Interview with Lucy Zelic, 2GB Sydney Drive

Topics: Anika Wells, Labor lies, missing parliament for major sporting event.

E&OE…

LUCY ZELIC

Joining us now is the Shadow Minister for Sport, Arts and Youth, Angie Bell. Angie, good afternoon.

ANGIE BELL

Great to be with you Lucy, and your listeners.

LUCY ZELIC

You’ve just heard the Minister’s comments there, and what I’ve had to say about it. Do they stack up with her record and reality?

ANGIE BELL

Well, welcome to Labor’s La La Land of Lies. We’ve been putting up with it now for four years. As you said, if you look on the public record, in November 2022 she attended the FIFA Men’s World Cup, while parliament was indeed sitting. And the biggest liar of all – the Prime Minister – pre-approved it. I mean, there are photos on socials of it. Australians can see it on Insta and Facebook. But this is not about representing Australia overseas, this is about Labor’s blatant and pathological need to lie to the Australian public.

LUCY ZELIC

And the problem is, in that particular sitting week, as well, the historic secure jobs and better pay bill were very heavily discussed in that week’s agenda, and it was structured at the time as an industrial relations bill, but one of the core focuses of the debate was its direct economic benefit to the heavily underpaid female-dominated aged care workforce. So this is something you would expect that a lot of our Labor representatives in Parliament, Chief among them Anika Wells, would have something to say on. But this idea now that we have a government, particularly post the budget, Angie, that are trying to divorce themselves from this perception that they are just a pack of liars, is this doing them any good?

ANGIE BELL

Well, the fish does rot from the head down, and the Prime Minister, as I said previously, Lucy pre-approved this trip for the Sports Minister not to be in Parliament during that sitting week. It’s four days off galivanting around and basically the Australian taxpayer has to suck that up-that their Member is not in Parliament at the time when she should be, but I point back again to the lies and the history of lies that this government’s been telling. It goes back to the $275 off your electricity bill – that was a lie, the capital gains tax, the negative gearing – that was a lie. 50 times the Prime Minister lied about that, and now his Sports Minister is blatantly lying to try to rewrite the history books. I mean, come on, it’s not acceptable.

LUCY ZELIC

Can I ask a fair question here, so Bronwin Bishop and Sussan Ley, they have to resign from their respective positions when they get embroiled in their similar kind of issues, right – chopper gate, and then it was about going to buy an apartment in Queensland for Sussan Ley. They step down. Is it fair that Anika Wells keeps her job in the face of all of this?

ANGIE BELL

Well, absolutely not. I mean, it’s one rule for the Labor Party and another rule for the Liberal Party and what we need to do is tell Australians what the Labor Party are doing here. They’re trying to rewrite history. They are lying. So they have one rule for their ministers and they have another rule for the Liberal Party and the Coalition when we’re in government.

LUCY ZELIC

What standards, Angie, should Australians expect from ministers when it comes to taxpayer funded travel and being upfront about it, I mean, I’ve been very clear. I think we should scrap family reunion entitlements, and the fact that you can go off on a junket, even in your professional capacity, representing your portfolio, and attending these sporting events, and that you’re racking up all this money on lavish dinners, particularly alcohol expenditure, that just doesn’t go down, and it doesn’t pass the pub test, but what standards should we expect from our ministers?

ANGIE BELL

Well, there is a ministerial standard, and she was made to repay some of the funds that she used for family reunification that was not considered appropriate. Look, we do have very long hours, we do pay the price of being away from home for many weeks a year, and families are the ones that carry the load for that. So certainly at times you want to see your family, you need to be reunited, but it needs to be reasonable and Anika Wells was found not to be, and she had to pay that money back.

LUCY ZELIC

So how would you handle this differently if you were in power and you are in fact the Minister for Sport, what do you do differently to Anika Wells?

ANGIE BELL

Well, I certainly wouldn’t be missing the parliament where I represent my electorate of Moncrieff to be at a major sporting event.

LUCY ZELIC

It’s been a challenging time for the Labor Party but equally, before we let you go, Angie, a challenging time for the Liberal Party specifically who are trying to arrest this bleed in the polls and get back on track. We’ve heard things about a rebrand from one of your colleagues in Melissa McIntosh. Is a rebrand the way forward?

ANGIE BELL

Look, those matters are internal. What we need to be doing is focusing on how we can come to power again in order to restore our country, which is going down the wrong path. We have rolled out a number of policies and Angus Taylor in his budget in reply speech, starting with our tax back guarantee. We need to be talking the economy because Australians are counting on us to roll this terrible Labor government who is making their living standards go backwards, making our country less safe and damaging families around the country. That is our primary goal and our primary focus should be on that.

LUCY ZELIC

I agree, but there seems to be also some pretty individual agendas. You’ve got your colleague Andrew Hastie saying that he’s declaring war on One Nation. It’s personal for him now. Isn’t the job of particularly the opposition to focus on getting back into government and to prosecute this very poor Labor slash Greens government?

ANGIE BELL

Absolutely, that is our job, to be focused on getting rid of a bad government for Australians. And we need to be united as a team. And we need to be telling Australians why, as a Coalition, we will deliver better government to improve their lives.

LUCY ZELIC

Couldn’t agree more. Why do you think it’s not cutting through, Angie, before we say goodbye?

ANGIE BELL

Well, I think we need some clear air to make sure that we are telling Australians why the Coalition should be the next federal government.

LUCY ZELIC

You don’t think you’ve had that clear air, though, Angie?

ANGIE BELL

Well, I think we need to be a team. We need to be united behind our leader and you won’t hear me out there talking about anything else except that and what Labor’s doing badly.

LUCY ZELIC

Good on you, Angie.