Subjects: Senator George Brandis; criticism of judicial decisions; Senator Jim Molan; private health insurance; Cole Miller case.
EO&E...........................................................................................................................................
RAY HADLEY:
Minister good morning.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning Ray.
RAY HADLEY:
Now before we go any further, my listeners may not have heard this, but I have. I want them to listen to what was on the floor of the Senate last night.
[plays audio recording]
GEORGE BRANDIS:
I have not disguised my concern that attacks upon the institutions of the law, upon the courts and those who practice in them. To attack those institutions is to attack the rule of law itself and it is for the Attorney-General always to defend the rule of law, sometimes from political colleagues who fail to understand it or are impatient of the limitations it may impose upon executive power.
[end of audio recording]
RAY HADLEY:
Now that's a direct attack on the man I'm talking to now Peter Dutton.
George Brandis, as you may or may not know, is on his way to London. He's on the public teat just as he's been on the public teat over the past 18 years in Parliament. Coalition supporters in my opinion should be doing handstands as they farewell the left-leaning Senator. His farewell to Parliament was full, as you could hear, of hate and vitriol and reserved that spray for one of the most popular Ministers in Parliament in Peter Dutton. It was typical of Brandis and I think the Senate and the Liberal Party, the Nat-Coalition in Australia, is better off without him. He'll be having a G&T in London, the sooner the better.
Back we go with Peter Dutton. You obviously have heard those comments?
PETER DUTTON:
Look Ray, I mean George and I have clashed over the years. He's been obvious in his statements in that regard. I've been very careful in my comments about issues that I think are of legitimate concern to people. People are concerned about some of the softer sentences out of Victoria; what we've seen over Christmas and in the preceding months before that, is disgraceful and the legal system has let us down.
So look, people can criticise, it can be veiled, they can have the determination to try and undermine what I'm doing. All of it makes me more determined to make sure that we keep going and make sure that we don't think that we're better than the public that we serve, or we're the smartest person in the room, whatever it might be that motivates them. In the end I want for a safer society for our country.
I have dealt first hand as a policeman many years ago with victims of domestic violence, kids that have been sexually assaulted, people that had been the subject of armed robberies, lives destroyed forever and I take my job very seriously now because I have the ability to make our society a safer place.
I'm proud of the decisions that we've made in that regard; cancelling visas etc and I'm just not going to take a step back from it.
RAY HADLEY:
See George Brandis typifies through his entire career as Attorney-General what you'd normally associate with the socialists and those from the left of the Labor Party in that he wants to denigrate those from the right even though they are his colleagues and comrades in arms.
He wants to suck up to those in the legal fraternity because that's what he's been taught to do over the past 30-40 years; to suck up to people so that you can never offend a judge, you can never offend a magistrate, you can never offend a district court, they're sacrosanct.
I remember what a defamation lawyer said to me once when I was accused of denigrating a lawyer defending a murderer, and I merely made the comment about this lawyer: I said I think you must have a beard because he couldn't possibly look at himself in the mirror and shave every morning – that cost our insurers a lot of money – and when I was walking out of court when the penalty was directed towards me, by Her Honour, my barrister said: Ray you've got to remember something; before she was a judge, she was a lawyer – just like the bloke you insulted – and they stick pretty thick here. I said: well hang on, you're one of them. He said yes, and that's why I'm telling you the story. Be very careful about denigrating lawyers because when you get judged you'll be judged by someone who was formally a lawyer.
There's a little clique there Peter Dutton and George is part of the clique mate.
PETER DUTTON:
Well I think you're right in regard to some lawyers who believe that they're better than other members of society…
RAY HADLEY:
…is George Brandis one of them?
PETER DUTTON:
… they're smarter – well I mean people can draw their own conclusions, but…
RAY HADLEY:
…go on, have a crack. He's gone now, he's off to London sipping G&Ts, get into him.
