MARK DREYFUS MP

Member for Isaacs

Sky News First Edition Laura Jayes 3 December 2019

03 December 2019

SUBJECTS: Royal Commission into veterans suicides; Angus Taylor; Medevac.

THE HON. MARK DREYFUS QC MP
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

MEMBER FOR ISAACS

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS FIRST EDITION
TUESDAY, 3 DECEMBER 2019

SUBJECTS: Royal Commission into veterans suicides; Angus Taylor; Medevac.

LAURA JAYES: Joining us now is the Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, he joins us live from Canberra. Thanks so much for your time. Why is, and why has Labor now decided that the Royal Commission is the best way to approach veteran suicide?

MARK DREYFUS: Thanks for having me, Laura. There's a shocking rate of suicide among our veterans. These are men and women who've served our country overseas and we can't continue with the situation where we have a much higher suicide rate among our veterans than the rest of the population. They deserve our care and clearly, as Anthony Albanese said, something's not working. The right way to investigate this is with the Royal Commission. That's the most serious kind of investigation that we can have. That's what we need to uncover the answers.

JAYES: The answers from what? From the Department, from private bodies, from Defence, who do you want answers from in particular?

DREYFUS: It's all of those. We all have to examine what is the system that is in place now or why that system that's in place now for care of our veterans is not reducing the suicide rate and what can be done to make sure that the suicide rate is brought down. One suicide is too many and I think we should be hearing not just from departmental officials, but from psychiatrists, from doctors, from carers, from families, from veterans themselves as to how we can do better.

JAYES: Okay, well, we will see what the Government's response to this announcement is today. If I could go to another issue that has been dominating the last sitting fortnight of Parliament and that is Angus Taylor. Is your referral of these matters to the New South Wales Police just a political stunt?

DREYFUS: Absolutely not. The referral to the New South Wales Police is because, on the face of it, it looks like a criminal offence may have been committed. It wouldn't be necessary to make this referral to the New South Wales Police if Angus Taylor and Scott Morrison had properly disclosed just what happened in Angus Taylor's office, but we've got a cabinet minister who has used a forged document to launch a political attack on the Lord Mayor of Sydney.

JAYES: How do you know it's forged?

DREYFUS: Because it's a document which has been made up. It's a document which has got false figures in it. It's not a document that anyone has been able to identify as being a City of Sydney document and indeed, the City of Sydney has denied that it is a City of Sydney document. They've said it doesn't come from our website. On the face of it. Angus Taylor has misled the parliament. It's an obviously forged document and we don't know where it came from.

It's scandalous that neither the Prime Minister nor Angus Taylor has launched, it seems, any investigation into how this forged document came into the possession of Angus Taylor. Maybe they've launched an investigation - they've certainly not told the Australian public about it. The Australian public's got a right to know how a cabinet minister could possibly have engaged in this kind of imbecilic conduct because that's what it is. This is a cabinet minister misusing his office, Laura, to attack someone in another jurisdiction, to attack a mayor, a city mayor.

JAYES: Why should he step down? Isn't there a presumption of innocence in our democracy? This investigation is ongoing and he could be exonerated at the end of it. So are you comfortable with him staying where he is until that is complete?

DREYFUS: He should have stepped down long ago and if he didn't step down, the Prime Minister should have stood him aside long ago. The standard for conduct of cabinet ministers Laura, is not are they guilty of a criminal offence - I don't think we've yet sunk so low in Australia - the standard for conduct for a cabinet minister is much higher than that.

The reason why I referred this to the police is simply because neither Scott Morrison nor Angus Taylor have actually explained anything about what happened in Angus Taylor's office.

JAYES: Mr Dreyfus, it is true though that you have referred countless misdemeanours or matters to the police over a number of years.

DREYFUS: It's not countless.

JAYES: How many are there? None of them have resulted in convictions. How many have you referred?

DREYFUS: The number that Mr Porter was bandying about yesterday was eight before now. I'd say again, the reason why I refer to the police is because I take these matters seriously. These are serious allegations and unlike the government I won't be interfering in the police investigation. I'm going to let that take its course. I wouldn't need to make the referral if Angus Taylor had come clean or if Scott Morrison had launched an investigation into what happened here.

Let's not get distracted Laura, by the sort of process attack that Mr Taylor or Mr Morrison want to make. Let's concentrate on what happened here which is that a cabinet minister in our government has used his cabinet office to send a forged document in an imbecilic attack on a mayor of an Australian city, which is no part of his cabinet duties.

He should go. It's long past time that he go and I cant understand the failure of judgment on the part of the Prime Minister of Australia not to have stood him aside. That failure of judgment has now spread to the Attorney-General who sat by while the Prime Minister made a completely inappropriate call to the Police Commissioner in New South Wales.

JAYES: Just one final question on the Medevac laws. Are you speaking to Jacqui Lambie? Do you know what her mystery demands are? And is there a chance that this goes to a vote in the Senate, but no one knows what Option A and B to the Government is?

DREYFUS: It seems to be the question on everyone's lips. Laura, what is the condition that's been set by Jacqui Lambie? What I do know is that Jacqui Lambie will bring a considered view to the way in which she votes on the Medevac legislation. I'm very much hoping that she votes against the repeal of this legislation which has been doing the job it was intended to do - bringing sick people to Australia.

JAYES: Mr Dreyfus, thanks so much for your time.

ENDS