E&EO…………………………………………………………………………………………..
RAY HADLEY:
Good morning to you Minister.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning Ray.
RAY HADLEY:
Which one did you like?
PETER DUTTON:
Bit of a fan of the first one actually.
RAY HADLEY:
Oh, really?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah.
RAY HADLEY:
That'd be right.
PETER DUTTON:
Thought it was pretty good.
RAY HADLEY:
You're a generation – what are you, a Generation Y?
PETER DUTTON:
I'm Generation X. Born in 1970.
RAY HADLEY:
Yeah see I'm a 54 model so I'm going with Stumblin' In, the older one. Alright, but they both hit the mark. I mean that's the sort of politicians that you've got. You went from Fiona Scott, your lady, to that young lady and she's representing a vast electorate in Western Sydney, the electorate of Lindsay.
But let's get to other things. Do you agree that the Donald Trump victory overnight is a major factor here as well? I mean I spoke to one of your colleagues from Parliament who said to me, ‘look this is an echo chamber politician.’ I said what do you mean? He said, ‘well it's very simple…he has encapsulated what the electorate want. He's gone to them and he said to them exactly what they're saying in the bars across the United States of America, at the restaurants. He's saying that and they're listening to him, and now he's the American President. And it's a removal - he's never been in politics before, he's not from the military, first ever President to come via business into that position. And he says to me, ‘it's a timely warning for what's going to happen in relation to Australia down the track and the major parties are on notice.’
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ray already we've seen with the rise of somebody like Clive Palmer or Pauline Hanson that there is a disaffected element of the Australian society that is not happy with either of the major two parties and it demonstrates that the major parties need to listen to what people are saying.
That Essential Poll that was out during the week which polled people's opinions on this new Bill that we've put before the Parliament to deal with people smugglers and to not grant a visa to people who have sought to come to our country by boat that they can never come. There were 54 per cent of Labor voters who supported that Bill and yet Bill Shorten said today that they're going to vote that Bill down in the Parliament.
So I think people will be punished if they have a tin ear to the problems and the concerns of Australians. And migration played a big issue, it was a big issue and played a big role in the Brexit vote in the UK and I think migration's been a particular issue in the United States as well.
But look I think as President Obama said overnight, it's time for America to come together and to unite behind the President Elect and I know Malcolm Turnbull's expressed a similar sentiment. So all of us want to see the United States do well. They're a very important ally to us and they will continue to be so into the future and if America's strong, Australia's strong and the rest of the world is strong.
RAY HADLEY:
See what I'm saying about Bill Shorten, I said yesterday, even before I knew that Donald Trump was going to win and I didn't expect him to win, not many did. But Shorten is not in step with what people think across the country in relation to illegal immigration, about boat people. And all of a sudden, here's a bloke that made the most incredible statements in relation to closing borders and Muslims will be sent packing and there'll be no-one from Mexico, we'll build a wall and all of this and it resonates with the electorate. Now Bill Shorten is so far out of step with that he should be concerned.
PETER DUTTON:
Well I think what it shows Ray is that politicians who say what the public wants to hear and then doesn't deliver on that, they are the ones that'll get punished most. And at the last election Bill Shorten knew the Australian public wanted him to say that he was in lockstep with the Liberals. We'd stop the boats, we were dealing with the problem, we were getting kids out of detention and we'd tidied up Labor's mess. He knew then that he had to say that there would be no difference because if not he would have been punished at the polls in a similar way that Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard were because of their failures on border protection policy.
And Australians know that the fair go is at the heart of our spirits as Australians, but Australians know that if you can't keep your borders secure, you can't keep your country safe.
And the problem for Bill Shorten now is that in a similar way to how Hillary Clinton's been found out as sort of an unrepresentative elite from New York, this Leader of the Opposition here Bill Shorten is trying to pander to the Left within the capital cities. He's trying to defend the Labor Party from seats that the Greens are attacking them in like Tanya Plibersek’s and Anthony Albanese’s. He wants to defend them, but what he's doing in making that decision is that he's abandoning people in Orange, in Kallangur, Maryborough and around the country in outer metropolitan and rural areas.