PETER DUTTON:
I want to make this point and it's an important point; all of us respect the institutions, the courts and we live in a great democracy; nobody in any of the comments that you and I have made about sentencing, in none of that, has there been a suggestion that we should influence innocence or guilt or admissibility or inadmissibility of evidence. All that is an issue for the court.
I think the court is a stronger institution if it has strong public support and I think we're living in the 21st century and we need to recognise that people are angry about sentences that are given for offences where there's a maximum eight year penalty and people are given two months or no conviction recorded for kicking the head of a police officer – as we've seen in Victoria in the last couple of days.
I actually think if you're going to be smart about it and you want to strengthen the institution, make sure that the public is onside with you, make sure that you understand the sentiment of the public, that you don't have a tin ear to it and I think that what would strengthen the institution that many of them regard so dearly.
RAY HADLEY:
Adam Bandt's done your side of politics a giant favour in the past 24 hours describing Senator Jim Molan, the retired Major General, as a coward and war criminal. Now I had Jim on the program late yesterday. He made a comment about the second accusation and said: I was more accountable for my actions on a day-by-day, minute-by-minute basis in Iraq than people like him have ever been in their entire lives.
Now, I declare an interest, you know, I'd like to count him as a friend Jim Molan, but long before I got to know him personally, I'm an admirer of who he is and what he stands for.
But Bandt's done a very very good job alerting people to the fact that if Labor win the next election they'll do it, they'll do it, two-party-preferred on preferences from people who support Adam Bandt and that's what you're going to get. You're going to get Adam Bandt having a bigger say in Federal Parliament because his left-leaning Labor buddies are likely to seize power.
PETER DUTTON:
I mean this has been an interesting week in Parliament Ray for one reason and that is that there's a by-election coming up in Batman. David Feeney had to resign because of his dual citizenship and it's likely that the Greens will win that seat.
Now, what you're seeing is a race to the left by both the Greens and Bill Shorten. There are plenty of sensible people in the Labor Party who couldn't trust Bill Shorten ever again because of the way in which he's breached agreements and undertakings with them. He says one thing to one audience and the opposite to the audience in the next room.
And on these matters; whether it's killing jobs off in Queensland, driving up electricity prices because they're now opposed lock stock and barrel to coal mining in Queensland simply because they want to win votes on the left in the by-election; its short-term gain, but I think it gives you a real insight into both Bill Shorten and Adam Bandt.
Adam Bandt honestly is a…I mean he wouldn't have the guts or the capacity or the ability to serve his country like Jim Molan did. I mean Jim Molan is a hero and I think – you know I talk to my kids regularly about this – that we live in a time of peace, you know my grandparents, people that went through recessions and went through world wars, you know, this is a lucky country and it's lucky because we've got people the calibre of Jim Molan who have stood up, been prepared to put their life on the line when people like Adam Bandt are back home burning flags.
Adam Bandt is a horrible individual. He demonstrates it on a daily basis in Parliament and frankly this just exemplifies it again in his pathetic comments about Jim Molan this week.
RAY HADLEY:
So just on Bill Shorten, this is a very confused man. He doesn't know whether to support the Adani Coal Mine in Queensland and risk losing the Melbourne seat of Batman, or stick with his roots as a union man and support the workers that listen to me in Central Queensland, North Queensland, who'll benefit by the mine and the rail line going ahead.
He's also confused on another point – and he made this obvious when he contradicted his Shadow Health Minister in talking to the National Press Club – about whether he should support the private health insurance industry or drive tens of thousands of people out of private health into the public health system by withdrawing support to public health – and he could be the prime minister.
PETER DUTTON:
This is what Labor did when they were last in government. I mean they ripped $4 billion out of private health insurance.
The Labor Party hates private health, that's the reality, but I can tell you for a lot of people who are on a part pension, people as you get older and you're worried about your health or young families, people that need private health insurance; they do it because – and it's expensive – but they do it because they don't want to wait long times – you know for a long time in queues in public hospital systems – and by a cute suggestion that somehow you can cap the fees…you know the companies will respond by restricting the amount of coverage or payouts; the people who hold the policies will be the ones who suffer. If you drive people out of private health into the public hospitals, the queues will only grow longer.
