Anika Wells MP on 4BC with Scott Emerson

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
4BC DRIVE WITH SCOTT EMERSON
FRIDAY, 11 MARCH 2022

SUBJECTS: Vale Senator Kimberley Kitching; Morrison delays national emergency declaration; ADF recruitment drive and submarine base in Brisbane.

SCOTT EMERSON, HOST: And it's our version of Question Time on 4BC with Labor's Member for Lilley Anika Wells and the LNP member for Ryan Julian Simmons. Let's start with you today Anika and sadly, the news breaking overnight about Senator Kimberley Kitching. Very unexpected. Dying at 52 of a heart attack.

ANIKA WELLS, MEMBER FOR LILLEY: Yes, and good afternoon, Scott and Julian. And to all your listeners out there, I hope you're taking care. It's been a real shock. It's not even 24 hours since she passed away. And it's clear from the number of tributes that I've seen for Kimberley that she was very loved and very respected by colleagues from all sides of the parliament. And I think it's striking. We've just had International Women's Day this week. And I had an event with Ros Kelly, who was the first woman to become a cabinet minister in the Federal Parliament, the first woman to have a baby in Parliament. And she said, what she regrets most is not looking after her health. And I think that's really stuck with me today. And heart disease is the leading cause of death in Australia, Scott. But it's still a shock when it takes someone as young as Kimberley. And I hope that we all take stock and make sure that we are looking after our health out of this.

EMERSON: And Julian Simmons, condolences are coming from across the parliament today.

JULIAN SIMMONDS, MEMBER FOR RYAN: Well, of course, I mean, she was far, far too young. I mean, I can't say we had a lot of interactions. But one of the interactions we did have was at the US Embassy when we were both at the same function. You know, she was a strong supporter of our US Alliance, and you know, a strong defender of freedom and democracy both in Australia and, and wanting us to project that. And that was evident whether you had one conversation with her or 100. So, she will be missed. And I just I think we're all thinking of her family. It must be such a terrible, terrible shock.

EMERSON: Yeah a real shock there and at 52. And you make the valid point, both of you, that politics can be a very tough business and cause a big strain on your health. And you’ve mentioned Ros Kelly there talking about that, Anika. But look, it's probably a good wake-up call for many people to go get their health checked out as well. Let's turn to the news of the day now. The Prime Minister was expected to declare that the Queensland floods will be part of a national emergency declaration. Let's start with you Anika, on this one. Look, initially, this is not…Queensland was not part of it. The Premier came out and said: ‘Look, we've already had our disaster here. We've had our own declarations here in the state, and we’ll probably be lifting them at the end of the weekend.’ Did the Morrison government take too long to declare a national emergency for Queensland?

WELLS: Well, I think it's a genuine question. Why has it taken so long when the Prime Minister could have declared this emergency 10 days ago? In 2020, Julian and I were there, the Morrison government introduced sweeping new laws that would enable the Morrison government to declare a national emergency without consulting the Premiers. And at the time, Christian Porter was the Attorney General still. And he said that that would allow the Commonwealth to bypass the Premiers and make the declaration quickly. It was the central recommendation from the Bushfire Royal Commission. So I'm genuinely asking the question why those powers, which were brought in specifically, weren't used 10 days ago? And we are fortunate, like you say in Queensland, the State Government has really written the manual on managing natural disasters. And that we do have well-established protocols and procedures in place. I wish we didn't need them so often, Scott. But I think that question remains unanswered. And I want to know why the Prime Minister's making the decisions that he's making? Why someone in Deagon, in my electorate, whose home has been devastated, doesn't deserve the same financial support as someone in Lismore, whose home has been destroyed? And that's where the situation is at the moment. 

EMERSON: Well, Julian, why is it taking so long?

SIMMONDS: Well I think the scale of the devastation in Lismore in northern New South Wales, has been very significant. The most important thing I think, is that support has flowed very quickly to, particularly to our areas in Queensland. You know, this is beyond politics. I think we found that people got those support payments very quickly. You know, when I was talking to people on the ground, it was hitting their account within 24 hours, even as the floodwater was still receding. The ADF was out there a week before, you know, cleaning up a week before they were mobilising in the equivalent timeframe in 2011. So I think we have learned a lot from previous disasters and I think the way that the council, the state government, the federal government have worked together to assist us in the clean up for this flood here in Brisbane, has been really exemplary, quite frankly.

EMERSON: But you mentioned about how the devastation in Lismore…and we all saw the terrible scenes coming out of northern New South Wales. But a lot of people would say, look, we've seen scenes here in the southeast corner as well. Surely, given what happened here in in Brisbane, and in the north and south of Brisbane, that deserves the same kind of the action that we saw from Lismore?

SIMMONDS: Well, of course. And there is no difference between somebody losing a house in Brisbane to a flood, to losing a house in Lismore. But the reality is that in Lismore they were picking people off roofs. They didn't have the council infrastructure and the state government readiness to act as quickly on the ground as simply, we did in Brisbane. You know, we just got on with it. We got the ADF out there. We had the council, who were being very proactive as well. And we got those payments straight into people's accounts. So we can afford to come back now and make the necessary disaster declarations that we did. But the important thing this is, at the end of the day, this is all about getting people support straight after the floods right? And that's what's happened in my experience here in Brisbane.

EMERSON: Anika, let's talk about the boost to the ADF numbers. We saw that announcement today, this week, by the Prime Minister. A massive increase. The biggest increase in the last 40 years. Does Labor back that increase?

WELLS: We do. We agree with increasing our ADF. But I would note the timing of this one, we're on the eve of an election. It's yet another announcement from the Prime Minister that won't take effect for another 18 years. And the government doesn't have a great track record on this one. They're on their sixth Defence Minister in their third term. And when it comes to recruitment and retention of our ADF, they've only met 90 per cent of the targets. And they've failed to meet the 2016 Defence White Paper targets, every year since 2015. So I think there are genuine questions here both about the timing of the announcement, and whether or not they're capable of rolling it out. 

EMERSON: Julian big announcement. A lot of announcements on defence. We've heard about the AUKUS agreement last year. This year, and just this week, we heard at the beginning of the week talking about the possibility of a new sub base here at the Port of Brisbane. Maybe Newcastle or Port Kembla. And a big boost in terms of the numbers in the ADF over the next 20 years. Is the Coalition looking at fighting a khaki election this year?

SIMMONDS:  Well we're responding to what Australians are caring about. I mean, that's why, you know, the fact that we’re living in the…you don't have to go very far from turning on the news. The fact we're living in the political and strategic environment that we are right now necessitates the number one job of a government is to keep Australians safe. So you know, but the…if we're going to talk about track records, as Anika has said. You know, if we had left defence spending where it was when we took over from Labor under the Rudd/Gillard government, there would be $55 billion less in defence today. Because they had reduced it as a share of GDP to such an extent that it was at the lowest levels since the Second World War. So they can say, they can say they're in lockstep with us, but they're not really because the sub base is a good example. You know, I would welcome Brisbane getting that infrastructure, getting those jobs, getting that capability, and that defence infrastructure in Brisbane. But all we've seen from Labor, from the Labor Premier, Kristina Keneally is a lot of hand wringing. So Albo can be out there saying that he is strong on defence, but he's got a lot of people behind him who are very uncomfortable on the Labor side, with defence spending. Whereas for us, it's in our DNA.

EMERSON: Alright, Anika Wells, Labor Member for Lilley, and LNP member for Ryan Julian Simmons. Thanks for joining us this week.

WELLS: Take care everybody

ENDS