And those people are the ones that will punish Labor at the next election because this will come as a big revelation to people that all of a sudden Bill Shorten's confirming that he's been captured by the Left and by the Greens and that he has abandoned the views of the majority of good thinking Australians who want a fair go, but they want tough border protection policies. Because in the modern age, we can't have people coming to our country when they don't have papers, when they may pose a risk and people want to make sure that as a key test of competency that a government can have control of its borders.
RAY HADLEY:
Can you get this through the Senate with the crossbenchers or not?
PETER DUTTON:
Well I've had meetings with Nick Xenophon. Nick is saying that he wants an increase in the number of asylum seekers, the number of refugees that we bring to this country, but we've already increased the number to 18,750 to get previous…
RAY HADLEY:
…well you're getting close to what the Greens want if you go any further. I mean they are talking…
PETER DUTTON:
…I'm not minded to go further. I want to negotiate with Nick in good faith and he's publicly spoken about what he wants, but I'll have further discussions with him. But I've got to say I don't want to see that number increase. It's high already. It's high because Scott Morrison had to negotiate with the Senators to get through previous bills to keep our borders secure and we thought that that was a necessary compromise to make. But my sense is that the Australian people don't want to see that number go beyond where it is and I want to listen to the arguments that Senator Xenophon and others might put forward. But I do hope that we can get it through the Senate because it is a very important message at this point in time, which is a crucial point in time, that we send another strong message that if you seek to come to our country by boat you will never be settled here.
RAY HADLEY:
Now in relation to the story that was happening after we spoke last time, asylum seekers on Manus Island are marrying female staff. Is it happening the other way as well? Are you talking about female staff marrying men and whether it's a sham or not will be determined by the people, but are also women marrying men who are employed to look after them? Is this a widespread problem? How many times has it happened to your knowledge?
PETER DUTTON:
Well it's a rort and it's not acceptable and I'm not going to tolerate it and that's one of the issues that this Bill will clean up.
RAY HADLEY:
So how does it happen? You've got female staff, what guards, or are they there on humanitarian grounds? Why are they there and are they sympathetic to the cause and do they go there deliberately to do this and usurp you?
PETER DUTTON:
Well a couple of points Ray. One is that the cases that I've been made aware of are only on Manus so we don't have women and children on Manus Island, only men so…
RAY HADLEY:
… so it's only female staff, okay so you've cleared that up, right so it's contractors. What Serco is the employer or someone employs or a third party employs?
PETER DUTTON:
Well I won't go into which company, but we employ obviously, we provide support through contracts and companies…
RAY HADLEY:
… so social workers are they or something like that? That's the type of people, yeah, so social workers over there who go you know, I guess deliberately employed there, thinking I'm going to get to Manus Island, I'll show this Dutton character, he can't stop us and I'll get there and I'll marry this person and therefore they come here under the spousal visa.
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah that's right and in some cases I mean we've provided financial assistance for people to go back to their country of origin. They've taken that thinking that somehow…
RAY HADLEY:
So they get two dips?
PETER DUTTON:
Well that's it and it's not acceptable and I've made it very clear we're not going to allow the law to be subverted. I'm not going to allow these sham arrangements to be you know funded by the taxpayer and I take my responsibilities very seriously and I think this is a problem, it's an emerging problem. Labor was laughing at it during the week in Question Time when I raised it, but it is a serious issue and it's one of the ways that people have thought they could get around the system. We're only talking about a handful of cases that I'm aware of but there will be more and…
RAY HADLEY:
Well how do you stop it? What do you do, what do you do now it's already happened? How do you say look I know it's a sham and we're closing the loophole? How do you do that if people are legally married under law from Manus Island?
