Subjects: The Voice, vaping
LAURA JAYES: Let’s go live to the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, Karen Andrews. Now, okay, we will talk budget, but this breaking news from our chief political anchor, and that is Kieran Gilbert, Julian Leeser is going to resign from the front bench. Does that come as news to you?
KAREN ANDREWS: Well, I was obviously very disappointed when I heard the rumour that that was in fact the case. Look, Julian Leeser is a very valued member of the Coalition’s front bench, I personally have a lot of time for Julian Leeser, but if he has taken the decision that he needs to resign from the front bench, then he is quite clearly at liberty to be able to do so. I understand he will be holding a press conference, later this morning, so I will listen to that. I’ve messaged Julian, certainly wish him all the best if that is decision that he’s taking.
LAURA JAYES: Do you think, given his history here, and we went through that with Kiran a little earlier on the program, his, uh, involvement in formulating, uh, the voice, uh, doing the, the, the legwork, and then coming to this position, do you think the party itself, the liberal party room, put him in an untenable position?
KAREN ANDREWS: I think that many of us tried to wrap our arms around Julian because we know how, we knew how tough it was for him, I think the attacks on him by labor and particularly by the Prime Minister, were just appalling. And they didn’t help the discussion in a sensible way about the voice or about any recognition. But putting aside the personal attacks made on Julian by the Prime Minister as a Coalition, and particularly as a liberal party, we did all that we could to try and support Julian and to let him know how valued he was. But, clearly, he has had a very long history in relation to Indigenous matters. So I’m not gonna pre-empt what he may well say at 11 o’clock or whenever it is that he holds a press conference. But if his decision is that he will leave the front bench of the opposition, then that is a decision that he’s clearly at liberty to make.
LAURA JAYES: You think it’s the right decision of the liberal party room to bind the front bench and give the backbench a free vote?
KAREN ANDREWS: Well, there are requirements of taking on a front bench position and for our party, it doesn’t matter if that, so when we’re in government or when we are in opposition, and it goes to the whole issue of how cabinet and shadow cabinet runs. And that means that there needs to be a consistent and a common view that is put now the arguments and the debates happen behind closed, but if you are going to be a member of the shadow cabinet, then when we go out and we talk about that, then we need to speak with a consistent voice, and that is a requirement. So on the surface, it may seem harsh, but the reality is that we all need to be cohesive. We all need to be able to put a cohesive voice forward.
LAURA JAYES: Might there be other front bench members though that cannot see or, or cannot, um, in good conscience, vote no is being one thing, but also campaigning No. Might that see other front benches go the way of Julian and Lisa?
KAREN ANDREWS: Look, I don’t know what the other front benchers will do in terms of their decision, let me speak for myself, I was certainly part of the decision to go down the pathway that we have. I’m not going to be out there with ‘no’ emblazoned on my shirt between now and the referendum. What I will be doing is making sure that everyone that I come in contact, including the people who are in my electorate here on the Gold Coast, are aware of the pros and the cons of the proposal that has been put forward. Now, I have a very strong view that I cannot, and I will not support the changes to the Constitution in the terms that has been proposed by Mr. Albanese. So I’m very strong on that. But this is a vote of individuals and what people of Australia deserve is very neutral advice on the ‘yes’ case and the ‘no’ case for a change to our Constitution, and to be able to make that decision based on the facts.
LAURA JAYES: Yeah. You say neutral advice then. So what does that mean? Because there’s been a lot of emotion, there’s been a lot of questions from your side of politics about things that might happen. You know, I mentioned before, uh, the suggestion that the voice might mean that the r b would have to consult them before raising interest rates. I mean, that’s a, a little bit too much, isn’t it? That’s not neutral advice.
KAREN ANDREWS: Well, it’s a question that I really think that the government of the day should have been able to answer. Because if there is going to be representation to the executive, then I think that before people vote on whether or not they think that is reasonable, they deserve to know what that actually means in a very hard, cold fact, life like neutral way that hasn’t been forthcoming. I’m not going to be part of any scare campaign at all, but I do want people to have the opportunity to be properly informed so that they can make their own decision. And if that means that as an opposition we have to keep pushing the government to provide reasonable detail, then we will continue to do that.
LAURA JAYES: Okay. Let me quickly ask you about the budget, because we heard from Jim Chalmers, before he was pretty critical of some of your colleagues, Angus Taylor, Michael Sukkar to name a few. He said that these, b graders were out there, with a completely and predictably dishonest campaign about [inaudible]. Does he have a point in that, because this was something that was not extended by Josh Frydenberg under the previous government, your government.
KAREN ANDREWS: Look, ever since labor has been elected to government, so coming up to 12 months now, they have spent every single day personally attacking members of the opposition and doing nothing bar saying that all of the wars that Australia is experiencing are because of the coalition. Now, that is just a nonsense because whether you agree with everything that the coalition did when it was in government, not everything was appalling. And in fact, there were some pre significant milestones that were were met and achieved by the coalition government. I think it’s actually time for the labor government to get out there and proactively sell what they’re doing, not spend a whole heap of time engaging in personal attacks and trying to blame someone else. They have been in government for almost a year. They’re probably well past a third of their way through their term of government. They actually need to govern, forget that they are an opposition, forget the attack, and just show some leadership.
LAURA JAYES: One more question about vaping, because we just heard from Jim Chalmers that he says this is a concerning problem for the budget, but just not the budget, health, environmental concerns. And there has been an explosion in vaping across the country that he’s con incredibly concerned about, is this something on your radar? What are you pushing for?
KAREN ANDREWS: Yes, look, vaping is a significant issue for all the reasons that you’ve just gone through, Laura, I think a lot needs to be done for there to be a crackdown on vapes that are being sold illegally. They are too easy for young people in particular to access. There needs to be more work and more resources put into the Australian Border Force and the Australian Federal Police so that they can deal with vapes that are coming into this country and they can deal with that at the border. Understand there may well be an issue for the budget, but we are talking about products that are coming into Australia that should not be allowed in through our border product that is being sold to people who would, should not be sold to, and I would’ve thought that the government of the day would’ve been more focused on people’s health and education and making sure that they cracked down on illegal vaping.
LAURA JAYES: Karen Andrews, thanks so much for your time today. Appreciate it.
KAREN ANDREWS: Pleasure, thank you.
ENDS