TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MEMBER FOR SYDNEY
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
RADIO 4BC DRIVE WITH SCOTT EMERSON
WEDNESDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2021
SUBJECT: COVID vaccinations; Australia’s relationship with the US; Liberals' inaction on zero net emissions; Queensland; Transparency in political donations
SCOTT EMERSON, PRESENTER: And every week we are joined by Tanya Plibersek, the Shadow Minister for Education and Shadow Minister for Women. How are you Tanya?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN: I'm good and I was just listening in before, I'm proudly AZ. I feel like a bit of a bad boy, bit of a risk taker.
EMERSON: The bad boy, the AZers. Maybe we’re a gang. I'm double jabbed with AZ too so.
PLIBERSEK: Me too, and I couldn’t wait. And I felt so good afterwards, and not just because I'm doing it for myself and I feel safe for myself, but I think about my family, I think, you know, it's the soonest way of getting things back to normal, isn’t it?
EMERSON: Well my wife Robbie said to me after she got her second jab, she said 'well, I didn't really think about this too much but suddenly. I felt so good that I was double jabbed, I just felt great.' It was interesting. It was really interesting.
PLIBERSEK: Yeah, yep.
EMERSON: All right, let's go about Prime Minister Scott Morrison. He's going to catch up, the first face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden, this quad meeting later this month. That's also got the Prime Ministers of India and Japan attending as well. From your perspective how would you describe the current relationship between Australia and US?
PLIBERSEK: Oh look I think that the relationship has been strong for many decades and it will be strong forever into the future. The US is our key ally, principal security partner and close friend, and it doesn't really depend on any particular Prime Minister or any particular President. I don't think it was great that our Prime Minister refuses to do anything about lowering carbon pollution, and this is obviously a big policy priority for the new President. And I don't think it really helped that Scott Morrison kind of backed in Donald Trump a bit too hard during the US election campaign, and for a bit too long even after the storming of the Capitol building. But the relationship is a good, strong one that really does, I think, transcend any of those little friction points.
EMERSON: Well let me talk to you about that one, because obviously we got the Glasgow Climate Change Summit coming up at the end of the year, and as you say Joe Biden, he is pushing for zero net emissions from 2050. Scott Morrison, he's talked about possibly going there, but he hasn't committed to it yet. From Labor’s perspective, you're saying there that this is not a significant issue between Joe Biden and Scott Morrison?
PLIBERSEK: I think it's an important thing for us to do domestically, because we've got great job opportunities. If we can bring down the cost of electricity, and we know that solar is the cheapest form of electricity in human history, it will bring down the cost of electricity. It's good for families with their domestic bills. It's good for jobs that rely on electricity. We need to do that for our own benefit. We need to do it, and because our key allies and trading partners are doing it, it's important for us, for example, to have exports that are low carbon exports. Because that's what the world market wants from us. So it's the right thing to do. I just, I don't think we should overdramatise these differences because this is a long-lasting strong relationship between two countries that have been through a lot together.
EMERSON: Well, let's turn to this fundraiser that Queensland Labor is hosting next month for the federal election campaign. Is Queensland again going to be the major battleground for Labor, and how badly does it need the money?
PLIBERSEK: Well, more importantly than anything, we need Queenslanders to vote for us at the next election. And I'm very hopeful they will because I know that Queenslanders want jobs and security and opportunity for them and their families, and that's what we're offering. We know that people in Queensland have done it tough during the last couple of years with the COVID lockdowns and the border restrictions and so on, and we want to be there after the election as a government that can really help with the recovery. People have sacrificed so much to keep their families, and their communities safe, and we need to rebuild in a way that provides secure jobs with decent pay and conditions, that strengthens our health and education systems and invests in infrastructure - cheaper cleaner, energy, an NBN that works. We want to do all of that and I think really that needs to be our focus in Queensland and around Australia.
EMERSON: But do you need the money, do you need the money because you're worried about another massive campaign say, from Clive Palmer targeting you? Maybe he’ll target the Coalition as well, but Clive's probably got very deep pockets, we saw what he did last time.
PLIBERSEK: Yeah and last time what did he spend, $60, $70, $80 million? Yeah, we are worried about that sort of spend again, of course we are, and all Australians should be because our democracy should not be for sale. I've always supported actually, I've supported spending caps in the past on campaigns because I think whenever you're in this kind of crazy arms race, where you can only win if you spend more than your opponents, we've got a problem in our democracy. And I'm all for much greater transparency here. In fact when Labor was in government, we reduced the disclosure threshold to $1000. That meant anybody who gave more than $1000 had to declare themselves publicly and people would know about those donations. John Howard put it up again to $10, 000. He indexed it - so now it's $14,500 that you can, if you donate below that you don't need to disclose it, and I think that's a real problem for our democracy. We want to see a disclosure threshold back down at $1000, permanently at $1000 and we want real-time disclosure too, because it's no good waiting 18 months to know who's donated to whose campaign. Look at the scandal today with Christian Porter refusing to, or claiming that he doesn't know who's contributed a million dollars to his legal campaign.
EMERSON: Well I think there's a big issue there in terms of money and lack of disclosure indeed. Tanya Plibersek, great to talk to you. Catch you again next week.
ENDS
