Senator Dean Smith – Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury – Transcript – Interview with Gary Adshead, ABC Drive
SENATOR DEAN SMITH SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY LIBERAL SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA TRANSCRIPT – INTERVIEW WITH GARY ADSHEAD TOPICS: Work from home and public service policies, Gas policy, Port of Darwin, BYD manufacturing standards in Indonesia. E&OE GARY ADSHEAD Alright, boom. Alright, and the conversation now turns to Federal politics, because with me in the studio I’ve got Madeleine King, the Federal Resources Minister. How are you, Madeleine? MADELEINE KING Yeah, very good, thanks, Gary. Good to see you again. GARY ADSHEAD And you. And Dean Smith, of course, the Federal Liberal Senator. I call him the firebrand Liberal. I don’t know how he feels about that. DEAN SMITH Thanks very much Gary. I hope I live up to expectations. GARY ADSHEAD Pressure’s on, great to have you both in the studio. And what are we, two weeks in now? Are we two weeks in? I’ve just lost track. MADELEINE KING I check my calendar each morning, but then I forget as soon as I walk out the door. GARY ADSHEAD I think we’re two weeks into the campaign and it’s almost Easter. And this is a time where people just work about three more days, and then they get this massive holiday if they want between Easter and Anzac Day. Hard to keep people focused, do you think, guys? DEAN SMITH Madeleine and I were talking about this outside just before we came into the studio. MADELEINE KING It sort of reduces the whole campaign time. Because you go into almost a voluntary quiet time. But then the other thing about holidays is, you know, maybe people are sitting around a bit more, being able to read. DEAN SMITH Or waiting for Madeleine to knock on their door. MADELEINE KING That’s it, or a phone call… DEAN SMITH Or their local Senator to knock on their door or wave a sign on the side of the street, like I was this morning on the corner of Marmion Avenue and Reid Highway, with Vince Connelly our Candidate for Moore. GARY ADSHEAD What does it say by the way? MADELEINE KING Are they beeping at you, Dean? DEAN SMITH They were beeping and cheering. But in the interest of full transparency, there were one or two, sort of, middle fingers. GARY ADSHEAD That’s Madeleine’s people. She sends them. MADELEINE KING Yeah, yeah. All the way from Rockingham. DEAN SMITH That’s right. But it’s interesting, I mean, the whole point of the campaign, over the 33 days, is to build momentum and then to have that momentum peak when the pre-poll starts. And then on election day itself. So, Easter does interrupt the building of the campaign. Absolutely. GARY ADSHEAD And pre-poll is right in the middle of it, isn’t it? 22nd? DEAN SMITH Yeah, Tuesday the 22nd. 8AM. GARY ADSHEAD Okay. That’ll be interesting. In your local community, how many people rush out to do it for the Federal Election? We saw a start in the State Election, which was big, and then it sort of tapered off. And that might be all part of the problems that the Electoral Commission statewide have. But anyway… MADELEINE KING Yeah, I’m sure the AEC would be much better organised. DEAN SMITH I’ve got a hundred percent faith in the AEC. MADELEINE KING So do I. I’ve got four pre-poll booths. DEAN SMITH I did notice that. MADELEINE KING I’m surprised that, yeah, I… DEAN SMITH The pre-poll list came out earlier in the week and I looked at the pre-poll for Perth’s northern suburbs. And I thought, really? Wow, there are lots of pre-poll options. So, there’s no excuse for not getting to the polling booth before your holiday. MADELEINE KING Yeah. And the other thing is people I’ve spoken to that are going away, they’ve just pre-booked holidays and are trying to organise getting a postal vote if the pre-polls aren’t open. So that can be difficult to organise. But also, people visiting from… DEAN SMITH I’m happy to organise anyone getting a Liberal Party how to vote. So just call my office. GARY ADSHEAD It’s good to know that you’re both there to help and serve. DEAN SMITH Don’t go to Madeleine, come to my office. GARY ADSHEAD Hey, let’s just start with a couple of the policies and issues that are around then. Clearly, Dean, you are bleeding in relation to the public servants policy, whether it be work from home or the 41,000 figure that was put on everyone’s head in the public sector. I mean, for Peter Dutton, just to sort of cut it off at the knees is interesting. DEAN SMITH Well, it was said to me, and I do agree, that Peter Dutton deserves ten out of ten for humility. He did listen and responded very quickly. He admitted that it was a mistake, reaffirmed that, and gave people a high degree of satisfaction that it will not be happening. GARY ADSHEAD Did he listen to internal polling, or did he listen to the headlines in the paper? DEAN SMITH I’m sure he listened to his very capable Liberal Party candidates out in the field. I’m sure he listened to those people around him. Made it very clear that he understands better now than perhaps previously the importance of flexibility in the workplace. Flexibility in working from home. These are part of the modern family arrangements for so many people. I think also ten out of ten for Anthony Albanese in running a very effective scare campaign trying to say to people that this was Peter Dutton’s desire across the whole economy. Not true at all, but it’s no longer the policy. Peter’s been very clear about that. And then we’re moving on to other issues. GARY ADSHEAD I mean, it’s a heck of a backflip. Because I watched Jane Hume’s presentation to the Menzies Foundation. I think, Madeleine, I think it was the Menzies Foundation. She was really quite glib…