TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MEMBER FOR SYDNEY
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
4BC DRIVE WITH SCOTT EMERSON
WEDNESDAY, 11 AUGUST 2021
SUBJECTS: Andrew Laming suit; George Christensen; Screen time for children.
SCOTT EMERSON, HOST: Every week we are joined by the Federal Shadow Minister for Education and Shadow Minister for Women, Tanya Plibersek. How are you Tanya?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN: It's great to be with you Emmo. How are you?
EMERSON: I'm very well, thank you. I was a bit surprised by this story that broke this afternoonabout the ABC paying the costs of Louise Milligan about this defamation case. Andrew Laming, Queensland LNP Federal MP, he's successfully sued Louise Milligan over some tweets she put forward, it was on Milligan's own personal account, but the ABC says it now will be covering the cost of that - $130,000. What do you think about that? Should the ABC be covering the costs or should it be the journalists, or the reporter, or the Twitter owner doing it?
PLIBERSEK: I've seen the reports but I don't know the details of the judgment so I'd be a bit careful about saying anything on the radio about it. What I would say is that Andrew Laming's been writing a lot of lawyers' letters to people who have been critical of him and he's been, he's been successful in this instance. But it doesn't really counter the fact that there's plenty of people on the record describing his behaviour - and it's been pretty appalling behaviour in many respects.
EMERSON: Well, yeah look, but put that aside there, whether you agree with his behaviour or not, the reality here is he sued successfully and he is-
PLIBERSEK: I think bullying your own constituents and hiding in the bushes and so on that's pretty worrying behaviour from an MP.
EMERSON: All right but in this case it was a defamation action. He successfully won it and he's been awarded $130,000 there, but it's not Louise Milligan paying it - it's the ABC. The ABC wasn't sued. The ABC, it wasn't the ABC's tweet, it was Louise Milligan. Why, when we say the ABC, it's the taxpayer paying it. Should the taxpayer be paying for this. I could tell you that most people out there, if they did something like this on their own private account, their bosses wouldn't be coughing up the money.
PLIBERSEK: Like I say, I've only seen the reports in the newspaper about it. I don't know the details and I don't know why the employer would be paying it rather than Louise Milligan. But I just don't want to comment on something that I don't know the details of.
EMERSON: That's fine, all right. Now George Christensen, I'm sure you know the details about this one.
PLIBERSEK: I'm happy to comment on that.
EMERSON: Well look I think there's a lot of people commenting on this yesterday. George Christensen got up in Parliament yesterday, anti-mask, anti-lockdowns, yada yada yada. He was condemned, a very, very rare thing from both sides that the chamber condemning George Christensen. But why is he doing this? He's about to quit Parliament, retire at the next election? And it doesn't seem like the Coalition can control him at all? Barnaby Joyce says; 'I can't control George Christensen but he is free to say whatever he likes because he's a Member of Parliament'.
PLIBERSEK: Well look I think he's desperate for attention and he wants that attention for whatever kind of post-politics career he's after. I don't know, he might want to spot on the Trump 2024 campaign or something, I don't know. The real problem is all these people saying he's allowed to say whatever he likes. You say he was firmly repudiated by both sides. Actually the Prime Minister didn't talk about George Christensen at all yesterday when he was speaking in the Parliament, he just said it's important to get the right information out there. It is important to get the right information out there. The sort of stuff that these conspiracy theorists are saying - don't bother wearing masks, don't bother getting vaccinated, don't bother with following the lockdown rules - that's how we have the spread of this virus. I mean, you saw this guy from Sydney, that went up to Byron Bay. He was sick. He got four local government areas in lockdown because this guy's been travelling all around New South Wales. He doesn't believe in Covid, and he doesn't believe in QR codes. It's that sort of selfishness that will lengthen the health problem that we've got and extend the economic hit that we're taking because of it.
EMERSON: Look, I completely condemn the comments made by George Christensen. I know that he'll have some supporters out there, no doubt about that. But the kind of comments he made yesterday, you say that Scott Morrison didn't address them directly at all, but that was a very rare thing yesterday to see a bipartisan vote condemning an MP.
PLIBERSEK: Yeah, I think it's very significant and the reason is this stuff is just too serious for people to use it to boost their Twitter following which I really think is what George Christensen's trying to do is. He's desperate for any attention, even if it's negative attention. It's just too serious to let him get away with it. And the other thing I'd say is this kind of idea that it's all just about free speech. I'm 100 per cent supportive of the importance of free speech, but people use need to use it if they've got a microphone as loud as you've got when you're a Member of the Federal Parliament, you need to use it responsibly not irresponsibly in the way this bloke's doing it.
EMERSON: Well, look, we will see, as I say, he says he will retire at the next election. I don't know what he's going to do post-politics and maybe he's thinking about running as an Independent, even if he's going to quit the LNP at the end of the and retire at the end of this parliamentary term. We will see what does happen.
PLIBERSEK: He might join forces with Clive Palmer, you never know.
EMERSON: Who knows out there, wild wacky world we live in at the moment, Tanya Plibersek, we will see what happens. Just quickly. We're going to be talking the program today about screen time for kids. You've got kids, quickly before we get to it, what is your solution to get the screens out of your kids' hands and limiting how much screen time they have each day?
PLIBERSEK: Well, I've got a few solutions and none of them are especially effective. I do occasionally just switch the internet off.
EMERSON: Oh that one's a good warning.
PLIBERSEK: Pull it. Pull the plug out from the wall.
EMERSON: That sound like mutually assured destruction in my household with that happens.
PLIBERSEK: I snatch the devices out of their like steel-like gripped hands occasionally. I also use bribery, I've actually got the older two doing the, there's this app called 'Couch to 5K' where you're basically learning to run five kilometres without stopping. I've bribed them with money. I've said when they can run 5Ks - no it's true. It's shameful parenting, and I probably shouldn't be telling people on the radio that I'd resort to bribery with my children; but I've told them when they hit 5Ks and they can comfortably run 5Ks, I'm going to give them some money.
EMERSON: All right then, I look like I sympathise with you. I think a lot of parents out there trying to deal with this issue all the time. I think any solution, whether it's bribery - whatever it is - if it works, just keep doing it.
PLIBERSEK: Actually Scott, there's one thing with the little one, our 10 year old, I reckon the most important thing is making time to actually go outside and play with kids too. So especially now in Sydney during lockdown, they're not allowed to see their friends and go just saying go out on your own in the backyard, that's not working. So, my husband takes the 10 year old for little skateboard, a little bit of basketball in the driveway, taking some time yourself actually.
EMERSON: That sounds like a wonderful idea to do it that way. Tanya Plibersek, always a pleasure to talk to you. Talk to you again next week.
PLIBERSEK: All right, talk soon. Bye.
ENDS
