Radio Interview - RN Breakfast

Release Date:
Transcript

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: With funeral events for Queen Elizabeth II complete, the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is now on his way back to Australia, where a packed agenda awaits him. The suspension of Parliament delayed the introduction of legislation to establish a Federal Anti-Corruption Commission, now expected to be tabled next week. Then all eyes will turn to the October budget, made ever more critical by a worsening global economic outlook. Patrick Gorman is the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and he joins you now from the ABC's Perth studio. Good morning, Patrick Gorman.

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Patricia and good morning to your listeners.

KARVELAS: This has been a historic and emotional moment for Britain, Australia and for the world. Do you believe it's deepened our connection to Britain and the monarchy?

GORMAN: I think those connections have always run very deep. What we saw, and I definitely was surprised at how emotional I felt watching the service yesterday evening. We have a large number of people who have migrated from Britain. We have those deep ties embedded in our constitution. The Parliament House that we run the country from was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Those ties are deep and this, of course, has served as a reminder of those ties and what we'll see on Thursday when we have the National Memorial Service is more examination and reflection on those deep ties that Queen Elizabeth II had with Australia.

KARVELAS: A poll in The Guardian shows Australians are split 50 on whether they want King Charles as head of state. How do you reflect on that division?

GORMAN: Well, people can give their opinions. It's a matter of fact that on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Charles, now King Charles III became king. That is the constitutional monarchy under which we operate at the moment. So, of course, we're a parliamentary democracy and people can express their views on these things. But that's the situation we have at the moment.

KARVELAS: Sure, but that's not my question. My question is, what do you make of the division in the Australian public about our future?

GORMAN: I'd probably disagree with you that there is division. I think at this point in time, with the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II, people have been incredibly respectful about where people might choose to express their views or recognising, that some of those debates are more appropriately held over for another day. And again, I just say I don't think it's division. I think it's acceptable in a robust democracy like Australia that people will have different views as expressed in that research you've just referred to.

KARVELAS: But that research is really interesting because of the 50/50 split. Don't you think - it shows that Australia is actually a nation divided on this question?

GORMAN: Again, I think what we've seen over the last two weeks is actually that we can be united in our admiration for someone who spent a lifetime of service contributing to the Commonwealth and indeed to the world at large, while there might be differences of view. What we've said as a government is that the 50 per cent who have one view and the 50 per cent who have the other view, there'll be a time to have that debate in a full and robust way. We don't see that time is right now.

KARVELAS: When is that time? Because we keep getting told that the time will be later. And, of course, the funeral happened last night. Many Australians watched that funeral. It was a key moment for many people. So when?

GORMAN: Well, what we do have is the Prime Minister's returning from London to return to the National Memorial Service, which will hold in Parliament House on Thursday, attended by Premiers, Chief Ministers, Parliamentarians, including myself. Then we'll have a condolence day on Friday at Parliament, sitting to express our condolences to the Royal Family on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Those are two things that appropriately happen after the Prime Minister has travelled to London for the funeral that he's just attended. Once that has been done, I'm sure, for both your listeners and for the Australian public at large, more or less normal programming on the robust debate on all topics when you've mentioned and others will resume as normal.

KARVELAS: The Prime Minister, and many others, as you just mentioned, have urged no discussion on the Monarchy's future role in Australia until after the funeral and, as you've articulated, after a couple of key events in Australia. So I want to quote my colleague and Aboriginal man Stan Grant to you. He says: “This past week, I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history, history itself. That is written as a hymn to whiteness history, written by the victors and often written in blood. It is fashioned as a tale of progress, as a civilising mission”. What are your reflections on, it certainly may not represent all Aboriginal Australians, but I would say a significant number. What are your reflections on that perspective?

GORMAN: I think it's really important those perspectives are shared and I thank Stan Grant and others who've chosen to put their perspectives forward. The history of Australia, as we know, didn't start in 1788, and indeed, not all of our history is history which we can stand proud of today. It's for that reason that we recognise as a Government that we need to go so much further in that ongoing work of reconciliation. The place we've chosen to start in those big nation building projects is the work that the Prime Minister and Minister Linda Burney have kicked off around making sure that we have not just a referendum on the Voice, but a successful referendum. So, again, not only to people who feel that our history has been at times ignored, but people who feel that actually there is a brighter future if we walk together, listen more deeply, ask the right questions of First Nations people. And that's one of the things this government is incredibly committed to.

KARVELAS: Is it still your commitment to voters that legislation for a Federal Anti-corruption Commission will pass the Parliament before the end of the year?

GORMAN: We plan to introduce that legislation next week. That has had, appropriately, a large amount of work done over the last four months to make sure that we can get that big, robust integrity commission with teeth to hold everyone in the Commonwealth to account, including politicians such as myself. That is a really important piece of this Government's work. We know that is what the public expect us to do. We'll get it into the Parliament. We hope that it will be passed by the end of this year. We believe it is good legislation. It is well and truly overdue. I'm always conscious that I'm in the House of Representatives. The Senate has its own processes and may choose to look at this legislation for a period of time. I respect that. We want to get it done, we want to get done in the right way and hopefully we do see it as a path to get that done by the end of this year.

KARVELAS: So you're saying it's on the Senate, whether it can be fully legislated by the end of the year?

GORMAN: I'm saying that on a question of integrity and respect and increasing the strength of our institutions, it's appropriate that we don't set a deadline that might make some in the Parliament feel that we haven't taken this as seriously as we do, which is, this is an incredibly important integrity measure. We'd like to get it done by the end of this year, we will introduce it next week. But I'm being appropriately respectful of the Parliament, both chambers, to make sure that we get this right. But also, we've been waiting for ten years. We'll get it done within the first ten months of this government. I think that's a pretty good place to start.

KARVELAS: So what's the latest the committee which will examine the legislation has to report by in order to get the bill through both houses in time?

GORMAN: How do I put this? Committees do have a lot of power in and of themselves and one of the things that this government is determined to do is to make sure we are appropriately respectful of the role, important role, the parliamentary committees play. Like I said, in terms of timelines, I don't want to step through every piece of the legislative journey, through consideration in detail and two houses plus a committee process. But we think that it's possible that by the final sittings in early December, this could be the law of the land. That's our intent. But again, I'm being respectful of appropriately out the role that all parliamentarians play in the important work of uplifting the standards which underpin our parliamentary democracy.

KARVELAS: Patrick Gorman, thank you for joining us this morning.

GORMAN: Thank you, Patricia.