Interview with Patricia Karvelas, ABC Afternoon Briefing

ANGIE BELL MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ARTS, SPORT AND YOUTH

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MONCRIEFF

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS, AFTERNOON BRIEFING

Topics: AI, Copyright, Women

E&OE…

PATRICIA KARVELAS

Now, and the Australian newspaper is reporting that Shadow frontbencher Angie Bell, who is the last remaining Queensland Liberal woman in the federal parliament, is at risk of being challenged for pre-selection in her own seat at Moncrieff by the party’s own vice president. For more on some of those reports and what it all means, I’m joined now by Angie Bell, who’s the Shadow Minister for Arts, Sport and Youth. Welcome to the program.

ANGIE BELL

Thanks for having me on, PK.

PATRICIA KARVELAS

You are the last remaining Queensland Liberal woman in the Parliament. Of course, there’s women in the Nationals, but Liberal woman in the Liberal Party room, and it’s been reported you are at risk of being challenged for pre-selection in your seat. Does that worry you?

ANGIE BELL

Well, PK. Firstly, the rules around pre-selection and making comments on that are very, very clear, and that is that it’s a matter for the party. It’s an internal matter for the members, and so I won’t be commenting on that. But what I will say is that I am focused on being the Member for Moncrieff, which is what the good people of Moncrieff elected me to be, but also a member of Angus Taylor’s front bench, and I have the Arts, Sport, and Youth portfolios, and there’s a lot of work in there when it comes to our policies leading into the next election. That’s what I’m focused on.

PATRICIA KARVELAS

Okay, so if I zoom out and make you not have to talk about yourself because I understand the rules. I’ve heard a lot about them over the years. The Liberal Party has been talking a lot internally through papers published about getting more women pre-selected into the party. What does that say if there isn’t a backing of women already in the Parliament?

ANGIE BELL

Well, I’ll point to a candidate that we’ve had pre-selected in the seat of Ryan, Maggie Forrest. She’s a very high-quality young woman who went up at the last election, was unsuccessful, but however, she has been pre-selected again. What I’ll say about women is, I point to my own track record. PK, when I was the LNP women’s president and that is doing the job of supporting women for election, and that was at state elections and at federal elections, and that was my role when I was on the state executive as the LNP women’s president and vice president the year before that. And so, what I would say is that’s what we need to be doing – having more women in our party and more women pre-selected to run in winnable seats at the next election.

PATRICIA KARVELAS

Yeah, I mean this is the thing, and you know better than anyone because you’re in, of course, that side of the Parliament – the number of women is pretty low now. That’s well established. Doesn’t there have to be a renewed effort to try and actually shift that, to increase that, if the party wants to be competitive and more representative of Australia.

ANGIE BELL

Well, sure, I’m playing my part in that. I am a woman in Parliament, and I will always, and have always, supported women into the Parliament. The numbers have dwindled, but that was also because we lost the last election, and we need to make sure that we’re working together to bring down this terrible Labor government. That is my job, but that is what the leader is focused on, and that is what the team is focused on as well – and that is fixing the economy and protecting our way of life.

PATRICIA KARVELAS

James McGrath is, of course, in charge of a process of renewal for the party. He’s published a paper. A lot of the ideas in it do traverse this issue of women’s representation. One of the ideas is also about potential quotas. It was literally minutes after it was published and made public that already people were denouncing the idea of quotas. Is that dead before it even arrived as a debate?

ANGIE BELL

Well, I guess our membership, we are a democracy in the Liberal National Party-and again, that is a matter for the membership to decide upon. If the membership as a whole, as a body, a state convention, decide that they want to go down that route then that is entirely a matter for the party to decide. And as I said when we started this interview PK – I won’t be commenting on party matters because they are internal. They are serious matters. It’s not a matter that I take lightly as a woman in the federal parliament. I would like to see us win the next election so that we can assist Australians, so that we can do our job, which is to improve their lives, be focused on them, not on ourselves internally, and make sure that we do have more women in the parliament, as we did in 2019. When we won that election there were many more female colleagues in the parliament than I sit with now.

