TRANSCRIPT – ABC TV – CAPITAL HILL

Angie Bell MP
Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education
Shadow Minister for Youth
Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT
ABC TV – CAPITAL HILL

28 September 2022

Subjects: National Anti-Corruption Commission, Child care, Optus

E&OE………………………………………….

HENRY BELOT:

Well let’s discuss this and other issues with our political panel. Joining us today are Angie Bell, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and we have from Labor, Sally Sitou. Welcome to both of you to Capital Hill.

Angie I’ll just start with you. We’ve heard there about the national anti-corruption commission. This was an issue that was really central in the election campaign, many teals who won seats from the Liberals campaigning on this very strongly. Do you believe the Coalition is ultimately going to support this bill?

ANGIE BELL MP:

Thanks for having me Henry, here today. What I will say is this is a very, very important issue that should be used to restore faith and restore trust in public office and in that realm.

You know, Labor have put forward their legislation today on the table, we’ll be looking at that very closely and it’ll go through the party room process, as it usually does. Hopefully we’ll be in a position, as Peter Dutton pointed out yesterday, to support it as we continue talking with the government to make sure that we can get something in place.

HENRY BELOT:

Were you encouraged by what you heard from the Attorney General there about public hearings? That the default position would be that they’re held in private unless there are exceptional circumstances to make them public?

ANGIE BELL MP:

I think we’ve seen what happened in New South Wales, we don’t want a kangaroo court that is career ending for people who have simply had an allegation put against them. Nobody wants to see that. I think that it is encouraging that it will be only in particular circumstances, we wouldn’t like this to be used as a political weapon to end careers. I think that makes sense.

HENRY BELOT:

Okay, so what about the issue of respective. The fact that this commission will be able to go back into the past, potentially calling former senior public servants or even former politicians. Is that of concern to you?

ANGIE BELL MP:

Our position is that we don’t support corruption, of course. This commission’s job will be to make sure that those who are corrupt are held accountable and I think that’s right.

HENRY BELOT:

Okay, well, it’ll be going to an inquiry, so we’ll get a little bit more detail on that as well, but I turn to you now Sally Sitou. Do you think that there is a very strong perception that has been given to the Australian public that this will be able to go through a whole litany of former scandals? I’m thinking about car park rorts, sports scandals, as well. Do you think public expectations need to be tempered a little bit about how strong this commission will be?

SALLY SITOU MP:

I think critical to this bill is the fact that the commission is going to be independent. They are going to decide the things that they’re going to look into and what they’re going to investigate. That’s the key here. It’s not up to you or I or members of the public. The commission is going to decide what they’re going to look into.

This is an important piece of legislation, every state and territory has an anti-corruption body, including my own home state of New South Wales. The anti-corruption body there uncovered some pretty horrific forms of corruption at the state and local government levels in both parties, including my own. I think that’s a good thing. It saddens me to say that, that my own party had members in it that were corrupt, but I think that’s a good thing that it was uncovered, exposed, investigated and ultimately prosecuted, because I don’t want to be part of a party where there are representatives who have committed forms of corruption.

It’s great that we are now having this discussion. I welcome the opposition’s support for this, as well as the discussions that are ongoing with the independents and the Greens, because if we can get the whole Parliament on board, it demonstrates to the public that we want this Parliament to be one that acts with integrity, one that is accountable to the public, and where there’s transparency.

HENRY BELOT:

You mentioned the New South Wales model there. That is a model that some of the Coalition have described as a kangaroo court, which we just head. One of the differences between what will be happening in New South Wales and what is proposed by the Federal Government is around these public hearings. Why not have full transparency? Why not bring the public in so they can see everything that’s going on in these hearings?

SALLY SITOU MP:

I just pick up on what Angie commented on here, and that is that there’s a balance to strike. One where the public ought to know if there is corrupt behaviour. These are activities that are affecting the public and the community, they ought to hear about that, but also, we need to be mindful of making sure that we don’t unfairly prejudice someone’s reputation. I think what the Attorney General has been able to achieve is somewhere that strikes that right balance where public hearings are held in exceptional circumstances.

HENRY BELOT:

We did hear from the Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, who seems to think that the right balance has been struck there around the public hearings. Just one more on this issue before we move into matters of your own portfolio. Do you believe it would send a very powerful message to the Australian public to have the Coalition and Labor on a bipartisan ticket supporting this commission?

ANGIE BELL MP:

We have to work through that process Henry and make sure that our party room is on board with this legislation. It is quite a big document and so it’s only been tabled today. Let’s see where our party lands on it, but obviously this was an issue going into the election.

HENRY BELOT:

Okay, well another issue going into the election, of course, was early childhood education. Labor putting its bill into Parliament today to increase subsidies for almost all families. They took this to the election, do they now have a mandate to go ahead with this?

