Jamie Briggs MP

Welcome back to the program. This is AM Agenda.  With me now I've got Liberal MP Jamie Briggs joining me from Adelaide. And from Melbourne, Labor frontbencher Richard Marles. Gentlemen, good morning to you. I know you've both been busy over the weekend with your local regional shows.  You're probably a bit tired but thanks for showing up. Richard, first to you, the opinion polls. Primary vote up a bit, Penny Wong wouldn't engage on it too much but that's got to be a bit encouraging?

 

 

Well I'm probably going to be like Penny Wong and not engage too much either. It's a dangerous road to take either encouragement or discouragement from polls because if you do that, you know, you stop governing. We've done some difficult work over the course of this year. We're putting a price on carbon. We're busily creating jobs; 750,000 since coming to government. That's what we're focused on, not the polls Kieran.

 

 

Jamie, what about yourself? This lead – enormous lead is still there, a lot of political capital. Is it time for Mr Abbott to start putting forward a more detailed alternative? You've been at him to flesh out his thoughts on industrial relations for example and we saw Barry O'Farrell yesterday say – come up with a similar sort of message that he'd be lobbying Mr Abbott to do similar sorts of things.

 

 

Well he has been, I think Tony's been doing a great job in that respect. He's having a debate in the community and within the party about a range of issues and that's what you'd expect an Opposition leader to do. This week he's up in the Cape, having a look at the conditions up there with Noel Pearson. It's an issue that we know Tony's had a great deal of involvement with over many years, including when he was the health minister and he cares deeply about, as I think you know, all do in the Federal Parliament, about improving the lot for those who are living in conditions which are unacceptable frankly, particularly in those parts of Australia. So it – that's – and it's another example of Tony getting out there and engaging and I think that's what we're seeing is the field evidence. You mentioned about the shows earlier. I was at the Meadows Country Fair yesterday, a great local event in my electorate. And the voters are sick of a government which lied to them about a carbon tax they're now forcing through the Parliament and high fiving each other about and they're sick of a government that lost control of our borders and has no way out. They – message that I got yesterday was that this was a government that couldn't run a bath. You know, they're hopeless [audio skip] one crisis to another. When they're back slapping each other in public they're backstabbing each other in private and we know that now from extensive briefings out of Cabinet on the weekend.

 

 

But Jamie Briggs, as you heard from Penny Wong there accusing Tony Abbott, the Government, and this will be a similar message, I think we can expect to hear this quite a bit – about asylum seekers and this is that he's putting the political interest ahead of the national interest. Now given the Opposition has the very similar policy, both sides agree on offshore processing, it really is Malaysia versus Nauru but both sides agree on the principal and yet the reality is that we have onshore processing in Australia. Is it time to be a bit more constructive Jamie Briggs?

 

 

Well no, we made clear that we didn't accept that the Malaysia arrangement was a good – was good for our national interest and that's why we were intending to vote against it. We didn't get a change to vote against it because the Prime Minister pulled out of the vote, after she talked it up, she built up the importance of having the vote last Thursday. She backed away, she ran away from giving the Parliament an opportunity to express its view because she knew she was going to lose. Now this whole palaver that somehow we've become – we've created this issue that the Labor Party's now tried to run, I mean it is, frankly, beyond laughable. It was at the Labor Party…

 

 

Okay, lets – let's…

 

 

…under Kevin Rudd who changed the law in 2008, not the Liberal Party, the Labor Party.

 

 

All right, let's got to Richard Marles on that. Is this – and this is going to be a difficult one to prosecute because at the end of the day people do hold the Government accountable and last week the policy looked dysfunctional Richard Marles.

 

 

Well, Australians elected a finely balanced Parliament. We all know that and I think what they expected when they did that was that people would bring to the Parliament the consistent views that they've held for more than a decade which in the case of Tony Abbott…

 

 

[Laughs]…

 

 

…and the Opposition was in support of offshore processing. Now what we're seeing is the complete trashing of that. Its utter rank hypocrisy. In the pursuit of trashing the government's policy, they trash their own policy. So, they can't reopen Nauru because of the fact that they will – or would – oppose the position we are putting through the Parliament. This just demonstrates a complete negativity on the part of Tony Abbott and an utter unwillingness to work with people across the aisle to govern the country which is actually what the Australian people voted for when they voted for a finely balanced Parliament.

 

 

But where was the compromise…

 

 

And Tony Abbott stands to [indistinct]…

 

 

…from the Government? But where was the compromise from the Government on this?

 

 

 The compromise from the Government was that the amendments we put up to the Migration Act were not specifically in relation to the Malaysian arrangement or specifically in relation to Nauru. They were a platform to do either for whatever path the government of the day was to take. Indeed, if the Opposition ever did become the government of the day they could pursue Nauru. That's the compromise. All we did…

 

 

All right, Jamie…

 

 

…was seek to make the law the position it was before the High Court decision but they trashed all of it.

 

 

Jamie Briggs why – okay, well why is – you know, is it fair enough for the Opposition to not at least come some way towards a compromise? There was no discussion of that nature at all from the Opposition last week, it was just my way or the high way.

 

 

No, that's not true, no, no. We put up an amendment to their bill which said that you could have offshore processing but it had to be at a UNHCR…

 

 

(Inaudible) way, the Opposition's you.

 

 

…signatory country. No, no, no. No, no, no.