PATRICIA KARVELAS

Yeah, but you made that point about winnable seats. I suppose lots of seats are contested now. The landscape’s changed a lot, but before I move on to other issues, how much do you need to double down on an effort on those seats that are most likely to be pre-selected by people, women, to try and actually shift that balance in the party room?

ANGIE BELL

Well certainly, I’d like to see more women pre-selected, and we have seen that in the seat of Ryan, we’re seeing nominations open now for some incumbent seats. And as we head towards the 2028 election, I’d like to encourage as many women as possible to put their hand up for the Liberal National Party, particularly here in Queensland, but certainly for the Liberal Party across the country.

PATRICIA KARVELAS

Okay. One more question – I can’t help myself. Melissa McIntosh spoke to me for four corners, and she articulated what it was like. And of course, it’s before ICAC some of those issues, to be constantly under attack or being questioned and challenged when you’re a sitting member. Just psychologically, is that very difficult when you finally make your way into the parliament to have to watch your back like that?

ANGIE BELL

Well look, I think politics is a rough and tumble blood sport, isn’t it? And so you know, you really have to be on your game. You have to be the best that you can be to represent your community, and it is your community and your party ultimately, that choose you as the person that goes to fight for them. That’s what I’ve been focused on-is taking the fight up to Labor. It’s what the team’s focused on. It’s what the leadership is focused on, because we really need to deliver a credible alternative for Australians at the next election. But certainly politics, like most jobs at a high level, they’re competitive jobs. It’s just the same as in corporate Australia, where there is competition and you have to have a thick skin. There’s no doubt about that.

PATRICIA KARVELAS

I just want to change the topic a bit into your arts portfolio. Artificial intelligence is the huge issue at the moment. A big debate on how to manage copyright in relation to artificial intelligence. I’ve spoken to artists on this program and beyond who are really concerned about any plan to allow artists just to opt out of a model which is kind of collectively paying them perhaps for their content, they’re very worried about that kind of outcome. Is that something you think they should be worried about?

ANGIE BELL

Well absolutely, because what we’ve seen is the Prime Minister not able to answer a question definitively around this. When he did a speech a few weeks ago, he promised Australian artists and creatives that their work would be protected by copyright. Now the government has, who knows? Perhaps it’s going back on its word on this as well for protections. It’s just another broken promise by a Prime Minister who is lying to the sector. But what we would like to see is copyright laws strengthened, if anything, to make sure that Australian artists and creatives are paid for their work. And let’s see what happens with the Prime Minister and with his Ministers. We believe that we can protect copyright, but also make sure that Australia has access to those frontier AI models as well, and that’s what we’re talking about here, PK, with AI, with national security, but also making sure that Australian artists and creatives are paid for their work.

PATRICIA KARVELAS

Okay, so in your view, there should be no changes to copyright laws or no watering down?

ANGIE BELL

Yeah, we’d like to see copyright laws strengthened, if anything, but certainly not weakened. We would be the first country in the world to throw our creatives under the bus if we were to do that. And I think because we have a weak Prime Minister, the big tech companies are looking to find the crack. If it happens in Australia, then we will be the first to do so.

PATRICIA KARVELAS

Well, he is going, of course, overseas, and there are a range of issues he’s going to be talking about. He’s going to talk to tech giants. Technology is obviously changing everything. You’ve got one of the biggest data centres in Queensland that’s been signed off on now. Is the proliferation of these data centres something that you want to see at a fast pace, or are you worried about the pace?

ANGIE BELL

Well, look. I think we do need to make sure we don’t miss the window of opportunity when it comes to AI. We do need to see some regulation around AI, and this is why the opposition pushed heavily-to stand up the AI joint standing committee, so that we can have a look at these issues, so that we make sure that as a country we don’t miss the boat in terms of access to those frontier models of AI. To make sure that we’re working with our close allies, the United States of America, on these models. And certainly, data centres can give many benefits to the regions as well as capital cities. But they do have problems associated with them in terms of, as I heard earlier you were talking about, water usage, etc. And so we need to make sure that there are regulations in place so that AI serves Australians.