mayo. 

 

Good morning. 

 

You’ve got a lot of country people in Mayo. 

 

We do the Meadows Udder Tug each year. It’s interesting that Isobel Redmond is trying to claim some sort of credit that she is any good at it and I think that is misleading your listeners because I’m not sure Isobel has ever won the celebrity Udder Tug at the Meadows show. 

 

Is she hopeless at milking cows? 

 

Look I shouldn’t talk too loudly, although last year I was very unlucky; I milked quite a lot and then the cow kicked the bucket over. 

 

Ok, so you’re sledging the state leader of the Liberal Party, is hopeless at milking cows. 

 

Now, Jamie Briggs, and also to Amanda Rishworth, but Jamie Briggs – Sean Edwards, Senator Sean Edwards – the use of the Comcars, three Comcars to ferry his parents and his family to a swish restaurant in Canberra. He was quite unapologetic I think it was fair to say about that. The Finance Department is now having a good look at whether he has misused entitlements. 

 

Jamie Briggs, is it a good look? 

 

 

I think we have a series of entitlements or a set of entitlements which are generous and they’re there for us to be able to do our jobs and we should be able to you know, ensure that we use those in the correct fashion. Now if there’s been a mistake, I’m sure Sean will ensure that is rectified.  People do make mistakes occasionally and he is new to the Senate and I think it involves his wife and how it happened; I wasn’t there so I don’t know the circumstances. 

 

I suppose the issue is whether he actually believes that he’s done anything wrong or is there a sense of entitlement there? I’m in the Senate, I’m owed this sort of service, it’s part of the Canberra scene. 

 

Well look that is ultimately a matter for Sean. I know Sean reasonably well and I think Sean is a smart person; I think Sean is committed to South Australia and to our country –

 

I don’t think you’re answering the question Jamie Briggs, is it a good look? 

 

I think that we need to respect the entitlements that we’re given. Ultimately they are paid for by other people’s money. They’re paid for by taxpayers’ money. 

 

Ok, so you’ll leave it up to the listeners to decide whether he was respecting those entitlements.

 

Well listeners are intelligent people, particularly ABC listeners and they will make their decision in that respect, but I’m sure Sean, if there’s been a problem, will fix it and I’m sure Sean will make a contribution to South Australia.

 

And Amanda Rishworth?

 

I think -

 

I think we get the idea. 

 

I think you’ve chewed enough air time there, frankly Jamie Briggs, no disrespect intended. Amanda Rishworth. 

 

I think what is obviously really important for all MPs and Senators is that they understand what the entitlements are and make sure they get a very clear understanding of that and work within those entitlements. I guess mistakes do happen but I think there is an onus on Members and Senators when they do go in to understand those and to work within them.  As Jamie said, they are very generous; they are about helping us do our job. It’s our responsibility to understand them. If there is a mistake that needs to be rectified, but to understand them is critically important. He’s new, so it’s important he gets across those I think.

 

Jamie Briggs coming back to you, this issue of the wind farms. Now we’re going to be talking about this more later on this morning but Mike Rann has come out, although he’s not doing live interviews, he’s just doing news grabs we’re told this morning –  

 

Tweeting about it. 

 

Yeah and he’s Tweeting about it no doubt, but he’s backing in a big wind farm on Yorke Peninsula.  As somebody who represents country and city people in Mayo, how do you read this? What I mean by that is you see news stories where some people in rural communities love this stuff. Others are not happy at all, not happy by a long shot. 

 

Well I think there’s two issues isn’t there. The first issue is what contribution do they make to our power generation and I think that’s questionable – that’s a reasonable question and I think it’s questionable frankly for the amount of money that is spent that they’re not economic and they’re, they are –

 

Well the company obviously believes they’re economic Jamie, I mean –

 

Well they’re economic when they are propped up by government money, sure. But I’m not sure that they actually achieve a lot other than Mike Rann trying to have the legacy that he’s some sort of green Premier. I mean I think that’s what it’s more about, what we’re seeing at the moment is all these announcements to try and make Mike Rann change his view from leaving a state in the situation that it is to some green legacy.

 

But Jamie Briggs you’re not convinced that wind power is the way to go? That it’s actually propped up by taxpayers; that it doesn’t stand on its own turbine.

 

How does that happen – how is it propped up by taxpayers? Because if you invest the money and we’re told it’s $1.3bn here, and build a wind farm and sell it into the grid, where’s the taxpayer subsidy there?

 

Well it’s called the Emirate which is a policy implemented, it began under the Howard Government in fact, which is the 20% renewable target by 2020. So it’s forced into the market. There’s a position in the market forced for renewable energy and wind is one of those renewable energies and that’s how the government assists the industry, aside from directing…

 

Amanda Rishworth?

 

Well I think it’s really important that we’re talking about our energy mix and our energy mix – there is move towards renewable energy that will play a critical role in our country’s energy security and our energy future and I think, in terms of this specific proposal obviously it needs to go through the correct consultation with local residents and the environmental impact. But certainly wind power will be part of our future, part of our cleaner future. Certainly the reports are that it will stimulate jobs and stimulate ongoing jobs but I think just to dismiss wind power, to dismiss renewables isn’t really looking at where our energy needs to be in the future so that we can actually move towards a clean energy future and I think we need to be looking at that and wind is part of the solution, so are many other renewable energies and government has a role in helping us transition towards that.

 

Amanda Rishworth, before we leave you the terrible death of a young man in your electorate in the last couple of days who was trying to put graffiti on one of the over pass bridges on the Southern Expressway. I just wonder how big a problem is graffiti, but behind that how big a problem are disengaged youth in your electorate in the southern suburbs?

 

Well I think to start off with, it is an absolute tragedy and I think what it does highlight is often young people feel very invincible and this has highlighted that this is very risky and very dangerous. I think in terms of graffiti it is a very frustrating problem for local residents. It is a problem that continues to come up at my street corner meetings. In terms of how we try and combat that problem I think there’s a range of things including getting young people to feel some ownership over their community and there’s been certainly programs that do that. But I think deterrents are also important as well so I think we need a combination as well as engaging young people. But I think for a lot of young people they feel very invincible. I think this has highlighted just how tragic the consequences can be and certainly I’d warn anyone trying, any young person trying to do a tribute up there which there have been reports of, is that it’s very dangerous and tragic circumstances can happen.   

 

And I think you’d agree with that Jamie Briggs; we need to move on. Is that fair? I’m not putting words in your mouth here?

 

I think that’s a reasonable set of words and obviously we have great sympathy for the family involved.

 

Jamie Briggs thank you. 

 

Thank you Matt and Dave. 

 

Liberal Member for Mayo. Amanda Rishworth, Labor Member for Kingston, and Isobel Redmond has had a text in saying, she might have won if it hadn’t been for the dubious tactics of certain federal members. 

 

Ah okay. 

 

‘Unlike some federal contestants I did not cheat’. Whoa I think that can be – take that up with the Young Libs and Jamie Briggs et cetera. Thank you Jamie Briggs and Amanda Rishworth.