ANGIE BELL MP:

Well, there’s a few issues with the legislation that they tabled yesterday, Henry. That is access for regional and remote Australians and also some of those in metro Australia as well in terms of 50 per cent of Australians who don’t have access, in terms of childcare deserts across Australia. There’s nothing in the legislation around that. I could point to a place down in regional South Australia, I was there just last week with the Member for Barker, where the Labor Government have promised a $1.8 million childcare facility for the good people of Kingston, SE and what I would suggest is that perhaps some of that money can go towards better access around the country.

It’s about access, it’s also about workforce. Labor are not doing anything in terms of the workforce pressures that the sector is up against, and also about the miraculous $900 million windfall that they’ve now not accounted for. Some of that money I would suggest could go into infrastructure, into new centres, in those childcare deserts for Australian families and making sure that the cost of living for families is coming down. From what I’ve seen in the legislation, I think that it will add pressure to inflation.

HENRY BELOT:

Yep, Sally I’ll just put that to you. You campaigned heavily on this issue as well during the campaign. Just on the specifics of this legislation, it would be increasing the subsidies for some very wealthy families earning up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Is that fair? Should the focus really be on the people who cannot afford it at the moment?

SALLY SITOU MP:

Yeah, I think these are really important points and I do want to pick up on the point that Angie has made about access and workforce because I think that’s a really important point that she’s brought up. I will say that we do have a plan to improve the workforce shortage. It’s a plan with 21 points in there, including mentoring, ensuring that there’s nationally recognised qualifications, in fact, it should be a plan that Angie knows well, because it’s the Coalition’s plan. One that Alan Tudge developed but failed to implement. What we are doing is we are implementing that plan but, of course, I understand Minister Tudge was largely an absent Minister during his time as Education Minister so he didn’t have time to implement it and he may have not had time to have told his colleagues about it.

HENRY BELOT:

Well, lets stick to your government…interrupted

ANGIE BELL MP:

Sorry Henry, there are 7,000 jobs at the moment that are needed, shortages across the sector. This will add another 10,000 job necessity in terms of the sector and what they will need because of Labor’s legislation. So that is 17,000 additional workers that the sector will need moving forward.

HENRY BELOT:

Well, let’s pick up on that point. Where are these extra workers going to come from? By the time that this is introduced mid next year, there is going to be a significant number of workers who need to be hired. It takes a long time to be trained for this, where are they going to come from?

SALLY SITOU MP:

Absolutely. That is why we are bringing forward this plan and we’re implementing it. Like I said it’s a Coalition plan so it’s a shame that they didn’t get it in place when they were in government. We have plans to importantly retain those workers already in the sector because at the moment, many are leaving and attract people to the sector as well, making the work of care for our kids an attractive proposition for them, as well as some improvements around immigration. We are making TAFE free for those who are entering the child care sector, we should remind people though, that the Coalition gutted…interrupted.

HENRY BELOT:

We’re just running out a little bit of time, so we’ll just move on to another issue as well. This issue is going to be going to an inquiry, there’s going to be a lot to play out from both sides of politics. We’ve heard some of that debate now.

Angie I just want to touch on another big story today, Optus. Can I get your quick reaction to what you’ve been seeing over the last week. Are you satisfied with the responses that have been coming from this company?

ANGIE BELL MP:

Well, I would say I feel for 10 million Australians whose private data has been breached. Optus has quite a lot to answer to but so does the Federal Government in terms of what they are doing about passports, what they are doing about Medicare. From where I’m standing, I can’t see the Home Affairs Minister doing anything. In fact, our Minister has been standing up more than she has on this. I think that the government needs to act quickly to help Australians through this period.

HENRY BELOT:

That’s an interesting point. I’ll put it to you as well Sally. Do you think the Federal Government are doing enough on this? What more can they do as we try and find out exactly what happened?

SALLY SITOU MP:

So, there are two important things here. One is that for those customers who have been impacted, this is an extraordinarily difficult and distressing time, and we need to be providing them the support that they need to ensure that their privacy is protected.

I welcome the news from Optus that they are going to be providing free credit checks for those who have been severely impacted. I would urge Optus to be doing more. The government is going to be supporting people who have concerns. We need to be providing them information about how they can be protecting themselves as well.

The other important piece to this is to look at what legislative tools we need to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. This was an extraordinary breach of privacy, nine million people were affected and we need to think about what legislative levers we are able to pull because currently they are not in place.

HENRY BELOT:

Well unfortunately, we’re out of time. We’re going to be donating your time to this issue today. Thank you very much for joining us Sally Sitou and Angie Bell.

ANGIE BELL MP:

Thanks Henry.

SALLY SITOU MP:

Thank you.

[ends]