TRANSCRIPT - SKY NEWS AFTERNOON AGENDA WITH TOM CONNELL

PAUL FLETCHER MP

Shadow Minister for Science and the Arts

Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy

Manager of Opposition Business in the House

TRANSCRIPT

SKY NEWS AFTERNOON AGENDA

10 AUG 2023

TOM CONNELL: Let's get the shadow minister for government services, Paul Fletcher, in, also the Manager of Opposition Business. Just reflecting on the week in parliament. a lot of talk around the Voice. Does it feel like the No campaign has become a bit of a scare campaign? Anything will do in terms of what they can say?

PAUL FLETCHER: Look, not at all. What we've been using Question Time to do is to ask questions of the government seeking to elicit information that will assist Australians to make the decision that every Australian on the electoral roll will have the chance to make in coming months. This referendum is an important question facing Australians. But the Government's been very parsimonious with information. You know, earlier this year they didn't even want to issue the standard pamphlet with a yes and no case. That's been an ordinary part of the requirements for referendum for many years. We said, look, that's not good enough and thankfully they did agree to proceed with those. But we've been pressing for further information about what the government's agenda is, what the Makarrata Commission will do, how much funding has been allocated. And this is all about providing information for Australians. So this is an entirely proper and appropriate use of question Time.

TOM CONNELL: We've got to this sort of wrangle over how many pages the Uluru statement from the Heart is. The official one is one. Do you sincerely believe or you know, this is a big interesting part of the campaign. It's one page, isn't it?

PAUL FLETCHER: What I think is appropriate for the opposition to be doing as we have been doing, is asking a series of questions about how the voice will operate. You know, it's still the government is being very cagey in giving details about what its structure will be, who will be appointed to it. All those kinds of questions we've consists said we think it would be much better if the legislation that set out the structure of all of this was available to the Australian people before they were called upon to vote.

TOM CONNELL: What's your view? Is it one page, the Uluru statement from the heart?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well, my view is that the deliberations that occurred in relation to arriving at what has now been crystallised into a decision by this government to put the voice to the Australian people, those deliberate actions are of importance and that's why we've been asking questions about them. Again, I repeat,

TOM CONNELL: So just to clarify to you and also to our viewers, so the Uluru statement of the Heart is one page and these other pages, they're the deliberations. Is that how you.

PAUL FLETCHER: No, no, I wouldn't necessarily say that. But what we're trying to do is understand what the facts are. And get the facts for the Australian people.

TOM CONNELL: Again you call them deliberations is in indicating it's not the official document. And then these other elements are official.

PAUL FLETCHER: Can I make the simple point? You know, a freedom of information request went to the National Indigenous Australians Agency asking for the Uluru statement from the Heart. What was produced was that multi multi page document. So we've asked questions about about that.

TOM CONNELL: That's been particularly upfront and here is the document 

PAUL FLETCHER: well when you're, when you're, when you're asked and indeed a follow up question is that the statement from the heart? And the answer that came back was yes. So we're seeking clarification on that, which is an entirely appropriate use of the question Time process. Again, I make the point, we support constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians. Our concern is that the way the Prime Minister has handled this, what should be a national unifying moment. Sadly is at risk of not being

TOM CONNELL: The brouhaha over dispensing pharmacy dispensing 60 days. Can I just clarify what your position is on this? Do you oppose so Labour's make so no,

PAUL FLETCHER: we've been very clear on this and the shadow ministers been very clear on this. And so we've said look, we do support cheaper medicines, but and one of the reasons we've taken the decision not to proceed today with our disallowed motion in the Senate is that the Minister has said, Minister Mark Butler has said that he intends to engage in further negotiate sessions with the pharmacists. We want to allow time for that to proceed, let's be clear,

TOM CONNELL: But it's starting on September 1. Through your actions in Parliament, you're saying we do approve of that and we hope any issues are ironed out. But you had the chance to try to disallow it. You didn't take it.

PAUL FLETCHER: We've been very clear. We're putting this on hold for a period of time to allow the opportunity for the minister to continue engagement with the with the pharmacists, which he tells us he's carrying out. Let's be clear here. If this measure designed as the government says, to deliver cheaper medicines, in fact leads to pharmacies closing throughout regional and remote Australia and possibly in metropolitan Australia as well, the financial impact to pharmacies is very significant. Then what is the benefit of promised cheaper medicines when the pharmacy that you need to go to get your medicines doesn't exist? That's the central point we're getting to. We of course support cheaper medicines for Australians, but we want a policy here which properly addresses all of the issues and all of the stakeholders as yet, we've not seen the evidence from the Government that that's in place. We've taken Minister Butler at his word that he's continuing to have discussions.

TOM CONNELL: So you sort of reserving the right.

PAUL FLETCHER: Absolutely

TOM CONNELL: You're parking, you're not parking your concerns. You're noting your concerns and you'll see what happens from it.

PAUL FLETCHER: Well, that's right. We've we've in good faith based upon what the minister has been saying.

TOM CONNELL: All right, Paul Fletcher, thanks for your time