TRANSCRIPT - SKY FIRST EDITION - PETER STEFANOVIC

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 FIRST EDITION

24 January 2023

Subject/s: The Voice, Alice Springs Crime, Energy

E&OE

Peter Stefanovic: Well the crime crisis in Alice Springs is threatening to derail the Government's campaign on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Joining us live now, the manager of Opposition Business, Paul Fletcher. Paul, good to see you. Thanks for your time. Thanks for coming in. So the Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles, she's on her way to Alice Springs today. Does the Prime Minister need to go? He’s reluctant at this stage.

Paul Fletcher: Well, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has said if the kind of crime that we're seeing in Alice Springs were happening in Sydney or Brisbane or Melbourne, there would be a national outcry. We've seen assault rates rise very sharply. We've got groups of children as young as five wandering the streets at night in part because they don't feel safe to go home. We've got local MPs highlighting that the removal of the alcohol ban has created significant problems. So, this is why the Opposition is calling for the Prime Minister to go to Alice Springs. The most fundamental right that Australians have is to feel safe. That's every Australian Indigenous Australians included. And so, we do have a very serious problem in Alice Springs and the Prime Minister leads the nation, so he needs to have a focus on this problem.

Stefanovic: Okay, so much of this is a territory issue, which is why the Chief Minister will be heading there today. What's sort of federal intervention should be required here?

Fletcher: Well, the Prime Minister ultimately has control of all the access, all of the resources of federal government. As you rightly say, the Territory Government has the primary responsibility for policing, but nevertheless there are plenty of precedents for the Commonwealth providing support and assistance and resources when there are particular challenges in a particular state or territory or in a particular location. So look, it's not for the opposition to be saying exactly which of the Government's extensive resources ought to be deployed. But as a first step, the Prime Minister himself needs to go to Alice Springs to have a look at the situation on the ground to speak with the Mayor, to speak with community members, to speak with ordinary people in Alice Springs who are who are not feeling safe, certainly to seek the views of local MPs, both CLP in Jacinta Price in Labor and in Marion Scrymgour, and then determine which of the extensive resources of the Commonwealth ought to be made available to restore public safety in Alice Springs.

Stefanovic: Should that alcohol ban be reinstated?

Fletcher: Well, again, I'm not going to put a particular position on that. I think it is noteworthy what both of the local MPs are saying and there is clearly an issue when it comes to public safety and young children walking the streets, not least because they personally don't feel safe when they go home. So, these are all important issues and they ought to be a priority for the Prime Minister and for the Minister for Indigenous Australians.

Stefanovic: The Chief Minister, Natasha Fyles, has called that race based policy. Is that race based policy? Alcohol bans?

Fletcher: Well, I'm not sure that these kinds of labels are enormously helpful. I think what we need to do is ask what the government should be doing consistent with its leadership responsibility is taking a calm, fact-based look at the situation be informed by the views of local community members. When you have community members who are saying that they don't feel safe and if they're advocating for particular measures like an alcohol ban, the return of the alcohol ban, then I think that's something government should look at very carefully. I can say from my own experience in Social Services Minister and working in issues like the cashless debit card, there is often a yawning gap between what city-based advocates are saying and what locals are saying, including Indigenous Australians. And so that is a critical reason I think what the Prime Minister needs to go there himself, sit down and talk to locals.

Stefanovic: Is it your view that the Voice should be put on the backburner while this is sorted out?

Fletcher: Well, the reality is that governments need to take forward multiple issues at the same time. In relation to the Voice, the Coalition's position continues to be that we're approaching it with goodwill, but we need to see answers on the questions of detail. You know, the Sydney Morning Herald this morning is reporting that only 13% of Australians who are surveyed are confident they understand what the plan is in relation to the Voice and as Julian Leeser, our Indigenous Affairs spokesman, has been pointing out, it's not at all clear with the Prime Minister himself actually understands the details. He keeps referencing the Langton Calma report, but he makes comments which suggests that he's not across the detail the basics of such as whether members are going to be paid or not. So, these kind of issues are really key so that Australians can understand exactly what the mechanism is that it's proposed. When people are being asked to vote on constitutional change, understandably, Australians take those issues very seriously and the history of referendums tells us that before people will vote in favour of constitutional change, they need to understand the detail.

Stefanovic: No, that's a given. But I mean, when you got people up, Marion Scrymgour and you got Jacinta Price as well, and they're highlighting the difficulties that they're obviously having in Alice Springs. Does it show to you that there appears to be more pressing issues than the Voice?

Fletcher: There is no doubt that public safety in Alice Springs is a pressing issue and that is why the Opposition has been calling for the Prime Minister to go to Alice Springs urgently. But Governments need to deal with multiple issues at the same time. That is the nature of government.

Stefanovic: Just a quick one here before you go, Paul on energy, Shell has walked back its gas suspension, so it will offer new supply deals to the market. Does that prove that price caps will work?

Fletcher: I think all this proves is that the government has created an enormous mess with its rushed approach, rushing through the parliament in one day in December last year these caps. This is a significant intervention and the outcomes of it are on the basis of previous interventions and imposing price caps that it's very hard to be confident this will provide benefits they really don't know what they're doing, they’re making it up as they go along.

Stefanovic: Well, the government says we just need time to work this out. The policy was only reinstated, well only put into place last month, the price cap policy. And now you've got a big company like Shell who made threats and now it's walking it back because of the ACCC. I mean, does that is that an indicator this has potential to work?

Fletcher: One of the difficulties here is the uncertainty for gas producers as to what they have to do to be compliant and it is pretty clear that this is creating difficulties for these companies and critically what that means is difficulties for Australians, Australian households, Australian businesses in having confidence that they can continue to get a supply of gas at a reasonable price.

Further information: Jack Abadee 0403 440 099