Subjects: Administrative Appeals Tribunal; Company Tax Cuts; Barnaby Joyce; Liberal Party preselection.
EO&E...........................................................................................................................................
RAY HADLEY:
We talk most Thursdays to Immigration, Border Protection and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. He's on line in Canberra. Minister, good morning.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning Ray.
RAY HADLEY:
I should just warn people that you might have to drop the phone and run there could be division in the House, correct?
PETER DUTTON:
That's what they're saying, yes.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay. Well if you…
PETER DUTTON:
…see how we go.
RAY HADLEY:
…if you have to run, you've got to run.
Now, Admin Appeals Tribunal; I saw the report on A Current Affair last night, excellent report. Close to 300 staff up there on the Sunshine Coast, Novotel Twin Waters Resort. Six hundred thousand dollars for a three day junket. I mean the hyde is worse than Jesse the Elephant.
PETER DUTTON:
If you look at…I mean the case that was examined on A Current Affair last night – but cases otherwise that are now being exposed, that we've talked about for a long period of time – I hope part of their deliberation up at the resort was to look at ways in which they can start to reflect community standards more regularly than what we see at the moment.
I think people want to see community standards reflected. People want criminals kicked out of our country and as I say Ray, we're not going to take a backward step in this move.
We want to make sure that where visa cancellations are made, that they're in the national interest, that they provide for a safer society. We want that backed up by the courts and we don't apologise for that.
RAY HADLEY:
We've been battling this mob for decades. This Appeals Tribunal was put in place a long, long, long time ago, but it's only more recently, in the last few years we've been highlighting their dud decisions.
PETER DUTTON:
Well that's true, but look, I think if you go back – as we've discussed before – through some of the appointments that were made by Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd in particular, I think really there's a lot to examine there. We haven't renewed a lot of those appointments.
I think we need to look at the way, I think that the culture will change within the tribunal, but as I said to you before, we are looking at ways in which we can reform the process because at the moment we are spending millions of dollars, we're seeing criminals who should be deported staying here and it's undermining the work that we're doing in cancelling the visas and I'm not going to tolerate that.
I want to make sure that we can have people in our country, welcome them warmly, but if people commit crimes against Australians then they need to understand that the default position is that they will go.
RAY HADLEY:
So it's not so much about the makeup of the tribunals themselves, it's who appoints them and the type of people they do appoint?
PETER DUTTON:
Well that's right and it's true for the magistrates' courts, for the district or supreme courts as well. You can look at many examples of good judges or magistrates that have been appointed and then you can look at some who I don't think reflect community standards. I think in some cases you look at the penalties and the very light touch that's given to some of these repeat offenders and people just shake their heads at some of those results. So it's not just within one area like the AAT, it can be present elsewhere.
You've read out many cases over the years where you've got a particular judge who's essentially an activist and again it muddies the waters for the rest of the judges who do want to do the right thing and impose sentences that fit the crime.
I want to make sure that we get a better consistency out of the AAT.
RAY HADLEY:
We have our faith restored to some extent in politicians today via One Nation Senator Brian Burston over these tax policies. He says: once I hand shake someone's hand, I stick to my word. He shook the hand of Mathias Cormann – your colleague – and says he was blindsided by Senator Pauline Hanson's decision to withdraw support for the Government's company tax. So maybe you'd be buoyed about what's happening there.
PETER DUTTON:
Well good on Senator Burtson. I think he's obviously had a lot of discussion with Mathias Cormann, but what we don't want Ray, is companies making decisions to offshore their operations and taking those jobs away from Australia.
We want to make sure that we have a competitive taxation system for companies and if they have a profitable company, they're paying wages, they're employing staff. But at the moment if you're a company that's looking at Australia as one of the highest taxing corporate rates in the world, it's pretty easy to make a decision to go to United States or to United Kingdom or wherever it might be elsewhere in the world – comparable markets – but paying much cheaper tax rates and if we drive companies offshore, the jobs will go with them.
