Television Interview, ABC Afternoon Briefing

SUBJECTS: Home care packages, China’s Victory Day Parade, Daniel Andrews, Protests

PATRICIA KARVALAS [HOST]: I want to bring in my political panel for today. Bridget McKenzie is the Nationals’ Senate Leader and Peter Khalil is the Assistant Defence Minister. He just revealed that Bridget McKenzie and I are similarly dressed. 

BRIDGET MCKENZIE [COALITION SENATOR]: It's a thing, PK.

KARVALAS: It's a thing. We coordinated this …

MCKENZIE: Pinstripes. 

KARVALAS: All right, let's start on this change in position? Is this your first win as an opposition?

MCKENZIE: I think it's a welcomed backflip by the government and we'll take the win, on behalf of older Australians. It's great to see the government actually release those support packages that we've been demanding they do. It's good news because we know 5,000 older Australians have passed, waiting for those packages to be released, and the Government hasn't released any this financial year. So, it's a really good win. It shows what happens when Oppositions do their job in a democracy like ours and pushes the Government to the right position. So, it's a win for older Australians and we're happy to do it for them.

KARVALAS: Sam Rae, the Minister will join me, so I'm not going to labour on this, but I will ask you, was it their pressure that made you? Because you could have announced it at the start of the winter ..

PETER KHALIL [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: Bridget's characterising everything about a win for her and her party. No, this is about helping older Australians and we're reforming the aged care system that desperately needs reform. There's been a doubling, almost, over five years of home care package programmes to about 300,000 placements and we've actually worked through 83,000 now. I'm glad that there's bipartisan agreement in the Senate. That's the Senate's role and you're in the Senate, Bridget, so, well done to get bipartisan agreement to actually pass this package, because it's much needed. We’re going to have 20,000 home care packages delivered before the 1st of November, another 20,000 before the 31st of December, and the remaining 43,000, which we've gone through, in the first six months of next year, and that is a good win for older Australians.

KARVALAS: Ok, I want to move to the images we're seeing unfold China, and this is a big military, sort of parade, and there has been a picture of Dan Andrews with some … pretty … um ….

MCKENZIE: Unsavoury characters.

KARVALAS: Yeah, like we're not great fans of Putin. Will you condemn him? Do you think it's the wrong decision he's made?

KHALIL: Well, Patricia, former politicians are private citizens and it's a matter for them to determine what events they attend, I think we can agree on that. 

KARVALAS: Would you have been in that photo? 

KAHLIL: It is interesting that the Opposition are making such a big song and dance about this because, at the 70th year anniversary, which was a similar big parade, they sent a Coalition Government Minister, Michael Ronaldson, a Liberal Government Minister, to attend. We, as, the Prime Minister said today, have sent some of our diplomats to attend those events. And as I said, private citizens, it's up to them what they do. I can tell you. I can say the Government was not informed by any private citizens about their travel to this parade. 

KARVALAS: So, just to be clear, you're saying Dan Andrews didn't tell the Government, “I will be attending”?

KHALIL: I can say the Government was not consulted or informed about their attendance … as a private citizen at these events.

KARVALAS: He was a Victorian Labor Premier not that long ago. Isn't that unusual?

KHALIL: Well, the Premier of Victoria is actually Jacinta. Right?

KARVALAS: So, he was the Premier …

MCKENZIE: Very recent Premier …

KHALIL: He's now a private citizen, and it's a matter for private citizens to determine their attending.

MCKENZIE:  He brought in the Belt and Road Initiative for their infrastructure program, in the State of Victoria, Pete. So, Dan Andrews has had a long and established relationship with the CCP and the Republic of China when he was Premier, because clearly that's taking over now as he's a private citizen. And it is concerning for Victorians, who were locked up by this premier during COVID, pregnant women arrested, etc. We had quite a different experience during COVID to other people in our country under his Premiership. So, I think it's very disturbing and I think Victorians, in particular, will be very disturbed to see him, because despite Ronno, going back in the day when …

KHALIL: Ronno? The Minister, your Minister. 

MCKENZIE: That was a long time ago. 

KHALIL: He was actually a Minister of Government, let's be clear about that. 

MCKENZIE: So, I know we both sat on the Intelligence and Security Committee. We have a very different relationship with China at the moment and the strategic challenges that our country faces in this region are very different a decade on from that. So, I just want to put that on the record.