PETER DUTTON:
Well under the Bill that we've provided to the Parliament this week, we will stop people from coming here regardless of the visa and doesn't matter what visa they apply for…
RAY HADLEY:
But what about the ones that are already done? You can't stop them?
PETER DUTTON:
Well I'm not aware of any that have been issued visas to come to Australia so these are people that have married and they've got arrangements in the wind or they're trying to convince the Department at the moment that it's a legitimate relationship. But in some cases I'm aware that there are literally decade’s difference in age between the male and the female social worker and this is a problem.
RAY HADLEY:
What a 50-year-old female social worker marrying a 20-year-old bloke and…
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah and trying to pretend somehow that's a legitimate relationship. So we'll investigate all those matters, but again this Bill solves that and if the Labor Party were to support it we don't have to negotiate with the Independents, we can get it through.
But at the moment these people smugglers hear these divided messages and it just undermines our national security and our border protection success and I don't want these people smugglers to be back in business.
RAY HADLEY:
Just interrupting, but it's germane to our conversation about Donald Trump. I do finance updates for our sponsor Mortgage House right through the programme and I’ve just looked up at my screen here from Orange Ex-Services’ Club. Now there's a responsibility here for financial reporters in both Australia, but more particularly in this case the United States to tell the truth, not to carry their baggage into their reports, that people are scared out of voting for one party or the other.
The news was that if Donald Trump was elected we'd lose 10 - 20 per cent of our value on the share market, we're all going to, you know, fall down big holes financially. Well for Mortgage House Minister the All Ords is up 146.5 points, or 2.7 to 5,384.8 which would look after any losses yesterday and one Australian Dollar is down a little at 76.41.
And I make that comment in relation to people who are supposed to supply us with information, objective information, but pushing their barrow so people will vote one way or another. It's tantamount to saying well look if you vote for the Coalition Government under Turnbull or anyone else, we're going to be in a really bad state and your superannuation's going to be worth 75 per cent of what it was the day before you elect them so in other words vote for someone else, but don't vote for them, it's not right.
PETER DUTTON:
Well this is what people are sick of Ray. People are sick of that rubbish and it's like the Mediscare debate at the last election with Bill Shorten going out there and pretending that come Monday pensioners were going to have their Medicare cards taken from them. I mean people just don't want that rubbish. They want governments to govern, to provide for national security, to have a strong economy so people can work and save and provide a better future for their kids. They don't want to listen to that sort of self-motivated nonsense.
Hey now Ray the biggest story out of the US of course was that you know, sure Donald Trump won one poll, but congratulations on winning 100 polls.
RAY HADLEY:
Well thank you, that's very kind of you.
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah I should have raised it earlier, that's a big effort.
RAY HADLEY:
Well it's 2GB our Sydney station that did it and my colleague who's still here somewhere, he was a short time ago of course, is on the cusp of 200 surveys over his career, Alan Jones. He's at 199 and he leads the way with 103 consecutive surveys so we've created our own little bit of history and I appreciate that.
One final thing before you go, Gillian Triggs. You've been a very strong voice in relation to this and 18C, should she do the honourable thing and Andrew Bolt's calling for it again today in the News Limited paper, should she resign?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes, yes. I mean it's a no-brainer and her performance on the 7.30 Report the other night with Leigh Sales was nothing short of humiliating. Her evidence that has been commented on again was humiliating and she's a lady that is earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from the taxpayer.
The case with Bill Leak, I mean Australians want freedom of speech. They want to be able to talk to their mates in a sensible way without the political correct nonsense. They don't want to have Gillian Triggs’ and other officials out of Canberra jamming down some sort of language code down their throat and for a cartoonist in this country to be raked over the coals when he's just expressing a thought and putting his words into pictures, people won't tolerate that and so Gillian Triggs’ should do the right thing, absolutely.
RAY HADLEY
Okay we'll talk again next week, thanks for your time.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Ray, all the best mate, well done.
