MARK DREYFUS QC MP
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
MELBOURNE
THURSDAY, 28 MARCH 2019
SUBJECTS: One Nation preferences; Code of Race and Cultural Ethics; gun laws; social media.
MARK DREYFUS, SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL: It's extraordinary that the Prime Minister of Australia has taken nearly two weeks to get to the position of saying, as he has this morning in a complete backflip, that he is going now to put One Nation below Labor in the Liberal preferences. I say it's extraordinary because what it's taken is for One Nation to subscribe to a conspiracy theory. It's taken One Nation to suggest that the Port Arthur massacre was just a conspiracy. 35 people died at the hand of a crazed gunman in Port Arthur in April of 1996. It's the largest mass shooting in Australian history. To think that an elected Senator subscribes to a theory that this was all made up for political ends is simply disgusting. But that's what it took for the Prime Minister of Australia to realise that it was vital for the Liberal Party to put One Nation below Labor in their preferences. It wasn't enough for Scott Morrison when One Nation supported Putin. It wasn't enough for the Prime Minister when One Nation brought Fraser Anning into the Parliament. It wasn't enough for this Prime Minister when One Nation suggested that they were going to sell off our gun laws to the NRA. It's taken One Nation to subscribe to a conspiracy theory about Port Arthur the Port Arthur massacre for this to occur.
It's actually, however, shocking still that there are Liberal and National Party MPs, particularly in Queensland and I'm speaking about Michelle Landry the Member for Capricornia, Keith Pitt and Ken O'Dowd who directly said that they would preference One Nation either second in some cases and some of their other colleagues as well or that they would put One Nation ahead of the Labor Party and the Greens political party on their how-to-vote cards. The Prime Minister might have backflipped, but he needs to make absolutely crystal clear and he hasn't yet done this he needs to make absolutely crystal clear that not only is he saying that the Liberal Party will put One Nation below the Labor Party, on its how-to-vote cards, but also that he is giving a direction, a complete direction to those Liberal and National Party MPs that they are to do the same. This two weeks of indecision from Scott Morrison, this crisis, has been entirely of his own making. He should have said, as John Howard said when he was Prime Minister we will put One Nation last. But instead he has prevaricated, instead he has tried to play political games by saying we don't know yet who is running. He's tried all sorts of tricks to avoid getting to the position which he's finally got to today the division in his own party needs to be absolutely put to an end. I call on the Prime Minister to make absolutely clear that not only is he now saying that hell put One Nation on Liberal Party how-to-vote cards below Labor, but every single member of his coalition and every single member of parliament including Michelle Landry and Keith Pitt and Ken O'Dowd and the other Queensland coalition MPs who have suggested that they like One Nation he needs to make clear that they are not going to put One Nation second on their how-to-vote cards, that they are going to be putting One Nation close to last and certainly below Labor on their how-to-vote cards.
Now as well, I want to mention that Bill Shorten yesterday wrote to the Prime Minister calling on all members of the Liberal and National parties to sign up to the federal Parliamentarians Code of Race and Cultural Ethics. This is something that's been signed by all members of the Parliamentary Labor Party back in October 2016 when regrettably Senator Pauline Hanson rejoined the Australian Parliament. At that time, we called on the then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to ensure that his MPs also signed this Parliamentarians Code of Race and Cultural Ethics. Regrettably we did not get a response from the Liberal government at that time. Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, is now calling on the Prime Minister to ensure that when Parliament resumes next week, when the Liberal and National parties meet in the party room on Monday, the 1st of April, that the Prime Minister ensures that they all sign up to this federal Parliamentarians Code of Race and Cultural Ethics. We think it's vital, we think that we need to have the political leadership of this country setting a standard of political leadership in this country turning its face firmly against racism and building cohesion in our society, building tolerance and acceptance in our communities. Not doing the reverse this is the starting point, if we can get members of the Liberal and National parties to join with Labor in signing up to this Code of Race and Cultural Ethics.
REPORTER: Do you think, if One Nation say Labor was in government and One Nation breaches this Code of Ethics or just based on the comments that they have made should Labor not accept their vote in the Senate?
DREYFUS: The question of whether or not a vote is to be cast by Senators is a matter for individual Senators. What were dealing with here is the behaviour of all members of the Australian Parliament. As has been discussed, there's going to be a move to censure Senator Anning for his recent behaviour and his recent comments as not fitting for an Australian senator. And that's something for an Australian Senate, and that's something that is open to the Senate to do. The question of votes is a matter for individual Senators.
REPORTER: But should Labor, if you form government and the behaviour of One Nation as you said is unacceptable, should you offer a pair so that if One Nation votes on a bill of yours, you'll send a Labor Senator out and you wont accept that vote?
DREYFUS: I think the distinction to be made is between whether you actively seek the support of One Nation Senators depending on how many there are in the Senate after the election and their right as Australian Senators to cast a vote. You mentioned pairing arrangements, that's something we might look at.
REPORTER: Do you think it's time for Australia to revisit gun laws and possibly strengthen them?
DREYFUS: It's been concerning to Labor that statistics have been appearing that show the number of guns that appear in Australia is increasing. There has been some small weakening of the gun law position when it was achieved when John Howard was the Prime Minister. I think we need to do everything within our power to reduce the number of guns in use in the Australian community. That has made the reduction of guns in the possession of Australians, the ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons, has made the Australian community a safer place to live. I don't think any Australians could be in doubt. You've only got to compare the situation here, with a very small number of gun deaths, with the situation in a range of other countries in the world which have much weaker gun laws to see that strong gun laws, restrictions on the possession of high-powered weapons has been a success and has made Australia safer.
REPORTER: Today Facebook announced that they will be cracking down on white nationalist speech on its platform, and kicking people off. Whats Labor's position on this announcement by Facebook?
DREYFUS: We welcome anything that's done by any of these social media platforms to make sure that the platforms are not used to spread any extremist, violent ideologies any extremist, violent material. But that of course includes white supremacist material and it's very pleasing to see that Facebook is working with its platform, working with its technology. We've said for a long time that it should be possible for all of these technology giants to develop technology, to develop algorithms that weed out, that filter out this kind of material after they've been doing so in respect of extremist Islamist violent ideology and extremist Islamist violent material. We very much hope that white supremacist material is weeded out as well.
REPORTER: There's a concern that if you take this off mainstream platforms like Facebook though it could just go to the dark web where it's even harder for security agencies to monitor. Is that something that is of concern? By removing them from Facebook?
DREYFUS: We've got to keep working with platforms, we've got to keep working with providers and all of the participants in the digital world that we now live in. If necessary, laws will need to be passed to compel not just the big platforms but everyone involved in transition the internet service providers to make sure that these technologies which undoubtedly have improved our communities in a whole range of ways, have improved transmission of information, have improved education and communication between us all, are not used for evil purposes. We've got already in Australian law, a ban on the appearance of this material in older-style media in newsprint and newspapers in sending this kind of material by post. So what we need is for our laws to catch up with the digital world. No-one should think that anyone would wish to see this kind of extremist violent material being published. The laws that we've already got have been in place in some cases for many decades, may need to be extended to the digital world. If that is needed, well do it.
Thanks very much
ENDS
