2GB Ben Fordham

04 Mar 2015 Transcipt

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – 2GB Ben Fordham with Anthony Albanese
4 March 2015

SUBJECT: Anthony Albanese’s Birthday; Bali 9.

BEN FORDHAM: Anthony Albanese, the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Christopher Pyne, the Minister for Education and Training. They face off against each other in the House of Representatives and they join us here on the line this afternoon. Christopher Pyne, good afternoon.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good afternoon and happy birthday to Anthony for Monday.

BEN FORDHAM: Is it really, Anthony?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: It was indeed. I had a very nice surprise cake presented to me in the caucus room in the shape of the Premier’s footy jumper.

BEN FORDHAM: Did Christopher jump out of that cake?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: He did not.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Not this time.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: … for all involved. There would be no demand for that.

BEN FORDHAM: Christopher, what did you give Anthony for his birthday?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I went easy on him in Question Time.

BEN FORDHAM: That’s it?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Got him thrown out only once this week.

BEN FORDHAM: What did you get thrown out for this week, Albo?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I didn’t! He is making things up, again.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I thought you got thrown out on for answering back to the Speaker. Didn’t you get thrown out for answering back to the Speaker?

BEN FORDHAM: Should’ve been thrown out?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: He should’ve been thrown out.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: You can’t believe a word the bloke says.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well there you go, you see, he hasn’t thrown out. So he should’ve been thrown out, so that was his birthday present.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: She in fact wished me a happy birthday.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: She is a very good Speaker, she is much loved by the Australian public.

BEN FORDHAM: How old are you, Albo?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I am… you can’t… one of the tragedies about being in public life is you can’t even lie about your age! I was fifty two years young on Monday.

BEN FORDHAM: What are you, Christopher?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Forty seven.

BEN FORDHAM: Just a chicken.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I have been in Parliament twenty two years at the age of forty seven.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: It was also my anniversary of my election to Parliament. I was elected on my thirty third birthday.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Is that right?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: So it was a very big day back in 1996.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: My anniversary is on the 13th of March.

BEN FORDHAM: Well listen to you two.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: We are getting on!

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: We could be two people on a cruise ship, couldn’t we – sitting on the veranda. Having a bit of a chat.

BEN FORDHAM: I don’t need the mental image of you two on a cruise ship lying on your banana … couches sucking on a Pina colada.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: No one wants that.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No that’ll never happen.

BEN FORDHAM: Gentleman, some pretty heavy news today as we know we have been waiting for it for some time but now we know the Bali 9 duo, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran they have arrived on the island where they are due to be executed. We don’t know when it is going to happen but it is not far away and we can only presume, Christopher, that the best efforts of Julie Bishop, the Foreign Minister and Tony Abbott, our Prime Minister have fallen on deaf ears in Indonesia?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Ben it is a very sad day for all Australians, for those people who oppose the death penalty, obviously. And the Government has put its best foot forward. Julie Bishop has been talking to the Indonesian Foreign Minister as recently as late last night about this very subject. Prime Minister has tried his very best with the President but it is not good news that we have received today. It is not good news and obviously our hearts go out to those two gentleman’s families. Their crime was a heinous crime for which they should be punished but the idea of them facing the death penalty and being executed is really a breach far too far.

BEN FORDHAM: Anthony, there are plenty of topics you guys go head to head on in Parliament and it has been interesting to see Julie Bishop, the Foreign Minister and Tanya Plibersek, the Shadow Foreign Minister spend a lot of time behind the dispatch box having a chat about thing and both I suppose linking up on this one because I guess this is one of the issues where both parties are on the same page. Was there anything more that this Government could have possibly done?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Look I have nothing but praise for what the Government has attempted to do. There is some criticism that has come through, you know why hasn’t the Government done more, why haven’t people flown to Indonesia. The truth is that a lot of the diplomacy is best done quietly rather than loudly. Shouting will not have an impact here and indeed could have forced, you know, an outcome that no one wanted. I think this has been the Parliament and Government of Australia, not party political Government, but rather government, national Government at its best in terms of united, being determined to not…. No one has played politics, the Government or Opposition. And it is quite interesting I think on a range of issues, voluntary euthanasia, a range of issues that are difficult and complex. There are differences of opinion. On this there is actually unanimity in the Parliament that is a very good thing. I think the Parliament recognises that the death penalty under any circumstances is never justified as heinous as a crime may be. And I think that consistency across the Parliament has been something that I think has been very positive out of what has been a very negative circumstance.

BEN FORDHAM: Christopher, I don’t know whether I am in the majority here or the minority, but I haven’t really given these guys much a thought for the last ten years. They have been sweating away there in Kerobokan prison, I certainly haven’t felt sorry for them at all but now I can’t help but feel sorry for them considering we know what is about to face them. I can’t help and I feel about funny about it because they are heroin smugglers.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Sure. You know I have four children who are aged seven to fourteen so drugs is something that you know my wife and I think about a lot in terms of making sure our children make good choices about that so I think a lot of Australians are torn. These two gentlemen though they have rehabilitated in prison, I am not suggesting they should be left out of prison, but they have rehabilitated. One of them have been become a religious pastor, Andrew Chan, and the other has become an artist and he has been rehabilitated and both of them have been helping other people in the prison. They have given character references by the Governors of the prison which is very unusual. The truth is, yes they should be punished but the death penalty is not something in Australia we support. It has had the unanimous support of the Parliament. Julie Bishop has done a sensational job and Tanya Plibersek has supported her throughout and she has also deserves to be praised.

BEN FORDHAM: Anthony, what do you say to families who write to me and say mate, I lost a child; I lost a sixteen year old, a seventeen year old to heroin ten years ago. It has never left me, it has haunted me ever since, my life has become an absolutely nightmare because of that drug. And now you dare stick up for those people who were bringing this stuff in to this country to kill kids.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well it is not a matter of sticking up for drug dealers. It is a matter of opposing the state government making a decision to end people’s lives. And people aren’t asking for freedom for these two, they are just asking that their lives be spared. And isn’t it, I think, a very positive story that the fact that they have clearly tried to turn their lives around. They have got such strong support from people who have direct contact with them. And it is a bit of a story about redemption really. You know they obviously made a grievous error and committed a crime. And they are being punished for that crime as they should be. There is a different question though whether they should be put to death. I think we as a society that has advanced and moved well beyond. You know back in the sixties of course Australia was in a position of carrying out the death penalty and we have moved well beyond that. I think that is a good thing and it is a matter of the human family and how we treat each other and I think part of the message that I got growing up as a Catholic, in school was very much about forgiveness and we don’t forget, you don’t forget the crime that was done but really no one who has been impacted will benefit from the death of these two young men.

BEN FORDHAM: There are going to be some comforting conversations dare I say in households around the country particularly with younger children who are asking about it and sadly it seems it is only a matter of time now. Gentleman, I appreciate both of you talking to us today. We’ll chat next week.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It is pleasure. Thanks for having us.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good to talk to you.

BEN FORDHAM: Christopher Pyne, Anthony Albanese. They are the odd couple joining us every Wednesday on Sydney Live.

[ends]


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