Subjects: Bridget McKenzie; Coronavirus; medical evacuation from Wuhan.
EO&E...........................................................................................................................................
ALLISON LANGDON:
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton joins us this morning. Minister, thanks for your time. This time yesterday you were supporting Bridget McKenzie, on the same day she resigns. How does that make you look? Is it a bit embarrassing?
PETER DUTTON:
Ally it's not. Good morning to you and Karl.
I think Bridget McKenzie is a person of great integrity and I think she's demonstrated that through this process. She accepts she made a mistake in the declaration to the Prime Minister, but the report found – and remember we said when we last spoke about this, that we should wait for the experts to report back – and the report found that there was, you know, no personal gain, she had followed the process, but she hadn't made a declaration about her membership to the gun club to the Prime Minister as part of the ministerial declaration.
So I think she's done the honourable thing and I hope she's remembered more for the work she's done in agriculture, particularly I saw her passion around dairy farmers and around farmers in the drought, and I think that's to her great credit. I think there are two sides to these coins and whenever it happens there's always, I think, a need to remind ourselves that human beings are involved here and it'll be a tough time for her, but she's done the honourable thing and we move on.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It's beyond me that the Government would be almost eulogising her, given what she's done and it's obvious to everyone except the Prime Minister that this needed to happen and happen quickly. I mean no wonder it's killing you in the polls.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl, obviously the independent umpire in the Secretary of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Department looked at this and he made his recommendations and as I said before…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
…how independent is he?
PETER DUTTON:
He is independent and he's a long-standing public servant of several decades and so I think he's a very honourable person himself and I have known him for a long period of time. He's looked at all the facts and he's delivered that judgment.
ALLISON LANGDON:
I mean you say independent umpire. Scott Morrison commissioned that inquiry, so it's not surprising that there was a finding of no pork barrelling, but you actually had an independent report that was by the Australian National Audit Office that found that the program was used as a slush fund for marginal seats. I mean that is a legitimately independent body.
PETER DUTTON:
Ally, as the Prime Minister said; we'll have a look at the recommendations that have been made, but there's no personal gain.
When Bridget McKenzie became involved in the process, more Labor seats ended up with money than was the case beforehand. When you look at the projects – and Richard Marles said this the other day, he wasn't going to give the money back – this money went to projects like installing new toilets for young girls who wanted to play sport, that were at clubs where they had to go out the back of the sheds or get changed in the back seat of the car.
So I just think we just need to look at all of the facts in relation to this. There are lessons to be learned and mistakes obviously have been made. Bridget McKenzie has paid a high price for that, but I don't think she needs to be dragged into the town square and flogged. She's made a mistake, she's paid a big price and the Government accepts all of that and we move on.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Did the Prime Minister's Office have any involvement in the allocation and decisions surrounding those grants? Is there an email trail, are there spreadsheets with marginal seats on them? Is there anything tying his Office with the rorts?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Karl, not to my knowledge. As we went through last week I mean I wasn't the investigator, so I don't have all the information...
KARL STEFANOVIC:
…so there could be a tie to his Office, but you just don't know about it.
PETER DUTTON:
Well I think the Prime Minister confirmed last week that advisers in his Office had passed on requests from Members of Parliament that they wanted money spent in their seats and if that hasn't happened since federation in Prime Minister's Offices, both Liberal and Labor, then I'm not sitting here joyously with you this morning.
ALLISON LANGDON:
Just moving on while we still have you, the Coronavirus. Entry is now being denied to all non-Australians coming in from China. Citizens and permanent residents are being allowed in with screening, but you're asking those people to self-isolate. Who will police that?
PETER DUTTON:
Obviously they're given information Ally. People are supplied with masks, supplied with information about the ways in which they can self-isolate and that has happened already for a lot of people that have returned to Australia who might have been holidaying in China, Australian citizens who were over there as part of tour groups etc that have come back.
The majority of people will do the right thing, they understand the seriousness of this virus and we can't though be rounding up thousands of Australian citizens and putting them into isolation.
The practical way for this to be dealt with is that they remain at home away from other people, take that medical advice and on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, the 14 days is the outer limit in any case. All of the evidence so far is that medical clearance can generally be given after seven days or so and people should comply with that advice from the doctors.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It's getting big on us.
PETER DUTTON:
Karl, it is mate. When you have a look at 14-15,000 cases now overseas, over 300 deaths, 12 reported cases here and others that doctors are looking at the moment. I think people should be reassured by the fact that we have put in place these tough measures.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Yep.
PETER DUTTON:
We've acted on the advice of doctors and we'll continue to do so because we want to contain the risk here and we don't want to expose ourselves unnecessarily to what's happening over there.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Peter Dutton, thanks for your time. See you Friday. Appreciate it.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks guys.
[ends]