RAY HADLEY:
I've said that I won't be watching Channel 7's Sunday Night program with the paid interview by Barnaby and his partner Vikki Campion. That's not because I don't like the program, I'm just over Barnaby and Vikki I'm afraid and I think most of the nation feels about the same way.
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah, interesting to see what the ratings are and all the rest of it.
I think in the end you've got kids involved here, you've got people obviously who are under pressure – and Barnaby's taking a couple of weeks off now – but it's not been a pleasant affair from day one and I just think in the end, people's private lives are their private lives and all of us in politics sign up to a public life, but I do think there's a point where we really just want to concentrate on what's important to people.
We want to make sure they can get jobs and make sure that they can live safely in the community and I'm not much into the salacious details. I think what happens in people's homes belongs in people's homes.
RAY HADLEY:
Yeah well that's the problem. He's now submitting a complaint to the Press Council about the coverage in The Telegraph, but at the same time taking from another organisation $150,000.
A woman sent me an email this morning – and like I say I don't want to get involved in this too deeply because I've had a gutful of it to tell you the truth – but he was very quick to point out to Channel 9 that the money's going into a trust account for his newly born son.
He's got three daughters who are aggrieved at the moment and I guess entitled to be aggrieved as young women. No mention of them. I mean had he said: look, I'm putting this to trust for my children – well you know – I mean he's gone from a really clear thinking individual to just a hack.
I mean here's a bloke that was prepared to speak his mind, people liked him including me because he was not your normal politician, he said what he thought and he's just gone completely cuckoo.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ray, there are plenty of families where people have affairs, kids get hurt, both parties in the relationship get hurt. It's just unfortunate that in this case it has to be lived out publicly.
Barnaby's been a mate of mine for a long time and I don't agree with some of the things that he's done, but equally I don't drop on mates and I don't want to see anything but a better outcome for his daughters, for his former wife Natalie and obviously for his new son and partner now. I just hope that they can, at some stage soon, move on with their life and not in the public eye from the relationship perspective.
And I hope that, you know, for everyone's perspective, as I say, the Government's…you know we're not reality TV stars, we're people who want to make a difference and govern, make decisions – in my case that are going to keep our community safer – and that's really what I want to concentrate on.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay. Just one final thing; I don't know what's going on with your preselection process. You've got a very popular local member in Sydney, the seat of Hughes, Craig Kelly. I've spoken to him very occasionally – he's more regularly a guest on Alan's program – and yes he's a bit of the right and I guess he'd be someone that we look to be part of what you're all about. They're going to replace him, or I think they're replacing him by a bloke called Kent Johns, a former Labor councillor who obviously swings to the left. The left-wing of the Liberal Party seem to be quite good at throwing its weight around.
Shouldn't the Prime Minister intervene here and say look, Kelly is a good Member, drop off the preselection process and let him fight the battle and win Hughes again?
PETER DUTTON:
I have no doubt the Prime Minister wants Craig Kelly to win the preselection, as I do. I mean Craig's a…
RAY HADLEY:
….yeah, but can't he overrule the preselection process and simply say: I'm anointing him, drop off?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, in some cases you can, but as we saw with preselection in Ryan a couple of weeks ago, we're a democratic party and the membership has a say…
RAY HADLEY:
….hang on. You're democratic unless it's absolutely necessary and in this case Minister, it's absolutely necessary that Kelly is your candidate.
PETER DUTTON:
And mate there may be a break glass scenario. I don't think Craig Kelly's going to lose his preselection. I think he's got the support of his local membership. I think he is a first-class bloke. I think he has the ability to speak up and be heard on important issues. We are – as John Howard always said – a broad church, we've got people from right across the divide and we should listen to…
RAY HADLEY:
…including members, former members of the Labor Party obviously.
PETER DUTTON:
And I would back Craig Kelly everyday over that individual. So I want to make sure that Craig gets preselected. I'm sure that he will and I'm sure he'll continue in the Parliament, which will be a good thing for the Liberal Party.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay. Thanks for your time. You might have a division coming up, I'll leave you there.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Ray. See you mate.
[ends]