Labor has this view that if you can close down the private health system, you can put all of that money into the public system and somehow our health system would be better for it. The strength of our public hospital system, particularly if there's an acute session; you have a heart attack or you're in a car accident, you need the best possible medical support in the world. You'll get it in our hospitals, but if you want to fix your knee up or you break your arm or your child needs some sort of elective surgery, it is a long waiting list in many of those public hospitals and Labor would collapse the health system.
You see it with Bill Shorten on boats as well. I mean they have completely walked away now from Operation Sovereign Borders and there's more questions now that Bill Shorten needs to answer because I promise you these boats will restart if Shorten's elected prime minister.
RAY HADLEY:
Look something I'll do here – I've just got a call from a gentleman named Steve Miller. G'day Steve.
STEVE MILLER:
G'day Ray.
RAY HADLEY:
I hope that Mr Dutton who's in our Canberra studio can hear what you're saying.
PETER DUTTON:
I can.
RAY HADLEY:
Go for your life. Your name is Steve Miller, correct?
STEVE MILLER:
That's correct. Look I'd just like to thank Peter. Last year an accomplice to my son's death who was killed in a coward punch, he got sentenced to over 12 month's jail – so that automatically made him an illegal immigrant – and there was a bit of a mix-up at the courthouse and he was let to walk free.
On that day at about two o'clock I was advised by a journalist that he walked free, this criminal, and so I got onto Peter Dutton's office in Canberra. He was unavailable, he was in Parliament at the time, but he rang me back at 4.30pm and I advised him of the circumstances.
He got onto the Queensland Police and the Border Force immediately and that illegal immigrant was taken back into custody by 6.30pm that night and held for deportation to New Zealand.
I just want to thank Peter for that. He didn't know me from a bar of soap and the guy's a champion. He's out there looking after Australians and the Australian way of life and trying to help protect Australians.
RAY HADLEY:
Steve it's a very difficult phone call for you to make. Again, on the death of Cole, my condolences, but it's very, very nice of you to go to all the trouble to phone the program to thank the Minister.
STEVE MILLER:
Yeah look, I haven't thanked him before, but I just wanted him to know that we were grateful for his immediate actions to help on that day.
RAY HADLEY:
Good on you mate. Well done Steve.
STEVE MILLER:
Cheers, bye bye.
RAY HADLEY:
Thank you. Not much left to say in relation to that Minister. You deserve that congratulations, but I mean Cole Miller died after a one-punch attack for people that do remember it. Fortitude Valley January 3 2016.
PETER DUTTON:
It's an emotional thing, because…
RAY HADLEY:
…it's heartbreaking…
PETER DUTTON:
…it really is.
RAY HADLEY:
It's heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking and I hope George Brandis gets a tape. This is the sort of Minister we deal with here George; a can-do Minister.
Look I was going to talk about some other things, but on a rather distressing note, I think we'll leave it Minister and we'll catch up next week. Okay?
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Ray and thanks to Steve. I'm so sorry to his family.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay. Thank you. Obviously a very emotional Peter Dutton, a very emotional father Steve Miller and I can assure you that the Minister didn't know that was going to happen. I didn't know that was going to happen. I looked up at the board and Steve Miller from Forest Lake in Brisbane had phoned and said: I just want to talk to Ray about my son Cole and the result and phone call you've just heard.
Look, Dutton's got his critics and sometime I'm critical of him, but the one thing I know about him is he's a sincere bloke, very sincere and he's a can-do Minister. He gets a phone call whilst in Parliament, according to Steve Miller, and within three hours he's in contact with the victim's father, the deceased boy's father and within two hours of that phone call, the grub that killed that poor young man Cole Miller is back in custody.
[ends]
