Subjects: Retirement of New South Wales Premier Mike Baird; Apex gang; radical Greens group protesting against Australia Day.
E&EO…………………………………………………………………………………………..
LUKE GRANT:
Minister Peter Dutton is on the line. Minister, happy New Year.
PETER DUTTON:
And to you too, mate, thank you.
LUKE GRANT:
First off, Mike Baird pulling the pin; can you believe it?
PETER DUTTON:
Pretty remarkable. I mean Mike's done a great service to New South Wales. He's really put the state back on the map; the infrastructure spend, the return to proper governance arrangements, he booted out a corrupt government and I think he'll be remembered as a Premier that achieved a lot in a very short period of time.
I don't know that he was always comfortable in politics. I think people who know Mike know him to be a very decent, honourable and nice guy and some people always thought that he was too nice for politics – maybe that's the case – but I think he can be very proud of what he's achieved.
LUKE GRANT:
I was just wondering if there mightn't be an effort to move him to the federal sphere?
PETER DUTTON:
Well he'd be welcome. I suspect he would tell you that's the last thing on his mind. I suspect Mike will go back into the business world but he can speak for himself.
I think the opportunity today is to really praise him as somebody who has held the Office of the Premier in a great state with great distinction and he's very ably supported by his wife and young family and it takes a lot out you, politics. Difficult being in the public eye and a lot of criticism around and I think Mike has stood up to all of that.
Ultimately he's balanced the books in New South Wales in a way that most other states haven't been able to do and as a result people can see with their own eyes the infrastructure that's taking place across New South Wales.
So a pretty good innings; a short innings, but a pretty good strike rate.
LUKE GRANT:
Well played, yes.
Now, the Apex gang. For people that aren't in Melbourne and perhaps don't see this in the daily news cycle, we're talking here, aren't we, of a group of young men of Sudanese descent?
PETER DUTTON:
Not just Sudanese, New Zealand, a number of backgrounds otherwise, but these are young kids in many cases, but teenagers otherwise, who have really terrorised the streets of Melbourne and it's an outrage. It really is very difficult and the police are frustrated beyond belief, I think in Victoria, because they've got one hand tied behind their backs.
The Andrews Government weakened the bail laws. It meant that these kids weren't held in custody when they were charged, so they were back out on the streets, committing the same crimes. They've got a weakening of the laws otherwise around move-on powers for the police and that's why this problem is really particularly bad in Victoria, more so than it is in New South Wales or Queensland for example.
So there's a lot of work that we've been doing, the Australian Border Force has been doing, with the Victorian Police to try and identify people who have come here as visa holders, are non-citizens and we've cancelled the visas of four of those people so far – one of them has already gone back to New Zealand, three others are in custody and there are more to come.
So we want to have this big debate, Luke, as you know about what it means to be an Australian citizen.
LUKE GRANT:
Yes.
PETER DUTTON:
We want people to embrace Australian values and if you're breaking the law, if your kids are running around as part of gangs at 12 or 13 years of age, then frankly we don't think you deserve to be Australian citizens or part of Australian society and we are going to ramp up the number of cancellations over the coming 12 months.
LUKE GRANT:
Well I just know and you would know, Peter, and you would have heard this from Ray before, I'm about to say it, but you just get a sense via the talkback calls and the emails that people have had enough. These people, as you said, so rightly said, if they don't want to be here, they don't want to play the game, rack-off. I mean, it's not difficult. I'm glad you've got the bottle to make it happen and part of this I guess is to send a message to those people who might be so inclined as to not play the game we want them to play, just to pull their heads in a bit.
PETER DUTTON:
Luke, there are 65 million people across the world that would want to come to a country like Australia today and why wouldn't we, frankly, pick the eyes out of that group? I mean we want the best people to come to our country. One of the successes that we've had in migration over many decades is that people have come to our country to seek a better life. They've come to a country where we're peace-loving. If people work hard, they can get ahead. We've got great educational systems so that they can put their kids through school. That's been the great migration story of years past and I want it to be the story of the future as well.
I want to make sure that people take the opportunity that's given to them and if people think that they can come here, commit crimes against Australians – those Apex gang members, they're following elderly people home from restaurants of a night time, breaking into their houses to steal the keys so that they can take their cars – I mean it is completely and utterly unacceptable and if people do that, as I say, as we've been very strong over the last 12 months with bikies and others; we will cancel their visas and we'll welcome into our country people that want to do the right thing and take the opportunity that's been given them.
LUKE GRANT:
I can see people nod with every word you say, you're so right there.
Well what do you make of this…moving on to this apparent Greens linked group, this war group that wants to disrupt Australia Day? Firstly, should you be able to – and we're all for free speech – but we've got words to use in that regard. You shouldn't be able to just burn the flag, should you?
PETER DUTTON:
No, and these people are real grubs. I mean they're part of the Greens Party obviously; the big test today is for Richard Di Natale to come out, because yesterday he wouldn't condemn the actions of these people who said that they're going to burn the flag, commit unlawful damage by spraying graffiti on buildings and try and disrupt Australia Day ceremonies.
For many families, and if you've been to…many people will have been to an Australia Day ceremony where young kids are sworn in as Australian citizens, their families have fled civil war and they've become Australian citizens. They're proud of it. For many of them it will be one of the biggest days that they recall from their childhood, and we've got members of the Greens Party who are talking about wanting to go around and disrupt these ceremonies and Richard Di Natale – who claims to be a Leader of the Greens – won't come out and condemn that action. I think it speaks a lot of Richard Di Natale.
Bob Brown, the former Greens leader I see has come out and said this is not to be sanctioned by the Greens and yet Richard Di Natale has allowed these people to prepare and to take this action and it should be condemned.
I think he needs to come out today. Look, he'll be reluctant, Richard Di Natale, but he needs to come out today and say that these people are wrong. If they're preparing to commit offences and break Australian law, he should be condemning them – any political leader of this country that sanctions that sort of illegal behaviour frankly doesn't deserve to occupy that high office.
LUKE GRANT:
Yeah, spot on, spot on. Now, when you're back with Ray, you mightn't know this, but hole in one yesterday on the 17th at Castle Hill, his first ever. As a lover of the sport, this is a great achievement. I'm sure you would have recognised that when you spoke, but I don't know other than me telling you how you'd find out, so just file that away, will you, for next week?
PETER DUTTON:
Well I will mate and I'm sure he'll raise it with me. I had lunch with him last week, actually, and ...
LUKE GRANT:
…oh did you?
PETER DUTTON:
…he's been playing golf about three times a day, so if he tells you this is just a lucky stroke, he's been putting a lot of work into it. So I'm looking forward to speaking to him on the programme, but great to speak to you as well.
LUKE GRANT:
Beauty. Good on you. Have a good year, Peter, always great to talk to you.
PETER DUTTON:
Good to talk to you too.
[ends]
