7 August 2024
Topics: riots in the UK, CFMEU, vaccine mandates
EO&E
Peta Credlin:
Alright, let’s bring in my panel for Wednesday. Shadow Environment Minister, Senator Jonathon Duniam and South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic. Well gentlemen, I want to start offshore, in the UK, where we’ve seen those riots over the past few days. A YouGov poll out there has found that one in three Brits support the protests. One in eight believe the unrest is justified and a quarter of those polls say that Muslims are responsible for the riots. Now, Alex, we’re not at all condoning the violence, I mean no one can, but you can’t sweep the issues under the carpet either because it speaks to a broader frustration amongst Brits about high migration, doesn’t it?
Senator Antic:
Yeah, well Peta, it does. And this has been coming for a long period of time sadly, I think. I mean I think back to some of the writings of Douglas Murray who wrote about this in his book “The Strange Death of Europe”, talked about all of these sorts of things in coming up down the pipe. And you know, really this I think comes back to previous governments who’ve allowed mass migration on an enormous scale. That has to be sheeted back to the Conservative, the Tory, Governments as well. Everybody who’s been involved needs to take some of the blame. This concept of Western guilt, you know, the feeling that somehow the West can solve the problems of the third world by simply taking large, unchecked numbers and having porous borders. One of the things I’ve been very grateful for here has been the work the Coalition Government did, you know, people like Tony Abbott and indeed Peter Dutton, to avoid this crisis. I’m concerned, of course, we’re seeing it again. But really, this has been entirely predictable, very sad, and we have to heed those lessons here in Australia.
Peta Credlin:
Jonathon Duniam, I said as soon as the CFMEU gets off the front pages or we move on to other issues, which we have, we’ve moved on to the Olympic Games, the government’s gonna hope that no one notices that they don’t end up doing anything. We have more reports today, allegations levied against the former CFMEU boss John Setka, also the head of Victorian health Services Union. They’re being investigated by Victoria Police and the Fair Work Commission into allegations that some $3,000,000 of union money has sort of gone missing. The allegation is, you know, a ghost invoices about printing and printing that was never done, tickets, alcohol, all of these things. This takes me back, Jonno, to the days when we had Craig Thompson in the parliament and the infamous health services union and the whole Gillard era. They have got to outlaw the CFMEU, not just put it on life support. They’ve got to outlaw it and not take a donation.
Senator Duniam:
Spot on, Peta. They were dark days when Craig Thompson was getting away with what he did and this is why a hallmark again of Coalition policy is to actually crack down on illegal conduct by unions. Unions have a place, and that is to represent workers. Many unions do a great job, but you’ve just reeled off a couple of examples there where unions actually are ripping off their members and taking everyone for a ride. Because under this government, as you rightly pointed out, if we look the other way and hope no one else is remembering what happened, they’ll get away with it. It is more than a pattern of behaviour and this government, upon being elected, cheered on the abolition of the ABCC, and we now know how that’s ended with the CFMEU. They turn a blind eye to this sort of conduct. And Murray Watt, who is the new IR minister, I’m sure he’s still smarting having not been given the coveted Home Affairs portfolio, but he has a responsibility now. These things are being laid bare for all to see. And if he does his usual thing of pointing to everyone else and saying it’s someone else’s problem and the Coalition Government were bad when they were in government, then he’s failing. But he does have to crack down on this and this government actually owes it to workers that these unions should actually be standing up for.
Peta Credlin:
Given your outrage at the time, Alex Antic, about vaccine mandates and other things, I’m interested in what you thought when you saw Dom Perrottet retire from the parliament yesterday and say he regretted vaccine mandates, but he left them in place. And of course in Victoria they are still in place. If you’re a firefighter and you’ve been stood down and you haven’t been vaccinated, you still can’t work in Victoria, yet we haven’t had the pandemic, it hasn’t been a frontline issue for now nearly two years. What do you make of this?
Senator Antic:
Yeah, well I mean it’s sometimes said to me it’s time to move on. Well, I say in response to that we can’t move on until we have had a full inquiry, a Royal Commission, no less, frankly, in relation to what happened and how it happened. Look, I mean I will say I don’t know Dominic Perrottet. I suspect I would like him very much if I did. He seems like a very likeable bloke whose heart is in the right place. But I gotta tell you, Peta, I’m getting very sick of politicians telling us what they think on the way out the door, having a mea culpa moment on the way out, when the opportunity was there to do something at the time. And that’s tough. That’s tough criticism, but that that applies to everyone. This was never ever an issue which can simply be sheeted off by way of simply referring to the health advice at the time. We knew in 2021 that these injections were not stopping transmission. There was never ever a justification for mandating. And people were put to a lot of harm and a lot of financial expense, put in an invidious position in many cases as to whether or not to choose their job or to, you know, consent to a treatment they may not have wanted. So we’ve got a long way to go down this path. These questions are gonna continue to be asked, myself and many others in parliament are still asking them, and will continue to ask them until we get answers and we don’t ever repeat those mistakes again.
Peta Credlin:
Just quickly before we go, if Peter Dutton is elected at the next election, is there a commitment from the Coalition, Alex and Jonno, to have a Royal Commission into the COVID pandemic?
Senator Antic:
Well look, I’m not aware that there is. I’d certainly be hoping there will be and I’d be pushing for it. I think the time is well and truly come and it’s overdue. We need to for the sake of our entire country to make sure that we don’t.
Peta Credlin:
Jonno?
Senator Duniam:
Yeah look, we will announce our policies well before the election, but what I will say is I think Peter’s made it very clear that Australians were shortchanged with the inquiry that was set up and the fact that we let off the hook all of the premiers of our country.
Peta Credlin:
Well, that wasn’t fair. You’re not the Shadow Health Minister there at all, but thank you for that. I’ll raise that directly with Peter Dutton myself. Thank you, gents. Thanks for your time. See you next week.