MTR 1377

SUBJECTS: Australia Day riot

E&OE……… 

Christopher Pyne: Well, it is a direct contradiction Andrew and it’s remarkable that it’s taken this long for the media to pick it up to be frank.  Yesterday the only media that covered it was Channel 9 and now you today, but it is an explosive development in the Kim Sattler Australia Day Tony Hodges saga and explodes Julia Gillard’s alibi on behalf of her office.  With a lot of these things Andrew, of course, the cover up is much worse than the crime and Julia Gillard on that Saturday after Australia Day made very specific statements to the press, some of which you’ve replayed today and Kim Sattler has directly contradicted those yesterday.  This issue is not going to go away and now we know why Julia Gillard and her office didn’t want it referred to the Australian Federal Police.  They know they’re up to their necks in it.  They’re in serious trouble and the Prime Minister needs to make a full and comprehensive statement to the house which can then be questioned by the Opposition. 

Andrew Bolt: Kim Sattler’s second and fourth version has her being told by Julia Gillard’s junior media advisor a claim about what Tony Abbott had said, which was false in an attempt to obviously incite passions and create that mini race riot protest.  It seems to me now increasingly absurd to argue that this bloke did it all off his own bat and it wasn’t part of some wider strategy. 

Pyne: Well, Andrew, the second and fourth versions from Kim Sattler were the ones where she’s speaking directly to journalists.  It’s interesting that when there’s a written statement, which may or may not have been worked through with the Prime Minister’s office because we know that the Prime Minister’s office had been speaking to Kim Sattler on Friday and on Saturday and on Sunday where there’s been some discussions between them.  And she released a written statement.  The written statements appear to corroborate the Prime Minister’s position, but when she gets to the camera or to the radio or to a journalist it’s usually this story we now have today which is indeed Tony Hodges said Tony Abbott….

Steve Price: Well, let’s just play it again because at the end of it – I didn’t see the nine report last night so I’m at a bit of a disadvantage here – at the end of it she says I had several versions.  I just want to ask you what that means.  Here’s Kim Sattler again yesterday -

GRAB

Price: What does she mean there? 

Pyne: If you’re asking me what I understand she said she had several phone calls along with several text messages from Tony Hodges.  They had quite an exchange.  It wasn’t simply one phone call as the Prime Minister led us to believe. 

Price: So he used various versions of what Tony Abbott said?  Is that what she’s saying? 

Pyne: I think (inaudible) and on several occasions there was quite an effort to make sure Kim Sattler had enough information in order to get the tent embassy protestors riled up, which they certainly did become. 

Price: So Andrew, what you’re saying is that we need to know was there anyone else in the Prime Minister’s office who said to Hodges let’s stir things up with the comments that Tony Abbott made and put the worst possible spin on them, ring up somebody else, a third party and tell them. 

Bolt: Look, there are two things and maybe Christopher you could tell me what knowledge you have of these two aspects I’m particularly interested in.  Tony Abbott’s comments were first teased out – they were completely innocuous – he did not call for the removal of the tent embassy.  A question posed by an ABC journalist by request of another agency journalist in Canberra.  He was in Sydney the morning of Australia Day, asked about the tent embassy….

Price: It seemed to come out of nowhere. 

Bolt: It seemed to come out of nowhere.  I want to know, was the – and this happens quite often, I don’t know if….

Price: A side question. 

Bolt: Did someone in the Government, in Julia Gillard’s office, prompt the ABC to ask that question?  First.  Second, who was it and why that was around the press gallery after the mini race riot was triggered by Labor, who was it briefing journalists that this was Tony Abbott’s fault when they already knew that Tony Hodges had actually been responsible for triggering it?  Christopher, can you shed light on either of those two issues? 

Pyne: Well, Andrew on the second issue we asked the Prime Minister that question very deliberately on Thursday.  Who or why was at the press gallery from her media unit on Thursday afternoon telling people that Tony Abbott had started a riot at the Lobby Restaurant when they knew that wasn’t true.  She simply refused to answer the question.  She did the same thing on Wednesday.  She simply blocked and answered a different question.  She referred back to her statement and pretended we’d asked something else.  Now, that was extraordinarily interesting to me because it suggested to me that she didn’t want to have to answer the question why her media unit was in the gallery Thursday afternoon briefing journalists that Tony Abbott had started a riot when they knew it to be false. 

Bolt: Are you sure of this, are you sure people were there?  We’ve heard Tony Hodges’ own name mentioned.  Are you sure of anyone else? 

Pyne: Well (inaudible) journalists in the press gallery who should come out and write it, but journalists in the press gallery have told us that there were more than one member of the Gillard media unit circling the gallery on Thursday afternoon trying to get the story up that Tony Abbott had started a riot. 

Bolt: Christopher, honestly, you put your finger on an issue here that I find absolutely disgraceful.  Julia Gillard has been promoting the line suggesting that this didn’t happen; suggests because she’s got no evidence for it, refuses to answer the questions.  There are journalists from your account in the parliamentary press gallery who know this to be a lie, who know what the truth is, who know the names of the Gillard Government spinners who were spinning a lie about Tony Abbott and who refuse to come out and say this is a lie and we know it. 

Pyne: Andrew, we know it must be true for another reason as well because the media were reporting for many hours that Tony Abbott had started a riot at the Lobby Restaurant.  So we didn’t get that from the Tony Abbott office. 

Bolt: Should these journalists and I don’t know if you know who they are.  Do you know who they are?  Don’t they have a duty to let the public know the truth?  Why are they protecting Julia Gillard? 

Pyne: I think that’s a matter for each of those journalists to release that information.  As you know in the press gallery the Government holds most of the power because they have control over the news drip and I think we’ll be whistling Dixie before we find out who those journalists are to be frank. 

Price: Good of you to join us again.  I was – I said to Andrew last week I’ve been critical of your tactics in the house.  I thought you’d be better off concentrating on the economy and jobs, but I suspect from this discussion there will be more questions about this later this week. 

Pyne: There is a lot of murkiness surrounding this Government because of a culture of dirty tricks that exists in the Prime Ministers office.  It’s not just the Australia Day riots, but of course the Craig Thomson affair, which is another subject altogether. 

ENDS