 

 

Well that was the case during the [indistinct]…

 

 

We have had a consistent policy…

 

 

Well that was the case during the Howard years.

 

 

We've had a consistent policy about this…

 

 

UNHCR didn't agree with (inaudible).

 

 

Well Richard, your platform says onshore processing mate, so let's not get into the virtues of consistency coming from the Labor Party.

 

 

Well our platform says regional solutions. Working it out in the region…

 

 

No, no, no, it doesn't.

 

 

…which is what we're seeking to do.

 

 

It says onshore processing. Yeah right. Onshore processing, I think mate, is what it actually says and Dougie Cameron has been very clear in making that point in recent days. We have said for a long time…

 

 

You've got to do the accent better Jamie.

 

 

 [Laughs] Dougie Cameron.

 

 

Let's hear Jamie…

 

 

We have said for a long time – we have said for a long time that we – there are three pillars to our policy which are that you have offshore processing, Nauru and Manus Island; that you have temporary protection visas which are an important aspect of the policy and that in certain and very limited circumstances you have the ability to turn around boats where it's safe – safe to do so. They're the three elements of our policy that we took to an election. Now the Labor Party doesn't like the idea of taking something to an election and sticking to it. We know that from the carbon tax but that's what we've stood for for a long time, continue to stand for and that's what the Australian people will get an offer to vote for at the next election whenever that may be, in the next couple of weeks or the next month or so. I don't think it's all that far away.

 

 

But the thing is Kieran…

 

 

Richard Marles, we received reports…

 

 

…if that was their view – if that was their view they should be passing the amendments to the Migration Act because that provides them with the platform for the policy that Jamie's articulated.

 

 

 Well what about…

 

 

No we don't accept Malaysia. We think Malaysia's a terrible idea.

 

 

What about the broader Labor Party – Richard, what about the broader Labor Party though? There would be many of your colleagues who would be pleased with this outcome, personally very pleased with the outcome that it's resulted in onshore processing. Members of the right faction, your colleagues, wouldn't be so pleased, but tell me, what's your view? Do you think the Government can make this work? We're already hearing reports that 500 asylum seekers – there's a build up of 500 asylum seekers in Indonesia ready to build boats to try and – people smugglers trying to you know, get in before the monsoon season kicks in?

 

 

Well, the Government's preferred position would be the Malaysian arrangement. That's really the best opportunity this country's had to stop the boats from coming and to stop people taking that very risky journey, and to empower the UNHCR as our effective international agent to determine who are the most needy to come to this country under our asylum seeker program. That's our preferred position. Now, that's been denied by the Opposition in the circumstances of denying their own policy. We will pursue onshore processing as best we can and we will do everything we can to make that work. But we're not hiding the fact that we think that because the Opposition have done what they have done, that is going to encourage more people to take that journey.

 

 

Let's look at one last issue – carbon tax. Tony Abbott, Julie Bishop and others urging business increasingly – in increasingly strong messages not to buy future carbon permits and credits. Is that a responsible course of action? Surely business has the right to try and minimise their costs under the carbon trading scheme.

 

 

Well, we've been very clear that we will abolish the carbon tax. I mean – and I think Tony and Julie and other senior leaders in the party have made that perfectly clear, and Tony made that perfectly clear again last week. This is an extension of that announcement. We've said we'll abolish the carbon tax; it'll be the first thing that an incoming government will seek to do, and in that respect, people should make no mistake that's our intention and they should operate under those assumptions.

 

 

Richard, that is, is it not, a responsible course of action, given Mr Abbott has sworn in blood that he's going to repeal this thing?

 

 

Well, it's stupid conduct, Kieran, and it's bloody minded. They will be condemned by business for walking down this path. In all the conversations I've had with business – and there have been many – around putting a price on carbon, they know that a price is going to be put on carbon in Australia and they know that that is going to happen in countries around the world. And what they've wanted is certainty, so they have the rules of the game, so that they can invest over a long period of time. What this does is deny businesses that certainty by making these threats around repealing a carbon price but also encouraging people not to buy permits consistently with the legislation. That only acts to destabilise, and I think what people want and expect from their leaders in government…

 

 

They're going to get rid of it anyway…

 

 

…be it opposition or government. But I think what people want and expect is that they have stability from their governments and from their members of Parliament, and the Opposition are offering exactly the opposite.And I don't think the Opposition are going to go and repeal this. I don't think anyone really believes that come the next election, the Opposition's going to stand up and take people's tax cuts away…

 

 

Okay.

 

 

…take the increase in the pension away.

 

 

All right, Jamie, just quickly, we've got about 30 seconds left.

 

 

Well, they should. I mean, we've been very clear about it. Now, contrast that with the Labor Party where we've got an Immigration Minister who's been rolled by his own cabinet, you know, we've now got an Immigration Minister implementing Greens' policy in Chris Bowen's clothes. You know, Chris Bowen should resign today. That's the alternative to what we're saying, which is we've been very clear. We've got clear policies when it comes to border protection, we've got clear policies when it comes to the carbon tax. People will have a genuine choice and they'll know that we're not going to say one thing before an election and do another afterwards.

 

 

Okay, Liberal MP Jamie Briggs, Labor Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Richard Marles. Gents, thanks for that. Have a good day.

 

 

Thank you very much.

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

Appreciate it.