KHALIL: I'll tell you something about the difference between our Government and the Opposition, when it comes to relationships. We have rebuilt the relationship with a very important economic partner. We've got the balance right. We haven't dog-whistled, we haven't used it for domestic political point-scoring. We've been adults in the room. We're balancing our relationships, our strategic relationships, our security relationships …

MCKENZIE: It doesn’t look very balanced today. 

KHALIL: … and we have got, and we have got results. We have got results, Bridget, for your constituency, when we're talking about getting rid of tariffs on lobsters, on other agricultural products which benefit your people.

MCKENZIE: It’s not balanced today, Pete. 

KARVALAS: OK, but the Government says they weren't told by a private citizen, i.e. Dan Andrews. Fair enough?

MCKENZIE: I mean, well, I take the Government at their word. Yeah, but I think it's true. We've got other Premiers who've all headed over to Beijing over the last couple of years. You know, I think it is right and welcome the tariff reduction, obviously, but let's not kid ourselves - the conversations that our security agencies and others are having.

KARVALAS: Now, extremism. We've been talking about the implications of those rallies on the weekend. Neo Nazis, which is, you know, obviously really concerning for very obvious reasons. For any student of history, this is a very, very concerning development. The Prime Minister has warned that you shouldn't be, you know, playing with this sort of stuff when you've been pursuing your side of politics - him being followed by people who are anti renewables out of Ballarat. He does make a point about extremism. He was chased. Was that appropriate behaviour?

MCKENZIE: Patricia I was at that rally. In fact, I arrived in a tractor with hundreds of farmers who aren't anti renewables. Let's be very clear what the rally was about. The reduction of private property rights of these farmers. People will now be able to come onto their land without permission.

KARVALAS: OK, I get all of that.

MCKENZIE: Well, I'm not sure your viewers do, because the way it was framed is as if there was this anti renewable rally and it wasn't I am very concerned that the Prime Minister is taking people's right to protest against government's heavy handed approach and policies that are impacting their social, economic and environmental health. And now we're not. That's going to be extreme. Loving your country, loving your land.

KARVALAS: They chased him.

MCKENZIE: Does that make you an extremist …

KARVALAS: But they chased him. 

MCKENZIE: Right. Well the footage from the Herald Sun shows that tractors following the Prime Minister's car.

KARVALAS: Obviously you don't think that's a big deal.

MCKENZIE: Well, I think the Prime Minister was also concerned about a woman standing up inside the bush summit with a noose around her neck. And now the Prime Minister shouldn't have been seeing that as a threat to himself or his person or any of his Ministers. I think what she was showing was that there is a social, mental health impact of this government's policy and their ideological pursuit. And where else do these people. I've sat in these homes out in tiny towns of 99 people with 200 coming into town to have these conversations. They feel helpless and hopeless and so I think it's very reasonable that they peacefully protest.

KARVALAS: I'll give you a right of reply and then we're out of time.

KHALIL: You know, I'm appalled with what I've seen and you know, and in Victoria we've seen the neo Nazis and I remember in the 80s in high school having to deal with skinheads and neo Nazis and the violence. When I was a high school student I thought that was history. And communities that I represent who are very diverse, that basically represent and reflect modern Australia are really concerned and we always hear everyone say there's no place for this hate in Australia. I agree with it. I'm sure Bridget agrees with it as well. But if that's to be true, we have a responsibility to. Let me finish. You had you go. We have a responsibility to make sure there's no place. And that means calling out racism and calling out extremism. When we see it as political leaders repeating their rhetoric in the Senate…

MCKENZIE: So in the Senate, why did we see the Labor party vote against a motion that condemned both extremists on the left and on the right…

PATRICIA KARVALAS: I'll let you finish. Alright.

MINISTER KHALIL: You're on the centre right in Australian politics. I'm on the centre left. But there's one thing that is the same, that's the centre. We have responsibility as political leaders to call out extremism and racism. Those neo Nazis want to bring down our democracy. They do not care about the people. They're manipulating issues to get short term political gain and base Their whole ideology on division and hatred. And when we see that hatred, we need to call it out. We've passed legislation to ban Nazi symbols and it’s incumbent upon us to do that job … 

MCKENZIE: … Not everyone on the Sydney Harbour Bridge was a terrorist supporter. And nowhere near the majority of people marching on the weekend were neo Nazis, Pete.

KARVALAS: We are out of time, but let's revisit this again together. Thank you very much.

KHALIL: Thank you.

ENDS