Today Show

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview – TODAY Show
Friday 15 Jan 2016

SUBJECTS: Jakarta Bombing, Jaime Clements, Paid Parental Leave;

DAVID CAMPBELL: The footage of the bombing in Jakarta in which two innocent people and five attackers were killed have once again focused the world’s attention on the scourge of terrorism. Islamic State have claimed responsibility for those attacks, which is the first time a Muslim majority country has been targeted by this radical group. Minister for Industry Christopher Pyne joins us now from Adelaide, good morning to you mate, good to see you, what is Australia response to these attacks?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, good morning David and it’s good to be with you, well obviously the Australian Government continues to liaise and work closely with the Government of Indonesia in terms of counter terrorism. We are very concerned about the spread of terrorism to our region from these extremists from the Middle East and my heart goes out to the victims and to their family of course, I’m sure everyone’s does. It’s very important for Australians travelling to Jakarta and to Indonesia to take extreme care and caution with where they go and stay in touch with the Australia websites around where it’s safe to be and not to be. I’ve every confidence that the Indonesian Government will respond firmly and cleverly to these attacks but obviously as an Australian Government we will do everything we can to support Indonesia to protect their people as they would us in the same position.

DAVID CAMPBELL: And now the Shadow Treasurer Christopher Bowen has just walked in as well because he was stuck in traffic but we do appreciate you rushing in at the last minute

CHRIS BOWEN: No problems David, very glad to be here.

DAVID CAMPBELL: What is your response to the attacks this morning?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, this is another reminded just that terrorism can strike anywhere, and we all need to work together across international boundaries with our friends in Indonesia and other Muslims nation, Islamic nations to tackle terrorism. Terrorists do not discriminate between Muslims, Christians, others, everybody is at risk. Indonesia are great friends of ours, we work closely together, Governments from both persuasions on anti-terrorism issues with Indonesia, this is a reminder as to why we need to do that, and continue to do that.

DAVID CAMPBELL: We’ll of course, we’ll be speaking to the Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, at 7 o’clock so stay with us here on the Today Show, but let’s get back to Australia, the latest scandal to hit politics, New South Wales Labor General Secretary Jamie Clements resigning in disgrace after he was accused of sexually harassing a female Labor staffer. The woman at the centre of this, Stephanie Jones, has accused New South Wales Labor Party of disgusting treatment of women, and add to this Bill Shorten’s dismal poll ratings I’ve got to say this is not a start to the year of a federal election that you guys would’ve wanted, and this is a terrible start to the year as opposed to the image it has of the Labor Party and women.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, David I’m not going to pretend that this isn’t an awful situation in the New South Wales Branch, of course it would be, I’d be misleading you and all the viewers out there if I said everything was fine but what we’ve got is a situation now where Jaimie Clements has said the right thing for the Party and for his family is to go. That’s a very difficult situation for him, and the New South Wales branch, it has been, but it’s been dealt with. Bill Shorten spoke with the Party President yesterday morning; we saw that play out yesterday afternoon. We now have a great young women, Kaila Murnain who will take over as General Secretary, she’ll become the most senior female organisational figure I think of any political party in Australia, it’s a great thing for women in organisational politics, a good step towards…

DAVID CAMPBELL: When was the decision made for him to actually stand down because he was actually quite defiant for a long time even though top Labor personalities like Kristina Keneally were out there asking for him to stand down and yet he was refusing ‘til, what, Bill Shorten said so?

CHRIS BOWEN: Obviously there were a lot of discussions yesterday, I was involved in most of those and many of those, but what we’ve got is a situation where, at the end of the day, Jamie Clements did the right thing for the Labor Party so we can all move on and focus on what is a big year, a federal election we have to take on the Liberals and Christopher and his team, and we intend to be very competitive, that means organisationally we need to have the best team, the best focus on the real issues that count, and Jaimie Clements recognised yesterday that the way he could best contribute to that is to move on from his role

DAVID CAMPBELL: Christopher let’s bring you in on this because it’s not just Labor who’ve faced this sort of allegations, you’ve had to deal with the fallout from the Jaimie Briggs sexual harassment affair. Shouldn’t we start to expect better conduct towards women from our politicians?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, David there was a big contrast between the handling of the Jaimie Briggs business and the handling of the Jamie Clements affair, the Jamie Clements affair seemed to drag on for many months. Labor didn’t seem to know how to respond to it, and of course it’s different, there’s no claims of sexual harassment in the Jamie Briggs matter, but the Jamie Briggs matter was dealt with quickly…

DAVID CAMPBELL: I think there was an accusation of something that happened internationally so there is an allegation of something that has occurred.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, in the Jamie Clements affair there was matters to do with AVOs being talked about being taken out against Jamie Clements, that’s a long way from the Jamie Briggs matter but in the Jamie Briggs matter which was seen to be inappropriate the government acted immediately, it took the correct action, particularly to show that we are totally intolerant of anything that puts women in a lesser position than men, whereas the Labor Party in New South Wales managed to allow this to drag out for some time and I think that that was unfortunate and, in fact, Jamie Clements only 2 days ago, as you said, defiantly refused to go and Labor have yet again be seen to be dragging the chain on standing up for women in the workplace.

DAVID CAMPBELL: Alright, let’s move on because speaking of women in the workplace, new Mums in low paid jobs could be paid up to $12,000, they could be up to $12,000 worse off with change to the Paid Parental Leave scheme kicking in in July, so says researchers at the Fair Agenda. Christopher, how do you respond to these claims, they had it now they’ve been taken away?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, we have to negotiate with the cross bench, now, everyone knows that the Senate has to pass legislation that the Government puts up. We’ve passed legislation in the House of Representatives but there are eight cross-benchers who are negotiating with Christian Porter, the Cabinet Minister responsible, until those negotiations are complete, until legislation’s through the Senate we are in the hands of the Upper House, that’s why it’s very important for the Senate to deal with this matter in February at the earliest opportunity because we want all women in the workplace to be able to take paid parental leave to go and have babies, have children, and still receive the support from the Australian taxpayer, it’s a workplace entitlement in my view.

DAVID CAMPBELL: Chris your response just quickly.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, David of all the issues where there’s such a stark difference between what Christopher and the Liberal Party promised before the last election and delivered in office this I the starkest. They promised, Christopher promised a world class rolled gold paid parental leave scheme…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Which you opposed.

CHRIS BOWEN: What they’ve delivered the opposite…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Which you opposed.

CHRIS BOWEN: And yes, we did oppose it because it was bad policy…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: So you’re opposed to the rolled gold scheme.

CHRIS BOWEN: And now you are cutting a scheme you said you would make better. This is another broken promise; your lies are at their starkest Christopher. Malcolm Turnbull sat around at the Cabinet table and promised…

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You need to calm down.

CHRIS BOWEN: The world’s best paid parental leave scheme and now mothers will be $10,000 worse off because of your policies. Don’t blame the cross-bench, don’t blame the Senate, these are your policies.

DAVID CAMPBELL: Alright gentleman I’m calling time on the fight, we haven’t even discusses lettuce this morning but I’d like to thank you both so much for coming in, Chris and Christopher Pyne, thankyou …

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I’m strictly non-discriminatory on the issue of lettuce.

DAVID CAMPBELL: Yes, exactly, we all know that lettuce is a terrific thing.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: All lettuces should be treated equally.

[ENDS]